Good morning, I’m Jennifer Rodriguez from All Things Belle. I’m very excited to be sharing a sweet little crochet & fabric technique with you today.

It’s almost time for the International Quilt Market in Kansas City. I can hardly wait! This is my second time attending and I have been missing the excitement since the last one. Are you going? What are you excited to see? For me it’s a dream come true, it’s an amazing combination of so many things that I love. The show is filled with endless rows of new fabrics to adore, new patterns to want, and just about every designer that you would love to meet.

I attend the Market to be inspired, to shop, and of course to connect. This past week I eagerly received my latest shipment of business cards to take with me. All of a sudden my cards did not seem enough. I had just finished reading about how a friend of mine, Topsy Turvy, had created 300 cake pops to go along with her business cards for a blogging conference. I was inspired and realized that I wanted to go above and beyond as well. At Market you receive so many cards and literature, it can be overwhelming. I knew that for a few personal contacts, I wanted my business card to stand out in their mind.

This past year I have been obsessed with crochet surface treatments on fabric and quilting projects. I love the dimension and versatility of this mixed media form. I thought it would be appropriate if I could create a meaningful way to present my card that incorporated both fabric and crochet.

What do you think? I love its sweet and classic touch.

Would you like to learn how to make one? It’s very simple and could easily hold a number of little treasures.

Materials needed:

A small, plain muslin drawstring bag
Soft pink embroidery floss
1.5mm crochet hook
embroidery needle

Directions:

1. Thread a length of the embroidery floss into the needle, following the stitched seams of the bag, embroider a back stitch.



2. With your crochet hook and the same embroidery floss, slip stitch into the first back stitch. Then single crochet into each stitch all the way around.
3. In each stitch you just completed, make a single chain and then flip your work. In the same stitch work a single crochet, half double crochet, single crochet. Then create two single chains, skip the next stitch, and then repeat the picot (single crochet, half double crochet, single crochet). Continue this pattern up until the last stitch, at the end you will slipstitch and weave in your ends.

And that’s it! I adore working crochet into my quilts and you could easily use this method along the binding of a quilt for a feminine touch. The extra color and texture can really make the difference.

I’m hoping to make a few dozen of these before Quilt Market begins tomorrow. If you will be attending and you spot me, be sure to say hi!

Thank you for spending this time with me. If you are interested in seeing more quilting & crochet inspiration, I would love for you to visit my blog, All Things Belle.

The theme for this week’s contest is Wind, Earth, Fire & Water. You are free to interpret this theme as you see fit. Your quilt does not have to represent all four of the elements. Any quilting style is acceptable. You can submit quilts, wall hangings, pillows, etc. as long as the item you enter is completely finished (i.e. bound and quilted).

Our sponsor this week is Vicki Welsh who creates gorgeous hand dyed fabrics. She has donated a Stash Pack of hand dyed fabrics containing 10 fat eighths and a Goddess Sheet Teflon pressing sheet from Mistyfuse for this week’s winner. Plus everyone can save using the coupon code below too.

Vicki Welsh – Hand Dyed Fabrics

Hi Everyone!

I’m so happy to be back at the Quilting Gallery for a great new weekly contest. Since I was last here, I’ve been on a productivity mission. I have this fabulous long-arm quilting machine and I wasn’t using it enough. Back in March, I decided that I would quilt for one hour every day. I even decided to schedule it for 5pm. It’s worked a treat.

For one thing, if I happen to be wasting time in the afternoon I now stop at 5 to do a bit of quilting. I also find that I don’t want to stop at 6 so I am heading to my sewing room more often in the evenings. Productivity has soared! Since I started my one hour a day commitment I’ve finished two quilts each month! If you’ve been having some focus issues, try dedicating a specific amount of time every day, even ten minutes will give you more than an hour a week of additional productivity.

I’ve also been busy in my sewing room and have added a great new line of shibori fabrics. These fabrics are much more labor-intensive than my other fabrics but are so worth the extra time!

I also have a great collection of feature fabrics this month. This collection is based on the colors of the Monarch butterfly.

Field of Greens is the gradient and it’s available with this coordinating fabric palette.

As with all of my featured fabric palettes, it’s the colors that are on sale. You can get your fabrics in any combination or patterning of the colors. Check them out here and all of my other fabrics in my shop.

You can find me in all these places on the web:

• Web store
• Blog (with lots of tutorials)
• Facebook
• Google+
• Pinterest

Let’s get to the prize!

I will give away a hand dyed fabric Stash Pack from my shop and a Goddess Sheet Teflon pressing sheet from Mistyfuse. The winner will get to select the Stash Pack of their choice.

Bonus savings for everyone: I am also offering a special 15% discount for Quilting Gallery readers through May 24th. Use coupon code MAY15.

Enter the Contest

Get your cameras out! To enter the weekly contest, read the rules and guidelines, then submit your quilt photo by Thursday evening (EST). Voting will start on Friday and last until Sunday night.

Weekly Quilt Contest Links

• Guidelines
• Submit your photo
• 2012 Themes, Winners & Sponsors
• Sponsor a contest – Check available dates – only a few left

Last Week’s Quilt Contest

Thanks to everyone who entered last week’s Quilts for Mom contest. The Fat Quarter Shop donated two $35 gift certificates. Congratulations to the winners:

Nellie

Shirley Bartee

It’s voting time for this week’s Quilts for Mom contest. There are many fabulous quilts to review. Grab yourself a cup of coffee and a pencil to make note of your faves. You can vote for FOUR favourites this weekend.

This week’s sponsor is the Fat Quarter Shop. They have donated two $35 gift certificates for this week’s top two winners.

Please note: I just received notice of emergency server maintenance scheduled for Friday 10 p.m. until Saturday at 10 a.m. This site may not be available during this maintenance period. As such, voting for this week’s contest has been extended until Monday at 6 p.m. All times are Eastern.

Now it’s time for you to vote for your favourites!

• Voting is open Friday – Monday @ 6 p.m.
• One vote per person (based on IP address NOT email address), so have your family and friends cast a ballot for their favourite quilt (from home if you send it to coworkers)
• Winner announced Monday night!

How to Vote:

• Review the photos and stories below… there are several, so you’ll need to scroll down to see them all. You can also click the link to the slider version to review the quilts in the large format and then return to this page to vote.
• Underneath the photos, scroll down, you’ll see the names of all the quilts with a square button** beside each one. Select the buttons for the quilts you want to vote for. You can select up to FOUR quilts this week.
• Then scroll down, all the way, until you get to the bottom of the names of the quilts. Press the vote button.

** Note: If you don’t see the square buttons to vote, but instead see the voting results, that means someone on your IP Address already voted, or that the voting period has ended, or that you need to refresh the page to see the voting options. Shared IP Addresses are very common in home or work networks.

Slider version: To view the large photos of all the quilts and descriptions, CLICK HERE. You’ll need to return to this page to cast your votes.

Please Note: If you are not seeing all of the photos, check your browser settings. Go to view, and text size. Make sure it’s set at medium. If you need web sites to be larger so you can read them more easily, then use the browser’s Zoom function, not the text resize. You can also use the scroll bar above, beside the photos, to scroll and see the hidden ones.

Next Week’s Quilt Contest

The theme for next week’s contest is Wind, Earth, Fire & Water. Quilters are free to interpret this theme as they see fit. Your quilt does not have to represent all four of the elements. Any quilting style is acceptable. You can submit quilts, wall hangings, pillows, etc. as long as the item you enter is completely finished (i.e. bound and quilted). Get your cameras out!

To enter the weekly contest, read the rules and guidelines, then submit your quilt photo by Thursday evening (EDT). Voting will start on Friday and last until Sunday night.

Weekly Quilt Contest Links

• Guidelines
• Submit your photo
• 2012 Themes, Winners & Sponsors
• Sponsor a contest – only a few dates left for 2012

Sewing has always been fascinating for me, and some of my earliest memories are of my mother, pins in her mouth, stitching up something great, with my brother and I in tow. Our other siblings (five of them) were in school and we were home with mom & Jack LaLane, on the TV. Pfaff was her machine of choice: a huge, black powerful engine, set in an enormous cabinet, with a knee lift! How I loved to hear it roar, as I awaited the newest addition to our clothing or linen closet.

My pre-kindergarten photo… note the torn sleeve trim on the left. I guess mom couldn't keep up with the demand!

When I was about 10, mom received her teaching credential, and off she went to the public schools early education program. We were in school by then ourselves, so it was an easy transition. However, I missed the additions to my wardrobe. Mom made the creating appear easy. She was an art major, graduating in 1944, from Rosemont College, PA.

Paper, markers, crayons, & glue were within easy reach. Creating was always encouraged. Somehow, I must have figured I could do this, too. So I rummaged through her sewing cabinet and found a pattern I liked and suitable fabric. Mimicking her, I laid out the pattern pieces, pinned to the lilac-printed eyelet cotton. I cut along the outer lines, and around the notch bumps. I cut armhole and neckline facings. It was a darted, shift top. Remember those? In fashion school, we’d call it the “basic fitting block”, or “sloper”. The style was in the fabric, not the design. It had a zipper down the center back, as did most garments then. I still don’t like to put in zippers, but I do love the newer “invisible” ones – whew, sewing just got easier!

From my first quilt, made in 1976, entirely of used jeans (+ some machine appliqué!)

Naturally, I took sewing instruction in high school. My sister, Paula, paved the way for me and convinced our teacher, Mrs. Olivia Fraioli, to let me skip the basics and move up to advanced sewing. That was the highlight of my day. Sewing and creating was a wonderful outlet, for teenage angst.

I was introduced to the world of fashion when a rep from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, FIDM, paid a classroom visit and my closest friends encouraged me to enrol. I spent two years in school and then did my time, 25 years, in the garment industry, working my way up from pattern maker to designer and beyond. Travel to far-flung places became the norm, with well-known companies, like Gap and Disney. Telling people that knowing “how to sew” got me to such exotic locales as Istanbul, Cairo, and Singapore, was entirely truthful!

Who wears short-shorts? I guess I did. This is my embellished work-of-art from high school days.

For the past four years, I’ve spent an hour a week in the company of young men and women inspired by sewing. Volunteering at a public high school each week keeps me grounded. These students create the most original and conceptual garments, irrespective of their ages. Each time I visit, I’m reminded of their curiosity, intelligence, stamina, perseverance and utter disregard for negativity. If they think it can be done, there’s a way to do it. After every visit, I’m energized to return to my studio and create, too. Last week was their crowning glory: they completely designed and choreographed a fashion show. I only served as a facilitator.

Julia and her quilt at Road to California Quilters Showcase, January 2012

My destiny seems to be centered on sewing. I LOVE to be surrounded by fabric, able to create on a whim. Because I find it so empowering, making something from nothing, I love to “pay it forward” and teach others to sew. My first student was a neighbor, Julia. We started when she was just seven, but already she was a veteran from a local sewing program. Last summer, we made a quilt together, using pre-cut squares and strips of Kaffe Fassett prints in reds, blues, and greens. Julia entered it into the (Road To California) quilters showcase in January, in their “Next Generation” category.

Close up of Julia's colorful, original quilt design.

Recently, another young friend, Flo, who’s 10, came over to learn sewing techniques. Flo has a passion for fashion and is quite intrigued with reality television shows such as “Project Runway” and “Fashion Star”. (These are too “real” for me, dredging up fashion career horrors that I’d rather delete from memory.) Thinking pajama pants would be the perfect first project; she quickly assessed the “stash” and settled on red dots and stripes. Pants are ideal as there are minimal seams and few fitting issues. It’s safe to say she’s hooked on sewing and one of the benefits for me of sewing with my young friends is that when we talk I learn about popular teenage culture. This information is priceless; as they sew, the words just tumble out.

Flo in her original design pajama pants, creating "yoyo's" with the Clover yoyo maker.

I’m not sure what my life would be like today, if I hadn’t discovered sewing as a hobby way back when. Perhaps I’d be a cake decorator or an architect, but my life could not be more exciting than it is now!

Here's a more up-to-date photo, posing with my book cover quilt.

Give-Away

I’m doing a drawing for a free copy of my book, “Out of the Box With Easy Blocks” along with a matching coffee mug. If you would like to enter, please reply to the following question: “What quilting fears have you recently conquered or are you still working on?” Mine is machine quilting. It’s taken me FIVE years to summon the courage to quilt my own tops!

Winner will be selected randomly next Wednesday, May 16, 2012.

For more on Melanie’s sewing and quilting observations and experiences, visit her blog: www.MelanieMcFarlandQuilts.com.

Hi Everyone! Leona here from Leona’s Quilting Adventure! Thank you Michele for having me over to guest blog on Quilting Gallery! I have a blog that is dedicated to paying it forward to Quilters. Leona’s Quilting Adventure has been on blogger for about three years now. My blog has a giveaway each month and shares projects and tutorials that are quilting-related.

I am a single mom with two almost grown sons. I work a full time job during the day and a part time job a few nights a week. My part time job is in a quilt shop. I work for the extremely talented designer, Karen Montgomery in her quilt shop, The Quilt Company. Once a year the ladies that work for Karen go on a Quilting Retreat to Sandscrest in West Virginia. This was a first time ever experience for me to be able to go on a Retreat! We left on a Friday afternoon and returned on Sunday. This is a picture of the main house at Sandscrest and the next picture is the group of very talented quilters that I was able to spend the weekend with:

The retreat was amazing! The rooms were comfortable and the food was oh so delicious! It was so much fun to be able to sew for several days straight and enjoy great conversations with the women that I feel blessed to work with. Each quilter that was on the retreat had a different style and really completed some beautiful projects! We bunked in the housing next to the main house. Here are some pictures of the rooms at the Sandscrest Retreat in the main house:

One of the highlights for me was to wander around when I needed to stretch my legs and visit with each of the ladies as they worked on their projects. Some tackled modern projects, others worked on more traditional quilts, while others did embroidery. There were plenty of snacks and a lot of stories and laughs that were shared by all. It really was a treat to be able to look and learn from such a nice group of ladies. I worked all weekend on Bee blocks that were due to be mailed out in March. Here are a few of the quilts that were created:

The pictures are just some of the quilts that the ladies worked on. There were many more beautiful projects created over the weekend. It was so nice to be able to just sit and sew and not have to worry about having to run to do grocery shopping, laundry, cooking or cleaning for several days. I am so grateful for being able to have experienced a weekend retreat like this. Hopefully you too will be able to attend a quilting retreat for a day or two.

Well, it’s time for me to go for now. Be sure to stop by and visit Leona’s Quilting Adventure for a chance to win my latest giveaway for fabric and notions! Have a Happy Tuesday and Happy Quilting!

The theme for this week’s quilt contest is Quilts for Mom. Any quilting style is acceptable. You can submit quilts, wall hangings, pillows, etc. as long as the item you enter is completely finished (i.e. bound and quilted). It does not have to be a quilt you’ve made this year. Get your cameras out!

Our friends from the Fat Quarter Shop are back as this week’s sponsor featuring their It’s Sew Emma Patterns. They are giving away two $35 gift certificates for this week’s winners.

It’s Sew Emma Patterns

Celebrating Mother’s Day coming up, It’s Sew Emma has a newborn in the house – Little P’s. A Little P is a Little Pattern or also named after Kimberly’s son, Little Peyton! These are perfect for moms because they are, little, and little means fast for those busy bee moms.

So why else are Little P’s so great for moms? Five little reasons.

1. They are super simple. All straightforward, easy piecing. Good for moms currently suffering baby brain!
2. They use just a few fat quarters and one background print. Time to dig your favorite prints out of that bundle you’ve been saving, and you’ll probably still have a few faves left over!
3. They’re DOABLE. This has been a word we’ve heard from many of our testers. For anyone wanting to try their hand at a quilt for the first time, these are perfect!
4. They’re inexpensive. These cute mini patterns retail at just $5.99 each!
5. They’re just plain cute, oh-so-cute. If I had a nickel for every squeal these little darlings have caused!

Our first four Little P’s are: On the Boardwalk, Tic Tac Toe, Dots ‘n Tots, and Tumbling Blocks! Which Little P would you make with your busy bee life?

Well now that we have shown you some patterns for moms, let’s see your quilts for moms for this week’s themed contest!

We will be giving away a $35 gift certificates to two lucky winner’s.

Good Luck!
The It’s Sew Emma Team

Enter the Contest

Get your cameras out! To enter the weekly contest, read the rules and guidelines, then submit your quilt photo by Thursday evening (EDT). Voting will start on Friday and last until Sunday night.

Weekly Quilt Contest Links

• Guidelines
• Submit your photo
• 2012 Themes, Winners & Sponsors
• Sponsor a contest – only a few weeks left

Blog It

Please share the logo below on your own blog. The more contestants, the more exciting the contests!

Need help? If you have a Blogger/Blogspot blog, see How to Add a Logo to Blogger/Blogspot for instructions. For WordPress.com sites, see this tutorial on text widgets.

Last Week’s Quilt Contest

Thanks to everyone who entered last week’s Appliqué quilts contest. There were so many gorgeous quilts to see. Saral Paper Corp. donated prizes to the top four winners:

Helen Simpson

FarahLin

Lorraine Bradley

Gail Fearon

It’s voting time for this week’s Appliqué quilts. There are many fabulous quilts to review. Grab yourself a cup of coffee and a pencil to make note of your faves. You can vote for FOUR favourites this weekend.

This week’s sponsor is Saral Paper Corp.. They create a wax-free transfer paper that can be used to transfer appliqué placement lines, quilt designs and embroidery patterns to cloth. They have donated four prizes for this week’s winners.

Now it’s time for you to vote for your favourites!

• Voting is open Friday – Sunday @ 11:59 p.m.
• One vote per person (based on IP address NOT email address), so have your family and friends cast a ballot for their favourite quilt (from home if you send it to coworkers)
• Winner announced Monday!

How to Vote:

• Review the photos and stories below… there are several, so you’ll need to scroll down to see them all. You can also click the link to the slider version to review the quilts in the large format and then return to this page to vote.
• Underneath the photos, scroll down, you’ll see the names of all the quilts with a square button** beside each one. Select the buttons for the quilts you want to vote for. You can select up to FOUR quilts this week.
• Then scroll down, all the way, until you get to the bottom of the names of the quilts. Press the vote button.

** Note: If you don’t see the square buttons to vote, but instead see the voting results, that means someone on your IP Address already voted, or that the voting period has ended, or that you need to refresh the page to see the voting options. Shared IP Addresses are very common in home or work networks.

Slider version: To view the large photos of all the quilts and descriptions, CLICK HERE. You’ll need to return to this page to cast your votes.

Please Note: If you are not seeing all of the photos, check your browser settings. Go to view, and text size. Make sure it’s set at medium. If you need web sites to be larger so you can read them more easily, then use the browser’s Zoom function, not the text resize. You can also use the scroll bar above, beside the photos, to scroll and see the hidden ones.

Next Week’s Quilt Contest

The theme for next week’s contest is Quilts for Mom. Any quilting style is acceptable. You can submit quilts, wall hangings, pillows, etc. as long as the item you enter is completely finished (i.e. bound and quilted). Get your cameras out!

To enter the weekly contest, read the rules and guidelines, then submit your quilt photo by Thursday evening (EDT). Voting will start on Friday and last until Sunday night.

Weekly Quilt Contest Links

• Guidelines
• Submit your photo
• 2012 Themes, Winners & Sponsors
• Sponsor a contest – only a few dates left for 2012

Focus on the Center Book Tour

I’m thrilled to be participating in Pat Sloan’s Focus on the Center Book Tour. See a couple of the medallion-style quilts from the book and my fabric choices to make them. Plus I have two copies of the book to give-away too!

Read the post and enter the give-away here!

The Learning Center

In this week’s Learning Center post, Pat Sloan explores Fusibles. Do you have a favourite? We also have TWO huge boxes of goodies to give-away from Therm O Web.

Read the post and enter the give-away here!

By: Pat Sloan

Way back when… before I was a quilter.. yes THAT long ago… I fused fabric to fabric. I started out by fusing fabric images to the front of sweatshirts. This is when I really learned about the properties of fusibles. Like home dec fabric is sprayed with a Scotch Guard so it repeals dirt.. it also repels fusibles and paint…. who knew!

I have become really good at fusing cotton to cotton and stitching it down for appliqué. Most fusible products work in a similar fashion:

• Trace your design onto the paper side (some have 2 papers)
• cut away some of the fusible.. or use if across the whole shape (see my tutorial HERE)
• iron the glue side onto the BACK of your appliqué shape
• cut ON the line to create your final appliqué shape
• peel off the paper
• place the glue side down onto your background fabric
• Iron again to adhere the shape

Today at the Learning Center I want to share a list of the different products available to you. You may want to explore several of them to see what works for you!

Therm O Web

I work with the Therm O Web company on their design team. I’ve used Heat n bond lite for over 15 years and love it… really love it! When they asked me to join their design team years ago I was thrilled as I truly believe in this product. I invited the Director of Marketing, Candace Kos, to do a little intro of their products. She is very talented right now as she is usually “one armed” since her other arm is always holding her brand new baby girl!

From Candace Kos…

“There are many ways to do appliqué and ways to speed up the quilting process. Our favorite way is to use adhesive to minimize the need for pinning or to finish a project all together.”

• HeatnBond® Iron-On Adhesive is frequently referred to as “Fusible Web” but it actually isn’t a web, it’s a solid sheet of adhesive. This means that you get edge to edge coverage on your appliqué shapes, no matter the size of appliqué. This eliminates puckering, bunching and also allows for Pat’s favorite technique of cutting away the inside of an appliqué leaving a soft interior and less adhesive used.
• HeatnBond® is available in three styles. HeatnBond® Ultrahold is a no-sew permanent adhesive! It’s great for adding embellishments, accents and details to quilts, wall hangings, home décor and costumes when you don’t want to sew or can’t sew. In addition to all kinds of fabric, it can also be used on wood and canvas for other creative home décor projects!
• HeatnBond Lite is a sewable permanent adhesive! Use this when you need to sew the project, but you don’t want to spend your time pinning! Iron your appliqués, edges and embellishments in place and then sew at your leisure! No more accidentally pinning yourself while handling the project! Iron your pieces into place and then sew as you normally would, the fabric remains flexible and the adhesive won’t gum up your needles. (Tip: if you are finding any resistance while sewing or are trying to sew through many layers, you can use a product called “Sewer’s Aid” to wet your thread and have an easier time stitching thru adhesive.) Use it to create costumes, table runners, placemats, quilts and tons of other projects! You can also seal the edges with fabric paint, so it can also be used on sweatshirts, canvases and wall hangings!
• HeatnBond® FeatherLite is a new sewable permanent adhesive that is even lighter than Lite. This adhesive is perfect for baby quilts, thin summer quilts, wearables and especially for multi-layered projects such as landscape quilts. It gets buttery soft after washing and doesn’t even feel as if adhesive is part of the project.

All of the HeatnBond® products can be washed and dried after properly adhered (for Ultrahold that’s just ironing for Lite and FeatherLite that’s sewing the edges after ironing pieces on.)

There are a few other great features of HeatnBond® products is due to the paper-backed nature of the product. First, HeatnBond® adhesive sheets can be run through your INKJET printer! Simply trim the sheet to an appropriate size to fit through your printer (typically 8.5 x 11). Place the sheet in so the ink will print on the paper side. Set your printer to draft, transparency or acetate settings (which puts out less ink) and print your design! (Just remember to print alphabet letters in reverse since the HeatnBond will be ironed to the back of your fabric. Do NOT use in a laser printer!! The heat from the laser printer will melt the adhesive inside your printer.)

Also, HeatnBond adhesive sheets can be run through your manual or computerized die-cut systems, such as AccuQuilt®, Cricut®, Silhouette®, Sizzix Eclipse® and more! Iron the adhesive onto the back of your fabric, trim the fabric to a size that will fit in your die-cut system and automatically cut out shapes, letters and other appliqué drawings! You may have to adjust the depth of your blade depending on the thickness of the fabric you are using. Be sure to test it on a scrap piece of fabric before running your real fabric thru. And be sure to change your blade often, a sharp blade will yield the best results. Then simply peel off the back liner and iron it to your project! How easy is that!

Therm O Web also makes a few other adhesive products that are great for quilting! The SuperStik Glue Stick is permanent on paper, but has a temporary bond on fabric! It allows you to place appliqués, sew them on your project and then the adhesive dissolves out of the fabric during laundering. This makes it a great option for baby quilts and outfits, summer quilts and all kinds of wearables. Simply apply glue to the back of your appliqué and stick onto your project. Allow the glue to dry and then sew as you normally would! It doesn’t gum up needles and stays flexible for easy stitching.

The last form of adhesive Therm O Web manufactures is SpraynBond®. These are spray adhesives that come in two forms. SpraynBond Fusible Adhesive acts like Ultrahold. Simply spray it on the back of your applique and iron it down. There is no need to sew after it has been ironed. This heat-activated spray is permanent, machine washable, dryable and dry cleanable.

The other form is SpraynBond Basting Adhesive. This is a spray with a temporary bond. This feature means it is perfect for placement, design consultations, wearables, pattern placement and keeping batting in its place while stitching. This adhesive must be sewn to make it permanent as it washes out while laundering.

Experiment with all these types of adhesives to make your project come together quickly! Therm O Web Adhesives & Interfacings are “Behind Every Great Project”!

Therm O Web Adhesives is a family-owned and operated business with over 35 years of experience in adhesive manufacturing. Therm O Web is proud to have a successful history manufacturing adhesives for multiple craft disciplines including: fabric crafts, quilting, tailoring, scrapbooking, paper crafts and art with the majority proudly made in the USA. Their family of adhesives holds such famed product lines as: HeatnBond® Iron-on Adhesive, StitchnSew®, Zots® Adhesive Dots, SuperTape™, PeelnStick™, PeelnStick™ Fabric Fuse and Iron-on Vinyl.

Visit them: Therm O Web | Blog | Join them on Facebook

Why I use Steam-A-Seam 2

I asked Sewing expert Lorine Mason to give her top reasons she loves to use the Steam-A-Seam line of fusing products.

I am a huge fan of Steam-A-Seam 2 by The Warm® Company and this is why.

The double sided paper liner:

• Prevents tacky fusible web from becoming attached to items not meant for the project at hand.
• Paper liner is perfect for tracing patterns whether using pen or pencil. I have even run it through my printer with success.
• Paper liner is a built in pressing sheet and is reusable if kept clean.
• Paper liner makes a great tear away stabilizer.
• Trace applique designs onto paper liner, remove opposite side of liner, press onto fabric. Perfect for storing for use in later design work. Note: one side of paper liner is designed to come away very easily. Trace on the liner paper that stays with the web.

Lorine Mason is a licensed product designer, an accomplished project designer and the author of ten ‘how to’ sewing books. An eye for detail, innovative project design, trend awareness and hard work are the corner stones of her business; Lorine Mason Designs. It’s Sew Lorine©, is a brand, a blog and a lifestyle. As an avid sewer herself, she loves to inspire others to create unique home sewn items with a twist. Lorine in the editor of the Sewing Savvy e-newsletter which can be accessed at

More Fusibles

Wonder-Under by Pellon has been on the market a long time. This is the first fusible product that I purchased and used when making sweatshirts. It is readily available and many people love it. See the Pellon web site for more information on how to use their product.

I found this ‘ask the crafter’ write up useful. And Robbie shares about “the wrap”.

The Misty fuse product has no paper on it. It is thinner and I’d love to know what you think about it. I have yet to try this one.

Stacy Michell markets a fusible she loves to use under the product name “Shades Soft Fuse”. Stacy started selling this fusible 5 years ago and she works with it as a full fusible product.

Vliesofix is mostly sold outside of North America. I had a chance to try it and it works very similar to Wonder Under. I found this blog write up on it.

We also found this write up about fusibles and interfacings.

Give-Aways

Our friends at Therm O Web have a HUGE box of goodies… no wait … TWO huge boxes of goodies to give-away. You have two opportunities to win. First, leave a comment below answering: Do you have a favorite fusible product? Which one?. If it isn’t included above, please provide a link too so others can give it a try.

Winners will be selected randomly next Wednesday, May 9th.

Second, head over to the Therm O Web blog and enter the give-away there too. P.S. they have tutorials or info posts every day of the week.. lots of good stuff!

Congratulations to #59 Karrie S. on winning this gift box of fusible goodies. Check your email for a message from me.

Pat Sloan is owner and founder of the quilting design and publishing company Pat Sloan & Co. She has published over 25 books, more than 100 patterns, nearly 10 fabric lines, and has had her work featured in all the major Quilt magazines. In January 2010, Pat started hosting her weekly Internet Radio show called Creative Talk Radio.

Find Pat here:

Web Site | Blog | Radio Show | Facebook | Twitter
Quilt Forum | Pinterest | Newsletter

I’m thrilled to be participating in Pat Sloan’s Focus on the Center Book Tour. There are 10 quilters participating in the tour this week and we each have two copies of Focus on the Center to give-away to our lucky readers. See below to enter my give-away and for the links to the other participants.

Plus, visit Pat’s blog as she’s asked each of us some fun questions and her publisher’s blog too:

• Our hostess: Pat Sloan
• Leisure Arts blog

Focus on the Center features seven medallion-style quilts. Confession, I have never made a medallion-style quilt before, but I’m really tempted by this one called Lucky Charms:

I just adore the scrappy-ness of this quilt and the unique on-point borders around the center appliqué followed by rectangular borders. There’s lots of interest in this quilt! It finishes at 61″ square, but you could easily make it larger or smaller by adding more borders or removing some. I also love that it has flying geese .. I really need a quilt with lots of flying geese for myself.

I’m not really big on making Christmas quilts that only get enjoyed for a month, so I would do the alternate center that’s included in the book for this quilt, here it is:

For the center appliqué, I’d use solid white and then scraps of my other fabrics. I’ll also continue the white into the large half square triangles/flying geese units around the appliqué. Here are my fabrics:

The colourful fat quarters and yardage prints are Treasures and Tidbits by Piece O’ Cake Designs for Robert Kaufman fabrics. The black and white prints are a fat quarter bundle put together by Jodie of Fort Worth Fabric Studio.

The red yardage will be used similar to how Pat used red in her sample: inner thin border and triangles around the white appliqué, for the wider border around the entire on-point layout and for the binding.

For the green used in the sample, i.e. the setting triangles in the center and for the flying geese sky units, I’ll use the black and white prints. I’ll alternate between black on white vs. white on black prints for the flying geese sky units. It’ll still be very scrappy, but the black and white will add some calm to the wild colours in the prints… I think! The prints will be used for the flying geese body units, the two scrappy outer borders and the rectangles inside the on-point layout.

Can you picture it?? I really wish I had time right now to start something new as this quilt is calling me! Maybe later in the summer.

See that fabulous yellow flowered print beside the red one above, well I have a few yards of it and there will be enough fabrics left over from the above quilt to make a coordinating one.

I love this one from the book, Antique Mist, and would use that flowered print in place of the large blue aqua flower print that Pat used for the middle border. Black and white prints would replace the pinks and the coloured fabrics would be used in place of the off whites. Not sure if I’ll have quite enough red yardage for the pink striped borders, but if not, a solid from my stash would work well too. This medallion quilt finishes at 57″ square.

One of the things I love about Pat’s book, is that she’s included quick piecing methods such as making four flying geese units from squares of fabric.

I find when I’m browsing new books at the local quilt shop, I’m disappointed when I see authors not using the quicker methods we’ve all come to love from quilting tutorials from our blogging friends. Please tell me I’m not alone in this!

Give-Away

I have two copies of Pat’s Focus on the Center book to give-away. Leave a comment below answering:

Have you ever made a medallion-style quilt? If so, how many rounds did it have? If not, are you encouraged to do one now after seeing a few from Pat’s book?

Winners will be randomly chosen on May 7th.

Be sure to visit the other quilts in the tour too and enter their give-aways:

Tuesday

• Our hostess: Pat Sloan
• Carrie of Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co.
• Vanessa Christenson of V & Co.

Wednesday

• Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville
• Michele Foster of the Quilting Gallery – that’s ME!

Thursday

• Victoria Findlay of BumbleBeans Inc.
• Rachel Griffith of p.s. i quilt

Friday

• Jackie Kunkel of Canton Village Quiltworks
• Dana Bolyard of Old Red Barn Co.

Saturday

• Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber
• Faith Jones of Fresh Lemons Quilts

P.S. Here’s a flying geese tutorial from my friend Bradie. It is similar to the one Pat has in her book.

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Winners:

Congratulations to #149 quiltmom anna and #138 Pam. Emails have been sent to you from Pat Sloan.


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