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This month you will create 9 appliquéd blocks. These will then be stitched to the triangles made in Month 1 and added to the center circle. You will learn how to position your appliqué shapes exactly where you want them. This technique can also be used to easily position the appliqué shapes in all future “appliqué” months.
Be sure to also watch the companion instructional video here.
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Test your skills with a quick-and-easy color exercise from Episode 1002 artist, Michelle Jackson. It's part of a weekly study designed to help you improve your color savvy.
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Can you believe that Alex and Ricky have so many ideas to share that they don't have room on TQS website alone? The Quilt Life magazine gives them a chance to explore and share even more great information and stories about quilting and the quilting lifestyle...and, right now, you can purchase a one-year subrscription to the award-winning magazine, The Quilt Life, for only $17.50!
At this price, you can buy a one-year subscription for yourself and a one-year subscription for your best quilting friend. Start the year off right, but hurry: this offer ends January 31, 2012!
**To take advantage of this offer, enter code T17 when you place your order.
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Does your thread seem old and listless? Has it lost it's snap? Let Bob Purcell share why this has happened and what you can do to remedy the situation. It has something to do with why Grandma's cotton thread 50 years ago is not the same quality as cotton thread today.
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TQS member ClaraLawrence is issuing a challenge for YOU to help The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI). The AAQI is a national charity that sells small donted quilts to fund Alzheimer's research. We've seen the big guns participate (Alex, Ricky, Libby, Sue, Hollis, Caryl, John), now it's YOUR turn. We can do it too! Let's jump in and do some serious damage...I mean quilting. Make them, buy them, or both. Every quilt donation, every quilt sale counts. Clara says that she knows that the TQS quilt community could really shake things up (when we put our minds to it)!
When does it start?
January 17, 2012 till January 17, 2013!
Contact Clara to share your ideas and questions on the Forum here. Share your Priority Quilts in Show and Tell here.
What are we making?
Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts are 9" x 12" in size or smaller. Read the rules here: http://www.alzquilts.org/paq.html. This could be a scrappers paradise or a way to use those extra bits from a project you cut too many pieces for, or a way to try out a new technique you learned on TQS. You could easily create a series of little quilts. (Keep in mind they won't be sold as a series, but it sure is fun making them that way. I've got 12 in the works right now.) Make 1 or make 100, it is up to you.
What are we Buying?
Alzheimer's Quilts, of course. Don't buy your own quilts back, silly. Buy somebody else's! Collect art! The AAQI sells quilts 24/7 on their website and the best of the best are auctioned online during the first day days of every month. Check it out: http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltsforsale.html and http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html
Who the heck is Clara?
I’m Clara Lawrence, the Sorting Queen from the Half-Square Triangle Exchange. (Hey, there's an idea: build your mini-quilts from half-square triangles and strips!)
Why am I interested in AAQI?
My family was affected by Alzheimer’s. Not just one family member, but two. I personally love Ami Simms's idea and its simplicity and want to help. This year I want to make quilts that make a difference. Don't you? Will you join me?
How to get involved?
1. Make a Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt (http://www.alzquilts.org/paq.html)
a. Register the quilt yourself and send me (through TQS) the registration number the AAQI assigns to it.
OR
b. Ship me the quilt and I'll register it and ship it to AAQI for you. (Contact me first so I can have you fill out and sign a special form and give you my mailing address.)
2. Buy a Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt or bid and win one during a monthly auction. Use TQS to send me the registration number of the quilt you purchased.
3. Share your quilts, the ones you make and the ones you buy! TQS has a Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilt Show and Tell section already on their site. Share your completed quilts there and on the forum.
How do we get to 1,000? I'll submit the quilt numbers to the AAQI for quilts you make. They will publish them on our own special page: http://www.alzquilts.org/tqs.html
I'll also keep track of how much the TQS community raises by purchasing quilts. When you buy a quilt, give me the number and the amount you paid for it (less shipping and insurance).
Contact Clara to share your ideas and questions on the Forum here.
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Breeze Through Your Foundation Piecing
Are you joining in on the fun with the 2012 BOM? Designer Sarah Vedeler recommends using Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff Poly to make your foundation piecing a breeze. This multi-purpose, polyester-based stabilizer becomes super soft when you wet or wash your quilt. (You won't even know the "stuff" is there!) The 8.5" x 11" sheets can also be used in a copy machine, or inkjet or laser printer. With 50 sheets to the pack, a single pack goes a long way.
For this and other great quilting tools, visit Ricky's website here.
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Texas Quilter Comes to Germany!
Mark your calendar for the Main-Quiltfestival, which will be held in Aschaffenburg Germany, February 24-26, 2012. The festival will offer a wide variety of exhibitions, lectures, and workshops, AND one very familiar, Stetson-wearing, Texas quilter, who will be the event's headliner...our own Ricky Tims!
In addition to a 
selection of outstanding workshops, Ricky will present an evening concert and a meal featuring American-style cuisine. Don't miss this terrific opportunity, which promises lots of laughter, good music, and quilt "learning." To see the entire line-up of events with Ricky, click here.
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Precision is Key
All too often, a quilt loses its visual appeal because the borders have been poorly sewn. Susan K. Cleveland's technique, as described in her book, Marvelous Miters, ensures that your quilts will lay flat and measure precisely. Here are a few additional tips to get you going on the right track:
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Joen talks with Ricky at Houston about what's hot. Grapes & buttons??!!
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Earlier this year (read more) we shared with you a story of Evie Harris idea for sending a little bit of love, in the shape of a fabric heart, to the citizens of Christchurch New Zealand who had just recently experienced a tremendous earthquake. The idea blossomed via the internet, and soon thousands of fabric hearts were traveling around the globe towards New Zealand.
TQS member Pam7040 thought that this idea would also be appropriate for members of TQS. Through the TQS prayer list on the Forum we know of people going through difficult times. Making a fabric heart for them is a way of sending them our love and showing that we care and are thinking of them. These small hearts can be made fairly quickly and easily and can therefore be sent right away. Why not make a few for those who need a heartfelt thought from a quilting friend.
Here are the basics:
Two heart shapes sewn together, stuffed or not, embellished, embroidered, quilted, plain or fancy, anything goes. Add a loop for hanging. It is a small measure of something nice to give at a difficult time.
Someone remembers, someone cares;
Your name is whispered in someone's prayers.
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Learn about
Apliquick appliqué tools!
Watch Show 1912
with Rosa Rojas (free!)
Apliquick - 3 Holes Microserrated Scissors
