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A small group of seamstresses (who worked for Playtex) was dedicated to making spacesuits that wouldn't fail the Apollo astronauts. Learn how accurate they had to be and what would happen if there was any sort of problem.
4
Mary A. McElwain has been chosen as a Heritage Inductee to The Quilters Hall of Fame in 2019. The Heritage Honor is conferred on those who have made outstanding contributions to the world of quilting and whose work was 80 years or more in the past.
Did you guess who else was being inducted? It's Marianne Fons (Our TQS Quilting Legend 2018) and Liz Porter.
(photo: shopmartingale.com)
From the Quilters Hall of Fame:
The world of quilting has been brought into the homes of thousands in the United States and abroad because of two prominent teachers, Marianne Fons and Liz Porter. These two ladies met in a quilt class and formed a lasting business partnership. Being teachers themselves, it was natural for them to turn their newly acquired quilting skills into a curriculum of choice to share with the quilt world. Their mission statement, “Our goal is for you to enjoy making quilts as much as we do,” drove their business endeavors in their teaching, their mail order business, their magazine, “Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting," numerous books, publications, entertaining television programs, dvds, and internet club. This duo shared their methods of breaking down blocks into manageable parts so that difficult quilts could become more doable to millions via public television. They created and redesigned tools to make the quilting process faster and simpler, so quilters could experience success and satisfaction.
Click here for more information about the inductees. The ceremony was held July 18-20, 2019, in Marion, Indiana.
21
Would you ever make a cathedral windows quilt out of silk? Lisa Ellis did and it's breathtaking.
Lisa's quilt, Effervescence, was on display at the Houston International Quilt Festival 2018 as part of the Alternative Techniques exhibit.
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How to Find More Time to Quilt
by Helen Spencer
Are you under the impression that your free time should be spent doing nothing, and that this is how one rests and recharges batteries?
If that is the case, you would be wrong. There already is time for resting – it is called sleeping.
When you go out of your way to become as passive as possible, you promote lethargy and dissatisfaction.
Quilting is especially conducive to counter that because:
In short, finding the time to engage in quilting will offer you a way to be productive and relieve stress at the same time. Avail yourself to some of the ways you can maximize your quilting hobby.
When time is scarce and you only have disjointed minutes to spend on quilting during the day, you will soon lose track of what you’ve done so far and what you need to do.
There are many apps that will serve you as a task manager, timer, and scheduler. All of these three aspects are key to keeping yourself organized and efficient. For example, try out Todoist or TickTick. Both apps work across all platforms on desktop computers, smartphones and tablets.
Speaking of getting yourself organized, according to Helen from Hellosewing, you would not want to waste your time on deploying your quilting machine and unpacking your quilting tools every time you want to do some work.
If you can’t have a small room for quilting, it’s time to move some furniture around to make space in the corner of your bedroom, or a living room. Whatever you decide, you should be able to start quilting in less than a minute. This is how you know you have a dedicated work area for quilting.
To run your quilting operation as smoothly as possible, it is imperative to create pre-cuts. In other words, consider any project you are working on as a kit. Then, label all the cuts into individual bags so you know exactly what is what. This will accomplish two important things: quickstart any project, and smooth the flow of work.
Any successful industry is streamlined so that similar tasks are grouped together. The reason for this is because switching between different tasks breaks the flow of work. It creates unnecessary halting and restarting.
Therefore, do quilting tasks in bulk, be it trimming, pressing, or sewing. Separate and chain these tasks, and you will marvel at how much time you will save.
Have a dedicated container nearby for collecting all the fabric pieces that can either be reused or discarded. After the basket fills up, sort them out and you will inevitably find pieces that can be used later on for other quilting projects. Be sure to ziplock them in a bag and label it, so to avoid confusion down the line.
Every time you complete a quilting session, think about your next one. Is everything set up for it?
Is your binding color and thread ready to go for the next piece of quilt? You might even want to wind a bobbin for the next phase of your work. It only takes a minute to do these preparations, and it makes everything go smooth. On the next session, you will know exactly what to do without even checking your app’s task manager. Wouldn’t acquiring such a habit be great?
In the era of gadgets and 24/7 entertainment and social media, it can become difficult to not have a disjointed approach to life. The attenuated focus of the modern generation has even been studied. Things have gotten so bad that most people can hardly read a short book, instead of going to YouTube to listen for opinions and reviews.
As a matter of fact, most people have a hard time reading anything beyond news headlines, which is why so often the body of the text is so divergent from the title.
Quilting itself requires focus, but in order to be maintained be sure to turn off your TV or silence your smartphone.
Even the most daunting quilting project can be completed in a short span of time if you are organized, clean, and consistently add up 5-10 minutes of your time during the day. And what is 5-10 minutes? Nothing; people lose it in a haze all the time.
Don’t resign yourself to procrastination and excuse-making. Make an effort to push through, start and you will find how easy it is to do it when you have all your quilting ducks in a row.
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Superior Threads has some great tips to help you master your machine tension.
(photo: Superior Threads)
3
Unicorns are all the rage and who wouldn't want to make this adorable baby quilt from Art Gallery Fabrics and WeAllSew?
Click here to download templates.
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When Danny Amazonas makes a quilt, you know that there will be a lot of different fabrics. We can't even begin to figure out just how many fabrics he used to create the eye in his Goldfish quilt.
3
Another of Latifah's classic Clamshell quilts, but the clams are "tossed" which allowed her infinite design possibilities. Enjoy Latifah's fantastic quilt, Clam Toss.
Watch Latifah in Show 2502.
ClamTossbyLatifahSaafir - 36 Pieces Non-Rotating
ClamTossbyLatifahSaafir - 100 Pieces Non-Rotating
ClamTossbyLatifahSaafir - 300 Pieces Non-Rotating
ClamTossbyLatifahSaafir - 36 Pieces Rotating
ClamTossbyLatifahSaafir - 100 Pieces Rotating
ClamTossbyLatifahSaafir - 300 Pieces Rotating
Original Photo: Mary Kay Davis
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Another of Latifah's classic Clamshell quilts, but the clams are "tossed" which allowed her infinite design possibilities. Enjoy Latifah's fantastic quilt, Clam Toss.
Watch Latifah in Show 2502.
Original Photo: Mary Kay Davis
8
Today we continue our selection of quilts recently displayed at the Spring Paducah 2019 show featured as part of The 14th Quilt Nihon Exhibition. The exhibit is described as:
"Organized by the Japan Handicraft Instructors' Association, the Quilt Nihon Exhibition is one of the most prestigious international quilt contests in Japan. The exhibit features 42 quilts from the "Innovative Traditional" category, which will later be exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art."
Please enjoy the seventh quilt from the exhibition by Yukiko Nakao.
Title of Quilt: Welcome to the Heavenly Flower Garden
Quilter's Name: Yukiko Nakao
Dimensions: 72" x 72"
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