Hi All,
I have been a sewist since elementary school, I was in 4H and started sewing. Then a friend tried to teach me hand piecing in 1988. Well I took apart that quilt and resewed it on my sewing machine. I wanted a faster way to get it together. The top is pieced but I never finished it. So this year I have decided to do something with quilting on a daily basis. It is not always sewing, sometimes it is shopping for supplies, reading quilt magazines watching TQS videos to learn a new technique. Now some people are very regimented, like my husband...I am not one of them. But I have decided this year every day I want to enjoy my quilting, so I bought a calendar and I am writing in it what projects I am working on, how many blocks are finished or what I am doing in learning a new technique. I even bought a journal for practicing free motion quilting.
Your not going to believe this but I am also learning to paper piece hexagons, your remember the hex specialist? Cheryl L See..I think I have watched that show about 4 times so I could learn her method. I have a small case that I can take anywhere so I will still be able to work on my quilting even when I do not have a sewing machine. I need to get her book, none of the shops here carry it, I want to complete something small first so I have practice before trying anything larger.
What about Sharon Schamber? She has many tips that I have used. I will never forget my first block of the month..at the end of a year we were told that all of the blocks needed to be 12 to 12.5" square..so I cut off my points and did whatever it took to get those blocks the right size..well now I use Sharon's idea of using starch and an iron to stretch or shrink the block to the right size..no more cutting off those points that it took me so long to make sure I had!!! I even use the same idea on a finished top of my quilt to make sure it is exactly squared before quilting it. I even bought the corner lasers to make sure it is square.
What about Alex Anderson and her curved baby blanket edges, it was great to learn they make mistakes just like the rest of us. I am going to try it on the next baby blanket.
Ricky I haven't tried fabric dying yet but it is on the list to learn. I am practicing free motion quilting on my domestic machine, I love your feathers.
I know that it take practice so that is why I have decided to this challenge for myself.
Anyone else want to take up the challenge? I thought we could encourage one another.
Rmichap