Wish Upon a Quilt Blog

We were discussing quilt labels in the shop the other day. Almost everyone of my quilts have had a label attached to them and they have caught people’s attention. Labels are a way for me to communicate to the reciepient of a quilt and record important information of interest for posterity. I think about what I want to put in my label as I’m piecing my quilt. I create the label when I make the quilt back. Sometimes I piece it into the back and other times I applique it on. I like to have my label on the back before I quilt the project because I don’t want it to be easily removed. A label is a way of claiming “authorship” of a quilt.

I record the month and or year the project was finished. (Or at least when the piecing was finished. I figure that is accurate enough for any quilt historians who might stumble upon my work in years to come.) I record the state it was created in because I know of historical quilt collections that have been put together based on locale. I’m trying to help future quilt historians on the off chance that my work survives.  I’ll record the name of the pattern, technique, or fabric line that was used in the design of the quilt if there is room and I feel it is a significant part of the quilt’s story. After all, each label is telling the story of the quilt. Why it was made, who made it, who it was made for, how it was made, and when it was made.

I design my labels in Word or Microsoft publisher and then print them off on fabric using my Inkjet pritner and prepared fabric sheets. Some of my labels have been 8 inches by 10 1/2 inches but I generally try to keep them to half a sheet so that I can get two labels out of each sheet , that would be 8 inches by 5 1/2 inches. If I am going to piece my label into a block on the back I will size it to the finished size of the piece. I like to add backgrounds, scans of the fabric used in the quilt, or clip art to help tie the content of the label to the quilt or express the title of the quilt.

Here are a few samples of labels I’ve created for quilts.

bobbiecowboycookieslbl – I pieced these three labels into the back of the quilt.

eric-and-katherine_wedding_quilt_label

spinning-galaxies-label

Prairie point trimmed pillowcase

Once you have a quilt top pieced the fun isn’t over. There are a lot of creative options that you can do to jazz your quilt up and “bring it up a notch”. There are pieced borders, mitered borders, applique borders, flange borders, and piped borders. You can have straight edges, scalloped edges, notched edges, curved edges. You can throw prarie points, piping, and flange in at any point in the mix. Today we’ll look at prairie points.They can be added to blocks, borders or edges of a quilt. They add a fun three dimensional twist and can be a sneaky way to match points in a block. Just think about a pinwheel or flying geese block made with a prairie point instead of a pieced triangle. Let me back up for those who don’t know what a praire point is. A prairie point is a triangle folded from a square. They can be stitched together in a line to make a sweet edge for a quilt or added to quilt blocks and borders for three dimensional pizazz.

About.com has a good demo of the two ways to fold and make prarie points from charm squares.

I love this demo by Lissa on her Moda Lissa blog on how to make  continuous prairie points from a strip of fabric. She then shows you how to add it to a pillowcase.

Susan K. Cleveland has a great tool called the “Prairie Pointer” to help you line the edges of your prairie points up accurately. It is a thin metal triangle that is acid etched with markings for matching the center fold prairie point edges. It comes with directions on how to use, cut, and calculate yardage. There is also a free patriotic project using prairie points designed by Susan. Come into wish for a demo of this handy tool.

Calling all sewers and quilters! Use some of your stash fabric to participate in American Patchwork and Quilting’s Make a Million Pillowcase challenge.

We are making and collecting pillowcases for The Women’s Healing Place of Wake County. Our goal is to provide around 100 pillowcases each month to the Healing Place so that each participant has something to call their very own and will know that someone cares for them when they leave the Healing Place. We have collected about 50 so far in January thanks to our great customers.

Annette Lew is using fabric from her stash for as much of the pillowcase as possible, adding just a few items from our sale room to complete the pillowcase. As you can see, any fabric works great! Annette is using a basic pattern and we have additional patterns available for FREE here to get you going.

David Brantly surprised us last week with an in-person visit and 22 pillowcases!Great to see you in person David! Thank you so much!

Wish Upon A Quilt is also donating $1.00 to the Healing Place for each pillowcase we receive. We hope to write a big check each month for this great organization! To donate, drop your pillowcases off at the store or send them to us in the mail at: Wish Upon A Quilt, 8817 Westgate Park Drive #104, Raleigh, NC 27617. Thank you for your generosity!

What to do with laminated fabrics? That was a question that kept floating around the store last Saturday every time someone noticed the new Amy Butler laminated fabrics.  They are gorgeous.

These are PUL fabrics, polyurethane laminated fabrics. They were developed for the medical industry but are receiving lots of attention in the sewing world as more and more people are looking for environmental conscious solutions to grocery bags, disposable diapers, sandwich baggies, etc. More information on the process can be found here. Be careful with PUL or laminated fabrics not ordered from a quilt shop. Some are actually knits instead of cotton that have been laminated. The fabrics produced by Westminster Fibers, and available at quilt shops, are 100% cotton woven laminated fabrics.  The fabric is much easier to work with, soft and has more drape than other laminated fabrics.

So what to do with these new and beautiful fabrics that have arrived from Amy Butler ? Cathy was excited about these new fabrics and made this Domestic Goddess Apron in just one evening! If you are local, come in the store and check it out!

Domestic Goddess Apron

This could be a great work apron. I was buying laminated table clothes at one point, before these cool fabrics came out, to make a dog washing apron. I wanted something that would repel the water so that I didn’t always have to change clothes after bathing my large dog.  A laminated fabric apron would be ideal when washing dishes, I’m always getting my middle wet! Then there are art smocks for your favorite artist (or mother of your favorite artist who might be at risk of getting splatted on the side lines).

Other members of our team are planning on making a Multi Tasker Tote out of them. An Abby’s Treasure Box made with PUL would be a cute cosmetic travel bag for your purse.

Go Green with these fabrics! You could make lovely reusable sandwich wraps and “brown bag” lunch bags. Craft Stylish has posted an article from Betz White’s book Sewing Green on how to make a reuseable sandwich wrap.

This fabric is basically a modern day oilcloth, to be used for any purpose where need a waterproof easily wiped clean fabric. Poncho’s, raincoats, splat mats, placemats, table clothes, fabric boxes,all fit in that category.

Anna Marie Horner’s Seams to Me book has a fun garment bag project that calls for oilcloth. It would look fabulous in the Amy Butler large prints. It would also be suitable for her Full Contact apron project as well that is also in the book.

The fabric would make great splat mats to go under art easels, playdough centers, or any other messy areas to help make cleanup easier.

Once you start considering the possiblities more come to mind. What do you think would be a fun project for this lovely fabric?

My brother and sister-in-law just had a new baby this month. I don’t know why I’ve waited this long to work on a baby quilt. I had nine months but they just flew by.  My niece had to be born to throw me into high gear making a baby quilt. I love making quick and easy baby quilts. This project only took me a weekend but it came out adorable. I used a Tina Givens Fairy Tip Toes panel and a minky like fleece for the back. I try to use minky on baby quilts as a ploy to make it the baby’s favorite. Many young children are attracted to the tactile softness of the fabric.

I often use the pillowcase turning method of sandwiching my baby quilts since they are small and I don’t usually feel like messing with binding on such time pressured projects. (They have to be done before the baby is no longer a baby! ) In this case I pinned my panel to the fleece and stitched a 1/4 inch seam around and left a 10 inch opening for turning on the bottom side. I then used my pinking blade on my rotary cutter and eye balled a 1/2 inch seam on the minky. The fuzzy plushness of the fabric makes it difficult to tell if you have gotten it in a 1/4 inch seam so I cut it a little larger to make it easier to stitch the seam closed later.

 I also added 3 inch strips of various ribbons to the sides of the quilt. I folded them in half and pinned them in place before stitching those seams. I thought it would give the final quilt a boutique look and add another tactile stimulus to the quilt. I then turned the quilt inside out and stitched a 1/4 inch around the edge of the quilt; making sure I sealed the 10 inch opening in the bottom.  I pin basted and quilted it.(Click on the pictures in the gallery below for more detailed instructions on the project and descriptions.)

 Baby quilts are a great way to practice machine quilting on your home machine. Their size is manageable and they are meant to be serviceable – so mistakes and irregularities in stitches can be over looked. You don’t have to present your best work for a quilt that is meant to be dragged in the mud and cuddled till it’s thread bare.

I’ve found that the fleece and minky scraps from this project make great burpee clothes for the baby too.  They look boutiquee, feel lovely, and coordinate with the quilt!  Mom (or Dad) and baby can step out in style with quilt and a handful of coordinating upscale burp clothes! (Warning, I have a hard time putting these burp clothes down because the minky is so soft and they are guaranteed to get passed around the baby shower because others find it irresistible too. )

Wish has just gotten some cute minky quilt kits in. They each have three different minky soft fabrics. They have a suggestion on how to assemble the materials into a quilt. But you could make several burp clothes out of them or even make a blanket with coordinating burp clothes if you add some adorable quilting cottons into the mix. The OH Boy fabric line by David Walker would pair nicely with the kits for a boy and Lilly Pond by Wendy Slotbloom for a girl. Wish has so many cute fabrics for kids! Be sure to check them out and tell us what you think the cutest baby fabric is.

You can get more great gift ideas from Alex Anderson’s Baby Quilts with Love book and Warm Welcome by Mary Hickey.

I was looking for something quick and fun and found this great pattern for a pillow. I like that the pattern has the embellishments included so that I don’t have to search all over town for them. Kits are available here.  Stay tuned for more of these, I’m hooked! What are you making today?

Beach Baby Pillow

It’s appropriate that Earth Day is in April when spring and Easter remind us of renewal , reincarnation, and rebirth. More and more quilters and sewers are turning their creative minds to how they can reuse and recycle. I am seeing more projects with selvages, scraps, grocery tote bags, fabric gift wrapping, and found objects being re-purposed. I am noticing more designers becoming “greener” by printing their patterns on recycled paper. I’m also seeing greener products like Dream Green batting and Kyoto Bamboo batting.

“Re-purposing” has become a new buzz word in the crafting world.  It is such a fun concept. It’s not new. Our grandparents or fore-generations were doing it in the depression era. It’s basically taking an item, applying some creativity, and making it new again. There are tons of projects for re-purposing blue jeans on the web.

Cindy with her pre quilted shopping tote- shopping for the next project.

Quilters are also turning their creativity to “efficient use of fabric” as well. They are using up their scraps in scrap quilts, using selvages, and even making scrappy fabric with their little bits. Fabric manufacturers and quilt stores are reducing their waste by offering scrap bags and selvage bags to their creative and clever consumers. Reducing waste is a green practice because it decreases our “footprint on the environment”, just like re-purposing does. Wish Upon a Quilt has started providing scrap and selvage bags of Kaffe fabric.

Bags of Kaffe selvages - what fun!

 We also have a fun Sew Sweet Shop Scrap Club and Scrapaholics class to help encourage scrap quilting.

 What “green” projects are you working on?

I am happy to be a sponsor of the first ever Bloggers Quilt Festival! This online quilt festival is open to everyone and has some great prizes, including gift certificates to Wish Upon A Quilt, so make sure you enter! Quilt Dad, John, found this great festival so be sure to visit his blog to see his great virtual quilt!

I’m entering this quilt which was my most recent project. I used a brand new pattern called Jewel Box by Janice Pope of Anything But Boring. This is a great pattern using the disappearing nine-patch technique set on point. The pattern is charm pack friendly and quick! I pieced this top in just 2 hours! My fabric selection was Spring Magic by April Cornell for Moda. I love the bright cheery colors. Many of our customers have wanted to make a quilt like this one, so we do have a kit available. What is on your sewing table today?

Precuts are getting more and more attention as those pretty Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes, Charm Packs, Sweet Boxes and Honeybuns catch our eyes. Wish recently received new orders of Bali Pops, Neptune, and Fresh pre-cuts. Most quilters recognize the convenience of the pre-cuts but some wonder what to do with them. So we are all searching for the great patterns that are labeled for those beautiful Jelly Rolls, Charm Packs, and Layer Cakes. Moda has  several “cheat sheets” that can show you some common ways to cut Layer Cakes and Charm Packs. They also are very good about offering free quilt patterns for their various fabric lines. Don’t feel like you have to be limited to that fabric line. There is nothing to say that you can’t use a different line.

Moda’s Basic Measurements sheet gives estimates on the size of quilt based on the number of Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls, or Charm packs.

Loose Change by Claudia Plett and Lee Ann Weaver has some great patterns that are adapted to Charm Packs (referred to as nickels in the book), Layer Cakes (referred to as dimes), and Fat Quarters. Some can be completed with Jelly Rolls too. It’s a fun book. More Nickel Quilts by Pat Speth has twenty patterns for quilts made with Charm Packs.

Today, I’ve been playing with the Neptune and Fresh fabric lines in EQ6. Moda is very good about providing down loadable image files that can be imported into EQ5 and EQ6. You can find their latest swatch samples here. I like to play with new fabric lines in EQ because it helps me get a better feel for the different values and texures in the line.

I tried to pick blocks that would be pre-cut freindly. Here’s a selection of some patterns I explored.

Moda has also provided a braided easter basket project sheet. The sample is done in Swank and stitched by hand. I’m thinking you could acheive a similiar look by machine using the Bali Bowl pattern. This would be a great project for the sweet Honeybuns Cathy has in the shop now. Check out Moda’s Bakeshop for more cool projects with pre-cuts.

 So do you EQ? and what are your favorite precut friendly patterns/projects?

Many of our customers have been commenting that they have not seen my Mom (Jan Vincent) in the shop in awhile. The reason is that she has been busy making shop samples! Here she is with her latest creation using Emily Cier’s pattern of Carolina Patchworks and the Brown Bear and Very Hungry Caterpillar collections. We usually give the shop samples that she makes to charity, but I LOVE this one so much, I might have to keep it. Or, maybe I can convince her to make one for me! I could make my own with this kit, but I haven’t had much time to sew lately.

I am excited that Mom will be visiting us on Wednesday of this week! Yes, she is dropping off another sample but I do plan to reward her with lunch and another project! Isn’t she a great Mom?