Starch

Have you ever seen the words "Handle these carefully to avoid stretching the bias edges?"  I don't know about you but they fill me with more than a little bit of dread.  As my daughter would say incredulously "Really?"  After all I made them carefully, I pressed them carefully.  Now I have to handle them carefully?  And if I'm not careful enough?  What if the cat comes through and has a Sunny moment?

Through the kind support of my neighbor Linda and my friend Vicki I found starch.  What is this something more you have to buy that will cost money?  Well yes and no.  According to my neighbor all kinds of spray starch are pretty much the same and as long as the cheapest brand (under $2 for a large can) doesn't send your nose running for the hills you're set.  So far I am still on my first can, and I'm using it for my second quilt with those bias edges.

Why talk about this now?  Now those words are in the directions for my strip pieced Lone Star Quilt pattern, so rather than face the fear of trying to handle the strips carefully I just read that scary sentence instead to say, "use starch" and so far everything is working out well that way.

Lone Star Quilt-a-long

Strips Sets Cut into Diamonds

Good Morning.  What a great day!  The sun is shining, it didn't freeze last night, I have the laundry going, and I have just finished cutting half of my strip sets for my Lone Star Quilt.  That means you can see the spunky changes my strip sets have made.

Unlike the gorgeous quilt that Sue is planning, the diamonds that make up my star will begin and end on that deep fuschia/purple fabric.  It sure is a change to see the strip sets change into diamonds isn't it?

In case you are wondering I am using a free pattern I found which you can find here.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record Fabric "H" only needs 5/8 of a yard of fabric to be cut into 8 strips not the 16 listed.  But other than that it seems like a nice pattern.  Clear and easy to follow.

The 45 degree angle for cutting the diamonds

What is a Lone Star Quilt to you?  What do you think of when you see a Lone Star Quilt?  It's clearly a traditionally pieced quilt but can be made with so many different variations as to create a truly unique and modern quilt. Have you ever seen a Broken Star?  Now there is a quilt I wish I had the fabric to make.  Here you can see the Broken Star that inspired me to make my own Lone Star Quilt.  At the ease of which this one is going so far, knock wood, maybe the Broken Star will be in my future too...

Take a look at the pattern I'm using.   I only needed to add two fabrics to my stash for the star points and it doesn't cost anything to see if it is something you can do.   Now is the time with Sue and her friend creating this great support circle for all of us.  Happy Sewing!

Steady I Go

Today I was happy to be stitching and listening to music two of my favorite things. I was thrilled for the Wii and my husband being off work to indulge in becoming a crazy exercise beast with my daughter.

Lone Star Strip Sets

I sewed three complete strip sets that means six are done with only two more to make. UGH! That 6th strip set - really got to me. I sewed in one single pair of strips in upside down and then couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. It takes a while to un-sew 42". When I was finished I was adding the new strips to the old ones and got myself all confused again and had to get out the chart. Can we all say B*R*E*A*T*H*E? After settling down with the chart and having everything suddenly start working I can honestly say I now understand why some quilt tv shows say "make a swatch chart".

A Swatch Chart, a Patch Up, no matter what you call it I have never made one. Never felt the need either... But this quilt is different and I do wish in my pattern searching I had read the words "make a chart for yourself!!" LOL. Sew and Learn right?

Now the last time I posted a picture I didn't mention, these strip sets are actually offset on one end, so the first strip hangs off by 2" and then the next by another two inches so they make steps. When I cut them it will be on the diagonal at 45 degrees doing that will make them stop looking like a dratted Bargello and instead look more like the Lone Star Quilt they will become as the squares become trapezoids that way.

Sue's Lone Star Support Group's first online pow-wow is Saturday.  To say I'm looking forward to it is a bit of an understatement.

Lone Star Free Pattern Details

Now as I mentioned I didn't want to share the free patten I found until I'd tried it my self but at the request of a follower I'm a going to share it with you now.  For The Free Lone Star Strip Pieced Pattern I am using click this link.  Please keep in mind I have already found one slight issue/error.  The pattern says Fabric H needs 1 1/2 yards of fabric to make 16 strips.  This is an error and should instead state that Fabric H needs 5/8th of a  yard for a total of 8 strips.  To verify my correction you can look at the letter layout grid and count the number of "H's" in Step 1.  This is just an honest error and I do not expect more as I continue as the directions seem quite clear.

I have been sick for the past three days with what I hope is a short lived bug so I have not done any additional work since those three strip sets I sewed the other day.  I myself am only to Step 2.  It was my intention to contact the owner of the site and share my progress and see about asking her to correct the strip requirement but even though I have combed through the entire site I don't see a way to contact her.

If you're interested in making your own Lone Star Quilt no matter which pattern you'd like to use, I found out today that Sue and Jayne are in cahoots over a quilt along, in which the sole purpose is to share monthly progress and encourage each other.  Here is the link to Sue's Post and she tells me she will be hosting this Saturday, but there are no deadlines so no rush!

Tips for Glitter Thread

I wanted to take a moment today to share with you how I loaded my Janome 1600P with Glitter Thread for quilting.  My glitter thread from Superior Threads came with an insert for use, which was likely included as their glitter thread is the only thread guaranteed to work in all sewing machines and if you have difficulties they will work with you to over come them.  This is not an ad and I'm receiving no compensation, and it is doubtful anyone from that company will know I posted this.  Instead I am merely posting my images and tips as FYI.  The insert as well as a direct email confirmation told me to use a thin bobbin thread weight thread in the bobbin so I took out my old stand by cone of Madeira bobbin thread (it's 60 wt. 100% polyester).

As you can see from the above picture this thread is not cross wound.  AKA you can't see the thread making "X"s over itself on the spool.  That means it should load from the side.  Midarm machines are not really designed for threads that but my tips should help you thread your machine and reduce the tension so that you too can use them.

Look again at the picture above.  First notice that I have elevated the spool.  This is a small spool as most glitter threads are and needs to be up higher to allow for smooth feeding from the side.  Next  note that I have bypassed the thread hook because that would feed the thread from the top and we don't want that.  Also I have caught the thread with the hook for previously used exclusively for bobbin winding.  This is because I found simply letting the thread droop caused it to catch on the spool pin under it.

Now the thread simply trails from the above hook across to the pre-tensioner.  I had some difficultly finding the sweet spot way of handling this.  In checking the manual it says for pickier threads (I doubt it said picky) you can run the thread simply through the first hole in the pretensioner instead of running it in and out and back in like normal.  I have included two angles of the machine so that you can see what the thread path I am talking about.

After running the thread differently through the pretensioner as mentioned above I ran it normally through the rest of the machine.

Now turn the tension down.  Way down.  Loose.  Never thought you'd have the tension so loose kind of loose.

Thread that that is to tight will curl. To test this stitch a bit and stop.  Cut the threads (I don't recommend using the thread cutter as the ends are to short and it will be easier to tuck in the threads it you cut them with scissors)  What does the glitter thread do after you cut it?  Does it look like curling ribbon after you prettied it up with the scissors?  Or does it lay flat?  Flat and loose is good.  Curling, any curling is bad.

What does curled thread have to do with anything?  The curl is made by tension stretching on the thread. That means the tension is tight.  Had you sewn more and more the tension would have gotten tighter and tighter until the thread simply popped and broke under the strain.

As other Janome mid arm 1600 users will understand I can't tell you what "number" I had the tension set at because the pre-tensioner makes that impossible.  What I will instead say is that I spun the lower tensioner down until I was concerned about how loose the knob was, tightened it back up to mid way lowered tension on the pretensioner and then adjusted the bottom one again.  Once adjusted I was good to go and all of the names quilted out beautifully.

Which reminds me.  When I had the tension to tight and didn't know about looking for the curl in the thread, the glitter thread sunk into the quilt and the names were harder to read.  When I fixed the tension I knew it was right because the names of the students on the Teach-In Quilt really stood out after only one pass and I didn't feel the need to quilt them a second time through to make them pop.

I hope these tips helped and that your project will turn out even better than you'd hoped.  I'd love to hear from you so drop me a line and tell me about it.