Quick Trim

I mentioned the Quick Trim Ruler by Creative Grids yesterday, I have already given mine a workout since returning home from MidAtlantic Quilt Festival. I used mine yesterday morning to join binding strips... flawlessly. I am grateful that I happened by The Quilt Company's booth when Karen Montgomery was expertly demonstrating this tool that she designed. Along with the ability to align corners for strip joins (as shown here) at a perfect quarter inch.
This tool is also great for precisely constructing flying geese and half square triangle units. You can also use this ruler as a compass and draw perfect circles with it!  Before the demo ended I had this ruler and a pattern (Old Dog, New Tricks) in my hand ready to check out! I will be experimenting with the ruler in the coming weeks and blogging about my results, stay tuned. Take a few minutes and watch the video found at the Quick Trim Ruler link above. Believe me, you will be as amazed at the versatility of this ruler as I was and I know you're going to want your own.

You can see the binding join, above, as the binding strip was applied to this scrappy tumbler quilt; perfect alignment after stitching with no dog ears to trim. Nice. This ruler also has a special highlighted line at 2.25", exactly the width I cut my binding; it's like this tool has ESP! This was the view across my sewing table after lunch yesterday... it was a bright and cheerful sight!

"TMX2 Again" with its binding in place, seam line marked for stitching; and "DeRailed", in the background, ready to be loaded onto Snowbird.

I did get the binding stitched and basted in place for hand sewing later. All in all it was a good day, made even easier by a great new tool.

Life is Good!

"Look Ma, No Pins"!

Meet my newest time-saving sewing assistant; yep, it's Elmer's school glue!  I saw an online tutorial using school glue instead of pins for attaching binding to a quilt in preparation for stitching. You're probably shaking your head in disbelief, I did too; at first, but the more I read the more interested I became in trying out the technique. I had everythig I needed on hand, including a quilt just waiting to be bound.

Place your to-be-bound quilt on the ironing board and apply glue dots as shown in photograph above. I only attached a few inches at a time.

After matching up the raw edges of the binding along the quilt edge on top of the glue dots press it with a hot, dry iron to set the glue. Don't  use steam! This glue is completely washable, so much so that even one burst of steam will absolutely dissolve the glue without so much as a trace remaining, believe me.

Work your way around the quilt, including the corners (as shown) gluing and pressing as you go.

It was a joyful sight to observe the attached binding, all around the edges, as the quilt dropped off the ironing board and to the floor; the binding didn't budge!

The next step was to move the quilt to the cutting table and mark my stitching line, 1/4" from the edge. I always do this, it was a snap to mark without the bulk of pins beneath! I find the stitching line helpful because I always use a walking foot to stitch down my bindings and can't judge the seam allowance well enough with that foot attached, the line is one extra insurance step toward accuracy.

Stitching down the binding was smooth sailing all the way, the glue never got hard; it was soft and pliable, plus it held firmly, the entire time!  A word of caution: make sure that you use WASHABLE School Glue. The components of this glue guarantee a complete and clean wash out. The link for the tutorial I saw is here. I happened to have the clear school glue (leftover from the sparkle bottle) but the white school glue seems to work the same way, both dry clear.

There you go, tried and true!

Life is Good!

How Are You Spending Your Beans?

Take two minutes to view this video, it might just be the time you spend...it's a great visual reminder.

Life is Good!

Why We Quilt

Meet Wade, he belongs to our small group friend, Nane; isn't he absolutely the cutest little guy?  When Nane and her husband were planning their trip to China this past spring to  adopt their son and bring Wade home, our group got busy quietly conspiring and contributing novelty fabrics toward a Picture Play quilt to present to our new little buddy. It was secretly pieced in one home and handed off for quilting; it made one more stop for binding and, before we knew it, our long awaited Sew Day  had arrived at Nane's barn! We were all about to burst with happy anticipation as the big presentation moment occurred... little did we know that our own excitement was about to be eclipsed by that of the recipient~ click here to view. The quilt has found it's forever home; with Wade, where it belongs. It's why we quilt.

Life is Good!  

Fancy? No, Prancy!

Just in case you've missed it, I was educated on this exercise craze (or at least the You Tube video) sweeping the country only yesterday. Think of this as a public service announcement; go ahead and prance yourself to fitness, it looks easy enough to learn, the bouffant hairdo is going to take some extra work  and hairspray though! 

Life is Good!

On Demand!

I joined QNNtv as a subscriber last month and it's been money well spent. On the advice of a friend (one who's been stitching out some knock-your-socks-off quilting lately)  I decided to try it out for a month before I jumped in the deep end. It's great; I have since become an annual subscriber; I never knew what I'd been missing. I can watch any of the quilting episodes whenever I want, replay the technique oriented episodes over and over, and then go right to Sundance and try them out! This is "on demand" viewing at its absolute best! Check it out, there's some complimentary videos to give you a taste of the programming, there is something for everyone; fabric selection and design work through quilting, traditional to contemporary. Thanks, Gina, for pointing me in right the direction, I've learned a LOT, it's all good, and I'm not looking back!

Life is Good!