Category: What’s Happening Now?

Road Trip!

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Those of you who looked at my Events Calendar recently may have noticed that I recently traveled to the University of Kentucky to teach a program for their Cooperative Extension Program.

Lately, my job has had me doing a lot of traveling, and I realized, as I was getting ready to drive by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis yet again, that I had passed the Arch 14 times (7 times leaving, and 7 returning) in the past year without ever stopping! Now, that’s a shame – to be that close to such a great landmark so many times and not stop at least once. So, deciding there is no time like the present, my husband and I took a small detour before continuing onward.

It is awesome, and I do mean that in the old-fashioned definition of awe inspiring. The Arch is both 630 feet wide and tall, deflects 18″ in a 150 mph wind, has 1,076 steps in the stairway (thank goodness the stairs are for emergency use only), and the list goes on. But those are the technical statistics. There are exhibits and pictures that take you back in time, when riverboats were king of the rivers, and the Westward Expansion was new and exciting. It really reminds us what it took to make this great country of ours that so many can take for granted today.

If you look closely, you can see my hair in the left side of the picture here…. This was taken at the top of the arch, inside of course!

Once we got to the top, the observation deck allowed us to look out at some incredible views (even if leaning over like this was a bit uncomfortable).

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View from the top!

After this very stop to stretch our legs, the trip to the University of Kentucky continued. There were 181 women who attended the Expo, titled “It’s Sew Fine: For Home and Family”. I taught two of the seventeen classes that were offered at the expo, and I think it’s fair to say that almost everyone had a great time.

The first day (Tuesday), I taught a class on making fabric yo-yos. The one thing that all the participants had in common, was remembering making their yo-yos ‘the hard way’ previously. I was teaching how to use the clover yo-yo maker, and they loved it. Almost everyone realized they were going to have to get more than one size and shape of yo-yo maker to have for future use!

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Long-term readers of this blog will remember the fun we had with yo-yos here a while back. If you haven’t heard of the great Yo-Yo makers from Clover, check out my yo-yo tagged posts.

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Participants brought finished projects ready to embellish,  and then we just focused on the fun part – dressing it up!

Want to know what else I was up to in Kentucky? Well, here’s a hint… this picture is a picture of fabrics cut for a quilt block I was teaching… tune in tomorrow!

Sheila Reinke, Heart of Sewing
Sheila

Quilt Block “Hope”

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Back in February, I told you about the Quilt Block of the Month program that is being done in Hancock Fabrics stores around the country. Today, I would like to share with you my tips on the creation of the second block in that program (for those of you who missed the first block post, it can be found here).

First, I have to tell you, if you are still interested in joining the Quilt Block of the Month program at your local Hancock Fabrics, you are welcome to do so. Stores will be glad to help you catch up with the program, and as you can see in this link: Journey Quilt, you will have a beautiful quilt when you complete the program.

All stores have free demonstrations of the block, and a quilter on hand to assist with any questions you might have with the current or past blocks. Generally the free demonstration is on the third Saturday of the month, but some stores have chosen alternate dates, so make sure you check with your location before you plan to show up!

Now, on to the block itself! This block was actually the March block (I’ve been so busy with my running around that I just got it stitched up for you), but as I said it’s never to late to get started.

The quilt this year was designed by Laura Jones who did a great job coming up with the ideas for our “Journey” quilt. The block from the first month was called “Treasure” and this block is titled “Hope” Laura choose to use a sun for this block. What a great choice – doesn’t the sun have that effect on us and our hopes and dreams? And particularly this time of year when so many of us are looking at rainy skies and ‘hoping’ for the sun to chase out the clouds.

This block is an appliqué block. I suggest that you draw the sun flames and sun center onto the fusible web – I used wonder under from Pellon.

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Next,iron the rough side (the side with the glue on it) to the fabric you will be using to create the appliqué. Make sure your iron is applied only to the paper, and not to the fabric – that way you won’t get any glue on the surface of your iron! After the paper and fabric have completely cooled, cut our your shapes. Here I am working on the sun’s flames.

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Once you have finished cutting out your appliqué shapes, it’s time to apply them to the block. Peel the paper off the back of the appliques. Place the design on the block and iron again. This will join the applique with the quilt block. When you are finishing off the edges around the sun you can appliqué in many ways: blanket stitch by hand or on your machine using a choice of decorative stitches. I decided to use a satin stitch fairly tight. Whenever you pile a lot of stitches in a small space (which is what I did using the zig zag stitch or satin stitch) you need to use a stabilizer on the back so that your fabric doesn’t stretch out. I used the stabilizer – Totally Stable from Sulky. Totally Stable is a tear away stabilizer. Pin it to the back of your project, then I iron over it and it clings to my project – this gives your fabric some extra body for the stitching you are about to do. Finish up with your satin stitch design and than simply tear the stabilizer away. Here are pictures of the stabilizer package (so you can find it yourself), and the back of my project after I have finished the satin stitching and as I am tearing the stabilizer away (the section I have removed is in the upper left corner of the project).

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You now have a sun palette to finish anyway you choose for the center of the sun. You can add yarn, trim, beads, satin stitch in a swirl, or leave and quilt the design later.

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Here are some of the ideas I’ve seen used to finish the center of the sun. As you can see, a swirl is what the pattern calls for.
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Finished with a dress trim

A dark tan yarn in the center

A variegated yarn to finish, this yarn is heavier than the one that uses the dark tan.

As you can see, this is a quilt that will include a lot of the quilter’s personality, which is perfect because it truly is a ‘journey’ that we will all go through as we complete this quilt. Are you ready to join the Journey?
Sheila Reinke, Heart of Sewing
Sheila

Quilt Seminar – Impressions

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Yesterday, I got the chance to attend one of the free quilting seminars and take some pictures to share with you.

The demonstrator for this seminar was Mary Ourecky – and as you can see in the picture, she had a full house! There were 110 people who attended her shows that day. She had lots of great ideas to share with everyone, and her projects really did cover a full range of quilters – from the very new, to the very experienced. Quilts included: modified log cabin, t-shirt quilt, memory quilts, applique quilts, simple panel quilts, and MUCH, MUCH more.
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At the beginning of the show – Mary had all of her projects neatly folded up and ready to explain to us. The folded quilts sat on the table, quietly teasing us, as the last minute preparations for the show were carried out. And believe me, everyone’s eyes kept wandering back to that table as we waited for new chairs to be located and set out.
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Mary started the show by letting us take a peek into her sewing room – basically, she had all of her favorite notions that she wanted to show and explain to us. And during the show she often returned to these items, explaining how this specialty sewing foot, or that ruler was designed to make a particular project easier. One of the favorite tools she mentioned was the new Wrights Sidewinder Bobbin Winder – if you haven’t checked this out yet, it’s a great tool! It’s only function that of a bobbin winder, but it has adjustable tension (so bobbins can be wound tighter or more loosely as needed), and it can be operated by battery or by AC adapter (which is included).
The back of the store rang with laughs as Mary explained to us that she had discovered the bobbin winder could be used when you were stopped at a red light on your way to your quilting class! – But she did warn that when the stop light turns green, you should put down the bobbin winder. Tongue Out 11

Even though I am not a quilter myself (I still have pieces of a log cabin quilt in a bag in the back of the closet), I do admire and enjoy the quilts – and believe me, this show was a feast for the eyes. Mary did not make all the quilts herself, she asked for volunteers from throughout the area district to help her out, and they delivered. Some quilts followed a simple pattern that even a novice like myself could recognize, while others were beautifully intricate. One quilt was even designed ‘on the go’ by the quilter who made it – no pattern was involved. Below are some of the quilts that Mary had to show us.
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Those who have read the blog before may recognize the first quilt from Happy Days Quilts (Sheila recently made a towel with the fish appliqués), and the second quilt which is Sheila’s own design for the Nana’s Hankie Fabric – quilt is called Hankie in your Pocket.
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Mary not only displayed the quilts for us to see, but took the time to explain some of the work that went into each – and give a few tips on how we could accomplish the same look.
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As you can see from the pictures above, Mary even took the time to show how a tool could be used to create a specific look. Here she is showing how to use the Marti Michelle ruler to make triangles that fit together perfectly and don’t waste fabric – you cut a strip as long as your triangles will be tall, then you simply lay the ruler onto the fabric and flip it over to cut the triangles as you go, each one lining right up against the next. The picture on the right shows the finished quilt. (Earlier in the year, Sheila posted a feature about another of these great rulers – the Log Cabin Ruler.)
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The show wasn’t only about quilts – but it was about quilting techniques, so we saw some quilted bags, quilted purses, and quilted pillows as well. This year there were no quilted garments in the show – but I know that has been done as well.
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As the show ended, that nice pile of folded quilts became a stacked pile of quilts that needed to be refolded to get ready for her next show – but everyone in the audience was surprised at how quickly the hour and a half had gone.

I got a chance to sit down with Mary after the show (and after she’d had a chance to get a bite to eat), she was still very excited from the show, and was more than willing to talk about the process of getting ready for it.
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She told me that the weeks before she does a show like this are “like Christmas, with all the new projects coming in all the time.” She enjoys opening the boxes and getting to see what different people have used as inspiration for a quilt or sewing project. “I like that this is a collective effort to create all the projects, seeing the colors that different people put together. Sometimes I see a quilt and am surprised by how much I like the color combinations – something I wouldn’t have thought to put together myself.” I couldn’t agree with her more, I was quite taken by a quilt that was in the show made with lots of brown and muted colors (it didn’t photo well in the lighting we had), and yet if I had seen the colors laid out in front of me – I wouldn’t have turned them into a quilt to have in my house. Mary felt that more of the colors quilters were using these days seemed to relate to the younger sewers. I suspect this is because the colors we see used in decorating trends carry through to our quilts.
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But a word of advice – do call at least a day before the show if you can – Mary had more than double the number of expected people at her show, and attendees were sitting on every chair that could be located, and a few that were borrowed!
Sheila Reinke, Heart of Sewing
Heather