Things I've learned in 2005
1. I love making scrappy quilts.
2. Small projects are beautiful.
3. A long arm quilter could be your best friend. xoxoxoxoxoxo
4. I can make a buttonhole with a pair of sharp scissors and fray check. (You can too! What this has to do with quilting--I have no idea. But if you need a buttonhole and would rather spend time quilting--it works. I have a pair of corduroy overalls with slash and check buttonholes and they are holding up to multiple machine washings. And they have a wholesome "no issues" attitude!
5. Never make an assumption that it is the quilter's lack of skill if a quilt block misbehaves. A willful block can be successfully disciplined !
Step 1.
Lay out your fat quarters so that they are paying attention. Hold up the block design and say, "This quilt calls for 20 blocks. I'm going to make 21 blocks and one of you is not going to make the cut. :)
I am not going to spend anytime with the big iron trying to get you to lie flat in the middle. If you have issues--you won't be in this quilt!" Then grab up a fat quarter and rotary cut it into small pieces and toss it in the trash for emphasis. KEEP SMILING WHILE YOU DUST OFF YOUR HANDS!
Step 2.
Bring in an already finished quilt to your studio and hold up your best pincushion. (My favorite is a red dotted chicken with a wood base I bought from the Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild.) Lay down the quilt and begin to sing a cheerful song (She'll be coming around the mountain is a nice song) Hold the pincushion in one hand and allow it to dance over the quilt. Let it leap and bound to the music and let the fat quarters see and hear how fun it is to be a quilt! Laugh and twirl ! Then say, "This is your life if you make a beautiful block with no issues.
Now it is up to the fat quarters! You will be surprised at how fast and easy your quilt will go to together when they know you mean business! No more of those edges pretending to be bias--no more lumpy centers. Hey--that fabric can pull together just as easily as it can pull apart. Motivation is the key.
posted by Mary Z. Cox/A Secret Life of Banjo | 9:01 PM
4 Comments:
This had me howling!! I love the "one of you will not make the cut" threat to the blocks! The W&G machine is great too! I've got one that was originally a treadle, and now is just a lowly little shelf topper with no base, no crank :c/ A girl can not have too many machines, even if they DO NOT WORK! :c)
Bonnie
Great post. I put a link to it on my site so others can learn your secrets of how to make blocks behave!
I love #'s 4 and 5! Buttonholes are always a pain and using the carrot with a threat of the stick for fat quarters sounds like reasonable psychology to me.
I do the same thing, I make an extra block because I am sure one of them isn't going to make it. As for the wayward child, he finds himself in my sampler quilt.
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