Tuesday evening our Guild held it’s annual dinner and we were  treated to a presentation by Barb Robinson.  Barb’s trunk show features many of her beautiful quilts.  In addition she gave us a handout noting her favorite tools, batting, fabric and tips for rotary cutting, piecing and pressing.

One of the quilts in the trunk show features her hand-dyed fabrics.  These were pieced  into 9-patch blocks and then put together with strips of a bold tulip fabric.   Quite a dramatic Quilt!

In addition I was interested in the stitch and thread she uses when  machine appliqueing.  The small zig-zag stitch and invisible thread looks like the perfect way to almost invisibly attach the applique pieces  to a background.

It gave me a good preview of this technique.  I’m thinking that I may finish my autumn leaves quilt the same way.

One of her many tips was how she washes fabric.  I always wash my fabric before it is stored away.  I just like the feel of the fabric after the sizing has been removed.

I’ve always thought that fabric should washed the same way it will be washed when the quilt is finished.  Instead Barb suggests that you run fabric through the a warm rinse cycle only, adding  a Shout Color Catcher with the fabric.  The will ensure that the fabric shrinks and bleeds thoroughly.  In addition, she suggests that you only dry the fabric until it is almost dry; not crisp dry.   This will eliminate the need for ironing.  The material can then be folded and put away.  Sounds like a good idea to me!

There's always time to quilt!

This weekend I worked on a sample block for our guild’s 2011 raffle quilt.  The pattern is Granny Stars, designed by Nancy Mahoney and was featured in the July 2009 issue of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting.

I’ve separated the sections of the block so that members can either choose from the easier corner square unit or the intermediate star piecing units.  Each member working on the quilt will made 2 sections.  In addition, the quilt borders will be hand appliqued.  All in all it should give everyone in the group the opportunity to use the quilt technique they enjoy the most.

I decided to make a sample block and am really pleased with the pattern.  I cut the squares used for the star points a 1/4-inch larger than called for in the pattern.  I’m hoping that when the oversize triangles  are trimmed to size,  the result will be perfectly sharp star points.

There's always time to quilt!