Joan at Leschenault: FMQ and playing

Joan at Leschenault: FMQ and playing, Joan this is Liz from Dragons

Sorry guys...

With finals coming up I have been swamped with extra work and extra hours at my co-op job, so I haven't had time to work on my quilts or anything else. Right now I have to gear up for Christmas and start making choclates and other candy for christmas bake sales and for my Christmas gifts. When Christmas comes everythin gets put aside and the small crock pots come out to melt chocolate because I am mass producing chocolate covered ribbon candy, chocolate tipped pretzles, and choclotae lolipops. They will be offered at a bake sale on December 15 for the Unity club. Unfortunately this blog has gotten left behind at times, so please forgive me and hopefull I will be able to send a few more before the end of the semester.

Its been a while

Sorry guys its been a while since I've been back but due to physical issues I hope you will all forgive me. I haven't been able to get to the fabric store due to not being able to walk very well the last few weeks, but I am starting to feel much better. With Thanksgiving and the end of the semester rolling around soon I will not have much time to sew or even think about it so if I am a little lax in the blogging department please forgive m. I did some more research on a color scheme for my memory quilt and found out that this person doesn't have an especially favorite color she likes them all. I am thinking that I may have bitten off more than I can chew if you know what I mean.

picking out the colors

If you are making a quilt for a special occasion, or for someone in particular you really need to do a little research. Color schemes are good if you know  the person you are making the special quilt or item for and you want to personalize it. I will be using three diffrent colors for this quilt. I am probably going to use Black, White, and Blue, but I am not sure what shade or shades of blue to use yet I still have to think on this alittle while longer. I have to go to the fabric store and start looking around to see what colors I can find. When I find the perfect fabrics, you guys will be the first people to know.

Picking out the fabrics

If you are making a quilt for someone special, you try to make sure that you use colors the person likes for example there favorite color or a color that represents a special moment or moments.In the case of this memory quilt I will be using colors that were my friends favorite colors and thier son's favorite color. I have to do a little more investigating into the color scheme. While I was printing my pictures last weekend the printer I was using decided to give me a hard time so there are some pictures in black and white and the rest in color. I have never worked with black and white pictures before but I believe that they came out even more beautiful than the color pictures. So the next step in this quilt is to start picking out the fabircs which is something that I hope to be able to deo this weekend.

printing pictures

I went to Joann's fabrics,and purchased the special fabric for the quilt. I scanned the pictures,and printed them onto the fabric.You then pull the backing off of the pictures, after they have dried for ten minutes. After taking the back off the picture,the next step in the process is to iron the picture. After removing the backing, and ironing the next step is to rinse the pictures in cold water. After rinsing the pictures in cold water you then lay them flat to dry, and the next step is to gently dab the pictures with a paper towel to absorb any excess moisture. After all of these processes are done there are only two left you have to iron the fabric angain to make sure that all of the moisture is comletely out, and finally you can sew the picture into your project. The rinsing and final ironing are to make sure that your photo is colorfast, but always follow the maunfaturers directions on whatever packages you pick up because the can be diffrent.

buying the fabric

We will be starting at Joann's fabric's,and at the store I will be purchasing specialty fabric. This special fabric only comes in letter size pieces, and that is because it has to go through an ink jet printer. The next step will be to purchase distilled water, and then to return home to begin the process of printing the pictures onto the fabric.