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.

A new quilt for the semester

Well it looks like I will be telling everyone how to put together a memory quilt as I make one this semester. About a year and a half ago my daughter lost her best friend, this young man also happened to be the next door neighbors grandson. I grew up with his mother and his uncle, when his grandmother returned from her yearly visit to Florida I asked her for pictures of the family so that I could make a special quilt for his mother. Over the weekend I received the pictures because she is getting ready to return to Florida, so now I can begin this quilt. Quilting with pictures means that you have to go and buy special material that will go through an ink jet printer. The next step is to prepare the pictures for printing,and then to print them onto this special fabric, which I will be starting to do this weekend.

Cutting out the pattern pieces

Cutting out the pattern pieces can be very time consuming if you don't have the correct equipment to begin. You need a sharp cutting instrument,(usually a rotary cutter, which is a round razor blade on a roller) an area large enough to cut your fabric, a few long clear rulers, and a large cutting mat to place the fabric on. The next thing to do is to choose your pattern, then choose your fabrics to be used in your quilt. Once you have youe pattern and your fabrics picked out you proceed to wash, dry and then iron your fabrics because this prevents any colors from bleeding the first time you wash your finished product it is also a good idea to do this to make sure that nothing shrinks either durring that first washing. After all of the precceding items have been finished you are finally ready to start to cut your pattern pieces out. Start laying your fabrics one at a time for beginers, and following your directions of the pattern start to cut your first fabric making sure that you cut the strip, square,rectangle,or triangle to the exact measurements of the pattern or your quilt top will be off.

Quilts can be very intricate or very simple depending on the size and the pattern that you choose I have made quilts that contain many small squares and triangles that were put together into blocks and then into rows and finally all together to make the center of the top and then adding the outer edges to finish off the top which when you put batting behind  and place the backing and finally put it together.

Quilting

Quilting can be very complicated or very easy depending on the pattern that I pick, the colors of the fabrics, the number of diffrent colors needed for each quilt and the amont of fabric needed from each color.  I enjoy quilting because it can be very interesting putting diffrent color combinations together, light and dark fabrics. I have been quilting for aproxamatly Twenty years and taught myself by reading books on the subject, and reading patterns about how to put them together.