tips and tricks – Amherst Quilters Guild

simple suggestions for making life easier

August 19, 2016

back to school supplies

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Many of us who have been quilting for awhile now have a selection of quilting supplies that have been taken from other parts of the house and repurposed for quilting. This helps to save money to use on purchasing fabric instead of purchasing high priced gadgets. Now don’t get me wrong…I love me some good gadgets but many times the old timey things actually work as well or better. For example, I use quadrille graph paper for measuring and trimming triangle points. There are two plastic templates on the market which are sold for the purpose of aligning triangle (or other shapes too) pieces which have to be offset for stitching. They cost about $10 a piece (which is equivalent to about a yard of fabric). I’d rather use my ten bucks on the fabric and stick with my 1¢ piece of graph paper for […]

March 14, 2016

X marks the spot

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. When groups of quilters get chatting about their art, the conversation will often come around to favorite methods for marking. Chalks? pens? pencils? markers? Do the marks come out?… Mark Lipinski, an infamous quilting male, has done a series of tests on an assortment of marking tools and has posted his results at his facebook page. I like the way he structured his testing, and found the results interesting. If marking your quilts is a bugaboo for you, you might be interested in what he has found. Click here. I like crayola products when I absolutely must mark on the fabric. I generally try to avoid having to mark in areas that will be seen, because of the lack of confidence in being able to totally remove the markings later on. I must say though that I have done some “severe” marking with Crayola washable […]

February 11, 2016

cleaning up

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I took the opportunity today to throw a few quilts in the wash. I have some scrappy quilts, certainly not heirlooms, that I usually have on my couches to protect them from my dog. He likes to get comfortable wherever the sun in pouring in on his back. The quilts collect dirty paw prints and lots of hair (maybe I should join the weaver’s guild to learn how to spin his very prolific hair into a usable yarn? No, I don’t think so. That’s just a little too weird, although I have read about it on the internet. A very reliable information source…Not!) When I wash those couch quilts I just toss them in with towels, cool water, regular detergent and away we go. They go into the dryer along with the towels. In the summertime I take them out after a few minutes and […]

March 9, 2015

in a bind?

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I don’t know about you, but hand stitching a quilt’s binding to the back is not my idea of a good time. I know there are quilters who love that, for a variety of reasons. Stitching in front of the tv is a relaxing time, the end of the quilt is in sight, love to hand stitch are a few I’ve been told. Only very special “heirloom” quilts get a hand stitched binding from me. Although I do it well, I’d rather take the faster machine stitched route on most of my quilts. Most my quilts are going to be used, (hopefully not abused), and will be going in and out of the washer and dryer. I’d rather use a decorative stitch to make it a bit more fun and snazzy and “git ‘er done”. Here’s a new technique, new to me anyway, that might […]

March 1, 2015

In Dublin’s fair city, where the quilts are so pretty…

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Apologies to all you Irish purists out there. I know those aren’t the right words but I hope you’ll allow me a bit of license. Are you switching out your hearts and flowers and reds and pinks to greens today (or soon anyway)? I have only a few quilted pieces for St. Patrick’s Day and am thinking I should put together one or two small toppers for the special day. Here’s a link to some ideas, in case you have a similar dilemma. Click here. I think I’m going to round up some green scraps and try out that shamrock with four patch leaves. It should be quick and easy. What’s your favorite technique for 4 patches? When I only need a few, and I want them to be scrappy, I like to use the two from two technique I learned from Billie Lauder […]

February 14, 2015

Ya Gotta Have Heart

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Happy Valentine’s Day. With this weather it’s a great day to sit inside and quilt. I’ve done a little search for some heart quilts that could be quick and easy-although you probably won’t get them done today for this year’s holiday, they could be easily finished in time for some other occasion needing heartfelt wishes. log cabin heart (only 12 blocks): click here hearts and chevrons (uses only half square triangles and snowball corners, can easily reduce the number of each needed for a smaller quilt): click here pieced heart block (this is a 12″ block pattern, you can make just one for a small table mat or several for a baby quilt or more): click here Since we’re a bit of the way through February, those of us participating in the gifting challenge quilt-a-long should be on our 2nd quilty gift project. How are […]

January 22, 2015

Signing your work

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Do you label or sign your quilts when you finish them? I generally do except for table runners and toppers. I’m finding more and more when I change the “quilts” for the seasons or holidays that I like to look on the back to check when I made the piece. I’m often surprised-sometimes by how old the piece is and sometimes the reverse, by how recently I made it. I’m just checking for dates. I do hope that all of my pieces will find good homes after I’m gone. What would those owners want to know when enjoying my quilted art works? Maybe I should be including more information. Isn’t it fun when examining an antique quilt to find the quilters name and date somewhere-even more fun if it tells where and why it was made? We should be adding those little surprises to our […]

January 4, 2015

quilting the new year-2015 gifting challenge

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I’m hoping that tomorrow will begin a return to normalcy around here. The holiday goodies are all gone-either eaten or discarded. The plan to get rid of excess avoirdupois is in place. The holiday quilts and decorations are coming down and being laundered a few at a time. That chore should be complete by the end of the week. I’m ready to begin my new quilting-for-fun projects. How about you? Quilting for holiday gifting loses its charm after the 10th project or so. Part of my plan for this year is to spread those “gifty” projects throughout the year. I say we set a challenge for ourselves. Let’s complete one gift project per month through the year and report back here. In that gift project, try to incorporate something that will make it fun for you. I’ll remind us at the end of each month. […]

November 11, 2014

What are your values?

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. What a beautiful morning we have today! The first canine perambulation of the day was so refreshing! Both of us enjoyed meeting some of the neighbors out walking too, since many of them are working today due to the holiday. I’ve been playing with a new computer program (EQ7 is new to me and my Mac) which makes it so easy to move the placement of values in a quilt block. I once heard a big name quilter (can’t recall exactly which one though!) say that “value does all the work, but color gets all the credit!”. Definitely is true. Here’s a link to a short video (click here) which makes this point so well. I think a fun challenge for our guild might be to choose a block, give just a line drawing to participants, and see what everyone does with it. If we […]

October 30, 2014

Don’t hurt yourself!

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I’m sure if you’re more than a rank beginner to quilting, you know that quilting does use a lot of muscles. It’s not difficult to make your body tired and sometimes sore after an extended period of any of the processes involved in producing a quilt. We had a speaker at a guild meeting not long ago who gave some tips, but perhaps you weren’t at that meeting or you would like a review. Check out this video. Tips are given for finding more comfort or less strain in each step along the way, starting from cutting the fabric all the way to the hand stitching of the binding. If you are an embroiderer the hand stitching tips and the stretches suggested would be helpful for you as well. Have you got your project ready to work on in between tomorrow night’s trick or treaters?