Tag Archives: Review

Let the Holiday Hints Begin!

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It’s never too soon to start your holiday shopping, or holiday hinting! Here are a few of my favorite ideas.

Postcards: The Barack Obama Mini-Quilt Portrait Series. I was so happy to see this collection! I keep postcards on hand to write notes to friends and neighbors, and before I retired I used them to leave notes for colleagues as well. Available here. And I’m a big Obama fan, so these postcards hit the spot.

Photo courtesy of C&T

I didn’t know about the Social Justice Sewing Academy, so I’ll be following up on that.

Glue pen! This is a glue stick but of smaller diameter and therefore easier to use for holding seams in place.

A regular glue stick and a glue pen

I got an Avery glue pen for a class with Ann Holmes ages ago and still use it. If you don’t need something this small, the back-to-school sales always have glue sticks at a good price. Buy early for stocking stuffers!

Tote bag made from recycled water bottles. There are a lot of these available, and C&T has some printed with beautiful quilt motifs.

Photo courtesy of C&T

I use these for shopping and for transporting “stuff” to workshops and retreats. A friend recently started using them as wrapping when she gives a quilt as a gift. Available here.

4. IBC Silk Pins. These are the best. They are very thin and smooth, but strong enough to spring back when they bend a little going through fabric.

Photo courtesy of Hancocks-paducah.com

I used to buy them from Clotilde before that catalog disappeared. (IBC stood for “Imported by Clotilde”). They are now available from Hancock’s of Paducah (among other places), and since I buy my batting from Hancock’s it all works out!  Another good stocking stuffer for quilting friends, available here.

5. Spray mist bottle. I have two of these, one for water and one for Best Press. Although Best Press comes in an excellent spray bottle, the mist bottle is better at spreading the liquid evenly across the fabric when ironing. I love it! Available here.

6. Rolling storage. I’ve had a little rolling storage cart for years. It doesn’t seem very well made, but with the reinforcement my husband did it has held up quite well. Very convenient for storing notions and thread. The drawers are just the right size. Here’s a link to one like mine, but there are many variations. And be warned, the price varies a lot for identical products, so shop around.

7. Ergonomic rotary cutter.  I bought one of these for better control after cutting off a piece of my finger.

Photo courtesy of Connecting Threads

It’s also great for easing wrist and hand pain. Just be aware that changing the blade is different from what you’re used to. I love this rotary cutter! It comes in both left or right handed versions, available here.

8. Electric Quilt. This is not a small item price-wise, so all the more reason to request it as a special gift! I have used EQ to design quilts on my computer for years.

I used EQ to draw several possible layouts for my Tula Pink blocks

It’s easy to use and has many more features than I’ve ever learned. If you want to draw your own blocks, design your own quilts, or draw out quilts you see pictures of, this is an excellent program. Available here.

9. Gorgeous jigsaw puzzles. C&T recently put out a couple of 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles of Kaffe quilts. Beautiful! Available here.

Photos courtesy of C&T

10. Grippy. This is one of my favorite new products. At least, new to me. I’ve tried many different non-slip strategies for rulers and templates, and this is the best and most economical so far. After I tried it on one ruler, I just lined the others up on the porch and sprayed them all at once. It’s clear, it prevents slipping, and I still haven’t used up a whole can.

As always, the links above are for your convenience; I do not get paid if you buy from them. C&T provides products for me to review, but I put only my favorites in my blog.

 

 

Ironing Spray

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I’m a big fan of Mary Ellen’s Best Press because it does a great job of getting out wrinkles and smoothing fabric without leaving flakes like starch can do. I recently tried Flatter and found that it works just as well.

I’m also a fan of Pinterest and recently found a recipe for “Quilter’s Moonshine” ironing spray. The original post, by Joanne Hubbard, gives the recipe here.  So off I went to the liquor store to buy the cheapest vodka I could find.  I guess if your quilt isn’t turning out you can drink your ironing spray 😀

Another ingredient in the Quilter’s Moonshine is liquid starch, so I went looking for that, as well.  Not, of course, at the liquor store.  The only starch I’ve seen in years was in a pressurized spray can, but sure enough, there was actual liquid starch in a spray bottle at the grocery store.  They also had powdered starch that had to be mixed with water, but I passed on that.

To my surprise, I found another ironing spray right there on the shelf in the grocery store!  I’ve tried it now and it works really well.  My only objection is that it has a strong scent.  Not unpleasant, but not something I really want to smell all day, either.

Finally the ingredients were assembled!  The recipe makes over a gallon, so I cut it in half.  I used a funnel to get it into the best empty spray bottles I found around the house, and voila!  Ironing spray!  It worked just fine and the faint scent was not a problem.

So check out the link to Joanne Hubbard’s blog and give it a try!

 

An Unfortunate Event

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But luckily just the one, not a series.  Here goes…

I’ve said before that I enjoy Pinterest and I use it to save everything from quilt ideas to recipes.  I mostly ignore the ads, though I do note that they somehow have me pegged as needing plus size clothing, which is not the case, thanks!

I know there’s a lot of “profiling” going on at Pinterest as well as most other sites, but usually I don’t worry about it.  However: I recently found an idea I thought I’d blog about, so I started a Pinterest board labelled “blog”.

Oh. my. goodness.  Pinterest immediately sent me a bunch of suggested pins concerning how to “improve” my blog.  The first one I clicked on led to an obviously fake blog post (meaning this person doesn’t really have a blog, she’s just a front for an advertisement).  That was bad enough, but the product advertised is designed to “spam” Pinterest for you by posting your stuff several times a day with “no effort” on your part.  This is supposed to drive traffic to your blog, and it probably does.

Now I wonder how many people are using the strategy of spamming Pinterest to have their stuff put in front of me looking like a genuine pin, when really it is an ad?  I’m always cautious online, but this is ridiculous.

You’ve been warned.  And I’ll go back to blogging nice pictures of quilts next week.

Anybody had a similar experience with Pinterest?

Favorite Quilt Tools 2017

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There are lots of great tools on the market these days to make quilting easier.  Here are my three favorites of 2017.

(As always, please note that I receive no payment or product in exchange for these recommendations, and the links are provided only for your convenience.  I do not profit in any way from these opinions.)

Matilda’s Own rotating cutting mat.  I’ve actually had this for several years, since trying it at a retreat.  It’s great for trimming blocks because you just rotate the mat without having to move the block. The picture here is from Nancy’s Notions, where I found one of the best prices on this admittedly-expensive item.

rotary cutter review

Photo from Connecting Threads catalog

The Martelli ErgoCutter.  I’ve written before about how handy this item is.  After I cut off a piece of a finger with an ordinary rotary cutter a couple of years ago, it seemed worth looking for something safer.  I was not happy with the cutters that run on a groove along the ruler, so I kept looking until I found this item.

This cutter is, as the name suggests, designed for more ergonomically correct cutting, resulting in less strain on the hand and wrist.  And, because it is guided by the index finger over the front of the blade, it is less likely to get away from me.  It comes in right- and left-handed versions.  My only complaint is that the blade is slightly more difficult to change than in a traditional rotary cutter.

The Tucker Trimmer I.  I am not a big fan of buying every ruler on the market, but after seeing a friend using this one, I was sold.  It makes construction of accurate half square triangles, combination blocks, and hourglass blocks easy.  I use it with the rotating cutting mat to trim down these blocks, and it is a winner.

What are your favorite tools?

Straight Pins: A Brief Review

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I’ve used the same straight pins for years because they are smooth, sharp, and a little flexible, with glass heads that don’t melt if you happen to iron over them.  Pins are very important in quilting!  ( As always, I do NOT get payment or product for this review; I’m telling you about these pins because I use them.)

These pins used to come from the Clotilde catalog (IBC stands for “Imported by Clotilde”), but that business was sold to Annie’s Catalog a few years ago.

Recently when I ordered pins I noticed that Dritz also makes silk pins, and they were just a tad cheaper.  I decided to try them.  Here are both boxes of pins:

Those are the Dritz pins on the left, the IBC pins on the right.

The Dritz pins came in a nicer box than the pins from Annie’s.  They might even be better pins if I were sewing on thin, lightweight fabric.  However, they were thinner and even more flexible than the IBC pins, and that made them actually difficult to get through quilting cotton!

There is a larger IBC straight pin for quilting, 1-3/4 inches long!

I don’t like the size of these larger pins, but I expect that for some projects they would be better. For now, I’m sticking with my regular IBC pins.

Any other suggestions for great quilting straight pins?

 

Which Permanent Markers for Quilts?

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I’m making a quilt to be used as a wedding “guest registry” by a friend. It will be a “couch quilt” after the wedding, used for naps, watching TV, etc., so it will be washed. This led me to wonder what type pen the guests should use to sign.

Although a laundry pen would seem obvious, I ruled that out because it can be difficult to get it to move smoothly over fabric. That left Sharpies and Pigma pens as the primary contenders, and both are available in a variety of colors, which is nice.

pens for use on quilts

The Contenders

I’ve heard pros and cons regarding both, and when I asked a vendor at a show for suggestions, she expressed shock that I might use a Sharpie.  I have to admit that I had doubts when I first read Mark Lipinski’s remark about using Sharpies to “fix” a quilt, years ago.  However, I’ve tried them since and they’ve worked out fine.  Mind you, I’m not concerned about archival quality, I’m concerned about the ease of use of the pen and how well the signatures will hold up to washing.

Since I had both types of pen on hand, I made a couple of little quilt sandwiches, one with poly batting and one with cotton batting.  I was concerned that either or both types of batting might absorb the ink and transfer it to the other side.

Permanent marker for quilt

After Washing and Drying

Yes, these are the “after” pictures.  Both inks were essentially unchanged after washing and drying in cold water on the delicate cycle.  The pigma pen had a broader tip, so the mark showed up better both before and after washing.  Neither pen bled significantly during writing, and neither soaked through the batting into the backing.

Because Sharpies are easier to find, I’ll probably use those for guests to sign the quilt. And I’ll show the quilt to be used as a guest registry in a later post.

Anybody out there have suggestions for permanent markers to be used on quilts?

Review: Annie’s Soft and Stable

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A while back a bag pattern called for “foam interfacing” and I had NO IDEA what that was. Luckily, the folks at my local quilt shop DID know!  They sold me Annie’s Soft and Stable and it has worked out very well!

Quilted Adventure

Roxie bag made as part of Quilted Adventure online retreat

The bag above was the one that initially required foam interfacing.  I used the foam interfacing again recently, when I made a new version of the Market Tote from Bijou Lovely.

Kraft-Tex for bags

Finished Bird Bag

It worked just as well on the larger bag as it had on the smaller one.  It gives the bag lots of structure with little weight.

The very BEST part was making handles with foam interfacing rather than the usual turn-the-tube method!  I just cut strips of foam interfacing, wrapped them with fabric (turning under the last edge), and sewed three straight lines–one down the middle of the handle to close the fabric and one about 1/4″ from each edge of the handle as decorative top-stitching.  It made comfortable, sturdy handles for the bag. Definitely making handles that way in the future!

There are several other brands of foam interfacing, including a couple (from the reliable Pellon company) that are fusible.  It also comes in more than one thickness.  I haven’t really tried any of the other brands, but this one worked out well.

A Few Studio Upgrades

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I have a great quilt studio with natural light and plenty of storage, but of course there’s always room for improvement!  For starters, I was given a robot vacuum cleaner for Christmas!

It runs on Friday mornings while I quilt, and I’ve pretty well learned what I need to block off or get out of the way so that it runs without glitches.  It’s great to have “somebody else” cleaning the floor while I sew 🙂

A while back, I got tired of having my main rulers “lost” on the cutting table all the time. You probably know what I mean–always under the fabric, looking for the big one but find the little one, etc.  I didn’t want one of those ruler racks taking up space on my table, so I finally settled on attaching hooks to the sides of the table.

quilt studio hacks

Hanging rulers from the side of the cutting table means I can always find them

The hooks have worked out well!  For some reason, the manufacturer (these are Command hooks) thinks the hooks need to flip up and down, so they have tape over the part that would flip.  However, they seem to stick to the table just fine, and now I always know where to find my rulers!

My final “upgrade” is a new rotary cutter.  I’ve been looking at the Martelli Ergo cutter for some time, wondering if it really is easier on the hands and wrists.  Finally, one of my friends bought one and confirmed that it really does make cutting easier.  She is left-handed, so was especially glad that it comes in a design specifically for lefties.

Photo from Connecting Threads catalog
Photo from Amazon.com

I bought one of my own, and II agree that this is much easier to use than any of my standard rotary cutters. It makes for less strain on (aging???) joints and better control while cutting.  I can recommend this cutter without reservation.

What’s new in your studio?

 

Review: Karen Combs Teaching Tumbling Blocks

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Karen Combs‘ Tumbling Blocks class, which I took at AQS-Chattanooga in September, was one of the best quilt classes I’ve ever taken. Of course, “tumbling blocks” is a traditional design, but I always like a challenge.

Tumbling Blocks

Tumbling Blocks, made in class with Karen Combs

Karen is so well organized and clear that I had 4 blocks made by the end of class and had started on the background! Her method for the Y-seams was so well explained that there is no need to even consider the “cheater” tumbling blocks made with half square triangles.

One of the “secrets” to making this block easy is to buy ombre fabric that varies from dark to light in the same color, so you don’t have to hunt down 3 values of the same color individually!  Of particular note, Karen showed us how to use a standard quilting ruler to cut the blocks–NO SPECIAL RULER REQUIRED!  I think this is notable in a field where so many teachers are selling their own rulers, which are then needed for the way they teach a class.Karen Combs class review

Karen’s class sample is a table runner, which probably does show off the blocks a little better than placemats. But I have more table runners than I can use, so placemats it is.

The quilting is done to emphasize the 3-dimensional aspect of the blocks, so I imitated what Karen had done.  The background is quilted with random loops.Quilting Tumbling Blocks

I’m pleased with this project, and I certainly recommend you take Karen’s class if you have the chance!

Review: Kraft-Tex for Bags

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I’ve had my eye on Kraft-Tex for some time. It’s a paper product made by C&T

Kraft-Tex review

Kraft-Tex, made by C&T but sold many places

and advertised to sew and wash like fabric but look like leather.  As I’ve probably said before, I’ll try almost anything once 🙂  (And just for the record, I purchased the material used for this project and this review is entirely my own opinion.)

I decided to use Kraft-Tex as the bottom of a tote bag.  There was a helpful video on You Tube (of course!) showing how to use it and showing what it looked like both washed and unwashed.  Because I didn’t want to wash the drapery fabric I was using for the bag, I didn’t wash the Kraft-Tex.

The Kraft-Tex was very stiff right out of the package, so I wadded it up hoping to soften it a little before folding it to make the bag bottom.  I didn’t really need to do that; it folded and sewed very nicely.  It remained extremely stiff but was not at all difficult to stitch with my Bernina, even when it came to sewing through 4 layers as I boxed the bottom of the bag.

Kraft-Tex review

Tote bag made with Kraft-Tex for the bottom section

When I got it all put together it provided a nice substantial bottom for the bag, as I had hoped.  It did not even THINK about tearing like paper when I was working with it. However, I really think it LOOKS like a brown paper bag rather than “like leather” as advertised.  Maybe that’s just because I used it to make a bag.  As you can see from this detail, it did stitch very nicely.

Kraft-Tex bag

Detail of Kraft-Tex and Drapery Fabric Bag

However, the claim that Kraft-Tex “handles like fabric” was absolutely untrue!  It was so stiff that I decided to wash what remained along with the rest of the drapery fabric.  Both washed and dried well on gentle cycle, and the Kraft-Tex was slightly softer after washing. It didn’t handle any more like fabric, though–turning that stiff outer bag through the opening left in the lining for that purpose was “challenging”!

Here’s the second bag, made with washed Kraft-Tex.  Sure enough, it looks the same after washing.  I quilted the upper part of the bag, which gave it more substance than the previous one, so it went better with the stiff Kraft-Tex bottom.

Kraft-Tex review

Bag made after washing the Kraft-Tex and fabric

The pattern I used for this bag was free at Bijou Lovely and was very well written and illustrated.  I’ll probably make the bag again, but I’ll find another use for the Kraft-Tex!