"Drat", says newbie...

On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:38:06 -0400, "Jean B." wrote:

Jean there is, ME, I have yet to cut my first square or sew one
either, just getting ready. But I can't wait, seems I keep getting set
backs though. I have yet to go to bed, I am a diabetic and one of our
chat members died and we have all been up all night worried and upset.

Jacqueline

Oh, thank you for the link, and the suggestions re easy
quilts. I was also thinking it would be wise to start
small.... Gee, I have to put together ... a square.... Are
there other total newbies here?

Jacqueline
http://www.mountain-breeze.com
Recipes and other fun things

Jacqueline wrote:

I too, would like to say welcome, even though I am a newbie myself. I
have not sewn the first square together but am trying to get ready to
do so. I can't wait this is something I have always wanted to do and
I am going to do it even if it kills me. Well, I don't think it will
kill me but I am going to do it.

Again, Welcome,

Jacqueline


I have been reading your posts, and the responses to you--but
then my pea brain forgot whether you were a total newbie or
someone who used to quilt. Maybe we can be friends and share
our newbie woes! :-)

--
Jean B.

On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:41:20 -0400, "Jean B." wrote:

Jean, I collect cookbooks, too and have over 2000 of them, Gosh, now I
am collecting quilt books, I am for sure running out of room. I too
am going to take over part of our living room and probably kitchen
too.

Sounds like we have a lot in common.

Jacqueline
Eeek! I already collect cookbooks and am being run out of
house and home by them. I think I need to get organized....
How many of you have good spaces to quilt in? I don't have an
extra room, alas, and am planning on commandeering part of the
livingroom.

I'm going to have to save all of these great suggestions
(alluding to yours and those from others). Thanks!

Jacqueline
http://www.mountain-breeze.com
Recipes and other fun things

Cats wrote:

Hi from OZ (Australia) Jean

I started out to make a Cathedral Window quilt from a
magazine article that showed ONE cathedral window panel
about 16" square made up as a cushion. I - in blissful
ignorance - assumed that I could reduce the block, pad the
inserts and make a quilt the size of a KS bedspread in just
a couple of weekends.

Over 30years on I still have the unfinished quilt with me.
It has travelled all over the country and I kept it to teach
myself to "look before I leap" (It didn't work LOL). I
chose a very small scale to work on, bought polyester fabric
in a very dark colour (hard to work at night) and never
factored the extra work involved in making over 240 tiny
little cushions for inserts ROFLMAO

My advice to any newbie would be - start small and simple
with good quality fabrics (cotton preferably), batting and
threads - and finish it! Learn the basics and all the
"rules" - which you can then disregard at will of course,
but at least not thru ignorance.

Welcome to the wonderful world of quilting.

Oh, too funny, and I will try to take your cautionary tale to
heart. I assume there is info re thread in the FAQ--or I can
google and find, er, threads on it.

Of course, I will have to restrain myself if I stick to
cotton. I am already imagining some shiny fabric (not
totally) to go with a theme in my bedroom....

I am lucky enough to live near Joanne's and another much
larger fabric store. There also is a hobby store near here
that has quite a large needlework section, some of which may
be relevant....

--
Jean B.

Patti wrote:

Welcome, Jean.
The bad news - it's incurable.
The good news - it's life enhancing and most enjoyable (though it can be
frustrating!)

As to a crazy quilt:
I honestly wouldn't suggest that you do one for your first quilt -
unless you are 'vowed and determined' to do so! The techniques are so
different from the vast majority of quilts that you might do.
Also, I would suggest that you start with something smaller than a
bed-sized quilt. If you make something useful - like place mats and/or
a table runner, you will be learning 'how to do' without having most of
the snags of weight and sheer size. And, if you were sure you wanted to
do 'crazy', these would be manageable.
With Christmas not *too* far away, perhaps a Christmas set of mats and
runner would be fun. If you didn't manage it by *this* Christmas,
there's always another one round the corner g.

Check out 'crazy quilt' on Google- Images to see examples. There will
be hundreds!

By the way, there's plenty info about dyeing over the years. You could
use that as a keyword and have a look in Google - Groups -
rec.crafts.textiles.quilting.

All the best,
.
In message , Jean B. writes

All I can say right now is "drat"! I came here looking for ideas for
surface design and dyeing, and now I (person who has always loathed
sewing) want to make a quilt! You must be contageous or something....

I am also thinking I want to do something by hand first.... Are crazy
quilts the easiest? Any good links for total newbies? Hmmmm. I'd
better go look at the FAQ if there is one. I have been looking at eye
candy--and at more practical things like about.quilting....

I don't know whether to close with a smile or a frown. Time will
tell....


Good ideas. Yes, I think it would be wise to start small--or
I'll just totally intimidate myself. Maybe the crazy quit
idea wasn't a good one. It seemed like it might be simpler,
but maybe not.

--
Jean B.

Debra wrote:

On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 20:31:58 -0400, "Jean B." wrote:


All I can say right now is "drat"! I came here looking for
ideas for surface design and dyeing, and now I (person who has
always loathed sewing) want to make a quilt! You must be
contageous or something....


Yes, we are very contagious. I came looking for the name of a block,
now I make quilts.


I am also thinking I want to do something by hand first....
Are crazy quilts the easiest?


That depends. Do you feel you need a pattern, or would you like to
fly by the seat of your pants and make it up as you go along? Although
there are crazy patch patterns online, they aren't the way traditional
crazy patches were made. Crazy quilting is a very free form kind of
thing. Cut up some scraps in various colors, put them in a bag or bin
and mix them together, cut paper or muslin for a background the size
you want your block to be, sew the fabric scraps to the background
until the background is covered, trim the edges of the block and you
are done with you first block. You might want to add surface
embroidery stitches over the edges of all the seams of the block and
that can be done by hand or machine.

Another easy by hand block type is applique. There are a lot of
applique block patterns online covering almost every possible theme
from alligators to zinnia flowers. An easy butterfly pattern is on
this web page: http://quiltmaker.com/patterns/patt189/


Any good links for total
newbies?


Some quilt blocks he
http://www.quilterscache.com/QuiltBlocksGalore.html
http://www.quiltbus.com/quiltblocks.htm
http://www.quiltbus.com/QuiltBlocksII.htm

quilting links to explore
http://www.quilterscache.com/QuiltBlocksGalore.html

cats and quilts here, including how to pet-proof your sewing space
http://www.catswhoquilt.com/patterns.html


Hmmmm. I'd better go look at the FAQ if there is
one.


Our FAQ is posted once a month, unfortunately I don't have a link to
the online site.


I have been looking at eye candy--and at more practical
things like about.quilting....


I don't know whether to close with a smile or a frown. Time
will tell....


Pick a small project first. A table runner or placemats, baby quilt,
lap quilt, or a simple wall hanging will be big enough that you can
decide if you enjoy quilting while being small enough that you can
finish the project fairly quickly. You could even make a four block
sampler with each block made using a different method to find which
technique you enjoy doing the most; crazy patch, applique, traditional
piecing, and paper piecing.

My first two projects were simple and I've included a link to the
webshots pictures in my signature line if you would like to see them.
The wall hanging was machine strip pieced with an applique boat added
to it. The applique and quilting were done by hand.

Debra in VA
See my quilts at
http://community.webshots.com/user/debplayshere

Hmmm. I had not heard of applique. Wow! Your first efforts
came out well. It's hard for me to see how much sewing they
involved though. Maybe less is good at first?

--
Jean B.

Georg wrote:

Jean B. wrote:

All I can say right now is "drat"! I came here looking for ideas for
surface design and dyeing, and now I (person who has always loathed
sewing) want to make a quilt! You must be contageous or something....

I am also thinking I want to do something by hand first.... Are crazy
quilts the easiest? Any good links for total newbies? Hmmmm. I'd
better go look at the FAQ if there is one. I have been looking at eye
candy--and at more practical things like about.quilting....

I don't know whether to close with a smile or a frown. Time will
tell....


Easy depends on what you like to do. How natural is embroidery for you?
Crazy quilts have fabric tossed on willy-nilly and embroidered over and
decorated. If this style is wonderful for your frame of reference of
what you like to do, well jump in!

If your focus is "surface design", think about the fabric of a quilt as
yet another surface to design. You can fold the fabrics like paper, add
textures with rips of fabric, beads, embroidery, and if you don't want
to wash the finished piece, glue or attach other items. Weave fabric
strips (with finished edges or no). Tie knots in strips. But remember,
the heavier the stuff you put on the front, the sturdier the backing
will need to be/heavily quilted or other stabilizer. You can also do
prairie points or other textural fabric techniques.

Think about purpose of the finished object- for the wall as Art, or a
lap quilt. Do you want to snuggle into it or have a picnic on it? These
answers will affect your finished quilt.

You may even like the textured surface of a Cathedral Windows quilt.

-georg

Thanks, georg. I guess eventually the quilts would have
different purposes, so I'll have to ponder what that dictates
for each of them. One thing's for sure though: anything I
produce should not be ultra-attractive to cats....

--
Jean B.

Roberta Zollner wrote:

Welcome Jean! You can keep on dyeing, makes for great quilts. Would be
interesting to use hand-dyes in a crazy quilt... Ever hand-dye velvets or
other textured fabric?

I've only done crazies on the machine, so can't answer your question. They
were super-easy on the machine though. I do one now and then to cull the
scrap basket.
Roberta in D, Queen of the Scrap Heap

I am just going to start dyeing. God only knows what I'll
come up with. Transferring images to cloth also looks
interesting. I haven't tried some of the techniques I've seen
online though--like using Citrisolve (sp?) or Bondex. Also,
since I was originally thinking of shirts, which I still want
to do, I haven't really looked at the fabric one can print on,
so I don't know whether it's an appropriate size or
composition for quilting.

Oh yes, I should add that one idea I've had in the back of my
mind for a long time was to make a quilt from my old t-shirts....
--
Jean B.

julia sidebottom wrote:

Welcome aboard! There is a lot for all of us to learn and fun to be had.
julia


Well, since I responded to virtually everyone, I thank you too!

--
Jean B.

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. wrote:

Jean-

Welcome to your new obsession/passion/addiction!

This link will get you to *everything* you ever wanted to know about
quilting and then some. Plan to spend an afternoon (or longer!)
checking out all the info on this website...

http://www.victorianaquiltdesigns.ne...inePiecing.htm

Good luck, have fun, and hang around here. We'll always answer any
question- and debate the merits- any time you need some info! ;-)

And WELCOME to r.c.t.q.!!!

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.


Thanks, Leslie! BTW, your name is familiar--maybe from a cat
group?

--
Jean B.