Tuesday, April 8

Retreating Soon!

My annual Quilt Club retreat is this weekend - Yipeee!! I couldn't be more ready for a relaxing LONG weekend full of great friends, fabric, stitching, delicious food and NO little people (did I say that out loud?) This is our 6th retreat of our 8 years quilting together. This year I hope to get my Chinese Coins quilt marked (I've decided on circles), sandwiched and to complete a significant portion of the hand quilting. I also plan on constructing the binding for this quilt, it will be a pieced, scrappy looking binding.

Speaking of marking a quilt top, my friend Carolyn sent me this great marking tip. Marking the top is my LEAST favorite part of the quilting process. I've used washable pencil, pen and also tape. I've had various problems with each. Here is what Carolyn suggests:

In the past few months, my life has been completely changed by a product designed for children (or, I should say, their parents). For years, my least favorite part of the whole quilt-making process was marking (and re-marking) my quilt top for quilting. The blue marker doesn't show up on dark fabrics. The white pencil constantly needs sharpening and breaks in the sharpener. And both are apt to fade with the excessive handling I put all my quilts through. These are no longer problems for me now that I spent $3 on a set of fine tipped Crayola washable markers. With a set of 8 colors to choose from, I can pick a marker color that will stand out against all the colors in my quilt. I used purple marker on my olive and orange North Wind quilt, for example. The color goes on in a strong but thin line that doesn't falter, and better yet, it stays until I'm done with it. It does not come out during a quick dash through a snow storm, nor with sweaty hands or a humid setting. Yet all of the colors I've tried (including purple, red, orange, and green) come out completely in the wash. Hallelujah!

A quilting detail from Carolyn's North Wind quilt.

p.s. Can anyone tell me why my second paragraph insists on being smaller and scrunched? I've spent almost 20 minutes trying to fix it. grrrrr.

4 comments:

Lisa said...

Have a very wonderful and relaxing retreat weekend!!!

Dawn said...

The problem with the 2nd paragraph is actually probably a problem with the third paragraph, which I'm guessing was copied and pasted from another blog? I don't know how to fix it from here, but that's probably where the weirdness came from. :)

katy said...

ah, dawn always IT help when I need it (always). Copied it from email - hmmmm. too lazy to retype it all, may just work on acceptance. :)

Woven Chains said...

I so can't wait to see the finished Chinese Coins quilt. For some strange reason, in my head, I have taken on a weird sort of attachment to this quilt (in a very healthy, benign way). I think it has something to do with loaning you the books. I sure know I haven't enjoyed watching a quilt go together this much in a really long time!

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