Art Quilt/Fusing-Piecing Quilting Tutorial

This is the second installment of our November meeting.  The above two pictures are the samples that Kelly Kroon brought to show us how fusible qulting is done.  This is a fun, fast, and easy technique that is perfect for art quilts and would be wonderful for kids.  Kelly learned much of this technique from the book Fuse And Tell Journal Quilts by Laura Wasilowski. 

   Fuse a sheet of Fusible, like Heat and Bond Lite in this case to the back of all of the pieces of fabrics that you will be using.  This is before you cut anything out.  After it has cooled remove the paper on the back and KEEP it for a pressing sheet.

This demonstration was of a wompy log cabin block.  Put your first piece down on the saved paper backing pressing sheet.

Press it to the pressing sheet.

 Add your next piece and overlap just slightly (maybe 1/8 inch).  Press to the paper pressing sheet.  Cut off anything you don't want.  Continue adding pieces.

Keep going until you have your desired block, which in this case was 6 inches.

Fuse onto a square of fabric.  Fuse this onto batting.  Fuse a backing piece on.  She even used a fused raw-edged binding in one of the first two pictures to bind her art quilt. Kelly cut her binding with one of the fancy wavy rotary blades, and it was very cute.  It was then machine quilted, and the pieces were permanently kept in place by the quilting process.

Some helpful tips: 

1.  Titanium needles gum up less than other needles

2.  Batiks don't always fuse well.  Test your fabrics.

3.  Laura Wasilowski's blocks have many cute ideas for this technique, from arty to traditional. 

4.  This would be a great beginning project to get a child interested in quilting.

5.  This would be a fun way to make greeting cards.  Fuse to Cardstock.

6.  Kelly used the floss holder box to organize her fused scraps in the picture below for future projects.

As you can see from the last post and this one, we had a really great meeting.  Many people can't see the work that goes into putting on a demonstration or class like this.  I just want to thank Kelly Kroon for putting a wonderful meeting together and this demonstration and also Lynn Butler for her demonstration on the hexagon stars.

Next post will be show and tell, so come back in a few days to see what the girls have been making.  We had some wonderful projects shown this month.

Debbie

As an addendum, the following is a copy of a comment we received from Laura Wasilowski in the comment section below.  Thank you Laura for additional tips to this very fun technique:

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for using my book, Fusing Fun, for a tutorial on fusing!

I have a few tips for you when using this book. Wonder Under #805 is the brand of fusible web I use. It will not gum up your needle when stitching. Remember, you always have to steam set the fused quilt top to the non-scrim side of batt before stitching first. Then the hand or machine needle will glide through like stitching in butter. (not that I've ever stitched butter, but you get the idea.)

Have fun!

Laura Wasilowski

Hexagon Star Tutorial - November Meeting

As I promised you, I would try to get pictures of the technique Lynn Butler was going to demonstrate, namely this beautiful quilt.  It is a technique I have never seen before and is great for travel, as it is totally made by hand and quilted as you go.  I love that.  The blue quilt below is very scrappy and a good way of using up mountains of scraps, a real stashbuster.

 I am not sure of the name of this quilt, as I am waiting for Lynn to get back to me with the details of the name and where you can find this pattern.  It is from a magazine, so I couldn't print the pattern templates, but they look easy enough to draft.

 Here is the first of two templates.  This is the back of the fabric.

Here is the second of the two templates.  It is already fused with fusible batting on the back.  On this version of this quilt Lynn fussy cut her hexagons. 

 Back of template #2 - The fused batting side

Next step - Lay the batting-fused hexagon (batting side down) on the wrong side of other piece.

Next step - Needle turn under the edges of the daisy like piece onto the hexagon.  To me this looked like the hardest part of this quilt due to the curves of the nonhexagon piece.  Several of us thought it would look very nice if you squared those curves and much easier to work on.  My idea is to cut a hexagon 1/2 inch larger on all sides instead of the flower-like piece and then fold it over with the needle turn or stitch it down with your machine if you don't like hand work.

Here are four finished blocks - VERY Cute

Then you whip stitch the blocks together just like a grandmother's flower garden.  The reverse side was very cute too.  There are two plus sides to this pattern: First, you can do it anywhere and take small amounts with you in your purse.  Second, it is all quilted and done at the end of sewing the blocks together. 

Please come back for the rest of the information on name of quilt and magazine issue it was from if you are interested in that.  I will add it to this post as soon as I get it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

These are the beautiful birthday girls for this month.  From left to right:  Bea Statz, Delores Ellingson, Jane Weiss, and Mary Baumgarten.  Not pictured LaVonne.  Happy birthday girls, and may you quilt all your lives.  Thanks for the awesome treats too!  I hope you can see by just looking at them just how fun they are.  Love these girls!

For the rest of the meeting you will have to come back.  I will be posting another tutorial from Kelly Kroon on fusible piecing.  She demonstrated a VERY fun and easy technique that I think I have pictures of the whole process.  This is also something very useful for children to do.  Very easy.  Very flexible.  Believe me, you won't want to miss it.

I also have many pictures of show and tell projects that will have to wait for later posts.  I didn't want to overwhelm everyone with everything all at once.  This was a very full meeting.  Our president really outdid herself with the content of this meeting.  So much to take in.  We really appreciate her hard work this month.  Thank you Kelly! 

So, with that said, come back in a couple of days for the next installment of what we are up to here at RAQG.  We have a lot to share.

Debbie

Monday Night Meeting Preview

I am so excited about Monday's meeting.  We are going to learn a new technique which will be shared by Lynn Butler.  Lynn is a prolific and well-traveled quilter who has picked up techniques and patterns from her travels across the United States.  Lynn has agreed to come and share with us how to make the quilt here in the picture above.  I know we won't be disappointed.  Lynn is holding the quilt on the right side. 

Kelly Kroon, our president is pictured holding the quilt on the left.  Kelly, a quilting teacher herself has arranged a meeting that will inspire everyone. 

The fat quarter drawing for the evening is for polka dot fat quarters.  Bring a polka dot fat quarter if you are attending the meeting.

For those of you who can't attend, come back next week, and I will try to have pictures of the meeting.  Hopefully I will be able to catch some of the techniques in pictures. 

The meeting is Monday, November 9th, 7 p.m. at Quintessential Quilts, 940 E. Main, Reedsburg.  Visitors are very welcome. 

Debbie

Pattern Enlargement/Reduction Tool

Our tool for today is a photocopy enlargement/reduction tool.  Many times we need to enlarge or reduce a pattern to fit our project.  This comes to us free of charge from Moira McSpadden.  Thank you Moira for your generosity in this regard.  She has a wonderful site and blog.  You can find this tool here.  Also, I will include this permanently in the tools section in the sidebar.

As always, I appreciate your comments.  Most of you must be a little shy, because very few of you are commenting.  Please consider letting me know if this  is a help to you or if you would like to see other content by adding a comment at the end of the post. 

Debbie

Block Designer Tool

Here is another new tool.  It is called Block Designer and is brought to you free of charge by Quiltopia.  Thank you Quiltopia for your generosity in this area.  I will have a permanent link to it in our Tools section in the sidebar.

It looks something like the picture I drafted above.  You get a possible 6 x 6 patch block and a palette of whole squares and half square triangle blocks in different shades of white, gray and black to play with the values and placement.  This is a very-easy-to-use program and fun to play with. 

So if you have a block design in your mind that you are not sure of how it would look best, this is far easier than ruining some fabric with samples and wasting time.  You can find this program at Quiltopia. 

We have had quite alot of activity here lately, especially people here looking at the post about half square triangles.  I am curious to know why.  I would be most appreciative if someone would leave a comment here telling me why so many are viewing that post and where you are being referred from.

As always, I hope you enjoy the tools we provide for you.  Comments are very much appreciated, as I have no other way of knowing how this is helping you. 

Debbie

Moda Bakeshop Site

I stumbled onto this fabulous site this week and will be including it in the tutorials section. I wasn't sure just where to put it, because it could fit in any of the categories.

Why is it called bakeshop? The Moda Bake Shop is a division of Moda Fabrics that provides online recipes which you can use with the wide range of Moda Pre-cuts. All sizes and types of projects will be featured from various designers and shops. Tutorials for various moda projects sheets will be illustrated with step by step pictures. Some techniques and products will also be featured throughout, so check back often for what is "baking" here at Moda Fabrics.

Check it out. You will be thrilled with what you find.

Graph Paper Tool

Have you ever had an idea for a quilt or block and wanted to sketch it out but didn't have any graph paper on hand? Here is your answer. This is another new tool for you that will be found in the tools section. It is a graph paper generator. You tell them what color, how far apart to put the lines, how heavy to make the lines and what size paper you have. Then print. It is as easy as that. Actually you will probably never need to buy another piece of that if this website sticks around. The provider of this wonderful service is imcompetech and can be found here. Thank you imcompetech.

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On another note, I hope you all are following the 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Fillers. She is giving lessons every single day on how to do free motion quilting. If you have missed any you can go back through her archives and catch up. They are phenomenal.

Debbie