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Alex and Ricky visit with Christa Watson, who was introduced to quilting 25 years ago. Where she really excels is machine quilting, and it is her passion. She fell in love with the quilts at the first QuiltCon and opened an online fabric shop to support her "habit" and family. Her shop is called The Precut Store. She was even one of the first stores to advertise on TQS! They take a look at her quilts.
Christa loves working with pre-cuts. They create dynamic and interesting quilts…and you can get to the machine quilting faster. She shares tips for quick and easy quilt blocks using pre-cuts (2 1/2" jelly rolls and 5” square charm packs). Not one to waste fabric, Christa shares a fast and fun way to make improv blocks. It’s a great way to use leftover scraps.
Christa loves combining straight walking foot quilting with free-motion. Then she demonstrates how easy it is to quilt some of her favorite free motion motifs.
Then, Bill Volckening is back to share quilts that are antiques, but speak very much to Modernism. He said quilters from the past headed toward the future, and many were very daring in their designs.
Christa Watson (Christa Quilts)
In this Show N Tell, Alex and Ricky view some of Christa's quilts and learn why quilting is her passion.
Christa loves combining straight walking foot quilting with free-motion. She shares machine quilting tips and techniques (straight, wavy, decorative).
Bill Volckening shares quilts with Alex and Ricky that are antiques, but speak very much to Modernism.
Claudia Pfeil comes from the historic textiles manufacturing town of Krefeld, Germany. She took her first quilt class in 1985 after seeing quilts at a CREATIVA Show. Alex and Ricky chat with her as they look at her quilts. Next up, Claudia works with silk and tells us that we shouldn't be afraid to use this lovely fabric in our quilts. She demonstrates improv block building with both squares and curves. Then she gives Ricky tips for free-motion quilting using her five "quilting letters." Claudia also gives tips for "Top Shelf" work and working with Razzle Dazzle thread in the longarm.
Wrapping up the show is Gayle Schliemann from BERNINA. Gayle loves Cosplay and teaches us how to make Cat ears as a quick costume accessory with the help of the BERNINA embroidery feature and button feature. We also get to take a look at some of the costumes Gayle has created over the years, each with special quilting and sewing designs.
In the After Set, Claudia talks about the 300-year history of silk weaving and textiles in Krefeld.
Alex and Ricky talk with Missie Carpenter.
Missie began quilting in 1988 as a way to be creative while staying at home with her children. She loves mixing cotton and wool in her layered appliqué work. A woman of many talents, before quilting, Missie was a day trader, sewed window coverings and created English smocking designs. They look at her work.
Then, Missie shares her starch basting method for hexies and circles. She also gives you tips for making your stitches "invisible."
Missie also demonstrates her technique for building a penny unit with cotton. Once the units are completed, she glues the pennies together with a glue stick or liquid glue. 60 wt. poly thread just disappears when stitching a cotton penny to another penny. The blanket stitch works well to hold two wool pieces together. She also uses a small whipstitch. They look at examples of mixing and matching fiber type pennies.
Rounding out the show is Leanne Anderson and her adorable dog breed quilts. Dog owning quilters love seeing ‘their breed’ created in fabric. It was this idea that was the catalyst for Leanne’s current count of fifty dog breed designs. The pre-fused laser cut applique kits make creating a dog gone cute quilty item a breeze. Leanne shares tips for preparing, stabilizing, appliquéing, and layering the designs. She also has ideas for adding a dog design to a variety of items (coasters, pot holders, dog food containers, etc.). Alex and Ricky take a look at finished items with her dog designs that her family-run company produces.
Alex and Ricky learn about natural dyeing from Kim Eichler-Messmer, a fiber professor at the Kansas City Art Institute. Recently Kim has focused on eco-friendly dyeing by using a natural and ancient dyeing (plants, nuts, insects, minerals) method. Kim uses freshly picked marigolds from her yard to dye a batch of fabric a lovely yellow. While the fabric dye "cooks" she shares examples of different colors and patterns that can be achieved using these natural dyes. Alex and Ricky learn more about Kim's background and they take a look at her quilts.
Kim shares improv piecing with a serger. She has done a fair amount of garment construction using the serger and now is including the tool in her quilting tool box. She shares a fun technique for stabilizing lamé that is then sewn together with her hand-dyed fabric in ‘chunks' and strip sets. Strip sets are then cut apart and chain pieced together to build an improv quilt top where bits of lamé peek out randomly amongst hand dyed fabric. She shares examples of quilts using serged lamé blocks (with the finished edge on the front of the quilt) for an added bit of texture and interest. Then it’s time to take the marigold fabric out of the cook pot to reveal the intense yellow color.
Then it's time to learn how to unlock the Lone Star Quilt with Judy Martin. Judy loves math and the challenges of working with complex star quilts. A writer of 23 quilting books, she and Ricky build and share variations that can be achieved when it comes to one of the most beloved blocks…the Lone Star. Using one very large WIP quilt, it becomes a game of shuffle and discover as the viewers watch the myriad of possibilities when pieces are flipped, shuffled or turned. Judy shares completed Lone Star quilts revealing more color combination examples.
Ricky starts the show with a tutorial on his "Dancing Squares" quilt. It is a fun variation on Seminole piecing featuring dancing squares.
Alex and Ricky greet Teresa Coates of Shannon Fabrics. Teresa loves working with challenging and unusual fabrics. She has always sewn, and made her first quilt in 1992 when she was pregnant with her son. It wasn’t until 2000 that she started working with quilts in earnest. She approached Shannon Fabrics as she was up for working with their wide and diverse range of unusual fabrics. Currently she is their Events/Education coordinator, but, she still loves designing her own quilts as well. Teresa shares some of her quilts.
Teresa shares tips for working with Shannon or Minky type fabrics. Don't be intimitated by these fabrics. Teresa says that once you know the tricks, you will love them. Once you learn the tips, it’s on to finishing a cuddle blanket by attaching a fast and easy binding. The entire quilt can be made as a gift in about three hours. Want to work on a smaller project? Teresa shares a fun pillow idea that is sure to be a hit for any recipient.
In the After Set, Teresa talks about moving her family to Vietnam in 2006. The kids were 9 and 14. Moving to another country taught her to take risks and that she could tackle anything. She shares photos from Vietnam.
Alex and Ricky greet Heidi Kaisand, a former editor of American Patchwork & Quilting Magazine, in her Hen and Chicks Studio. It is a studio because they carry and teach all types of media arts. They learn about Heidi's quilting background and take a look at her quilts.
Heidi loves working with wool. She uses the die cutter system to cut out elements faster and more efficiently. Heidi shares a fun and contemporary wool circles on flannel-covered canvas project. She also shares a work in progress that is a king size Suzani (South Asian) inspired wool embroidery design she saw in a Sundance catalog.
There's more to come from Heidi when she demonstrates that simple embroidery stitches can be done simply as directed, or varied in their look when combined with other stitches. She shows you the basics to making a stem stitch, buttonhole, lazy daisy and couching, followed by examples of variations in design.
Also joining Alex and Ricky in this show is Linzee Kull McCray. Writer and photographer for craft, art and textile publications, Linzee shares the fascinating history of feed sacks. What once was just an ordinary way to store and ship grain, flour, and other staples became a phenomenon once frugal women began taking apart the bags to use as fabric for foundation piecing. Feed sack companies caught on to this idea and began designing prints on the feed sacks, as well as patterns for embroidery, children’s soft toys, etc. Linzee shares examples of some of the fabrics, advertisements, and wonderful items made using feed sack fabrics.
Lovers of vintage fabrics will be delighted with the Moda collections of fabrics based on original designs. Linzee’s book covers the wide span of this fabric (18,000 prints were made) and how it became a household norm for many in the Iowa and other farming regions. She then shares a fun string piece quilt and talks about how to keep the chaos of prints from becoming overwhelming.
Ricky and Alex meet MJ Kinman. A corporate job at a Fortune 100 company kept her busy, but it was quilting that tugged at her heart. In1991, an advertising mailer featuring a gem captured her imagination. She wanted to see if it was possible to create a gem using fabrics.
MJ has designed a freezer paper technique pattern based on the 12 birth-month gem stones. Colorway fabric kits make fabric selection easy for those just dipping their toe in the water. The pattern has numbering and registration marks for building the quilt. A big puzzle, MJ suggests working one section at a time, to avoid getting lost in the process. She also shares tips to avoid sewing through your paper pattern as well as tackling that ever tricky set in seam. Then it's time to see examples of gems that include different color combinations.
In order to replicate the colors and fire in gemstones, MJ had to learn how to paint her own fabrics. She shows Ricky how fun and easy it is to paint your own cotton sateen fabric temporarily stapled to a stretcher bars. After discussing tools, it's on to adding paint to create blending and movement of color (the perfect fabric for gemstones).
We wrap up the show with a Tour of the Iowa Quilt Museum. Iowa Quilt Museum Director, Megan Barrett, shares the history of this gem in Winterset, IA, that opened its doors in May 2016.
Ricky begins the show by teaching a technique for creating interest and a bit of shimmer to a leaf design on a small quilt. He also shows a tip for creating a nice sharp point with yarn when machine couching.
Then Alex and Ricky greet Heidi Proffetty. Heidi originally began as a traditional quilter but gradually moved to art quilting. Having outgrown her basement, they added a full fledged studio space to her house where she now works on her mosaic quilts and photography. Early on she worked with a variety of hand cut shapes to create a design, but has since honed that method to now using a digital cutter to cut equal size squares at the touch of a button. This new method allows her to blend her own photographic images into an art quilt piece. Heidi also discusses the SAQA Mentorship program.
Then on to Digital Cutting 101. Heidi walks us through the ins and outs of the digital cutter and how it differs from the traditional die cutter system. From there, she shares her technique for using a photograph that then becomes a mosaic design.
In the After Set, Heidi talks about beekeeping and how the family has taken on the hobby as a group activity.
Alex and Ricky talk to Barbara Black, who has worked in the educational office at the Houston Quilt Festival for 20 years. She began quilting in 1985 and decided she needed to up her game when she discovered TQS BOM designs by Sue Garman. She obviously achieved her goal when her quilt, Red & White by The Numbers, was selected as the 40th Anniversary quilt for Quilts Inc. Overnight, she and her quilt became famous.
Barbara shares her thoughts on three things you do wrong in quilting...cut, piece, and press. She has tips to address these three problems.
Then, Barbara gives you more tips to achieve beautiful binding. She teaches you how to calculate the amount of fabric you need, how to prep the quilt, and how to add a sleeve during the binding process.
Up next is Bill Volckening and his elegant antique quilts. Bill has over 500 quilts in his collection that cover the years 1750-2008. He then shares elegant quilts that debunk the myth that quilts in America were only made from scraps as utilitarian.
We wrap the show with Barbara talking about her Sunday sewing group, the Sew and Sews, who gather to work on TQS BOMs. She also talks about her home studio.
Alex starts the show by sharing how to make an embroidered ribbon, inspired by Priscilla Kidder and Wendy Grande, that becomes a wedding memento for the bride and groom.
Then, Alex and Ricky meet Jenny K. Lyon. They talk about her love of organics (a recurring theme), circles, and her garden. All of these are evident in her work.
Jenny then shares a technique for creating a quilting design built on a small piece (3”) of printed fabric, but the creativity doesn't stop there. Jenny then shares a fun technique for a boho cutwork design, created using an altered ready to wear denim jacket and Kraft-tex.
Alex starts the show by sharing tips for making a pieced binding and adding interest by using mixed fabrics.
Then Alex and Ricky meet graphic designer, Suzy Williams of SuzyQuilts.com. Suzy began as a traditional quilter but was drawn to the Modern quilt world and their use of fabrics.
Suzy also discusses Spoonflower’s print on demand diversity when designing your own fabric. One quilt, in particular, was created with 6 different fabric designs that had been printed on one large piece of cloth. Creating her own fabric via Spoonflower allows her tremendous flexibility. Suzy shows you how to design your own fat quarters.
She then shares a fun technique for getting over a creative slump by making mini quilts.
Alex and Ricky welcome back Marci Baker (Show 1810) to see what new things she has to share. She talks about collaborating on design and construction with Sara Nephew.
Marci talks about pressing and the ins-and-outs of seams. She also shares tips for cutting and assembly line stitching a fast and visually exciting one-patch quilt design.
Then, Michelle McKibben shares a family heirloom she inherited from her grandmother. The 1873 India Soldier quilt was originally given to Michelle’s great, great, great grandmother as a presentation gift by soldiers that were nursed during their years in India.
Alex and Ricky welcome back Becky Goldsmith to catch up and see what she’s been working on. Although known for handwork, she wanted to do something different for a change. An antique bullseye quilt she’d seen 30 years ago kept nagging her. It was a challenge to figure out how to make the piece using foundation piecing. Once the puzzle was solved, she was off and running making several bullseye quilts in a row.
Becky has also been selected as the 2019 BOM quilt designer. Her quilt, Sizzle, contains a combination of foundation-pieced circular designs with a touch of her signature appliqué.
In this show, Becky walks you through the fundamentals of the 2019 BOM and the building of a Bullseye quilt.
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