Monthly Archives: September 2009

C&T Warehouse Sale Quilt Raffle

September 4th, 2009 in Behind the Scenes
By Lynn Koolish

WarehouseSaleRaffleQuilt

What do you do when you have fabric that’s crying out to be used—you make it into a quilt, of course.

We were inspired by the quilt Neo Stella (page 27) in Barbara Pershing & Mary Hoover’s book StrataVarious Quilts. (We decided to keep the ends of the strata straight and piece them in rather than rounding the ends and appliquéing them.) The fabrics were Princess Mirah Batiks left over from projects we made for Color Your World with Princess Mirah Batiks.

As they say, many hands make light work, and with lots of people helping out, the quilt went together quickly.

We decided to raffle the quilt at our Summer Sizzler Warehouse sale on September 12. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. Proceeds benefit the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. You must be present to enter the raffle (in other words, we’re only selling the tickets at the warehouse sale), but you don’t need to be present to win.

If you live in the area (the warehouse is in Concord, CA), you must come—there are bargains galore, and of course, you can buy your raffle tickets.

Everyday Inspiration

September 4th, 2009 in Inspiration
By Diane Pedersen

A creative life is filled with challenges and rewards, puzzles and curiosities. This ongoing series of poems attempts to express the “Aha”s and “What if”s, the deep ponderings and casual observations of an inquiring mind trying to make sense of reality. May it serve, for you, as a bit of “Everyday Inspiration” along your own creative path.

What good
Is the work
If you’re not
Into it?

If you’re not
Into it
It has no soul.

Maybe that’s one thing
That’s wrong
With today’s society—

Too much emphasis
On getting it done
And too little
On enjoying it…

My Collage Art Blog Contest: Fabric Art Collage

September 3rd, 2009 in Contests
By Megan Scott

Nancy Lefko, the mixed media collage artist behind the blog My Collage Art, has just reviewed Rebekah Meier’s book Fabric Art Collage. She offers up a very thorough description of the book from a mixed media artist point of view. Click here to read the review. Favecrafts.com is giving away a free copy of Fabric Art Collage on their website. Click here to enter. Contest ends 9/8/09.

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Quick & Easy Fantastiques Party Favors Project

September 3rd, 2009 in Free Projects, Papercrafts
By Danielle Dews

Materials:

Ready-to-Go!® Blank Board Mini Shadow Boxes
Fantastiques Whimsies book
Clearsnap Chalk Inks (in colors that correspond to those used in
Fantastiques book)- Yellow citrus, azurite, tangerine, wisteria,
Pink pastel, lipstick red, creamy brown, lime pastel, charcoal
Beacon Adhesives Zip Dry paper glue
3″ x 3″ corresponding patterned paper of your choice for each favor you want to make
Ribbon (optional)
Brads (optional)
Japanese hole punch or craft drill (only if using brads. Children will need help using the Japanese hole punch or craft drill)

Instructions

1. Choose a Fantastiques character, by selecting 1 head, 2 arms, and 2 legs from the book.

2. Using a corresponding chalk ink, ink the outside of the mini shadow box. Feel free to experiment with multiple chalk inks, making outside of box multi-colored, or color blends.

3. Attach Fantastiques pieces to outside of Mini Shadow Box with Zip Dry Glue or use brads. Use a Japanese hole punch or drill to make brad holes.

4. Tie ribbon around Mini Shadow Box torso for a finishing touch and don’t forget to stuff the party favor with candy or other goodies!

My First Encounter with Photo Editing Software

September 2nd, 2009 in Staff Pick
By Sandy Peterson

I have always wanted to learn how to use photo-editing software given that my picture-taking skills could use some help. Plus, I have some vintage photos of various loved relatives and it would mean a lot to me to clean them up and make copies for my kids and my brothers and sister. Well, one of the best things about working at C&T is the variety of artistic techniques in our books that I get to be involved with daily. Lucky for me, I had the chance to work on a book that uses Photoshop Elements software. The timing was perfect.

A basic newbie guide to the software is provided in Lynn Koolish’s DVD: Lynn Koolish Teaches You Printing on Fabric. (We also have a freebie pdf that you can download here.) In addition to the wonderful directions to print on fabric, there is an attached PDF that helped me to make sense of the opening window of Photoshop Elements. It showed me how to open files and perform basic operations and there was an easy before and after comparison so I could see exactly how my computer modified the images. It helped me create some order out of what seemed to be chaos. After that, I was ready to tackle the manuscript.

Wait until you see this upcoming book by Charlotte Ziebarth, Artistic Photo Quilts. She is a quilt artist who takes her original photos and manipulates them with the easy changes to color and sizing, etc. She then shows you many ways to use the embedded filters and methods to combine photos to create magnificent images. Her products are usually printed on fabric and combined to make beautiful, artistic quilts. The photography in the book is wonderful and inspirational. She has convinced me to carry a camera with me at all times so I don’t miss special scenes, as well as the run-of-the-mill ones.

Playing around with Photoshop Elements

The “Layers” feature of this software program is SO powerful and, with a little help from Charlotte, easy to use. I was able, in a trial run, to take a photo of the hills of Tennessee plus downsize and capture a picture of my daughter in her prom dress, and then add her to the hills background, plus add my soccer son’s picture, plus rotate and add a shot of my dog and then combine these all into 1 image. I added in her boyfriend, too. Then I heightened the color by adding a translucent blue layer on top, I sharpened the images and I added a slight textured pattern over the whole thing for fun. Yes, it was unusual, and I see not particularly artistic or good looking, but I did it because I could. The power of Layers is addicting. I then used a sketch filter to get a whole different look…you get the picture. Total enjoyment.

Whether you print the images on fabric or on paper for your photo albums, the book will be a huge help. Just jump in and go for it.

Author Blog Round-Up

September 2nd, 2009 in Inspiration
By Danielle Dews

Our authors are the greatest and frankly sometimes I can’t get enough of them. I often hit up the Links page and, starting at the top, go down the entire list of author links visiting each one to see what’s new. Here’s some goodies I’ve found of late:

Barbara Brackman, quilt historian and prolific C&T author (her latest title is Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Appliqué) posts photos of the most amazing historically significant quilts on her blog. In her Laura Wheeler Patterns post she identifies the pattern used in a photographed “mystery” quilt and gives her readers a quilt history lesson in the process.

Laura West Kong’s book Fast, Fun & Easy Cover Button Jewelry is out this month, so in the meantime get to know her by reading her very educational and fun blog. I always look forward to reading her Tip Tuesday blog posts because they offer very helpful tips in wonderful bite-sized pieces. Step Away from the Seam Ripper is one of her latest Tip Tuesday posts. I also love this Muse Monday post Inspired by Laundry. How the heck does she get inspired by laundry? Follow the link to find out!

Jane Davila is everywhere on the internet, so you really have no excuse if you haven’t yet visited her blog or at least tweeted to her on Twitter. Her blog is stuffed with interesting and inspiring content and her photos are plentiful and perfect. Bricolages and Bricolages part deux chronicle the process behind some of her latest, very beautiful mixed media creations. Bonus: She even includes the definition of the word Bricolages (for those of you like me who have no idea what in the world that is).

Beth Ferrier has a C&T book release this November. If you are waiting for it as anxiously as I am, do check out her blog because all the good content there just might tide you over. Her recent tutorial Sweet Pea Leaves shows her step-by-step applique process when it comes to super small pieces. Now you have yet another reason not to run away from your applique project when you notice the pieces are smaller than your pinky finger.

Rebekah Meier is apparently friends with every crafty person and company on the web. Her blog is full of links to places her projects can be downloaded or where her book Fabric Art Collage is being featured in a blog giveaway. For instance, check out this post, and follow the link to FaveCrafts where a giveaway is going on right now!

To the few of you who didn’t just completely abandon this post in a mad dash for the Fabric Art Collage giveaway, I’d like to close this post by again pointing you towards the Links page. There is a sea of information and inspiration in that list, folks, and as happy as I am to take you on this tiny tour, don’t wait for me to explore further!

Quilting Tips: Calculating Yardage for Bias Binding

September 1st, 2009 in Quilting Tips Series
By The Tech Editors

Most of the times we can get by with straight-grain binding. But some projects really call for bias. Bias curves much easier than straight-of-grain and holds up longer. So for quilts with curved edges or ones that will take a “beating”, bias binding is a good choice. Here is another excerpt from our All-in-One Quilter’s Reference Tool that gives the yardage needed to make bias binding.

Measure and add up the lengths of all 4 sides of your quilt, then add 10″. Find that number in the column on the left and look across the row to see how big a square you’ll need to cut to make continuous bias binding.

We give yardage for double-fold binding (see the diagram on the right) and for single-fold binding (see the diagram on the left). The cutting width for double-fold is 1 5/8″. The cutting width for single-fold is 1 1/8″. This is for the most common finished binding width: 1/4″. For other finished binding widths, see the Reference Tool mentioned above.

Part of the Quilting Tips from the Tech Editors tutorial series

Coats & Clark Thread Giveaway!

September 1st, 2009 in Contests
By Lynn Koolish

BoxOfThread I’ve noticed lately that quilters are talking about how their thread stashes are starting to compete with their fabric stashes. I’ve noticed my own thread collection growing—I love all the new colors, especially the variegated ones. Fortunately thread doesn’t take up nearly as much space as fabric.

We recently received 12 collections of Coats & Clark’s brand new Dual Duty XP® thread! Each collection box includes 50 spools of polyester-wrapped core-spun thread that has a strength and smoothness that works perfectly for all types of sewing, quilting, and crafting. Another great feature: The new trap spool holds the thread neatly and securely. The color assortment in the pack is amazing – it must have taken someone forever to choose 50 colors out of the 360 total colors included in the Dual Duty XP line – and the collection even includes some multi-colored spools! These collection boxes sell for $65 in stores, so getting to give one away to 12 lucky members of our online community is quite a treat indeed!

Here’s some consumer reviews of the new Dual Duty XP line of thread:

I’ve been meaning to write and tell you how very much I like the new Dual Duty thread and the new spool. The quality of the thread is better than anything I have ever used – sewing machine or by hand.

-Joan Wilson, Founder, The Fairy Godmothers of Fayetteville

I just wanted to let you I love the new way you your changed your sewing thread spools. Now all I have to do is to pull the thread and the thread comes out.

-Mrs. Ann Brogan, Allentown, PA

Being a professional seamstress for decades, I have been using and recommending the more expensive imported threads. However, recently, the store for which I am the seamstress and which is the largest fabric store on the West Coast, received your new display with all of your new threads. I was asked to give your new threads a try. So I did on some very delicate silk. I was amazed at how buttery your thread traveled through the fabric. I was immediately sold. I congratulate you for your most excellent progress with your Dual Duty All Purpose threads. The colors are wonderful and the texture is superb. I am happy to say that i am your greatest admirer and consequently, so are the customers who come to me for advice.

-Pauline Lareau, Fabric Depot, Portland, Oregon

For a chance to win a box of thread, post a comment here or on facebook by Tuesday, September 8th, describing the most unusual way that you’ve used thread. We’ll randomly pick winners to be announced later that day. Good Luck!

*Comments will be closed at 9am PST on Tuesday, 9/8/09

C&T Publishing is a group of quilters and crafters dedicated to publishing products tailored to our audience. This blog is where we break away from book schedules and marketing campaigns to focus on what drives us to be creative and how this creativity manifests itself in our every day lives.