Fat Frog Diary

Bias Tape- Love it or hate it, you have to have it when you quilt or sew. Well-meaning friends often give a quilter/sewer lots of scrap fabric, whether it's suitable for quilting or not. I have received bags full of absolutely stunning high-quality wedding silks, a footlocker full of grandma's table linens, and an entire 18-gallon tote of upholstery fabric. Then again, I also have my own Mount Scrapmore. I can't bear to throw away anything larger than 2-1/2" wide. It's still useful.  I confess I hated making bias tape. That was one of the reasons I stopped quilting. I always screwed up the angles making bias tape until Dave found this method below. Within a day, I was zooming through my scraps making all the bias tape out of all the 2-1/2" strips I'd been holding onto for years. If my cats hadn't practiced their interference mastery skills by laying all into my piles (sorted by color) I probably would have been falling asleep at the sewing machine.    ...

Just before my best office desktop computer blew chunks, I downloaded and printed out a PDF file from Quilting Arts Magazine on how to learn machine quilting for the ordinary sewing machine. (Whew! Sighing with relief that I have a hard copy.) Thanks to a clue from the president of my quilting guild, the very lucky and kind Diane Kelly, I found “universal” darning foot on Nancy’s Notions. It arrived just after I came back from retreat. I’ve been patiently finishing current projects and waiting until I could spend a bit of time following the step-by-step instructions on machine quilting. Today was that day. I had some 6” blocks from my Halloween project left, some 6” squares of muslin, and some 6” squares of batting. I made a sandwich for a test, hooked up the darning foot, dropped the feed dogs, and decided that I would just play first to get a feel for how easy it was to move the sandwich. Oh, my goodness!! I had such fun I didn’t want it to end. So what if it was a silly ...

Unleashed in Quilt Land (What I do instead of stress eating) Quilting is what I do instead of stress eating. My daughters read this blog, so it's a way to share what I'm learning with them. 1. Fons and Porter #1605 Bluebonnet Baby Quilt a. Use the window technique when preparing the Heat-n-Bond so there’s only a thin line of adhesive around the edge. Do this before fusing to the fabric. b. Cut the stems on the bias so they curve easily, 1” wide. C. Fold the stem in half lengthwise and iron to create the first crease. Mark with pen or chalk if necessary to make the crease easier to see. D. Fold ½ the stem again, to hide the raw edge. Overcompensate a little to make sure no raw edge is showing. Iron again. Finger press open. E. Stitch down the center crease created earlier. F. Roll it over, add leaves, and press it all down. Blanket stitch down. G. Make and use a placement guide to ensure accuracy of placement. You may also note thread colors, machine settings,...

Supplies and Demands for Quilting As I read this chapter of Super Quilter by Carla J Hassel, I’m struck by how much has changed in the past 20+ years since she sat down to write it. My amusement has faded to awe. I’m now wondering how my grandmothers managed with a cigar box as a sewing box, a set of hand-sewing needles, pins, scissors, thread, beeswax, chalk, a ruler, tape measure, pin cushion, thimble, seam ripper, and fabric. They made do or did without. Now I admire my lovely computerized sewing machine, my collection of rulers and templates, stabilizers, Heat-n-Bond, glues, and myriad of gadgets available. Am I the one deprived because I’m not sitting around a frame with other women, learning from those who came before me? Maybe I am. They fearlessly attacked their ignorance and knew they had a lifetime to perfect their skills. So I use a plastic tote and a photo box instead of a cigar box. It’s not a crime. I made my own pincushions from my early experiments with dif...