Questions I Get Asked
Part three
Hi. I am a beginner at quilting and recently acquired an amount of upholstering fabric from a furniture store. Tell me if this will make a nice quilt? Also I am looking for a quilting pattern that has trees on it , preferrably pine trees.
Lots of people have used upholstery fabric for quilts. It is heavier, though, and if it has synthetic content it will act differently than the lighter cottons mostly used for quilting today.
Since upholstery is usually not expected to be washed it is treated with stain resistors and glazes, and it will almost always shrink a lot if it is washed. So, if you're going to wash the quilt (if you plan to use it at all) pre-wash the fabrics. You can just soak them in hot water in the tub, since they might fray a lot in the washer.
Try a test block in your fabric and see how it goes together. You might find the 1/4 seam too narrow for looser fabrics. You might find that complicated blocks with many seams are difficult because the heavier fabric will not lay flat in the seams.
Hi! I was scrolling your helpful DawnPages - A Whole Mess of Questions and did not find my question. I'm new at quilting and jumped right into a Round Robin project (honest - I didn't know!!!!) at my local Quilters Guild in Plains, Montana. This particular month the only other person who brought something for the RR is our county's BEST quilter and a real perfectionist. I am a perfectionist also, but at this point, probably the county's worst quilter. (my hubby thinks my work is wonderful, but he might be biased!)
At the last guild meeting, "Ms. Best" was telling me my center medaliion was measuring incorrectly - that one side was off by so much, another side was off by this bit, and so on. Now I am afraid to even cut the fabric and put on the 4" finished border with applique on each side. Should I just cut everything for her Round Robin an extra "yard" or so, then trim so there's 4 1/4 showing? She is so good and the last thing I want to do is mess up her wall hanging. Would it be considered unacceptable to ask her to help me do "her" Round Robin, considering I would like to be as good as her someday?
I appreciate any help you could give me regarding this, as the project is due Feb. 14, 1999.
Thanks much and God bless
I'm not expert on relationships, but the way I see it you have three choices. Ask for her help, try your best, or politely drop out. If you honestly think the task is beyond your ability level, say so and apologize, and look for a "beginner" level swap.
If you think she criticized your block in a helpful way, and you'd feel comfortable working with her, go ahead and ask for her help. Some people say those things to make themselves feel superior, and will always be mean to you. Some people say them in an attempt to educate and help others. If she is the second kind of person you'll both be happy with the results of your cooperation on the block.
Going your own can be tricky. If you think you can be perfect or are willing to do it over if it isn't right, you can try this. You risk failing, though. Only you know how much that is worth to you.
As for the extra yardage, it's generally a good idea to cut pieces a tad generous, like 1/4 to 1/8 inch or so. You can always trim later or take the seam in. If you are doing a block with a lot of pieces the seams have a way of eating up the fabric so it's never quite big enough. Applique also eats up fabric, so plan those borders an inch or so larger to accomodate that.
I would like more on Puff Quilts. I want to make one if I can Please I have looked for A long time for a pattern.My name is Cindy you can E-Mail me back.Thank you for your time. Cindy
You can find books through quilting shops. They specialize in finding instructions for certain patterns. I'm not sure of the names of any books, though, you'd have to ask someone at the shop for a title to order.
I've just read your instructions for tub cleaning of a quilt. The quilt I need to clean has a yellow band around the edges that is stained with body oils from years of using our hands to pull it up and down - yes, it has been loved and used. Can I expect to get these stains removed by this method? Also, I live in the humid south so I expect the drying to take several days. Anyway to avoid mildew before drying is complete?
Chances are pretty good most of that dirt will come out, but I can't say for certain without seeing the quilt and knowing what the stain is like. If the quilt is in good condition consider using a mild soap like one of the "soft" hand soaps in the pretty pump bottles. You'll find that you have to do many rinses of water before it stops turning brown each time.
You can use electric fans to circulate air to prevent mildew, or lay it outside on sheets and let the air blow around it.
You said that the bottom line Bernina and Pfaff was comparable to other manufacturers in the same range. What is the name of the other lines that are comparable to Ber. and Pf. in the lower end range?
White, Brother, Elna, Kenmore.
I'd avoid the low-end Singers. I haven't heard many folks that are happy with them.
My girlfriend has asked me to make her a Friendship Star Quilt. The pattern I have is for a wallhanging of this quilt. It measures 34-1/2 x 36-1/2. She has asked me to make it (wallhanging size) into a bed-sized quilt for her. She bought all her own fabric. As an example, for the backing, the original pattern says 1 yard. She bought 4 yards. I don't know how to go about this. The original pattern has sixteen 6" blocks. Should I triple the size of blocks and make those or make the 6" blocks bigger. I think that would look very funny if I did that. I've never seen 18" blocks have you? What do you think?
18" blocks used to be very common in older quilts. Now we tend to make tiny ones. A 6" block looks better in a wall hanging, though.
If you enlarge the blocks you'll have to recalculate seam allowances. I'd suggest going with a 12" block and making more of them to make the quilt larger.
You can ask your friend for help if she knows anything about quilting. Otherwise try drawing the quilt to scale on graph paper and comparing how it would look with 6", 12", and 18" blocks.
I really enjoyed your informative Web Page. I was wondering if you know of a page that has complete instructions for machine stippling. I have a wall hanging that I know would look great finished this way, but I'm not sure of the proper use of this technique. Any help would be appreciated.
Sorry, I know it's in books, and there are some very highly recommended ones out there, but I don't do a lot of machine quilting so I can't think of any titles off hand.
Perhaps someone in a quilt shop near you can help.
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