Episode 5 of The Driven To Quilt Podcast is available for dowload. Today’s topics: The Quiltmaker’s Gift Activity, Sharing Your Quilts, and Ten Top Tips for Machine Quilting. Enjoy!

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Quilters Ultimate Visual Guide,
by Ellen Pahl, Editor

I’ve owned this book since it’s first publication in 1997, when it was only available in hardback. I have to say I’ve never regretted the $35 I spent, as it’s saved me time and time again since then. From A to Z—Hundreds of Tips and Techniques for Successful Quiltmaking is the subtitle, and it absolutely doesn’t exaggerate. I’ve had bookmarks in the following pages that I use all the time since I bought it:

• Page 90, Drafting
• Page 200, Rotary Cutting Half-Square and Quarter-Square Triangles
• Page 227, Setting Triangles
• Page 251, Triangle Squares

I’ve used it countless times to quickly find out measurements for setting and piecing triangles, as well as quick look-ups of other things like marking, prairie points, appliqué, biscuit quilting and Seminole patchwork. It’s loaded with easy-to-understand instructions and pictures for all of it’s A to Z techniques, and it has an index to help you quickly find what you need. It’s the all-in-one reference that no quilter should be without!

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This week has been a much better one, thanks to some cooler weather and fewer taxi duties for the kids for me. I spent last weekend rebuilding my Personal Portals website to launch my web design services (yes, I do all my own web design and development, and I’ve decided to start hiring out freelance. Have to support my quilting habit somehow!). Other than that, I’ve been plugging away at my latest quilt for the New Quilts from an Old Favorite Contest this year, and it’s coming together quite nicely. I hope to be quilting by next weekend, which will be a lot more fun than the appliqué that I’m working on right now. Ugh.

I really have a very strong dislike for appliqué in any quantity, though I am fairly good at it. It just takes way too long, even with the method that I’m using now. I’m using a light starch to wet the seam allowances and turn them over the edges of the freezer paper patterns, gluing them in place with Glue-Baste-It, and then sewing them down temporarily with water soluble thread in the machine. Then I’ll layer and baste the quilt, and appliqué and free motion quilt in one step with the machine. That’s the plan anyway, but since I’ve not done it this way before and haven’t seen anyone else do it this way, I do hope it works like I want it to. I’ll have a nice big mess if it doesn’t! Even doing the appliqué by machine the way I’m doing it, I’m feeling like it’s never ending. I’m much more of a speedy rotary cutter kind of gal. You know, strip piecing, that kind of stuff. Anyway, if this experimental method of mine works out, I’ll share pics and maybe a demo like the Perfect Four Patch one when I’m done!

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