I purchased this Piping Hot Binding tool and book on my last trip to the States (I think), intending to use it to put piping on the edge of The Misery Quilt when the time comes. I finally used it last week on a smaller quilt for a bit of practice before just diving in on a show quilt.

The directions are very thorough and straightforward, though obviously the method adds a bit more time to the binding process since you have to make the piping and then apply it before putting the binding on. I used my Pfaff 2056 to make the piping and bind the quilt since it has the dual feed, and I figured it would be way easier to find a Pfaff foot to use to make the piping because I have a much better selection of Pfaff feet around.

I used a Pfaff appliqué foot and moved the needle to the right just enough to clear the cording to make the piping. The foot has a channel on the underside so that the piping slides under it nicely and it’s easy to guide it through the machine. The Groovin’ Piping Trimming Tool made it super easy to accurately trim the piping to an even width after sewing. I used a regular 0A foot on the Pfaff to sew the piping to the edge of the quilt; I tried an open toe appliqué foot, but found that the 0A foot held the piping steadier with less shifting around while sewing it down.

I think my only issue with the whole process would be the fact that after you apply the piping, you have to put the binding on “upside down” so to speak. Usually I lay the quilt edge on the machine, and ever so slightly stretch the binding fabric as I sew it on. It makes the bindings firm, and takes care of any slight ruffling at the edges of the quilt by drawing it in a bit so it’s flat. (If I’m working on a show quilt, I do things a bit differently if the edges are ruffly, but on non-show quilts this is my quick and dirty cheater method of choice, and it usually works pretty well.) Read the rest of this entry »

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After an unanticipated two week break for the flu and house hunting, I’m back in my Bookmarks folder today to share another Melange on this happy Monday. Today I’m surfing through some art, computer and Internet related links.

The Art of Monica Van der Weer—I love her artwork, and she offers it for download to use as desktop wallpapers. She does lovely paintings of cats, dogs and other animals that are reminiscent of Charles Wysocki. You can also send greeting cards featuring some of her paintings. I remember that I figured out how to put one of her backgrounds on the Windows Startup Screen on my office computer once, and then I couldn’t ever figure out how to take it off. My boss hated cats, but unless he’s bought a new computer since then, I imagine it’s still there…

Digital Blasphemy—Ryan is a wonderful digital artist and his desktop wallpapers are really cool. I have a number of them that I use depending on my mood or the season, and he’s always creating more to add to his members only gallery. He rotates some of his members only wallpapers out to the free gallery which I’ve linked to.

PlasmaDesign—Yet another desktop wallpaper site. These wallpapers have more of a Mac-ish feel to them, though of course they are compatible with Windows systems as well (or even Linux, if you are of that persuasion). Some of his wallpapers are free, and some are members only and require payment, which seemed fairly reasonable at the time I did it, which was years ago. He has some lovely landscapes and cool looking abstracts to spiff up your desktop. Read the rest of this entry »

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Today we took off for Heidelberg to go to the Arts & Crafts Center, where they have all the quilting fabrics and supplies, to pick up a quilt book that my good friend Liz recommended. She said that making a One Block Wonder was great fun, and it sounded intriguing, so I thought I’d take a break from Creativity Projects that are filling in the break from The Misery Quilt and give it a whirl. I also found some really wonderful fabric to experiment with, and here’s the loot from the day:

The fabric goes pretty well with my bed linens, the upholstery on the antique French chairs, and the tapestry that is in my bedroom, and since the new house will have a straight wall behind the bed (as opposed to the slanted ceiling that we have above the bed now), I figure that a new quilt to go above the bed would not be amiss. It will be a great first project for my new studio, since I’ll have lots of space for cutting and a real design wall to use.

While we were in the store, GuitarGirl found a pattern by Fourth & Sixth Designs she liked and asked if I would make the Kinetic Energy quilt for her. I told her I would help her make it, and that it was pretty easy. I’ve seen this pattern in catalogs, and I liked it too, so it won’t be a chore to help her with it! Maybe I’ll make a quilter out of her yet.

The last time she quilted, she was at a point where she was going to have to take out a seam and sew it again since the fabrics weren’t lined up right when she sewed it the first time, hence the gaping hole in the seamline. She didn’t want to take it out, and I told her she had to, so she left and never came back to the machine. (Have I mentioned that teaching kids anything isn’t my strongest point?)

She’s a bit older now, so maybe this quilting thing will go better, but she’s already going on about having to do “all that stuff you do by hand with the flipping and the clips” (she means hand sewing the binding down on the back)! We’ll see how it goes, though I can already tell she’ll probably get bored pretty quickly since the quilt needs 27 strip sets of at least 9 strips each or something, so that’s a lot of straight (boring) sewing. Read the rest of this entry »

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