How-to-Quilt.com

June 2007 Newsletter

This issue includes:

Penny’s Inner Quilting Circle - TheQuiltingCoach.com just keeps getting better and better

1)  A Tidbit of History – Singer Featherweights

2)  Tools, Tricks and Quilting Tips – Machine Quilting Tips from Expert Machine Quilter Pam Bauer
   
3)  June Quilt Block Patterns – Free Quilt Block Patterns
   
4)  Recipe for Quilters – BOULA
   
5)  Newsletter News – The Newest Rag Quilt in a Weekend!

6)  Quilter’s Trip – The National Quilt Championships 2007 – UK

7)  Fabric Postcards for the Troops – Round ‘em up and send ‘em in before December 8

8) Just for Fun

How-To-Quilt.com Newsletter Archive online – Issues of the How-to-Quilt.com Newsletter from the beginning of 2005 are available online at:

http://www.how-to-quilt.com/newsletter/archive/index.shtml

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Penny’s Inner Quilting Circle

TheQuiltingCoach.com just keeps getting better and better.

Members of TheQuiltingCoach.com are having a fabulous time scouting around in the site, discovering quilting tips and history, enjoying downloading all of the www.How-to-Quilt.com electronic products for free, and journeying on The Machine Quilting Adventure.

In addition to all of the website goodies, we’ve decided to share even more with our members.  Each month, paying members receive a printed version of the How-to-Quilt Newsletter plus a CD with all of the patterns – so you don’t have to read it all online.

Well, now that we have started our Eavesdrop on a Telephone Conversation monthly series, paying members will receive a free copy of the CD with the recorded telephone call, and have access to a transcript (in a pdf file format) of the call.  Whether or not you are on the call, you will be able to listen as many times as you like, when you like and where you like.  And, with the transcript, you can highlight the important topics, and read it as well as listen to it.

The printed version of the How-to-Quilt Newsletter plus the pattern CD is a $15.00 per month value.  And the CD with the recording of the Eavesdrop Conversation is a value of $24.97, for a total value of $39.97.  

The total value of our currently posted How-to-Quilt electronic products adds up to $135.84, and more are added each month.

A quilter last week asked me how I could provide so much valuable information at such a low cost.  The reason is that it’s all electronic, and my only cost of delivering the information is maintenance of the website.

It may be hard to believe that there is so much information inside at a low monthly membership fee of $24.97.  And, we’re sure you’ll agree that it’s a great value and convenient, too.  Imagine finding a great quilting resource and getting it immediately without pulling out your credit card to pay.

Join our community of beginner and beyond quilters today: www.TheQuiltingCoach.com

Since The Machine Quilting Adventure has now progressed to the machine quilting stage, I pulled out my old Alta machine that my parents gave me shortly after I got married.

Frankly, at that time (decades ago) I was happy to have any kind of machine, and it served me relatively well for many years.  I do have to admit that it presented me with several frustrations along the way – thread breaking, fabric jamming down into the feed dogs, tensions causing stress and strain.  But, since my only other sewing experience was a decade earlier, I didn’t know what to expect.  Plus, in my youth I sewed clothes, not quilts.

Years into my quilting journey, I discovered Singer Featherweights, and once I purchased one, the old Alta found a resting place in the closet, covered with quilting fabric and batting.

Knowing that my Featherweight would not do the free motion machine quilting I needed it to do, I lugged the Alta down to my local Sew and Vac for an overhaul.  Much to my surprise, a new machine was going to cost only slightly more than a complete overhaul of the old Alta. 

Plus, she told me that it would still be a troublesome machine.  Monika, the owner, said it would still jam and threads would still break.  She said that even before I told her I had that problem!

As we discussed sewing machines further, she explained that the Singer Featherweights were premium machines in their day, something I didn’t know.  (I had always thought that they were lower end machines, since they were small and didn’t do any fancy stitches.)

By the way, Monika will join the Eavesdrop on a Telephone Conversation in August!

That fact explains why they have lasted so long and why they continue to be the little workhorses that many quilters love.

As I glanced through my copy of Featherweight 221, The Perfect Portable® And Its Stitches Across History (by Nancy Johnson-Srebro), I ran across some interesting tidbits from history:

• A woman in Vermont wore out the drive belt on her Featherweight after sewing on braided rugs for 25 years – now that’s a workhorse!
• The Singer Featherweight was the first machine to have a fold-up extension table to increase the sewing surface to the left of the machine – an especially valuable feature for quilters
• Singer used light-weight aluminum for the machine and the machine arm, instead of using cast iron like other sewing machines manufacturers used.  Aluminum is about 1/3 the weight of cast iron, yet it affords the same reliable performance.
• Demand for sewing machines increased substantially during the Great Depression, and one of the most significant improvements in home sewing machines was the reverse function – available only in commercial machines prior to that time.  The Depression saw a huge increase in home sewing and repair of clothing – in order to save money.
• One of the last significant improvements of the Featherweight was to the bobbin winder.  By loosening the balance wheel, you can wind a bobbin without running the needle mechanism, saving wear and tear on those parts.

Nancy has written at least two books about the Featherweight that are fun to read and jam-packed with interesting information about the machine and the Singer Sewing Machine Company.  She writes other books on quilting, too.

You can check out her books on amazon.com:

2) Tools, Tricks, and Quilt Tips – Machine Quilting Tips from Expert Machine Quilter Pam Bauer

May 21 was an exciting day for How-to-Quilters when expert machine quilter Pam Bauer allowed us to Eavesdrop on the Telephone Conversation between her and QuiltingCoach Penny Halgren.

Pam has been machine quilting for 10 years and has spent thousands of hours and dollars perfecting her skill.  Here are just a few tips she shared with us on the phone:

• Make sure your quilt is fully supported as you machine quilt.  Place your table up against a wall, or surround it with chairs to prevent your quilt from falling off, and scrunch the quilt up in your lap to feed it into your machine.
• Form a frame with your hands to guide the quilt through the machine.  Spread your fingers around the needle area and have your thumbs touching as you guide the quilt.  Remember, with the feed dogs down on your machine, your hands become the feed dogs.  And if they aren’t moving, your quilt isn’t moving either.
• Begin your quilting on an outside border and work your way into the center of the quilt.  That doesn’t mean that you will quilt the entire border before you move into the center.  It means that you start in a corner, and then work your way around the corner and into the center.
• Use blue painters’ tape to mark your straight lines.  Golden Threads tracing paper is good for creating pattern templates for quilting designs.
• Starch the backing of your quilt until it is stiff to prevent puckers and tucks on the back as you machine quilt. 

And that was just in the first 15 minutes!  Pam spent 1 ½ hours sharing her knowledge with us in a fantastic call.  You can get a recording of the call on a CD and listen to it whenever you want:

 http://www.how-to-quilt.com/pam.shtml

June Eavesdrop on a Telephone Conversation:

Bob from Superior Threads, catering to the thread dreams of quilters, will join the Eavesdrop on a Telephone Conversation in June.  Watch for the date and a survey so you can tell us what your Inquiring Mind Wants to Know about Thread so it can be included in our list of questions.

3)  Quilt Block Patterns

This month, Stephanie has created 10 new patterns for summer - they include:

• Confetti
• Corn
• Firecreckers and Skyrockets
• Firefly
• Picnic Basket
• Pineapple
• Shady Pine
• Skyrocket
• Sunshiny Day
• Watermelon

4) Recipes for Quilters – BOULA   serves 4

"For God, for country, and . . ." well, anyway, Boula is one of the best known and one of the best of the combination soups. Even old Harvards have been known to relish it. It is made by a judicious blending of clear green turtle consommé and green pea soup. If you add an appreciable quantity of green turtle meat to the com­bination, you are entitled to add an extra "boula" and call the result Boula Boula. Whatever the name, the soup will give a party atmos­phere to almost any meal.

1  TIN CONDENSED CREAM OF PEA SOUP
1   LARGE TIN GREEN TURTLE CONSOMME
6  TABLESPOONS SHERRY
½  PINT WHIPPING CREAM

Use a double boiler for this recipe. Half fill the lower pan with water, and bring to a boil. Put the green pea soup in the upper pan, and, over the boiling water, gradually pour in the green turtle consommé, stirring madly all the while with a wire whisk to make a smooth mixture.

Add the sherry, the green turtle meat from the tin, and additional green turtle meat if you are making the doubled Boula. Just before you are ready to serve, whip the cream fairly stiff. Put the soup into four ovenproof serving dishes, float two tablespoons of whipped cream on each, and place under a hot broiler flame (500 degrees) for three minutes. Remove and serve at once.

This recipe is a bit of history – it’s from the Fast and Fancy Cookery - RECIPES  FOR  THOSE  WHO  WORK  FROM  NINE  TO  FIVE  AND STILL   ENJOY  ENTERTAINING  AT   SEVEN, WITH HINTS ON THE GRACIOUS FEEDING OF THE  UNEXPECTED  BUT  WELCOME  GUEST.  BY John Philips Cranwell, published in 1959.

P.S. Good Luck finding the turtle consommé!

5) Newsletter News – Newest Rag Quilt in a Weekend!

May, June, and July bring us three patriotic holidays.  Beginning with Memorial Day at the end of May, followed closely by Flag Day on June 14th and culminating with the 4th of July, it seemed only natural to create a type of flag as a quilt.

Not wanting to duplicate the real American flag, we have created something that suggests a red, white and blue flag and would be fun made in high school, sports team or college colors.

This is the third in our series of Rag Quilt in a Weekend! books.  Last month – we introduced a Heart Rag Quilt for Mother’s Day (http://www.rag-quilt-instructions.com/heart.shtml) 

And, of course, our always popular, first Rag Quilt Step by Step Guide using an upscale traditional patchwork block pattern.  (Meaning, a traditional block made bigger!)

Just like the other Rag Quilt in a Weekend! patterns, this Flag Rag Quilt can be made in a short weekend by a beginner quilter, or even a child!

Check it out:

http://www.Rag-Quilt-Instructions.com/flag.shtml 

6)  Quilter’s Trip – The National Quilt Championships 2007 – UK
Jun 22, 2007 - Jun 24, 2007

Theme for 2007: Log Cabin Frenzy Sandown Spectacular display of hundreds of competitive quilts from all over the world *Art quilts*Wearable Art*
Sandown Exhibition Centre Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher, Surrey Grosvenor
http://www.grosvenorexhibitions.co.uk

7)  Postcard Quilts for the Troops Second Annual 4th of July Roundup

Fabric postcards are beginning to roll in for the troops in the Middle East.  Quilter Linda sent in a package chock-full of postcards – 400 to be exact!  A quilt group in San Diego contributed 25 cards, San Diego YMCA kids plan to contribute 100 cards, and plenty more are on their way.

There’s still time to make ‘em and send ‘em in.  The deadline is June 8, and the address to send them is:

How to Quilt
7723 Tyler's Place Blvd. #327
West Chester, OH 45069

Remember, quantities sent in receive special mugs, patterns and other fabulous quilting goodies.
 

Wishing on a Star – or a New Moon?

The Egyptians bowed to a new moon three times in honor of the ancient Egyptian Trinity – Osiris (the father), Isis (the mother), and Horus (the son). (Guess there was no daughter in this family!)

They believed that bowing to the new moon brought good luck. In more recent times (but not too recent), folks believed that it was wise to shake any silver coins in your pocket and you make a wish when looking up at the new moon.

Many believed that the moon was made of silver, and that the silver coins in your hand were “connected” with the moon. And you thought the moon was made of Swiss Cheese!

Have a fabulous Month!

Happy Quilting!

Penny Halgren
www.How-to-Quilt.com
Inspiration and Education for Beginning Quilters

www.Rag-Quilt-Instructions.com
Fast, Fun and Funky Quilts

www.Fabric-Postcards.com
Quilt Mail Across the Miles

©How-to-Quilt.com 2006