How-to-Quilt.com

November 2006 Newsletter

Thank you for your continued subscription to the How-to-Quilt Monthly Newsletter

This issue includes:

1)  A Tidbit of History – Flying Geese

2)  Tools, Tricks and Quilting Tips – Removing Marks from your Quilt Top
   
3)  What's in a Name? – Learn about a traditional patchwork quilt block that has many different names. 
   
4)  Recipe for Quilters – Turkey Paysan
   
5)  Newsletter News – Brand new Step-by-Step Guide – Turkey in the Straw Paper Pieced Pattern

6)  Fabric Postcards for the Troops

Click here for the Autumn - Spring Quilt Block Pattern Collection

How-To-Quilt.com Newsletter Archive online – Many 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

1) A Tidbit of History – Flying Geese

One of the quilt patterns this month is Flying Geese, so I thought I’d share the description of the quilt from The Standard Book of Quilt Making and Collecting.

This is one of the patchwork patterns that is designed for parallel striped running lengthwise on the bed.  The colors in the patches and background can be carried to suit almost any room.  The small triangles in the pieced strip are usually white, but the large triangles representing birds may be in mixed colors or in a single color in contrast to the background.

This is an all-over pattern and no border is required.  A single pieced strip in this pattern is often used as a border design on patchwork quilts.

A variation of Flying Geese

2) Tools, Tricks, and Quilt Tips – Removing Marks from your Quilt Top

Here is a collection of tips for removing marks from quilt tops:

3)  What's in a Name?

Autumn is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere while the folks "Down Under" are enjoying Spring. We decided to bring you a block and a set of patterns full of Autumn and Spring.

Early in the 1900s, as more women became interested in quilting and wanted to expand the variety of blocks they used in their quilts, they would write to magazines and newspapers for ideas.  Publications would list the requests in one issue then publish the answers in the next issue.  The blocks would be published with instructions and a picture.  Often the blocks were renamed to sound more current or to give credit to a city or state, and one block would end up having several different names.

Flutter Wheel Clover Leaf Pin Wheels Windmill

Click on either the picture of the quilt block or the name of the block that is highlighted in blue and underlined, and a file will open that has a colored quilt block picture, templates for the pattern, and rotary cutting instructions.  The pattern page has links for these block patterns as well.

Click here for the Autumn - Spring Quilt Block Pattern Collection

Thanks to Maggie Malone's book 5,500 Quilt Block Designs for this information.

4)  Recipes for Quilters – Turkey Payan or "What to do with Leftover Turkey!"

serves 4
While "leftover" turkey is not so much of a problem as "leftover" ham, because it occurs less often, it can still be a problem. One solution to it is the following recipe. It was evolved, more or less fortuitously, as were a great many other recipes in this book, to feed unexpected guests with the current contents of the refrigerator.

In this instance it contained a turkey carcass from which most of the breast, but very little else, had been eaten. We cut off the meat in large chunks, broke up the bones, and boiled them, together with a cut-up onion, a stalk of celery, a piece of carrot, a bit of parsley, and some salt and peppercorns in a quart of water to make stock.

If you are in a hurry, you can make stock for this dish with bouillon cubes, chicken extract, or tinned turkey broth. If you have no turkey fat, butter may be substituted in equal quantities. This is essentially an informal dish, and it could serve in a pinch as the main course.

This historical recipe is from 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, and published in 1959.

5)  Newsletter News – Turkey in the Straw – Paper Pieced Step-by-Step Guide

Brand new, released just last week is a Step-by-Step Guide for a Paper Pieced Traditional Block Pattern, and making it a fabric postcard.

See how easy it is to foundation piece a traditional patchwork quilt block, just in time for the holidays.  Create some of these treasures to send to your family and friends – for Thanksgiving or beyond.  Heck, you can send these throughout the year.

After all, the Turkey in the Straw pattern is a fun quilt block you can do anything with.  Change the colors and make it be a summer pinwheel.

Get the details about this new, must-have quilting resource here:
http://www.fabric-postcards.com/turkey.shtml

6)  Postcard Quilts for the Troops

Penny’s Postcard Posse is Flying Again. At last count, 93 tiny quilted postcards had been received at Postcard Posse Headquarters.  With the deadline fast approaching on November 7, you’ll want to quick like a bunny whip one up and send it along.

Check out pictures of the fabric postcards already delivered:

http://fabric-postcards.com/turkeypostcards.shtml

Check out pictures of the fabric postcards delivered for the 4t of July:

http://www.fabric-postcards.com/memorialdaypostcards.shtml

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

P.S. Check out Nita's Place - Where creative embroidery projects inspire your imagination!

P.P.S. If you haven't had enough Halloween fun, check this out:

http://www.mountain-breeze.com/holidays/halloween/index.html

P.P.P.S. You can get the monthly newsletter in print; get all the details here:

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