April Free Quilt Block Patterns and News from How to Quilt

"I've spent most of my life making quilts. The rest I've just wasted!"

Greetings Quilter -

Since Georgia Bonesteel, an excellent hand quilter leads off the month with our Eavesdrop on a Telephone Conversaction, and will talk about quilting, I decided to focus some of this month's newsletter information on quilting designs, including some basic “guidelines” for deciding how to select a design.

Early in my quilting journey, I invested in some books of quilting designs. Most of the designs were taken from antique quilts, and are still used by quilters today.

Whether you are hand quilting or machine quilting, the guidelines will help you decide how to quilt your quilt. And some of the same designs can be used for both machine quilting and hand quilting.

The one caution with machine quilting is to choose a design that will allow a continuous motion on your machine – something that won’t require a lot of stopping and starting. If you are doing the machine quilting yourself, you will appreciate saving the work.

If you are paying a professional machine quilter, you will appreciate saving the money; and the quilter will thank you for saving the work.

Above all, quilt your quilt in a way that makes you happy. If you struggle with the quilting because you are unhappy about some aspect of the design, there is a good chance you won’t finish it – and we’re not for collecting unfinished quilts!

Learn now to make double fold straight grain binding with this month's Binding Club selection - Binding with Straight Grain Binding.

How to Bind a Quilt Club and DVD

This month’s Binding DVD will show you how to bind a quilt double fold straight grain binding.

This is a very traditional method of binding a quilt, and

Active Square Patch and above members of TheQuiltingCoach.com and active members of the Official How to Bind a Quilt Club will receive this DVD for free as a benefit of their membership.

Non members can order this DVD individually, or you can join the Club. Remember, the DVD showing how to bind a quilt using striped fabric will be available only until the end of April. Then it, too, disappears.

You may have questions about the Binding Club, and here are the answers:

• These will be all new methods of binding than are in The Ultimate How to Bind a Quilt DVD Mentor
• Each DVD will be the same format as the DVDs in The Ultimate How to Bind a Quilt DVD Mentor - each DVD will be from start to finish demonstrating everything you need to know about the style of binding
• You can cancel your membership any time you would like - no obligation, no hurt feelings
• Square Patch Members and above of TheQuiltingCoach.com will receive a new DVD each month as a benefit of membership. So, you might want to join up and get all of the benefits of membership, including the Binding Video of the Month
• You can order each one separately - pick and choose only the ones you want. There will be a new and different method each month for at least 10 months, or until I run out of methods.
• At the end of each month, that month's video will be taken off the market. Yup, you have until April 30 to order the Binding with Stripes video separately.
  

And now for the rest of the news - -

Happy Quilting!

Georgia Bonesteel will be joining us next week. I will have more details about the Conversation after I talk with Georgia and finalize the date.

This should be a fun Conversation, since Georgia is a longtime traditional patchwork quilter who will share her techniques and secrets for designing quilts as well as:

I am certain she will enjoy your questions, too. So, watch for the email with the date and time for this fun Conversation.

Also, mark you calendar for April 26, when Scott Murkin joins us. He is a quilt artist as well as quilt judge and physician - in his "other" live. That, too, should be a fun Conversation

BOOK OF THE MONTH

This is a treasure chest of quilting designs that you can use for either hand quilting or machine quilting. You'll be glad you added this to your collection.

Quilting Designs from the Past by Jenny Carr Kinney
300+ Designs from 1810–1940

You'll be getting more information this month about quilting designs and how many quilters use quilting designs from the past.

Maybe it’s because you don’t need to worry about copyright issues. Maybe it’s because the blocks come from the past, so why not the quilting?

Whatever the reason, there are hundred, possibly thousands of beautiful quilting designs that are right at your fingertips.

Years ago, books with quilting designs were printed on 11” by 17” paper – making them somewhat cumbersome to store and work with.

Given the current technology, it’s easy to take a small design and make it whatever size you need, and this resource has hundreds of designs – all identified by period in history.

The history part of the designs isn't my primary interest in this resource, it is the variety of quilting designs that are available for any style quilt I am making.

Just flip through the pages of this book and get ideas for how to quilt your quilt. Or create a quilt so you can show off a quilting design. Whichever works for your style of quilting.

Plus you’ll discover how to make the design exactly the size you need.

Make Your Quilts Look Like Antiques with Authentic Period Quilting Designs

With this resource, you get:

• Over 300 historically accurate quilting designs to choose from along with sample quilts showing how the design will look on a quilt • Instructions showing you how to make each design just the right size for your quilt • Designs for all skill levels, from beginner to advanced • Designs that are perfect for hand or machine quilting • Essential reference guide for anyone interested in vintage and antique quilts • Designs that are organized into four time periods to make it easy to find the right designs for your quilt

Whether you’ve created a beautiful quilt top in the style of your favorite era or a quilt for today, once it’s finished the next question always is – how do you quilt it? This huge collection of historic quilting designs has the answer.

With hundreds of designs gathered from old quilts, patterns, books, magazines, and other original sources, you'll find the perfect quilting design to make your quilt picture-perfect.

You can add this to your collection by reserving your copy. I will take orders until Sunday, April 5. The order goes in bright and early Monday morning, April 6. They will most likely ship from here the week of Aoril 23.

Postcard Quilts for the Troops

July 4th Roundup Next - Deadline MAY 20!

Penny's Postcard Posse has sent more than 15,000 fabric postcards to our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and the hospital in Germany.

As quilters, we know what those postcards mean to the men and women who recieve them. Some who get them receive no other mail from home. And for all of them, it's a reminder of the wonderful freedoms they are fighting for and the comforts they will enjoy when they return home.

The 4th of July Roundup is in full swing - the deadline is May 20!

It's not too early to start making patriotic cards for our 4th of July Roundup. This will mark our 4th Year! Check out the postcard patterns on www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com I will continue to add designs, and patterns for the fabric postcards are always free.

Notes from Diane:

This just in from a soldier on the front line -

"I wanted to send a few lines to thank you and the women for the lovely postcard quilts that you sent the team for Easter. Everyone on the team enjoyed receiving the quilts and were moved by your support. Everyone on the team is making a point to display their quilts by their bunks to show them off.

I noticed from your address that you are from Michigan. I moved my family (Wife and Daughter) to Paw Paw, Michigan for this deployment so she could have the support of her Mother while I was gone. Is there still a great deal of snow on the ground or has spring started for you?

Once again, thank you for all the lovely quilts and your letter of support!!! 

Take Care!!"

Remember the Birthday Roundup - Diane had a great idea to send over a package of Birthday postcards that can be handed to soldiers the day of their birthday! What a great idea.

So, we've set up a deadline of August 10, and there is plenty of time to get some postcards made by then. She will send over a big box and the soldier "in charge" can hand them out as birthdays arrive. I will be adding birthday-themed postcard designs to www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com, so keep on checkin'

To make the 4th of July deadline, get your cards to Diane by May 20.

Please send your cards to:
Diane Malaznik
14215 Westmore St.
Livonia, MI 48154-4149

Diane is doing a fabulous job keeping the pictures updated, and if you have sent cards in, let your friends and family know that they can see pictures of them here: www.Fabric-Postcards.com

Remember you can get FREE postcard patterns at: www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com

Special Note - we are in the process of changing the Picture Gallery on the Fabric-Postcards.com site. It may take a few days, so bear with us. Not to worry - We have all of the pictures and will get everything squared away soon.

Featured Block in Video - Augusta Quilt Block

Securing Bias Edges with Freezer Paper

Saturday, as I was flipping through the pages of one of my quilt books, I ran across a new use for freezer paper in quilting.

I've used freezer paper for years for hand applique - place the freezer paper on the back of the fabric, shiny side up, and then press (iron) the seam allowance onto the freezer paper to hold it in place.

Then you can press the piece onto your background fabric and the freezer paper will hold the entire piece in place as you sew it onto your background.

It works well, especially when you get the freezer paper exactly the right temperature to melt some of its wax. (That's the tricky part, and sometimes it takes me a few tries to get it to stick.)

This new technique suggested that you could press freezer paper onto fabric with bias edges and then sew the pieces together. The idea is that your bias edges would be stabilized and wouldn't stretch as you sewed them.

Sounded like an idea worth trying.

Yesterday I went in search of a block that had a bunch of triangles. And I found one called Augusta. It has several triangles, and especially the ones that I find particularly challenging - those long skinny ones with no right angle.

So, I decided to test out the freezer paper method. You'll see my experiment in the video below. By the end of the video I had come to the conclusion that it was a pretty ok method. It takes extra time, but possibly the increased accuracy is worth the effort.

However, later I put the block on my cutting mat and placed a ruler on top of it, only to discover that it was rather cockeyed! I recognize that I didn't cut the paper to the exact shape of the fabric, and that may have been the problem. I also figured that maybe next time I will press the whole piece of fabric onto the freezer paper and cut them at the same time.

I guess I've decided that it's worth a second try. But it is a lot of effort.

In any case, you can see how the block is sewn together and choose to use the paper - or not.

Visit www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com to see other quilt block videos and get free patterns. While you're there, invest in Pattern Credits (minimum $54) and get a FREE DVD showing 6 different ways to sew Half-Square Triangles together. We've only got 14 of these left, so get yours quick.

Enjoy!

Download the Augusta Quilt Block Pattern

The April selection of free quilt block patterns includes a variety of 4 patch quilt blocks, ranging from the easy to make to some that are a little more complex.

Click here to download your April FREE quilt block patterns

Bread Basket	Broken Dishes	Cats & Mice	Cherokee Spirit
Churn Dash	Shady Pine	Signature	Swallow
	Tippecanoe	Twilight

Click here to download your April FREE quilt block patterns