The Twisted Stitcher
Must haves! On this site you will find special socks for quilters - socks with quilt patterns on them! At the time this newsletter is being published they are on sale. What fun to be able to include our feet in our quilting! Be sure to click on the link and see these quilt socks!

Quilt Stories

Sent in by Tommie Howard, Oklahoma

Maria's Story

I thought you might like to hear my quilt story, too.

I did not grow up with quilts or quilters. There were none in my family, nor were there any quilts.

However, soon after learning to read in first grade (which I thought was a most magical thing to be able to do) I started visiting our local children's library. It was there that I found my first stories about the early Canadian and American pioneers and their quilts were a part of those stories. There were no pictures in those books, but those painted in my mind were quite vivid and I was immediately fascinated.

I learned to sew in seventh grade home economics classes, the same year that my mother was able to buy her first sewing machine. Although she didn't teach me to sew, I watched her make draperies, curtains, clothing, and do the mending. soon followed in her footsteps and sewed the same kinds of things.

At 13, I got my first part-time job as a cashier at our local supermarket (no age restrictions then) and each week I would buy and bring my mother either a Woman's Day or a Family Circle magazine. They cost 5 cents each at the time. Because I'd become an avid reader, I read through those as well and was quite excited to see the occasional feature on quilts. Although I loved those quilts, I thought they were forever beyond my abilities. All the ones I remember were gorgeous, intricate, Baltimore Album quilts.

Fast forward to adulthood and marriage and I discovered that one of my husband's relatives was a quilter. She came up from Pennsylvania for my husband's parents' 50th anniversary and brought them a quilt she'd made for them in the Double Wedding Ring pattern. It was a gorgeous scrappy quilt with lots and lots of different fabrics in it. My youngest daughter has inherited it. Unfortunately, I still thought the process beyond me and although I would
have loved to have her teach me, we were simply too far apart with her in Pennsylvania and me in Canada.

In 1985, I saw a quilt show advertised on PBS - WNED out of Buffalo. I made sure I didn't miss a one and sat there watching and rapidly taking notes (pre VCR days for us). It must have been the first TV quilt show ever, at least in our area. It was Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel. Bless her for that show! I realized then that I could learn to quilt and immediately sent for the booklet that went with the show. I then got busy making every block pattern in the booklet, using all of my garment and home dec leftovers, including synthetics. It was years before I did anything with those blocks, but eventually, my younger son asked me to make a quilt for him from them, which I did.

I've made many quilts since and like all quilters, enjoy the process. My older son asked for an Irish Chain quilt as a graduation present. That's the only one I've ever quilted by hand. I soon turned to machine quilting simply because I wanted to be able to make more quilts.

Probably because of those pioneer stories of my childhood, scrap quilts quickly became my favourite ones. Not only do I love the way they look, but I enjoy the challenge of using what is at hand rather than purchasing fabrics especially for a quilt, though I love to do that, too. Of course, now I have a large fabric stash to choose from, too.

I did not dream of becoming a quilt designer myself. That happened about five years ago while I was searching for a good birthday gift for my husband who was, among other high school subjects, an art teacher. He has an art degree and was always drawing, painting, and creating designs. Because my chemical sensitivities do not allow me to shop, his gift presented a problem. It finally occurred to me to take one of his pictures and make it in a
different medium. I chose needlepoint and the project turned out very nicely. His water colour and my needlepoint now hang side-by-side on one of our walls. From there it was another step to realizing that a lot of his work would make good quilt designs, and that is how we became a design team.

That led to learning html and web site design and creating websites and writing a quilting newsletter and much more. Quilting has taken me a lot of places I had never dreamed of.

I do so look forward to your quilt stories! Do share them with us!

Maria

Quizzles™ are delightful combinations of quilts and puzzles on CDs. You are sure to enjoy both the quilt patterns and quilt-related crossword puzzles.

Quizzles™ are a novel idea! As you can see by the photo on the left, my Quizzles™ is the Mosaic Madness pattern. The CDs include three different quilt pattern layouts, colour settings, and sizes, all designed using the one block. The fun begins when you start choosing from among 5 sets of colours (or a mix of them) to come up with colours which appeal to you. You can happily play with each pattern creating an almost endless number of colour combinations resulting in a myriad of different appearances for each quilt.

All you need do is cut fabric strips to your desired width, line the strips up with the template markings, then rotary cut through the X slit to create the shape you want. The template's channels make this much easier than cutting around a shaped template. They eliminate slippage too since we place our rotary blades in the slots provided.

The Mercury Template can be used with any pattern which calls for hexagons, diamonds, trapezoids and 60° triangles in sizes from 1/2 inch to 8 inches. 90° triangles can also be cut. Instructions for adapting any hexagon are included on the Cut Quilts Fast site. For a strip-pieced or scrappy effect, sew strips of fabric together and cut shapes from them. Whether you cut diamonds from one piece of fabric or a pieced strip, this template makes large star patterns fun to do. In fact, the cutting of all the shapes becomes fun to do!

Nicole Lenze-Whaley, whose husband Jason created the Mercury Template, is preparing several new uses for it and will be adding them to their site as soon as they are ready. This tool is a very versatile one in many more ways, all of which I am looking forward to learning.

An instructional booklet comes with the Mercury Template. The instructions can also be viewed on the Cut Quilts Fast website. Nicole can now be seen demonstrating this special tool on QNN. Check the program listings for dates and times. Be sure to visit her site to order your template or to find a dealer near you. You can also ask your local quilt shops to order them for you.

Darlene Christopherson's tool makes Dogtooth Borders easy.

The tool comes in 3 sizes: Small (for a 1" high finished border) Medium (for a 1-3/4") and Large for a 2"). As you can see, both ends are mitered which helps to align the border on your quilt. A mechanical pencil fits perfectly into the holes on the tool, making marking quick and easy. The ruler is clear so fabrics can be seen easily through it. I also like the fact that it has a hanging hole, making storage convenient.

The markings made through the holes in this tool indicate exactly where to cut and where to fold, enabling rows of perfectly shaped points in identical sizes. The mitered ends are guides for perfectly mitered corners.

The instructions that come with the tool and those on Darlene's site are clear and easy to follow. They include general directions, cutting and folding information, directions for both hand and machine appliqué, illustrations for mitered seams, an inside edge treatment and an outside edge treatment.

Order one or all three sizes from Darlene, or ask your local quilt shop to order it, or check Darlene's site for retailers in your area.

Free Pattern Winners!

February's winner is: brooklyn2@.....................

March's winner is: caw_kwva@.................

Congratulations! You have each won our newest ePattern shown on page one of this newsletter - Valencia.

Please email me to verify your email address and claim your free pattern. Winners have until the May issue is published to claim their pattern prizes.

*Please note: Winners will need the free download of Adobe Acrobat Reader - version 5 or higher - to print their patterns.

1. On any given day the number of employees in a quilt shop is inversely proportional to the number of customers needing quick attention.
2. Every quilt will take twice as long as you expect and be half as beautiful (we are never satisfied).
3. There are only two kinds of masking tape: that which won't stay on and that which won't come off.
4. In cutting an intricate multi-piece block, your ruler will slip on the last side of the last patch.
5. When there is no time to do something right, there will always be time to do it over.
6. The value of any piece of fabric is directly proportional to the speed and ease with which you will ruin it.
7. In any mail-order shipment the item you need the most will be back-ordered.
8. The pattern in a special fabric will never repeat when or where you want it to.
9. Accidental destruction of a fabric will only occur to an expensive imported cotton, never to muslin bought at 50% off.
10. Fabric dyes will never run until the quilt has been completed.
11. A block with flawlessly straight sides, precision corners and perfect color placement will always be the wrong size.
12. A quilt that has to be completed for a birthday in two months will take two years to finish.  And its corollary:  A quilt that has no due date will take only two months to complete.
13. When you finally have your sewing space in the empty bedroom exactly the way you want it your son will move back home.
14. You will find the perfect fabric for your quilt only after it has been discontinued by the manufacturer.
15. A quilt judge will give you a bad critique only when the area is full of other people.
16. That same quilt judge will give praise only when no one else is around.
17. The busier you are on any given day the greater the number of quilting inspirations you will want to try.
18. Your quilting thread will break at the needle only when the last stitch has been taken in the line .
19. If a novice quilter decides to watch you use your rotary cutter, you will always ruin the fabric and cut yourself.
20. Your bobbin thread will only run out in the middle of a long line of stitching.
21. That perfect striped fabric you want to use in your sashing has been printed off-grain.
22. The quilt-marking pencil that you tested on every fabric before you marked your quilt top won't disappear after you have completed the quilt.
23. You finally get a great idea for your Guild's challenge one week before the quilts are due.
    
    - by Judy Grow

Printed with permission from Quiltbug.com where you can find out that there really was a Murphy.

Mo, a character in Inkspell by Cornelia Funke (Fiction)

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