Hand Applique Retreat with Sandra Mollon October 9-14, 2011Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference CenterLake Tahoe, NV

We are so lucky to have Sandra Mollon coming to Lake Tahoe for a hand applique retreat at Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center. Sandra is truly gifted and has made some beautiful award winning applique quilts. The thing that puts Sandra's quilts "over the top" is her creative embellishments. She uses inks, beads, hand dyed fabrics, and hand dyed silk ribbons.

I had the good fortune of attending one of Sandra's retreats in June. Anyone who knows me knows that I've never been a fan of hand work. (In fact, when I told one of my friends that I was going to the retreat, her response was "Who are you and what have you done with Sheri!") So I went to the retreat so that I could learn some of her embellishment techniques and figured I'd just have to sit through the hand applique part. To my surprise, I loved it all...including the hand applique! Sandra is a great teacher and is able to give attention to all skill levels so that the beginners don't feel overwhelmed, and the advanced quilters don't get bored.

I encourage you to go to Sandra's website (www.sandramollonquilts.com) and take a look at her work. She appliques everything from landscapes to intricate Baltimore Album quilts. Below are images of some of her work.

Sandra's next quilt retreat up in Lake Tahoe is October 9-14, 2011 at Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center, which is located on the south shore of beautiful Lake Tahoe. Cost is $625, (about half the price of Asilomar) and includes tuition, gift bags, lodging (double occupancy), all meals beginning with Dinner on Sunday through Breakfast on Friday. Single occupancy rooms are available at a slightly higher rate. For more information or to register, call Sheri Lilienthal at Fabrics Unlimited, 1-800-827-9389 Mon-Sat 10am-5pm. As a bonus, you can get a $50 discount on the fees if you sign up and refer a friend who also signs up. Payment plans are available upon request. Space is limited, though, so be sure to sign up soon!

Happy Quilting & Sewing!

Sheri

Bias Quilt Binding vs Straight Quilt Binding

I recently learned that one of my quilting friends always uses bias binding on her quilts.  Now I know that you must use binding whenever you are binding a curved edge, but I wondered why go to the trouble of making bias binding for straight edges? And don't you use more fabric for a bias binding? My friend told me that she was told that bias binding lasts longer than straight binding.  Being a "research-a-holic" (is that even a word?), I went to the internet and researched bias vs straight bindings.  To my surprise, I found out a couple of things.

1.  Bias binding does wear better than straight binding.  This is because the bias has stretch and flow and moves at the edge.  Straight binding has only a couple of threads at the very edge and will wear out faster.  So if your quilt will get lots of use, the bias binding may be the way to go.  If you are doing a wallhanging, straight binding should serve you well unless you have curved edges.

2.  Bias binding does not require more fabric.  It takes the same number of square inches of fabric for both types of binding.  It seems to take more for bias because you are cutting straight strips across the width of the fabric for straight binding while bias strips are cut out of a square. 

Whichever method you use, I encourage you to use a folded binding rather than flat.  Folded binding is when you cut a strip of fabric (usually 2 1/4" - 2 1/2") and then fold it in half lengthwise, sew it to the front of your quilt matching the raw edges of your quilt and raw edges of the binding, then fold the binding over to the back of the quilt and hand stitch.  This gives you a double layer of fabric for your binding.  Flat binding is only a single layer and really won't last long.

Happy Quilting!

Sheri Lilienthal
Fabrics Unlimited
http://www.fabricsunlimited.net/

4th Annual Outdoor Quilt Show

Jerry and I are happy to report that our 4th Annual Outdoor Quilt Show was a huge success!  Thanks to all who attended, and a very special and heartfelt thank you to all of the volunteers who helped with setup, cleanup, and everything in between, including Margaret and Ralph James, Cathy and Dave Huffman, Cindy Flores, Nelly and Brian Peterson, Andee Wetenkamp, Judy Crawford, Dawn Pohlman, Annette and Jeff Kelley, Jean and Don Netzer, Karen Tucker, Terri Sherman, Lisa Bernardini, Sandy Weber, Jo Graden and her honey John, Bobbi Rosenberger, Bobbi Cole, Scott Cook, and my beautiful daughter, Julie Roberts, who dropped everything to drive up from Southern California to help when she found out I broke my ankle last week. I apologize if your name is not on the list above, as I know there were others who helped make the show a success. We are very blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. We also appreciate the visit by "Fran Dresher" (aka Bethany Owen who stars in her 1 woman show at the Horizon Casino). Finally, thanks to everyone who allowed us the honor of displaying their quilts and projects.  It wouldn't be a quilt show without the quilts. (You probably ought to get started pretty soon on your projects for next year's show!!)

A Word About Frixion Gel Pens for Marking Quilts

Just returned from Quilt Market in Salt Lake City.  One of the hot new items was the Pilot Frixion Gel Pens for marking quilts because you can iron away the marks.  However, if you look closely, the advertising says that the marks turn clear when heated to over 140 degrees. "Turning clear" is not the same thing as "comes out of the fabric".  The fine print also says that the marks reappear at temperatures below 14 degrees.

I consulted with an award winning machine quilter, and she had already tested the pens.  She ironed them away, stuck the fabric in the fridge, and the marks came back.  Re-ironed the marks away, stuck the fabric in the fridge, and the marks still came back.  She also tried washing out the marks, but they still keep coming back.  Now if you live in the heat of the desert, the marks are less likely to come back than if you live in Minnesota or even up here in Lake Tahoe where 14 degrees is not uncommon in the winter.

Keep in mind that these pens were not originally designed to use on fabric.  They are great fun to use on paper.  Something else to consider is what the marks may do to your quilt over time.  Remember, we make our quilts to last a long time. So if the marks are really still there, just "turn clear", is that really what you want on your heirloom quilt?

I would love to hear what you think of this product..

New Classes at Fabrics Unlimited

It has finally stopped snowing, so come up to see us in beautiful Lake Tahoe.  We have a variety of new classes scheduled in May. Take a look!

•  Beginning Quilting (6 weeks) Begins Tues, 5/10 from 9am-1pm
• Quick Start Beginning Quilting (1 day) Wed, 5/18 from 8am-4pm - lunch included
• Beginning Sewing I - Pillowcase Sat, 5/21 from 2pm-5pm (Ages 16+)
• Beginning Free Motion Quilting with Jill Schumacher Wed, 5/25 from 10am-4pm - lunch included
• Fat Quarters Anonymous 4th Sat Monthly beginning 5/28 from 9am-3pm
• Party with Patrick - 4th Wed Monthly 6pm-9pm

 Call, come in, or sign up on line. 15% discount on class supplies purchased in the shop.

 

Also, AMGEN Tour starts Sunday, May 15 in Lake Tahoe for bike enthusiasts.  If you are planning to come up here via Hwy 50 from the Sacramento area, be aware that Cal Trans is closing Hwy 50 for 2 weeks at Echo Summit (the really scary cliff area) on May 11 (yes, 4 days before the start of the tour!).  Check out www.way2tahoe.com for updates and detour information.

Snow Day = Sew Day in Lake Tahoe

Woke up today to 2 feet of new snow on top of the 3 feet we got in the past few days.  The snow from earlier this week was light, which made it easier to shovel.  However, last night's snow is heavy and wet.  Jerry made a path from the front door to our truck at home so I could get out there and clean off the truck. Of course, when you clean 2 feet of snow off of your vehicle, it all goes on the freshly shoveled driveway, so you get to shovel some more.

All 4 doors of the truck were frozen shut, so after some pushing, pulling, hitting, and kicking, Jerry was able to get the front 2 doors open, but the back 2 doors remained adamant about staying frozen shut.  Not to worry, however, they did indeed come open while we were driving to the shop. We then pulled into the Safeway parking lot to close them.  Then they didn't want to close.  They were sneaky, though.  Jerry seemingly slammed the doors shut, got back in the car, but the "door open" warning light was on.  We turned around and saw that the doors had come open again.  Again, Jerry got out and slammed the doors shut.  This little game only went on for a couple of times, they Jerry showed them who was boss.

Back out on the road toward the shop, we were apparently driving too slow for an anxious snow-boarder behind us.  Evidently we were cutting into his boarding time.  So he sped up and passed us, only to catch his wheels on the center berm (in South Lake Tahoe the snow is plowed toward the center of the highway...makes it hard to make a left turn during snowstorms, but there's always 1 brave soul who tries to cut a path in the berm with their little Subaru or the like, only to get stuck until someone helps them dig out...but I digress..)and then he did 2-1/2 spins from the center of the highway over to the side, got his car aimed in the right direction and sped off.  Fortunately, he didn't hit anyone or roll over.  Probably thought he was on an "E-Ticket Ride" at Disneyland (ok, I'm showing my age now).

Above are a couple of pictures taken from the window of our upstairs classroom toward the lake.  It's still cloudy and snowy so you can't really make out the lake.  The bottom photo is taken from inside the truck toward the front of our house.

So if your weather is anything like ours, today is a great day to stay inside and sew.  However, if you find yourself in need of supplies or company, come on down to see us. The parking area and driveway are plowed, the heat is on, and the coffee is hot.

Happy Sewing!
Sheri

Shop Hop Survey

We're in the planning stages of the Sierra 2 Sage Quilt Shop Hop coming up September 8-11, 2011 and want your opinion. We'd appreciate it if you would take a minute to answer the short survey below.

1.  What type of shop hop project do you prefer?
a.  Each participating shop makes a different quilt and sells fabric kits for it;
b.  Each participating shop makes the same quilt design using different fabrics and sells fabric kits for it;
c.  Each participating shop makes a sampler quilt with each shop in charge of a different block and a different finishing kit (ie, each shop uses all of the sampler blocks in their quilt but with unique layouts and DIFFERENT fabrics). Each shop would give away the pattern for their particular block and sell fabric kits for their entire quilt.
d.  Each participating shop makes a sampler quilt with each shop in charge of a different block and different finishing kit as in "c" above, but all shops using the SAME fabrics.  Each shop would give away the pattern for their particular block and sell fabric kits for their block and their finishing kit.
e.  Project doesn't matter.
2.  If you have attended our Sierra 2 Sage Shop Hop in the past, what can we do to improve your experience? (We changed the weekend to help eliminate the traffic issues of 2010)

3.  If you have attended ANY shop hops, what was your favorite and least favorite experiences?

We appreciate you taking the time to respond to this short survey.  Please feel free to give us your comments, as your opinion is very important to us and will help to make the upcoming Sierra 2 Sage Shop Hop experience the best ever!

You can respond to this blog or send us an email to info@fabricsunlimted.net.  For more detail on dates and times of the 2011 Shop Hop, please visit the shop hop website at www.sierra2sageshophop.com.  Thank you!!