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Hello Quilter

Welcome to our first newsletter. How to start was the big question. I’ve got so much to say that it is difficult to know where to begin.

I was raised in a quilting family, then owned a quilt shop in Dallas, Tx all before the rotary cutter showed up. Now my major activity is lecturing and teaching. Many “old time” quilters insisted that any quilt made in just a few days could not be called a “real” quilt. Using a rotary cutter was just ”not right.”

I took that theme for the preface of my second book, Quilter’s Guide To Rotary Cutting and, with a little fantasy, projected into the future. Here is what I wrote. Enjoy.

“Hundreds of years ago, women made quilts by spinning the yarn and weaving the cloth. Only then could they begin to cut and sew.

Future generations bought their fabric at the store and their grandmothers said, “Humph! In my day we made our own fabrics.”

Then came the sewing machine. Those of our grandmothers who were fortunate enough to have a sewing machine proudly used it to stitch their quilts. Their grandmothers said, “Hmph! In my day we pieced our quilts by hand.”

Now we have the rotary cutter and we’re whipping out our quilts like mad. And our grandmothers are saying, “ Hmph! In my day we cut out each piece with scissors.”

Now, let’s carry this thought into the future. I have a vision of one hundred years from now: Florabene is going to make a quilt. She hires a babysitter for little Cassiopeia (some things never change) and heads for the local quilt shop. There she selects her fabric and rents an hour on the quilting machine. This piece of equipment is about the size of a small room with hundreds of dials, buttons and slots on the front. Florabene dials her quilt pattern, colors, and dimensions, then carefully feeds her fabric into the chosen slots. With all systems ready, she now pushes a central button that activates the machine. Buttons light up, dials turn, things go buzz, whiz and cachunk, cachunk!

Forty-five minutes later, with one huge belch, this machine spits out a gorgeous, finished quilt.

And our children, now grown up and grandmothers themselves, will undoubtedly say, “Hmph! In my day, we had to use rotary cutters to make our quilts.”

I promise to get more down to earth in future newsletters.

MR. DONNA’S FAMOUS CHICKEN SOUP --My husband, who cooks while I quilt, insists every quilter (or better yet, her husband) needs this recipe!
He says, “ Properly made, this chicken soup will cure anything from hang nails to a bad cold.”

Ingredients
1 broiler chicken, approx 8 lbs.
1 lg. White onion
1 cluster celery
3 lg carrots
1 can chicken brooth
1 lg can Furmano’s Chunky Crushed Tomatos w/basil,garlic,oregano. If you can’t get this
    exact brand of tomatos use another, but the soup will not cure the entire range of
    ailments.
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper

Remove skin and fat from chicken, discard. Seal-wrap in aluminum foil. Bake at 350 till tender. 1.5 to 2 hrs. Take from oven and, when cool, remove all bones and save all the juices.   Cut meat from half the chicken into ½ inch pieces. Cut onion and 2/3 of the celery into ½ inch pieces. Shave carrots and cut shavings into fine pieces. Place all ingredients plus all juices and cooked chicken parts and bones into a large pot and cover with water to one inch above ingredients. Lightly boil for 3 hrs. stiring occasionally. When consuming this soup you have to chew a lot because it will contain the bones, or remove bones before serving.

Q & A From the “ASK DONNA” link on the home page of our website---donnaposter.com

Q: Kathy asks “how do I know how big to cut the triangles for an on-point quilt?

A: Your best bet is to figure something like this--and this is the way I do it, too. Draw out
      the whole thing on graph paper. You can find graph paper at any school supply store.
      Since it’s rather difficult to actually draw an on-point block to a certain size, I’ve
      developed a neat trick (I’m not into pain!!!)   Draw your block “straight” on the graph
      paper, cut out the blocks and glue them “on-point” on a new sheet of graph paper. It’s
     quite easy to go from there! Have fun.

Q: A quilter from Vermont asks, “I love your Block Party quilt. Any suggestions on doing
     it as a memory quilt?

A: I’ve made several memory quilts using the Block Party design and they are such fun.
     Here are some ideas.
          1. Use scraps from familiar/favorite garments.
          2. Have people sign some of the blocks. HINT: Make the pieces larger than needed,
               Back it with freezer paper, then make a “mask” with a cut-out for them to write in.
               Use a permanent marker.
          3. Phototransfers are wonderful! I used 27 one time in a Block Party quilt for my 14
               year old niece. She loved it!!
          4. If you need a bigger block just measure two finished blocks and add ¼ inch all
               around.
          5. If you need a block for a smaller photo just add fabric, then cut to a usable size.

That’s it for this newsletter. Log onto----donnaposter.com----often. You never know what you might find. Maybe even some news. Next month I’ll talk about the great stuff I found at the last Quilt Festival in Houston and just maybe if we’ve all been real good my husband (Mr. Donna) will give us another of his culinary concoctions.

Happy quilting
Donna Poster

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