DONNA POSTER NEWSLETTER
FEB-MARCH ‘07
Had some excitement here in Pennsylvania --- maybe you read about our state’s “black eye”. Six inches of snow, followed by sleet, rain and rapidly dropping temperatures created a thick, concrete crust over everything. Unprepared for this, the entire southeast corner of the state became a parking lot! There were fifty mile-long backups of stranded motorists sitting in their cars for as long as twenty-four hours! Sure hope some of them had some hand quilting with them!
Do I need to say that we are really looking forward to the two weeks we’re about to spend with our daughter in San Diego!!!!
Mr. Donna and I just had a great time fixing up the guest room for Eliad! I found the fabric from the movie, “Cars” and quilted the 36” x 43” piece of Lightening McQueen and the rusty pickup truck. That’s Eliad’s favorite movie and every morning when he wakes up, his first words are, “Papa car! BIG Papa car!!!” (His grandpa’s car is red, so every red car is a “Papa Car”) We had a blast doing this room! The walls are decorated with big cutouts from the Learning Source store, an adorable alphabet wallpaper strip and --- of course --- quilts!!!
Mr. Donna has been hard at work with a new project --- creating a website we will set up and monitor ourselves. This has been a long labor of love for him as we have so many ideas and we need to be able to implement them. One of the sections we’re excited about is the “show & tell” where we’ll share photos of quilts you’ve made using our patterns! I’m also looking forward (someday!) to teaching on the website. I’m hoping to do short spots on techniques (Y seams, pressing, etc.) that you can log onto when you actually need to see them.
HINTS:
I get so many ideas from my students, especially those learning a new technique and trying to find a shortcut. Many people have trouble matching two odd points when piecing quilt blocks so this one is a favorite of mine:
Place a strip of ¼” quilter’s tape on the sewing machine bed. Line up the edge of both pieces on this tape. Slide the top one till they intersect at the other edge of the tape. Works great!
Here’s one I must try someday --- using embroidery stitches around the edges of applique to give it a more interesting look. Should be really neat with Dresden Plate or Fan blocks!
That last hint reminded me of a sign I have in my studio. It lists the days of the week and the last one says, “Someday is NOT a day of the week!”. Gosh I gotta read that more often!!
I LOVE YOUR LETTERS
Sandra writes:
When sewing in a room with a carpeted floor, run a “new” toilet brush across carpet to pick up loose threads --- eliminates threads being picked up by vacuum and winding around bristles and roller.
Sandra also writes that she now has a 10’ x 12’ sewing room that’s “not big BUT it’s MY OWN Space!” She says she’s getting too old (HER words, not mine!) to crawl all over the floor laying out blocks, etc. She’d like to have a design board/wall and asks for suggestions.
MY ANSWER:
10 x 12 isn’t big but, boy, I’ve worked in a lot less space than that! It will be great to be able to let it all “out”. I have a design wall that I made out of two sheets of 4” x 8” insulation board covered in cotton batting. I taped the two sheets together with duct tape and even though it was unwieldy to cover, it was, at least, lightweight. To cover it neatly, I took the batting around to the back and taped it in place (duct tape is great stuff!) I then hammered it to the wall with four long nails that I found in Mr. Donna’s workshop. I love it and actually use it for a lot more than just designing. It’s a sort of bulletin board of ideas too. I just use pins in the same way you would use tacks on a corkboard.
MORE ON “SEWING SPACE”
One of the most annoying things about any sewing project is having to set it up all over again every time you want work on it. Over our 55 years of marriage (with many moves) I, like most of you, have found myself relegated to odd places for my sewing space. The smallest was a tiny, unfinished upstairs bathroom-to-be. One time I found space in the dining room when my daughter moved in for a year. Another time I was evicted from a torturously jammed bedroom when a real estate dealer said I absolutely had to turn it back into a guest room.
So I’ve had a lot of experience in setting up sewing space. Little by little, I’m going to pass some of these hints along to you. I currently have a gorgeous 400 square foot studio that is still loaded with storage ideas. For some reason, space cries out to me to be filled. Mr. Donna refuses to build any more shelves for me --- he says I’ll just fill them up!! He’s right --- I will!!!
I know you, my quilting buddies, have found organizing solutions too. Let’s hear about them and I’ll pass them on.
FUNNY STORY
In a class on Foldy Stuff one of my students was making a quilt from the Amish pattern. Foldy Stuff is made up of pleats and the Amish block has a “hidden” area under the pleats going from corner to corner. This lady said she was making it for her son to take to college and wouldn’t it be fun to write messages in those “hidden” areas! We were all coming up with stuff to write. Some, of course, were obvious --- “No Smoking” --- “Get Plenty of Sleep” --- “No Dating Till You’re Twenty One” --- etc. Some were a bit raunchy, too! Can’t you just see that poor guy --- he’ll be hiding his quilt every night till the lights go out!
TO CLEAN OR NOT TO CLEAN
I’m going to include photos of my studio along with my hints but I’m stymied --- do I clean it up first or show you all the way it really looks?
My books all have photographs of my model makers working on their projects. Of course we all look very nice. One day Mr. Donna was watching me sewing and said, “Now that’s the picture that should go in your books!” Old bathrobe, straggly hair, no makeup, empty coffee cups, piles of fabric --- you get the picture! I was in Heaven!
Gotta go. Hope you’re all doing OK through these long winter months. I do believe March is the hardest --- you see those little crocuses peeking through and you think Spring is right around the corner. Then, wham!! It snows!! Well, we are the lucky ones; we just head to the sewing machine!!!
Happy quilting,
Donna