DONNA POSTER NEWSLETTER
SEPT. ‘05
LITTLE ELIAD
Great excitement here!! Our daughter, Zoe, just emailed us from Russia and she is, now officially, the mother of little Eliad! Our other daughter, Laura, arrived there two days ago to help Zoe during the week she must spend in Moscow tying up loose ends. They seem to have a lot of loose ends in Russia. We will be meeting them in New York September 14, complete with banner, balloons and video camera. An interesting point--he’ll not officially become an American citizen until his feet touch the USA! That’s the picture we want most. And---get this, all my stitching friends---he’ll be wearing a cap on which I have sewn a little American flag! And, Mr. Donna will be right there, bawling his eyes out! This is our first grandchild and, boy, are we ready!!!
ANTIQUE SEWING EQUIPMENT
I’ve been collecting antique sewing machines and tools for quite a few years and I wish you could see them all!! But that’s impossible, so, when space permits, I’d like to describe them to you. One of my favorites is still the first one I ever bought. It’s a five inch high statue of Hitler, bending over, and his rear end is a pin cushion!
QUILTERS GUIDE TO ROTARY CUTTING
The publisher is discontinuing my book Quilter’s Guide to Rotary Cutting, (second edition) after an eight year run, a long time for books in the quilt industry. A quantity of books became available at a special price offered to authors and we would like to pass this saving on to you folks. We are making this $19.95 book available to subscribers of this newsletter for $10.00 per copy and shipping is free for USA and Canada orders. Shipping for other than USA and Canada is $7.00 bringing this total to $17.00) Because of the limited number, this offer is available only to newsletter subscribers until Sept 31. Just send a check or money order to:
Holiday Designs
683 Laurel Dr.
Boiling Springs, Pa 17007.
Also, please write your email address on the check. We will return your check or money order if we run out of books. This offer is not available on our website and we are not set up to take credit cards over the phone. Sorry, you have to send a check.
AN EMAIL FROM SANDRA ABOUT THE USE OF DENIM:
“In response to the quilter who wants to use up her denim: I saw a cute idea for young people that simply involved using squares with the seams on the OUTSIDE so they frayed during washing. These were about four inch squares but I assume they could be any size.. The quilter used old jeans an well as new denim, so the squares had some variety in color and texture. She decorated some of the blocks with appliqués, but you could do whatever you want here. I later used this idea to make a quilt for my 21 year old son, and he loves it. Again no batting or backing required. Quick and easy.”
NEW SCISSORS
I just bought another pair of scissors! It’s four inches long, stainless steel, by Omnigrid and it has the sharpest tip I have ever seen---so sharp it comes with a little plastic guard to put on the tip. Perfect for snipping those tiny, hard to reach areas. By the way, I have often wondered, if I ever got all the scissors I own in one place, how many would I have. A lot!!! How about you? How many pairs of scissors do you own? How old is your oldest pair? Do you know its history? Do you use any of your scissors for functions other than what they were intended for? Email me at---donnaposter@aol.com---and lets have a little fun here. I’ll let you know what I hear from ya’ll.
SEND A GIFT
The Send A Gift program is up and running on the website
---donnaposter.com----You send a gift composed of quilt patterns to your favorite quilter and include a color card and message much the same as you would send flowers. There are four color cards to choose from. Just click onto the link SEND A GIFT at the Home Page and there are instructions on how to do this. It’s real easy. You make up the order using the shopping cart, pick a card and include your message. Your order will be sent and the card with your message will be included.
NON-USA ORDERS
Oh, dear! We learned, the hard way that one of my HGTV-Simply Quilts programs aired in New Zealand. Orders came flooding in for Foldy Stuff patterns via the website. The website is set up only to process orders from the USA Mr. Donna handled the orders the best he could but it turned out to be a real shipping mess.
Every problem has a solution and here is Mr. Donna’s solution for orders coming from outside the USA.
Step 1: Email the order to Arnposter@comcast.net
Step 2: Tell him how you want to pay for the order: Check or international money order, ETF or from the website using your credit card.
Step 3. You will receive an email reply giving you the total including shipping and other ordering information.
Q-Marsha from Texas asks:
My quilt group recently made a quilt top (Queen size) using the Court House Steps design and tons of scraps. We have 56 blocks arranged in diagonal rows by color. My problem is what to do for the drop because there are so many colors. My thoughts are to either add another row of the same design using smaller blocks, or to just continue adding more blocks to construct the drop.
A: Either of your ideas would work just nicely. Here are more options:
1. Add a first border that would finish to one half the width of the blocks in the design, then add a second row of the full size blocks all made from the Courthouse Steps design. A full block would then fit in each corner. See what that first border would look like if you used the same fabric as the center squares. I think it would tie everything together nicely.
2. I’ve done this and I really like it. Decide how wide you need to cut your border, then cut strips of scraps that length. Sew the strips together to “build” the border. It’s easy and fun.
Remember that when making a Foldy Stuff quilt, you need to add another layer of muslin or lightweight batting under any area that doesn’t have pleats to give it some bulk, that includes borders.
ARCHIVED NEWSLETTERS
All the newsletters are saved on our website and you can read them, or print them out, any time you wish. Just click onto ARCHIVED NEWSLETTERS at the Home Page.
That’s all for now. Hope you’re having a nice fall season! Till next month, happy quilting,
Donna