Monthly Archives: May 2011

Pressing crayon to set color

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I received some excellent feedback from Dottie Bailey, a quilter on the Quilting Board forum (www.quiltingboard.com), about the proper way to press the fabric and set the color after coloring it with crayons.

She said, use white towels with no texture. They need to be completely smooth or they will transfer the bumpy texture (to look like tiny dots in your crayoned shapes) and it will look…..not as good as I think it could. These tend to be the name brand, more expensive paper towels but you don’t use many sheets at a time. Also===very important—-place the towel over the page, iron well, and if the towel gets any color on it at all, which it most likely will, DO NOT reuse it. It will transfer the color from one page to another and ruin the second one.

You can also use copy paper. No problems with bumpy texture there, but you can only use each page once (like the paper towels ) because of the problems with transferring color from one page to another.

Play with a piece of fabric and a quickly colored page to test all of this and get used to it before doing the real thing. It’s not hard at all but you just have to be careful.

Dottie added that there might be a situation where a quilter might want to experiment with different textured paper towels for added effects, but probably not on one of these Bible quilt pictures.

Thank you Dottie for this very helpful information.

Bible quilts – a team effort

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As much as I love the idea of making Bible quilts, and I hope and pray many will take this idea and “run with it,” I want to encourage youth leaders to think it through and have a plan for getting the final quilting done – sewing the top to the batting and backing.

And in the same breath I encourage quilters who catch this vision to step forward and offer to help the youth with this project. Perhaps a group of women might meet together on a regular basis and start a “quilting bee” for completing the quilt(s) started by the youth.

Appliqué Quilting

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I have been teaching myself to hand appliqué quilt blocks for about five years. Because I plan to use my quilt blocks as book illustrations as well as for a Bible quilt, I am very picky about the quality of my blocks and have re-done every block for my first book, The Creation.

There are websites available that teach the hand appliqué technique of quilting so I don’t plan to re-invent the wheel by writing it all out. I may comment from time to time on how I resolved a particular problem I faced with a given quilt block. Here are a few teaching links to get you started:

http://quiltbug.com/articles/applique-tips.htm

http://www.quilt.com/HowTo/AppliqueHowToPage.html

I’ll add more posts from time to time showing the approaches that work for me. There are so many different ways to do appliqué.

 

What is the vision for BibleQuilts.com?

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My vision for this project is for children to go to bed with Bible quilts, and seeing the pictures they point to one and ask to hear the story read or told. I believe Bible quilts can become catalysts that will encourage family devotions and Bible reading at bedtime.

Through this blog I hope to stimulate an interest in creating Bible quilts among parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles of children everywhere. I would also like to build a support group with other quilters to further stimulate the concept of making Bible quilts.

See also my Bible storybook The Creation at http://honeycombadventures.com/books/

Janice D. Green
Author, illustrator, and publisher
Honeycomb Adventures Press, LLC

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Mama’s Sewing Pin

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Mama's Pin

When I use Mama's pin I am reminded of the rich heritage she gave me through her love for sewing.

As I worked on my latest quilt block for my Bible storybook, The Creation, I reached for a pin in my pincushion to hold a turned piece of fabric in just the right position while I hand stitched it to the background. Although there are probably 100 pins in my pincushion, I had a particular one in mind – Mama’s pin.

Pins are pins, I argue with myself as I take the time to pick out Mama’s pin, but that’s not the point. Mama’s pin reminds me of Mama and brings her a little closer to me as I sew.

I haven’t had Mama’s pin very long – a little over a year. The last time I stayed with Mama in her condo before she moved into assisted living, I needed to borrow a pin for something. This particular pin had a ball-shaped silver head on it or I wouldn’t have remembered it from any other pin. It had probably been salvaged from the packaging on something she bought in a store. When I got back home I discovered the pin in my things and put it in my pincushion.

Joan and Janice

My younger sister and I wearing dresses Mama made from shirt factory remnants

Probably my earliest memory of Mama is of her sewing. WWII had just ended when I was born and times were tough. Mama had learned of a shirt factory where she could get fabric scraps that she could use to make dresses for my sister and me (and a couple of neighbor girls and my cousins.) I wanted to sew too but fabric was expensive and I was only about 4 or 5. I looked at the back of the pattern and wanted Mama to let me cut out the tiny pattern piece shapes printed there and make a real dress, but in her wisdom, she insisted that it wouldn’t work. Mama gave me a scrap of cloth to fold over my flat doll that had paper doll clothes.

A few years later I was old enough to take sewing in 4-H and I made an apron and a head scarf, but I couldn’t be satisfied until I made something from a pattern. Because fabric was expensive, I purchased a doll pattern and used a small piece of fabric Mama had salvaged to cut out and sew my first dress – granted, it was quite small. But it wasn’t long before I began making my own clothes. In Home Ec. I made a skirt, and for my homework sewing assignment I made a pair of shortie pajamas that I was so proud of. Soon I was making my own Easter dresses and other clothes. I later made my own prom dresses and my wedding dress. Now I’m taking my sewing in a different direction by making hand-stitched appliqué quilt blocks for a Bible quilt. These quilt blocks will also be the illustrations for my Bible storybooks.

I wonder if I would have ever grown to love sewing as much if I hadn’t first seen my Mama spending hours at the sewing machine making dresses and shirts for her children to wear.  Mama gave me so much without ever realizing it, by just doing the things she loved. When I use Mama’s pin I am reminded of the rich heritage she gave to me in sewing.