I have a business on Etsy. It’s a wonderful marketplace that enables craft artisans to sell their handmade items and purchase supplies from other sellers. There is also a strong contingent of vintage articles for sale. Many vendors have a unique spot in the middle. They sell vintage supplies such as clothing and craft patterns from the 1900s forward.

Once of the really nice things that Etsy does, that you won’t find on eBay is the forums. Oh eBay has forums, but nothing like Etsy’s forums. Etsy forums are well organized places to find help articles and get questions answered. I’m continually amazed that busy craft people take the time to explain the ins and outs of how to do this or that on Etsy.

Besides the forums, Etsy encourages the formation of teams. A team is a group of artisans that have something in common with other artisans; be it geographic or common interest, such as quilting and a city center. Handmade Philly is one such team. So what does a team do? A team works together to promote their businesses. One of the ways they do this is to have sales at the same time or get together to make people aware of the availability of handmade items. Artbeat is an example of getting the word out about handmade items.

Artbeat took place on Saturday, August 15 in West Philly, a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Several people including, yours truly, presented workshops on how to do the things we do. I, of course, taught a come and go quilting class. What is a come and go quilting class? Well, it’s a new term I devised for lack of anything better to call it. Imagine a craft show where people who pass by watch a demonstration of a quilt being made. Now take it one step further. The quilter has simple patterns available with pre-cut cloth bundles which the crowd is welcome choose from and sit down at the quilter’s machine and actually learn to quilt. I had several people who wanted to try. It turns out two of the people who wanted to try, had never used a sewing machine before. It took them a little longer and they needed a bit more help, but all who tried walked away with a completed quilt block. I’m incorporating the things I learned into the patterns I create. I learned that even a simple term, I use all the time, like “basting,” is unknown to people who have never sewn. There are people who have no desire to make clothing desperately want to learn to quilt. What an eye opener. It’s amazing how or experiences influence our modes of thinking.

While I was teaching beginning foundation piecing, others taught things like making art money. I didn’t get a chance to experience this craft, but lots of people did. They made money using paper and markers and seemed to really enjoy it. What’s the point in that? I don’t know, but it certainly wasn’t to try to fool people and pass it off as real. Next time I run into her at some team meeting I’ll get the low down on it.

Then there was the knitter who was teaching people how to knit. Seated near the knitter was a woman who was just putting the finishing touches on her queen size quilt. She sat and chatted and hand stitched the binding on her quilt. It wasn’t long before someone else procured a needle and they had their own little quilting bee.

There was also a woman teaching how to make recycled journals. She used heavy weight paper for a cover and pages cut from magazines to create little journals for carrying in your pocket or purse. I got to be involved in the project just long enough to complete a journal. It made me think about all the paper I take to the recycling center and gave me some ideas that I want to try out before I share them.

The last table was a young couple. The wife was teaching how to make magnetic frames for pictures on the refrigerator and other metallic surfaces.

While all the demos were taking place there were several musicians making use of the open mic provided. I heard music produced such as I’d never heard before. Some I liked better than others, though those who were playing, definitely knew how to make their chosen instrument sing.

For more information about Etsy and the handmade movement, check out Etsy.com.

Square in A Square Block

I’ve been busy again this week.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn to paper piece, but didn’t want to buy a book to learn, check out the Square in a Square Pattern and instructions I just added to my website. Above is a picture of my completed block. It’s ready to be sandwiched, quilted and bound.

The square in square block is an old pattern. It’s so old I can’t find who created it. My pattern has been adapted to a technique called paper piecing.

Using this technique to create quilt blocks has several advantages, that are the reasons I prefer to paper piece:

1. The paper stabilizes the fabric so that they don’t stretch out of shape before the blocks are joined. This keeps your 7 inch square 7 inches. Of course that’s true for any size block. Whatever size it’s supposed to be, it will still be when added to the other block.
2. Pieces added correctly when stitched on the lines, join to the block in the manner they were intended.
3. One of my favorite reason for paper piecing; I don’t have to worry about grain line as much.  This goes hand int hand with reason 1.
4. Odd and small shapes are easier to handle. Have you ever tried to make a miniature quilt with 1 inch quarter size triangles? You can with paper piecing.
5. Do you ever lose your stars lose their points or do your geese look like they’ve broken a wing? They won’t once you’ve learned to paper piece.

I can hear you say, I tried it and I just couldn’t learn how to do it. I’ll bet you had one of those patterns that have letters A-G and each had multiple numbers. How in the world do you get place a piece with a Y-seam. The trick is sections. If you made a photocopy of  the block for each letter and cut it them apart, you can do it, but don’t forget to add seam allowances.

Wouldn’t paper piecing be much easier, if the pattern has more than one section with seam allowances already drawn for you? Try my patterns. See the difference. I’m not the only designer that creates the pattern this way. We do it because it’s easier for the quilter.

This first pattern needs no sections. It’s all one piece.

Each block in the upcoming Candle Block of the Month series I’m developing, has several sections to each block. There is a way to get them together and making stunning blocks, old time blocks the easy paper piecing way.

You’ll find the Square in Square learning block with photo studded instructions that show you how easy it can be to paper piece at http://sites.google.com/site/finelyfabricated/welcome-to-my-free-quilting-patterns.

Try the process and I bet you’ll be hooked.

All patterns posted are currently being tested. If you have any questions, please ask.

If you are interested in testing patterns before they go to market, and you can adhere to a privacy agreement, leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you quickly. Testers will receive 2 free copies of the finished pattern.

Happy Quilting

My quilt ramblings.

I spent the last week creating what I think are amazing quilting designs. Oh, they are not amazing in that, they will blow you away, though to me they are stunning. What’s really amazing is that such simple blocks, can make such beautiful designs when I flip and twist them in Electric Quilt.

I spent time delving through a book I have about quilt designs. Those that struck my fancy, I either found them already in EQ or I used the create a block functions of easy draw and reproduced them. Then I simply played until I came up with something I liked.

I flipped and rotated and recolored the quilt itself. This allowed me to see beyond the block and make the quilt design special, as I could see the effect on the quilt overall. Look at this design I created from the Chinese Puzzle Block. As far as I can tell this is an old block that is in the public domain. Here it’s in two shades of the same color on a yellow background.

Wouldn’t this be lovely with a floral fabric in place of the yellow? I think it would give the impression of looking through a garden trellis.

And Here is the same quilt in two different colors on a white background. Shown without the border..

There is one block that make up the trellis design of the Chinese Puzzle Quilt.
This one called Chinese Puzzle.

I try very hard to ensure that the blocks I create are in fact new blocks. Those I take from research materials are not copyrighted. The Chinese Puzzle block is example. The log cabin block is a block just about everyone is familiar with, so no one can say they own it. I certainly don’t. So those are the types of existing blocks I look for when designing my quilt patterns, if I’m not using an original design; The Chinese Puzzle Block flipped is an original design, that I’ve copyrighted.

Having spent so much time designing, or should I say playing, I now have to hustle and create some time for actually making them.

Another thing that’s taken a good bit of my time this week is website shopping. I’m looking for a free website where I can post quilt blocks and small quilt designs and instructions. I’m creating a candle mat of the month program and now I’m ready to start posting them. Where no longer is the question. The new question is: Which block do I want to post as the first candle mat?

All images are copyrighted. They may not be used without my express, written permission.