Friday, May 14, 2010

BOOKS IN THE MAIL!!


I ordered a couple of books from Amazon.  This dye book is great.  It has tons of different color gradation recipes .  I usually fly by the seat of my pants when I dye fabric.  I would like to be able to dye what I need instead of think up something to do with what I have already dyed.  I think this book will be the answer.
 
I normally design my own miniatures, I saw this book at JoAnns, and thought to myself "these are too easy".  I didn't buy the book at the time.  But Terrie commented on my Miniature quilt blog a few times, and I paid more attention to what she was doing.  I got the book from the library and studied it, and think her technique is a really good idea.  Nothing wrong with finding an easier way to do things.  Minutes?.. don't think so, but much easier than doing tiny quilts the traditional way.  If you get this book, permission is given to copy the huge pattern sheet that is included.  She gives instructions on how to copy each pattern (involves taping)  But being the lazy person that I am, and knowing that I would have to drag the sheet to Office max, I went to Kinko's instead.  They have a blueprint copier.  I put the whole sheet in, and it copied both sides and printed out on huge sheets of paper.  I just cut the foundations apart .  I think they may be small enough to copy in one piece now.  At least some of them are.  I would like to figure out a way to copy them onto water soluble foundations so I don't have to tear paper off when I am done.  
This is a great way to make gifts.  The recipients will think you spent a lot of time on them.  She has a free pattern for a wine bag, and I think a tote on her website.  She also has a blog.
Back later, I'm not getting sidetracked this weekend.  Besides, I'm officially out of underwear.  I need to do laundry...

TGIF... Teri

2 comments:

marlene@ByTheSeam said...

I have seen that book on fabric dying and was tempted to get it. Glad the minatures book is going to work for you. I never made a minature quilt. Maybe I will have to try one.

Terrie Sandelin said...

Hi Teri,

I'm glad you're giving this a try -- you'll have to let me know how it goes. Please head on over to my website again (terriesandelin.com) and check out the MISC page since you'll find a correction to the Pyramid Triangle template pattern there -- and a bunch more projects on the projects pages.

I tried using water soluble foundations. One problem I had was that the paper became brittle from the heat of the iron as I worked and even tore a little along those folded lines (which defeats the purpose). The soluble foundation can still work but you have to be a little more careful. The other thing I didn't like was that not all the paper dissolved off so there was a little more bulk along the stitch lines. Not a huge deal but if you're really interested in the quilt lying flat, it can be annoying. So, soluble paper is do-able; I just didn't think quite well enough of it to recommend in the book. In the book, I suggested just spritzing the paper with water to loosen the glue -- by now I actually pretty much soak it, let the foundation sit for a quarter hour and then the paper comes off like a dream.

And, of course, don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions!

Cheers.