DID YOU KNOW

Did you realize that Brown is not on the color wheel for quilts???? Brown is not on the color wheel because it has elements of every color. Choose a brown fabric when you need contrast or transition, but don't want to add another color.

Neutral pieces such as beige and cream can be added to one-color and multi-color quilts to give your eye a place to rest. They spread out competing colors and also add contrast. ;)

Good info golo....I feel color challenged most of the time which makes the thought of making a scrappy quilt a terrifying process for me.

Golo, I did not know that.........thanks!!!!

Interesting info Golo thanks for sharing, my fabric stash is full of brown LOL guess I have my own colour wheel LOL

DON'T DO IT!!!! Using bedsheets to back your quilts is not a good idea... Sheets have a high thread count, which forces your quilting needle to break the sheets threads as it pierces through. This leaves holes in your backing and diminishes the stabilty of your sheet. Quilting fabric has a looser weave, which allows your needle to easily slide between the threads and keeps your backing fabric intact...

OH GOLO! My MIL insists on using SHEETS! :affraid: I keep trying to tell her not to, but she is set in her ways! She finds a sheet on sale and(ex.) "whoo hoo, I am going to put this one on my red quilt!" I cann't make her stop! The quilt she made for me and DH slides off the bed, you can't even use it! She said the one she made for her daughter slides off her bed too, So why doesn't she get it?

Sounds like you need velcro....

I started out using sheets because they were the right size and relatively cheap. I have since learned better. Maybe a part of her issue is not wanting to piece backings. Many quilting sites have wonderful backing fabrics. Maybe you could buy her a backing and let her "discover" the difference.....Just don't get a batik one. That was one horrible mistake I made.

Marynel - I'm just about ready to order two 108" batik backs for 2 tops I need to get done. What don't you like about batik backs???!!! :affraid:

On My Quilting

When I started quilting, I had in mind that one day I would become a great quilter. I worked fairly hard to reach this goal. I read. I experimented. I attended quilt shows and examined a great many quilts. I watched hours and hours of quilt programs. Most importantly, however, I made a great many quilts in a great many styles.

At a show of APQS professionals, I had an epiphany. I didn't want to grow up to be a truly great quilter. If a really great quilt took a year or more of intense work, it probably was not worth it to me. I want to make nice heirlooms for my family. I am somewhat competitive about being a big fish in the small pond of my county fair.

My main legacy as a quilter, however, will be a lot like my legacy as a teacher. I was not Socrates, teaching Plato. Instead, I worked with damaged children and tried to make their lives a little better. I had many of my kids tell me that I "made them smart".

I gave away almost 30 quilts last year. Most of those were rather ordinary, as quilts go, although competently made and colorful. However, they went to battered wives and children, the homeless and to people dying of cancer. I could not solve their problems, but I could make it clear that someone cared that they were alive right now.

I know that many of you do the same sort of thing. I know that many of you are at least as good in your quilting as I am. Many of you seem to feel that your quilts are not what they should be. Remember, this is folk art. It does not need to please the Houston or Paduccah judges to be well worth doing. Most of our quilting is about wrapping someone we care about in the love that the quilt represents, whether that quilt is on a table, a bed or a wall.

End of soap box oratory.

What a lovely declaration, Marynel - I think you are spokesperson for many of us. Thanks.

Thank you Marynel! I agree with IABM, you make a great spokesquilter for us!!

Oh wow Marynel, I agree with the last two ladies. What you said is so true. Thank you so much for such beautiful words we cal all live by.

Golo, thank you as well. This was something I sure didn't realize and I even have a color wheel........!!!


memaw4

Nicely said, QM/..

I agree with you Marynel, and with each quilt we also can try out a different pattern if we like, while sending some love to those who need it the most. The only thing I miss is getting to see them enjoy it. Norma

I certainly agree with you there! Once in a while I get feedback from the recipients of my charity quilts, but I would like to see faces from time to time, which is a bit selfish of me, I know. One time a gave a friend's great grandson a quilt. 20 months afterwards I was at her house when the quilt came out of the drier and the little boy ran and grabbed it, with his face lighting up. Those moments go far. Mostly I hear that a friend of a friend was really down on her luck and was encouraged by getting the quilt from me, if I hear anything at all. Oddly enough, about 4 months ago there was a big styory in our local paper about 2 of us who donate quilts regularly. Of course, no one mentioned it to me while that paper was on the stands.

There is nothing selfish about that...thats just plain human nature. No one would want to sew and sew and sew and hand out quilts and get no feedback. Its a shame that no one told you about the new article. Our library keeps back copies of our local paper. Maybe yours does too.

I was with a group of three that made quilts donating them to others. There was a local newspaper article that interviewed the other two ladies and printed pictures and everything....no one contacted me. I asked the journalist why I had not been included and she said that they didn't know I was involved...the other two ladies never said a word to her.....maybe they thought she already knew?...anyway, that is what I would like to think. I never mentioned it to them...didn't want hard feelings

Well, you know where you will get your reward, Mamu... but I know the feeling...