Welcome to The Building Blocks Newsletter
Issue Two August 2007
Newsletter Contents:- Newest "Trad" on the block
- How in the World did I become a Website Designer?
- Math & Quilting
Newest "Trad" on the block
—Just a note about this title. When I went back to college, we boomers (51% of the student body at that time) were called “non-trads” short for non-traditional student, as opposed to the traditional student (who was just out of high school with little or no experience of the world). So, I thought the title “Trad” would fit in here: the monthly feature on a traditional quilt block.
The block this month is
“Broken Band” and is attributed by Barbara Brackman*, to have been first published sometime around 1920 in the
Farm News.Broken Band is the name of the traditional quilt block shown here.
In my Mini-Block Instruction Booklet, the “Square in a Square” and the “Parallelogram” and/or “Triangle-Square-Triangle” are the second section of the mini-blocks featured. This quilt uses those mini-blocks and I thought it would be a good one to tell you about this month.
The feature I like about it is the “Square in a Square”. Once I figured out how to make them, this block quickly became one of my favorite blocks to work with. Whenever I make them, though, I add extra to the triangle’s measurements. I found it was the prudent way to make them—because it’s easier to trim to the quarter-inch seam allowance, than not have enough for a seam allowance.
What I like about them: you start with a square and add triangles to it to make the next “square” and essentially, you could go on forever with that concept. Although trimming would soon become cumbersome! It does give thought to playing with Square in a Squares as a larger quilt! Kind of like those images where the repeated image goes on and on and on...
The corner triangles are assembled like a kind of Flying Geese. If you look at this pattern simply as a Square in a Square pattern, it is easy to make. Once you have the internal “square” completed, all you have left is the corner pieces to assemble. It then becomes your last set of triangles to add to the Square-in-a-square-in-a-square.
It was a nice wall quilt compliment to the
Blue Ice Quilt
I made a while back.
----------------------------------SPECIAL OFFER!!!----------------------------------
It is only appropriate that I offer to anyone who gets two friends to sign up for the newsletter a FREE copy of this pattern. TO QUALIFY:
you must send me an e-mail
with your friends’ information (Name, e-mail address). When they confirm and show up on my list—I will send you instructions to get the PDF file in a special thank you e-mail.
Please note, I will not contact them—they will need to go through the steps of signing up for the newsletter.
That way they are a true referral and they won’t think I spamming them.
Plus, they will qualify for their own free Building Blocks Pattern!
Special Note: Feel free to enclose as many friends in your e-mail to me, as you want. I will send you a new pattern (from the newsletters) for each pair of friends—after they confirm their subscription. It will come under a separate e-mailing near the day of the newsletter mail out. You can easily earn a year’s worth of free patterns this way!
Important! This is a limited offer! Offer ends October 1, 2007!
That may seem a ways off, but it isn’t really, so don’t delay.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Barbara Brackman is the compiler of the “Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns”
How in the World did I become a
Website Designer?
When I really just want to be Quilting?I’ve been asking myself those questions a lot lately. I guess the answer is: I needed a place to showcase my work as a quilter. Second, to have a little fun sharing the adventures of my crazy cats! Third, well, I needed a way to make all these activities pay for themselves (as yet to happen!).
So, I invested in a web-host out of Canada called SBI (Site Build It). Their cost is very reasonable (less than $25 a month including the domain name!) and their training course is priceless. I’ve come to respect all they have done to make the average (website-clueless) person, like myself, into a website designer.
I looked at some other web-hosting places and was sadly disappointed in how little control in the presentation a person had. Now, don’t get this wrong, these other sites were designed to be what is called “affiliate” sites and were pre-designed to promote someone else’s products, but I wanted to be in control of what goes on the site.
Oh by the way, if you’re interested in having a website...(In a recent survey, 72% of all adults in America
want to have a work-at-home business!)
This is the time to do it!!Now until August 28, 2007, SBI is offering a fantastic deal: You can purchase one webite for the regular price and get the second one for only $100 more!
I wish I’d had done that!
What if you don’t need two websites? I’m sure you have friends or family who would split the cost with you to get an easy-to-set-up-website! You both save $100 in the process!
This is a fantastic deal! A year’s website fee, a domain name included in the price, and their Master’s Training Course!
Although this offer has expired...
New offers like this are done throughout the year.Click on the link below and go look at what some people have done with their SBI websites!
If you really want to get going on the internet, why wait? SBI offers THE FINEST web hosting around.
I know you can get a website for next to nothing, but do they offer a Master's Course in training? A hold-your-hand course at that!
Find out more here...
Okay, back to my article:I took this route of doing it myself mainly because I couldn’t afford to pay someone to do it for me. When I first looked at websites (back in the late 1990s) website designers charged $10,000 easily to set up a website—mainly because they were the only ones who knew the “language”!
But that’s no longer the only option. There are good “Webmasters” out there and many are reasonable in their fees.
But, unlike the ‘90s, there are many programs that make the process easy for anyone. There are places on the net where you can get basic HTML coding and other pertinent information (like color coding).
I was fortunate to “stumble” upon SBI. It’s been an education like no other! It fit exactly what I wanted. Inexpensive and I was in control of what I wanted to do with the site.
But, let’s face it, I’m a creative person and I had certain ideas I wanted to accomplish on this site. It’s really no different than quilting.
As a quilter, you find an idea you like, picture it in certain fabrics and colors (or you go to the store and find a certain new fabric you can’t live without). Then you start the process of deciding what will be the main attraction (fabric-wise) and what will go with it—usually another trip to the fabric shop!
Then you get out the rulers and rotary cutter and start cutting your pieces. Then you get to sewing and pressing and before you know it you have a finished quilt top.
Well, building a web page is a lot like that—except there’s no trips to the quilt shop :-( and no actual cutting or pressing! You have to take time to visualize the page, figure out what the copy will be, and fix up the graphics.
In the case of how it’s done with SBI, all these elements are put into “blocks” and assembled in such a way as to give you the page you envisioned. It’s very easy. But, alas, it’s not quilting.
Speaking of Quilting...
My friend, Dory, approached me the other day (in an e-mail written on the airplane coming back from a six-week holiday in Ireland) with a challenge project: She needs to make a baby quilt for her sister.
Now, if you knew my friend, Dory, you would know that the challenge is not in the idea of making a quilt, but in Dory making a quilt!
She has a Masters Degree in Business Administration, her mother is a seamstress. Dory is amazing when it comes to business, teaching and computers. She can sew, but she didn’t inherit her mother’s skill.
So, to say she is quilting-challenged is not a stretch of the word. Yet, she is like many just starting out—she is eager to try her hand at it.
So, that is going to be one of the “projects” in the next couple of months. Getting her through the building process of making an One Block Only quilt.
Since I started writing this newsletter, last week, I took some time off from being a website person and caught up with a couple of quilting chores. Since I promised—to help Dory, to make a baby quilt for a newly adopted little boy, and a quilt kit for a friend of mine in Texas—I needed to get all that done. So in the last few days (evenings mostly) I have cut out eight One Block Only quilts.
Why eight? First, I cut out proto-types for each quilt. Then I will sew each proto-type together to get all the “kinks” out, so I can write up the instructions as easily as possible for beginner quilters. That’s part of the “doing the math!”
Second, I found two adorable center fabrics for Dory’s quilt kit. So, I cut out two versions of the pattern she chose (4 quilts). I will make up the two proto-types so she can choose which one she likes best to make her quilt. (The other I’ll offer later on for a prize or sell it as a one-of-a-kind-kit.)
Third: When I send the quilt kit to Texas, I’ll enclose the finished proto-type quilt top so my friend, Cindy can look at it and see how it’s suppose to be made. Of course, she MUST return my proto-type when she’s done! I don’t do that for everyone!
Fourth: I will keep the proto-type of the baby quilt as part of my “Trunk Show” quilts.
Finally, It’s easier to cut out two quilts at the same time than to come back later and try to figure out what I did the last time.
Math & Quilting
I promised to bring you something interesting about math and quilting each newsletter. This month I think I’ll discuss how I go about the process of putting together one of my quilt patterns.
I don’t know how other designers figure out the various aspects of printing a pattern. No doubt you have seen patterns in magazines which tell you to buy so much of Fabric A, B or C and how to cut them into the proper sizes.
This is the process I use when I am figuring all this out for a pattern: I first take the rough idea (for my traditional blocks, I look at the drawing of the block in my encyclopedia) and re-draw in my PhotoShop graphics program. I usually start with a 12” square, then divide it into the “mini-block” graph.
If it is a basic nine-patch style block that means I divide the square into nine equal divisions. That is why I like using a 12” square because it divides nicely by 3. When the design needs 5 divisions, I tend to use two inches as the guide for the “mini-blocks”.
The other reason I like the 12” square is once I‘m done, it is easy to blow it up to the 48” size quilt. The nice thing is the “mini=blocks” usually blow up evenly—no little fractions. I like quarter-inch or half-inch fractions over eighth-inch or smaller fractions.
Once I have the 48” quilt designed, I begin the fabric part. I usually use the PhotoShop program for this and set up the “page” to resemble a yard of fabric (usually 42”x36”, to start).
I take the pieces and copy them to a new “page” and, in the case of tri-squares, I add the quarter-inch seams all around the piece and make a square piece to work with. Square pieces are the easiest because all I have to do is add the seam allowances on all four sides.
I copy the finished pieces and paste them onto the “fabric” page, pasting enough pieces to make the pattern in that fabric or color. When I have all the pieces in place for “cutting” I can then see how much fabric to designate in the pattern for that part of the design. (I often allow a bit extra, for just in case). When I complete all this, I begin the composition of the pattern PDF file. That take a bit of time, sometimes even making a proto-type of the block to work out any assembly problems. In putting together instructions, it’s important that I make it as easy as I possibly can for the beginning quilter.
Well, that’s how I put together the pattern instructions. It’s a bit time consuming, but I feel in the end, well worth the effort. The nice thing is, once it’s done I don’t have to do it again. Only a new block.
When you retrieve this month’s block pattern, just remember I did all the math for you! (As well as the cheat sheets you can print out below.)
Click here for your own cheat sheets, math and quilting cheat sheets
That’s enough math for today. So until next time...
Remember (what my favorite sign says):
“To quilt or not to quilt? What a silly question.”
I’d much rather be quilting,
TeriMac
P.S. Just thought you'd like a to have a smile:
Chessie, the basket case!
She's every bit as sweet as she looks in this picture, unless she's racing full tilt down the hall, then look out!
