Saturday, October 13, 2018

Treasures

This might look like a small suitcase.  Or a vintage overnight bag.  
But when you look inside, you can see it's a treasure chest.  The treasures here are 5 in. squares of bright fabrics, mostly novelty prints.  (I love this stuff!)
That's where most of this quilt top came from.  It's the I Spy quilt top I finished two months ago.

With a little help from Little Buddy's nap times and his parents picking him up early a couple days, I finally got it quilted.
It's been cold and rainy this week, so outdoor photos have not been ideal.  Here's the little quilt laid out on my kitchen table.
In my never-ending quest for better ways to mark a quilt for quilting, I returned to Golden Threads paper this week to quilt the wide white border.  (By the way, I have no affiliation with the company that makes this product.)
The first time I used Golden Threads paper, I made a big mistake.  Everything was going fine, I cut a strip of paper the size of the border I was quilting, and then traced a stencil onto the paper.  BUT, at that time I used a pencil.  (Cue ominous music.)  I happily machine quilted that border, and ripped off the paper, only to discover that THE PENCIL MARKS HAD TRANSFERRED TO THE QUILT!!!

 Boy, was I mad.  The next time I saw a vendor demonstrating Golden Threads paper, I talked to them about it (I had cooled off by then and was unhappy but polite).  They knew about the problem, and told me to only use permanent pens to mark on the paper.

This made me nervous.  If pencil marks transfer to a quilt, I can get a fabric eraser and work on them.  What if permanent ink transferred to the quilt?  (I have not gotten to this ripe old age without a healthy skepticism for what salespeople tell me.)  But I had a huge roll of this stuff and lots of quilts to mark, so I tried it on a quilt that really didn't matter that much (badly pieced, etc.)
It actually worked!

Here's how to use it.
1.  Trace your design (stencil, quilting diagram from a book or magazine, etc.) with a permanent pen onto the paper.  See photo above.  This works well for borders, alternate blocks, sashings, and so on, but I don't think I would use it for an overall design.
2.  Pin the paper in place, as in this blurry photo below.  Try to have the points of the pins facing away from you as you sew.  (Ask me how I know that!)
3.  Quilt through the paper.  (Note to self:  try to quilt on the lines.)
4.  Once the quilting is done, you have to pull the paper off.  It's basically tissue paper, so tears easily, but watch out for little pieces that get stuck in the stitches.  Here's the pile I had after quilting one of the borders.
And that's it.  The permanent ink lines DON'T transfer, and there are no marks to wash out or erase.
I may use this more often, especially on borders.
The rest of the quilting was very simple, just lines a presser foot away from the seams.
Here's the backing, a cute alphabet print with hearts.  The border is another novelty print, a light red with white anchors.


I'm not sure what's going to happen to this little quilt.  I think my Little Buddy will enjoy playing with it, and finding the matches.  Each novelty square in the center has a matching square in the border, and some of the squares are his favorite things, like cats and dinosaurs and Thomas the tank engine.  I may keep it here for him.  If he's not interested, I'll donate it.

What's going on in your world this week?
I'm wishing you lots of time with whatever you treasure.
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up today with:
Angela at soscrappy
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I Get A Whoop Whoop)
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Can't wait to see what everybody else is up to!


 




18 comments:

  1. Beautiful quilting, and lovely quilt. Love the back too!

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  2. Thanks for the demo, I have not heard of this product, so that was helpful as I have a draw full of quilt marking tools, none of which I find particularly useful! Love this quilt, super easy but super cute.

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    1. Hi, Sue! Marking is always hard for me. I guess I want too much: a tool/technique that is easy to use, and leaves no permanent marks on the quilt. Golden Threads isn't the only answer, but it works for some things.

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  3. I had never heard of golden threads paper--Sounds perfect for imperfect machine quilters like myself! ;000 Thanks for sharing...
    just what I LOVE about bloggers and blogging...lots of good info..
    hugs, Julierose

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    1. Thanks, Julierose! I guess Golden Threads paper isn't as popular now that so many people are using long arm machines.

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  4. Putting matching blocks in the center and border is a great idea!

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    1. Hi, PaulaB! I think I read somewhere about someone doing this, but I couldn't find it, so I drew up my own pattern on graph paper. It makes looking at the quilt kind of a game.

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  5. That is such a cute quilt - a fun way to use novelty fabrics and I also like the white inner border. I'll have to remember that layout! I love your little treasure chest of charms, too!

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    1. Thanks, Little Penguin! I might have a problem, I think I'm addicted to novelty prints!

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  6. Thank you for the tip and your quilt is adorable!

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    1. Thanks, Kathi! I hope the little guy has as much fun with it as I have had.

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  7. It sounds like you have a great plan for this adorable quilt. I'm sure that Little Buddy will enjoy any number of games of I Spy with you!!

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    1. Thanks, Joyful! I think he'll like it. It will make a change from playing choo-choo.

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  8. Cute little quilt! And great tip on using the golden threads paper. Thanks for linking up with Oh Scrap!

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  9. I like how you put matching blocks in the middle and the border. Fun way to keep a little tyke entertained. Thanks for the tip about marking the paper. I think I used pencil on tissue paper before and don’t remember having a problem, but it’s good to know that it could be an issue.

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    1. Hi, JanineMarie! Maybe I marked too dark with the pencil? Not sure, it was years ago. Love your blog!

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Thanks for reading! Post a comment--I want to know what you think!