Or, you know, whatever you want. You dont have to use a removable fabric marker. Sure. Sure. And this is, i mean, this is efficient. You are, like, stacking it up so you can whack it, and its ready to go. I am. I am. Yeah. I like it. Just make sure everythings lined up, you know, pretty perfectly. Mmhmm. So, now were just gonna mark our sections, and i just eyeball it. Again, you know, you can get crazy and measure them, but i think the less similar they look, the better. Yeah, you could cut a template, certainly, or you could, you know, measure out the sizes of your little pie wedges there, but this is kind of a style of the runner that you made is that it looks almost kind of improvisational or, you know, its just got that wonky look to it, which is popular today and also kind of easy and fun to do when youre at your sewing machine. You dont have to think too hard. Who knew we were popular . I know, right . That never happens. [ both laugh ] so, now were just gonna cut along these lines. And thats the good part, too, is were eyeballing it here. If you get to this point, and youre like, hmm. This one looks really tiny, and this one looks really big, you can always just adjust it after that, cause those markings are gonna go away. Theyre gonna be inside. Exactly. Wont matter. So were just gonna go with it. And just get a really sharp rotary cutter, and ke youephand on that ruler so you dont slice it. Mmhmm. D youre good to go. And thatsyeah, thsy, vatquick. Youre busmom, so, you know, efficiency le, the name of the game. , de efficiency le, the name of the game. O an u so ilst. Jus. Efficiei knowery il does,ame of the game. Buca o an u so ilst. Tyst eat. Us. And then you can arrange your table runner however you want. So were working in these two sections here. So you can see, you know, we have the tops. Mmhmm. Not the tops, but you know. Yep. Just kind of section them out, and then you can get a visual of what youre doing here. So as youre doing those, ill just show you. All im doing is swapping them. Mmhmm. So you just take the top. Put it on the bottom. Mmhmm. And then youre gonna start sewing. And at this point, you know, you can have some more fun with it, too. And as long as you have straight ends. Yep. You can switch it up a little bit. You could even throw one of those in. Eeuher. You could. You could. Exactly. Just mixing it up. Great. Okay, and so we have one thats sort of good to go. Yeah, we have one thats halfway. Okay. So now im gonna show you how to kind of. Yeah, and i was gonna work my way out. Well, you cant really do that with the serger. Youll never enclose the other side. Right. So [laughs] trial and error. Exactly. You learn that, you know, eventually. But i was trying to manage the bulk and, you know, i was concerned. I have to say, i learned this technique from rebecca kent brent, who came on sew it all. Great. She did a big blanket, using this technique, and had four big sections. Thats a quilt. A quilt. Okay, sorry. [ laughs ] not a blanket. A quilt. Were getting you there. Youre right. Youre right. Love of blankets doesnt, like, make quite the same ring. Youre right. Okay. She made a quilt, but it was four big sections. Yeah. So there was not a lot of bulk to contend with. Mmhmm. So it wasnt a big deal. But then i thought, if im doing these little pieces, you know, i dont want these big, bulky, kind of wavy seams, when you have all of those layers of batting and everything in between. Mmhmm. Mmhmm. Especially because of what it is. Its a table runner. You know, you want things to be as flat as possible. Exactly. Mmhmm. So when you do start along one edge, and youre building, you know, it gets kind of heavy alongside of the serger, and it wants to pull away from what youre doing that drag. So you need to hold onto this like this as youre going. Aha. And making sure that its not falling off of your table. So thats kind of an important tip. Absolutely. If it were really long, or if you had a lot some binder clips or something would be good. Sure. Just like machine quilting, you know, on your regular sewing machine. Sure. Thats pretty helpful. So as you can see, heres how im sandwiching it. Mmhmm. And, you know, it does kind of mess with your brain a little bit. Just this part. Yeah. You got to grab it and make sure that youre all inside. And then were gonna start serging. Now, youre not gonna pin anything. Theres no point in that. That would kind of knock things around. So youre just sandwiching and holding tight. You know, im not a pinner. Yeah. Im just not. You know what . That i will not try to change you on, because some people pin, and some people dont, and its kind of the way you were taught, and kind of the way you like to do it. I get some flak for it sometimes. Do you . But i just really just especially with something thats just this short. Mmhmm. Something thats just this short. Im just doublechecking to make sure everything is lining up so that nothing is, you know everythings gonna be caught in the serger stitches. And i should mention how ive set up the serger. Yes. So, im doing a threethread overlock stitch. Mmhmm. And i chose the narrow stitch, because, again, i dont want this giant, bulky serger, you know, chunk in the center of the seam. So i chose a very narrow pen or stitch. And youve also turned off the cutter, right . Yes, i disengaged the cutter, because, you know, you have such a straight cut here. If the cutter is here, you inevitably are gonna trim something off, and, again, it gets all bunched up. Youve got so many layers youre going through here. Yeah. It bunches up, and it causes some stress. So, well just give it a go. Again, take my own advice and hold onto this. Mmhmm. Yep. There you go. Hello. Go all the way down. Mmhmm. And you can see its pretty flat and nice. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And then you just come out here, and you keep going. Thats really great. And i dont bother pressing it or anything. I know, its probably bad, right . Thats your next lesson pressing. No, i do press a lot of stuff. But i just find with this, you dont really need to. You can just kind of flatten it out. And seeing as how your backing is, like, you know, pretty much glued temporarily. Youve got that spray adhesive, too. Yeah, but it just look how flat it is. No biggie. It is. And if you wanted to touch it with an iron, you certainly could. But, you know, if youre doing a quick project and you want to kind of just get going, yeah, you could do it ellens way. Exactly. Yeah, thats good. So, ill just show you again so you get the idea of this whole sandwich process. You know, put the front on and then kind of grab it like this. Thats the magic step. Yeah. Yep. And then just keep going until your entire runner is pieced and sergequilted. Quilted. Is that a term . Quilten . Quilgered . And, yeah, but once it is quilgered, its gonna be time to talk about binding. Exactly. Right. And to make the edges really nice for your binding, you know, of course, you can go through and trim off everything so that, you know, you have some Little Things going on, theyre out of the way. Also, you want to serge around the entire perimeter. Thats right. So were not ready for binding yet. I jumped the gun, because youve got to do your thats okay. We already did it. Okay. Okay. Good. And that just makes it nice and flat, and it also gives you a little bit of a guide, you know, for your binding. Absolutely. So, im just gonna show on this little one, so we can get around the corners. Mmhmm. That the way that i did the binding for this particular sample is the way my grandmother taught me, and its just, you know, engrained in my mind. So maybe i am a quilter, like, by birthright or something. I think so. The seed was planted. Its true. And she always told me to just cut 3inchwide binding. I dont even know if thats, like, standard. You know, its interesting. Its a good thing to talk about, because the standard for one quilter or quirger [ laughs ] the standard does sort of change. I mean, my mother always taught me, i believe, well, 2 1 4 is what a lot of the frenchfoldbinding tutorials that ive read and used have told me. My friend sewer that i hang out with and quilt with, she does 2 1 2, cause its easy. Its just easy sort of math to kind of work with a 2 1 2inch strip. She also has a lot of 2 1 2inch strips. So if your grandmother taught you 3 inches, then thats what you do, and thats how you like it. And some people like a wider binding, some people like a thinner one, one thats more filled. They trim the side of their quilt, you know, tighter. Some leave more. It really is a matter of taste and, certainly, if it looks pretty and you like it, then its okay. Im a big advocate of, you know, what can you live with . Exactly. We want it to stay on. Thats the most important thing. You dont want your binding coming off, cause thats a big problem. So as long as its sturdy, youre okay. Right, and i think, actually, this is the sturdiest i can think of, because i dont do the whole, fold it, and then fold the corners, and press it again, and the la, la, la. I just fold it in half. Yeah, youve got double strength. And then, you know, apply it to the right sides first. Mmhmm. Which is probably how everybody starts out doing it. I would say so. And then, you know, fold it to the back, and then handsew it. And, you know, spend half of the day, you know, handsewing your binding. Your very leisurely day when youre just sitting back, drinking, eating bonbons, and doing your binding. Exactly. So thats how i did the sample. However, i thought, as im handsewing this, how can we make this easier . You know, theres tons of tools that make this easier. So i thought i would experiment with pretty much every option i could come up with. So if you want to do all of the binding, all the construction, all of everything using your serger and nothing else, you certainly can. Great. Because they have this handydandy binder attachment that fits on the serger. And, of course, theyre all going to look different depending on what serger model you have, so just check with your sewingmachine manufacturer. But this particular one fits this model, and you just cut your strips. No need to fold. No need to press. My kind of thing here. Great. And you do need to make sure that its the width thats going to fit this, obviously. And then you attach it, and, as you can see, its folding it as it goes, and you fit the edge of your project right in that little groove. And then as you sew, its going to attach the binding as you go along. Thats pretty great. It is. So you can see, though, how skinny this binding is. Very narrow binding, yeah. Very, very narrow. And i like to really show off the binding, especially if im making it myself. Yes. And i want it all to coordinate so cutely. You chose a darling fabric for your binding. Show it off. Exactly. So i like a thicker binding. So this wasnt really for me, this particular one, although its the coolest thing ever, right . Yeah. Pretty neat. So, there are some options for your regular sewing machine. This one does kind of the same thing, although you do need to fold the binding first. So it works really well with prepackaged bindings, which is all nice and crisp and, i mean, its so crisp that it could probably hurt you with it and scratch up against your face. Prior to washing. Yeah. Exactly. Its true. The prepackaged binding, you know, i guess it works in a pinch, but its pretty stiff. I dont tend to use it. I have a lot of fabric scraps. If i need to make binding, im gonna usually coordinate it or make it myself. Exactly. Yeah. But if you are using that i mean, especially for a place mat or Something Like that, where its not that big of a deal. Or a trim. You know, weve used it as trim on some sewing projects before. Mmhmm. So, this works really well for that. Obviously, i didnt use that, and its working just fine. You just need to make sure to fold and press and follow ttr and what i experimented with most for this project is this adjustable binder foot. And, as you can see, it has different little markings on it, so you can make superfat binding if you want. I just did standard with this cause i was making a ton of binding, and i just kind of did it all the same. Sure. But, you know, you can see stick the fold of your fabric in there. And then you stick your table runner inside, and its probably better if you just feel. Yeah, i can probably feel it. How it just slips right in there. Mmhmm. And then youre always gonna need to move your needle position a little bit to the left, to the right, you know, just to kind of mess with it and make sure that the needle is right on the fold of the fabric there. Did you do that, ellen, or do we need to check it . I did it already for you. Okay, great. So nice to have another host on the show like this. Theyre just so prepared. Okay, now i may not speak too soon about me. Okay, here we go. It takes a little yeah, it does. It takes a lot of practice. You got to zhuzh it. Okay. I just want to make sure its all the way in. Oh, i think i need to come under the foot and then ah there you go. Under the foot first, and the pull it through that foot. There you go. Figured it out. Okay, and im gonna stop 1 4 inch from my corner, right . Yes, the corners do get a little tricky with these attachments, and, you know, i will be honest. There is not a lot in the packaging that tells you how to do the corners. So i did have to experiment, and i went and looked at some tutorials on youtube mmhmm. So youve got to kind of get it out of the groove here. And pull it all the way out, okay . Ill just give you some slack. Okay. And then when you get to the corner, miter it. You know, like you normally would. Fold it over. Or maybe not like you would normally. Well, you know. There are different mitering ways. Right. And then, you know, maybe put a pin in here. Let me grab a pin so that i can get my hands out of the way so you can see. I dont know if this is in the books or anything like that, but this is just what i found is gonna work best with this particular foot is once youve pinned this here, take your needle and thread and do a simple, little tacking stitch. Just it does not pretty. Whatever. Youre gonna cut it out. Just go around there. And you want your stitch to be, like, right inside of here. Right. You dont want to go on this corner, because you need to still fit this corner inside of that little groove. Youre gonna turn. Exactly. So put your little stitch maybe out here, and then you can still fit this under the groove. Stick it right back in there, and keep going until you get to the next corner. Great. And then youve never touched a handsewing needle. Yay. Yeah, thats and youve done the front and the back at the same time, and its perfect. Absolutely, and, you know, i think its important to mention that sometimes, you know my mom always says this is her metaphor she says, if you want to get someplace, you can take a walk and get there. If you want to walk to the store, you can take a walk and get there. You have a nice time walking to the store. Thats one way to go. If you want to get there a little faster, you can ride a bike. If you want to get there really fast, you can drive the car. And sometimes, you have projects where its all about the process. You want to sit down with a quilt. You want to bind it by hand. You want to hang out and do that. And sometimes, you just need to get it done, and when you do need to get it done, these kind of tools are amazing. They are. And i like to fly the plane. Yeah, fly the plane to the store. Pick me up in a helicopter. I need milk. Exactly. Lets get it. So, one last thing i want to talk about before we close the show its been great to have you here, ellen is kind of talk about the style of this runner. I think its a good example of some of the new flavor, the new colors that are kind of happening in the quilt world right now. It looks like its in sort of the modern style. Can you tell me about, like, the fabrics you picked and why you chose them . Well, actually, i really love this chevron trend. And its funny you say its a trend in quilts cause its a big trend in garments. Cool. And, you know, chevron is everywhere, and were even experimenting for the magazine making our own chevron print using striped fabric and piecing it together. Oh, great. Yeah. So i started with the chevron, and then i just really like the look of the yellow and grays together. Its just, you know, kind of a favorite of mine. And then i found the print for the backing, and i was like, tada yeah, big time. So we started with the chevron. This was coordinating, and Everything Else just kind of fell into place. Absolutely did, and this hexagon binding fabric is clearly, its repeated here. Part of the coordinating sort of family the line of fabric that you used. And i think one of the things that seems very modern about this is that wonky kind of style. A little bit almost looks improvved, almost looks a little bit, like not stringpiecing, but, you know, its kind of randomized a little bit. And also, you know, a lot of times, the Color Choices that we make, we use quilts in our home. And i think these Color Choices, this palette, it reflects kind of what goes on in home deck. You know, you go into a Furniture Store that might appeal to you or i or anybody, but these are the colors that youre seeing in those kinds of stores, too. So quilts often reflect what were doing at home. So, well, thank you very much, ellen for joining us, and dont go away, cause ellens gonna stick around for tips, and were gonna have that for you next. Grab a pencil. Tips and other useful information coming up next. Ellen, what is our first tip today . Well, the first tip is theres yet another way of binding. I mean, theres probably 50 different ways of binding. But another thing i really like to do to, you know, make the process faster is to actually start from the project back. Okay. So you would, instead of applying your binding, you know, sewing it from the front, you sew it from the back with monofilament thread in your bobbin. Great. Okay . So, then, when you fold it around to the front, you can machinesew it, and the monofilament thread on the wrong side is never going to show. Noseeum. Exactly. And you were saying that monofilament thread is now you can get it in cotton . I mean, is that right . Well, you can get it so that its not heatsensitive got it. So its, like, coated. Got it. So you can iron it. You can throw it in the hot, hot dryer, and, you know, its not gonna shrink up and get all weird, and, you know, itll be totally invisible. Thats the whole point. Yeah, and its kind of come a long way. I mean, the first monofilament threads were different than the ones they have today. I assume, because people, you know, write in to us with, you know, problems using the old stuff, or it would stretch and things like that. Yeah. And, you know, whatever ive used doesnt. Technology. So i think its fabulous. I use it for a ton of different stuff, actually. Mmhmm. Mmhmm. It has a multitude of sense. I mean, it can. Not that we ever do that. [ laughs ] exactly. Thats a great tip. Yeah, i like to machinesew the binding as much as possible, but, inevitably, when you are doing the final step of securing it to the back or the front in this case, you know, youre gonna get off or Something Like that. And youre gonna have a little piece poking out that just annoys you for the rest of your life. So invisible thread. It goes away. Cool. And then, the other tip we have is. Well, this table runner is completely reversible. So, you know, since weve hidden all of the seams and, you know, its nicely bound, so you could have two table runners in one and choose two totally different fabrics for the back, two totally different fabrics for the front, and then just choose, like, a solidcolor binding that matches both, and then you can just reverse it and have, you know, all kinds of home decor all in one shot. Absolutely. And then if you spill something on it, you can just flip it over and put a vase on it where you know, you can get a lot of use out of this. Exactly. Our last tip today is something we couldve used. A tip that, you know, we were changing doing a lot of feet changes, you know, preparing for the show, and tell me about what that is. Well, this is an extender for the little shank area. And, you know, we wanted to use this nifty little foot here, and we put it on, and we lowered the presser foot, and it never lowered. Right. So we realized that this little extender actually came with this machine. So you just put that on and use a different little screw, and it was no biggie. And i would take a picture of anything you take off your machine. Snap a picture of it with your smartphone so you always know what youve got to put back on. These are great tips. Thanks, ellen. If you have a tip for us, send it to. Put love of quilting on there. Or you can go to the tip section of the website, and send us your tip that way. If we use your tip on the show, youll get a free subscription for one year to love of quilmagazine. Thanks a lot for watching. Well see you next time. Male announcer additional quilting ideas from marianne and liz are available in fons and porters love of quilting magazine. A oneyear subscription contains 60 or more projects, easytofollow, stepbystep instructions, and our tips, techniques, and shortcuts. In addition to the magazine, youll get a dvd containing all 13 shows from the 2200 series and two additional booklets with extra projects, tips, and techniques. The cost is 29. 97. To order, call 8667299601 or visit our website, fonsandporter. Com pbs. You can visit our website for free quilt tests. Marianne seweasy quilting lessons. And slide shows of spectacular quilts. Download free quilt patterns. See supply lists for tv projects. Join our quilting community and more. Log on to. Female announcer funding for love of quilting is provided by. For over 40 years, baby lock has been dedicated to the love of sewing by creating machines for quilting, sewing, embroidery, and serging. Baby lock. For the love of sewing. Koala studios delivers sewing furniture custombuilt in america. American professional quilting systems. Apqs offers a full line of handguided quilting machines made in americas heartland for americas artisans. Male announcer velocity series irons from reliable. The new sensor velocity releases steam by gripping the handle. No leaking. No spitting. No kidding. Female announcer madera makers of embroidery, quiltingandsewing, and serger threads. Color your life with madera. Omnigrid providing quilters with specialty rulers and accessories for over 25 years. Quilters club of america offering patterns and videos to the passionate quilter. Start out today, well use the old two inch brush here. Well go into a small, small amount of the phthalo blue, just a small amount. Pull it out and then just tap the bristles right into the color. That assures a nice even distribution of color all the way through the bristles. See there . O. K. , lets go up here. Now then. Well just start at the top and make little criss cross strokes, just little xs. Work all the way across the top, and its continually blending with the liquid white thats on the canvas, and automatically, it gets lighter and lighter toward the horizon if you just start at the top and work down, and thats exactly what were looking for. As you know, in a landscape things should get lighter toward the horizon, and thats what creates that illusion of distance in your painting. All right. Maybe, tell you what, maybe ill add just a little bit more of the blue. This is a winter scene. I want color to be very strong and very cold today. This is going to be a very cold painting. You may have to get out your big winter coat just to do this one. There we go. All right. Something about like so. And very lightly, well go across just to take out the little brush strokes. And maybe, maybe well have a little water. For that, im going to use the same old phthalo blue and the least little bit of the midnight black, so we have blue and black, or black and blue, whichever your preference. O. K. , lets go up in here. Now then. I dont know exactly where the waters going to be, so well just put in a lot of water, and whatever we dont want, well just paint over, because we can do anything on this piece of canvas. Anything. There we go. A little more color on the brush, go on the other side, and do basically the same thing. There we are. And still water should always be flat, level. Waters very lazy. Its always flat, level if its still. The only time its not is when it gets excited and starts moving. There. O. K. Now the fun part. Lets wash the old brush. And we wash our brush with odorless thinner, shake off the excess, and just beat the devil out of it. Thats the most fun part of this whole technique. And very lightly, ill just go over the entire canvas, just to take out brush strokes and bring it all together. There. Now then. Tell you what lets do. Today, lets just have some fun and make some little clouds that float around in the sky. And for that, im going to use just titanium white, the old fan brush, and you could do this with a one inch brush or a two inch brush. It doesnt matter. Thought today, wed just do one with the old fan brush though. Go right up in here and decide where your little clouds going to live. Maybe in our world, its going to live right here. Im using just the corner of the brush, just the corner. Make all kinds of little fluffy things that live out in here, wherever you think they should be, wherever. O. K. , a little more of the titanium white, there. Now you could also do this with a grey color if you want to really make it look like a dreary, dreary winter day. O. K. , now im going to take the large two inch brush and very gently, just tickle the bottom of it. Just barely blend it in, little tiny circular strokes using only the top corner of the two inch brush, and then well fluff it, lift it, there, and very lightly, just go right over it. And that easy, weve got a happy little cloud. O. K. , maybe, maybe this little cloud has a friend. Why not . But work in layers. Do one cloud at a time. Do the one that in your mind is the furthest away, and then put the rest of them in front of him. But just do one at a time. Dont get in a hurry, and dont be greedy. There we are. Good clean dry two inch brush, and were going to do the same thing again, but work in layers, just like when youre painting bushes, work in layers. There. Those layers are what create distance between each cloud. There we go. O. K. , and that easy, weve got a couple of happy little clouds. Now sometimes its fun just to take your brush and watch here, heres another way. I like to show you as many ways as i know to make things. Just take your brush and spin in little floater clouds. You can literally just spin them right into the canvas. Try to keep the brush moving at all times though. These are the little wispy clouds that live way off in the distance. They just sort of float around and just make Little Things in the sky. There we are, wherever, wherever. Maybe even little indications right over there. Back to our old big brush, and well just gently sort of blend those right in. And this blending, you can blend them to any degree of of lightness or darkness that you want. The more you blend them, of course, the darker theyre going to get. Theyll pick up the blue thats underneath, so you have to make Big Decisions here. How bright do you want them to be . Because if you continue to blend, theyll just go away and leave you. Go away and leave you. There. O. K. And i think something about like thats fine for what were trying to do today. I just want some little wispy things that are floating around. O. K. Good. All right, maybe, in our world today, lets take a little bit of phthalo blue and alizarin crimson, and i want to make a lavender color, but i want it to the blue side. Im going to keep everything in the blue tones in this painting to keep it cold. Blue is a very, its a cold color. Oh, very cold color. Its hard to tell what that is, so well take a little white, lay it right there, and then mix some color into it to see if its what we want, and thats pretty good. I sort of like that one. There. Something like so. Thats not bad. O. K. Cut off our little roll of paint, as usual. Lets go right up in here. Lets have in our world maybe, right here, just a happy little mountain. Show you an easy way to make some mountains today. Why not . Watch here, watch here. There. You have to decide how many little bumps there are in your mountain. How many peaks. Just put that on, scrape off the excess paint. There. Maybe well have some thats got a lot of little bumps today. Just wherever, wherever. And let your imagination take you to anywhere that you want to be. This really is your world here. O. K. See there . And the only thing that we have any concern about at this point, is just the top edge. We could care less whats happening in here. Have absolutely no concerns about that area at this point. All right. Scrape off all the excess. You can probably hear how hard im scraping with the knife. There we go. Now, back to our old two inch brush, and i want to grab this and pull it. Now just, with brush strokes here, we can create the illusion of beautiful mountains that are far back in the distance. There we are. And the brush strokes will make your highlights and your shadows all at one time. That easy. This is one of the easiest ways of making very effective little mountains. Very effective. Now you may have to sort of step back and take a look at them. When youre really close to the canvas, its more difficult to see than if you step back, so at home, just step back and get the old iced tea glass out and take a look see at your painting. There. But see how all those brush strokes will create that illusion . There. O. K. And today, thats all im going to do for that range of mountains. And, lets have some fun. Well put some prussian blue, its much stronger. Prussian blue is much stronger. Well put it right in that same color, so weve got prussian blue, and ill add a little more alizarin crimson to it, but this is a very dark lavender now. Very dark. Oh. There. Cut off our little roll of paint, once again, lives right out on the edge of the knife. Now. Lets come right up in here. Maybe theres another big mountain, there is now, lives right there. Wherever you want it. And maybe he comes down in front, and we can do the same thing again. Put some little bumps in here and all kinds of Little Things. Sometimes its nice to have little valleys like that, and you can leave them right in there, right in there, wherever you want them. Then well just let that one taper right on off into nothing here. But notice that this mountain, this range of mountains are much darker than the ones behind it. It makes them stand out, makes them look closer to you. There we are. The other thing thats very important, by pulling that paint with the two inch brush on that first range of mountains, theres a misty area between these two. That little bit of mist is your separator. It divides the two, makes them stand apart from each other. All right, lets go back to our old two inch brush and do the same identical thing to this one. Just grab it, and pull. But Pay Attention to angles here. But avoid pulling it straight down. Your mountains will look like huge cliffs, just sheer cliffs. A billy goat couldnt live on them. There we are. So Pay Attention to angles. See, by pulling that brush the little thing that happened right there . Be careful when youre doing this, and watch, these Little Things will happen. But sometimes, it gets working well and you rub them off before youve even looked at them. These things live right in your brush. All you have to do is sort of shake them out. There. O. K. But once again, were trying to create that mist down at the base of these mountains. Maybe well have some little foothills down at the base. I like to do little foothills, and that misty area, once again, just like here, will be your separator. So try to create mist here. Most, most important. There. O. K. And with that, weve got a couple of ranges of very nice mountains there. Lets take, lets take, lets take, put that over there out of the way, save it for later. Im going to take some phthalo blue, phthalo blue and some white and some black, mix them together. There we are. I want a nice bluegrey color, but with the phthalo blue, so its a little more bright than if you did it with the prussian blue. Wipe off the old knife here. And lets take a fan brush and load it full of this color. Just work it back and forth in the paint, both sides full of color. Now then, maybe in our world here, we have some little foothills that live right in here, right in here somewhere. Just take the fan brush and tap downward. Try to retain some of that little misty area in there though. Its most, most important. There we go. A little more paint out there. Now. There they go, wherever. Wherever. You make the decision where they live and just drop them in. This is one of the nicest ways ive ever come up with of just making little distant tree shapes. Very easy. And, im going to add a little bit of the titanium white here and there. See how that sparkles that one . Makes him stand out . That easy. But dont overdo. If they all look like that, then they lose the individuality that you see. Lets see here, well put in some more, just a few, then well come back and highlight a few of those, just so they stand out better. All right. This is a very simple painting, and if youve never painted before, this is a nice one to try. This one is a nice one, because itll work for you, very easy. O. K. , back to a little of the titanium white, right on the brush, so that we get variations of the same color, different hues or values of the same color, whatever you want to call it. There. Just make all kinds of Little Things. Something like so. These trees are so pretty, this is one of the nicest places. My little squirrel, if youve watched some of the other shows, this would be one of the places my little squirrel would love to live, right in here, and i want to show you a little piece of film that we made. And this is my little squirrel out on the big hunt, and hes out doing whatever squirrels do in the deep, deep woods. Look at this. Isnt he the cutest little devil . Hes fighting his way through the forest there. Oh, oh. Theres the forest. For some reason, i dont really understand it. Those little squirrels seem to like the hair. I think it reminds them of their nest. But thats, if you havent seen him before, thats the little squirrel we call pea pod the pocket squirrel, because he likes to live in my pocket. But hes a character. Weve showed him several times in this series. I hope you enjoy him. Ive just taken a two inch brush and tapped the base of this a little bit just to soften. I want that misty area. O. K. Take a little more of the titanium white, and just sparkle up a few more of these little areas so they stand out. Just a few. I want to keep this very cold though, very cold. There. And then very lightly, lift upward, just enough to blend the base of that all in there. O. K. Now maybe under our little foothills back here, maybe, maybe in our world theres a little bit of snow. So for that, well take the knife, take a little white, cut off our little roll of paint, and begin thinking about how the snow would lay out here. There. Just pull it. Gently pull. Something like this. There. As i say, this is a very, very simple little painting. You shouldnt have any trouble doing this one. This is one that our instructors would teach probably, oh, first or second day in class. We have instructors that travel all over the country teaching people this. You can not believe what people are doing. In one of the earlier shows this series, i showed several boards of paintings that people have sent in. Thats just fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. O. K. Tell you what, i want some reflections under that, so im going into that same old dark blue color that we had, two inch brush, just going to grab right underneath the snow, and pull straight down, straight down though. Little more of the paint, straight down, straight down, there we go, and that quick, we have some little reflections under our bank way back there. Very lightly, go across. All right. Take a little touch of the liquid white. We can go right back in here and well just cut in a little water line. This sort of separates where the land and the water come together. Its your separator, and it also cleans up the base here. Its a way of cleaning up the bottom of your snow and making it look really nice. There we are. Really hope you like seeing that little squirrel, little pea pod. He lives in my house with me. You wouldnt believe. I have two squirrels that live in the house and i have three that live outside. Theyre about ready to be turned loose now. But the ones that live in the house, if youve never lived with a squirrel, you havent lived, because they will get into absolutely everything. Every single thing in the house. And i find, because they hide nuts all over the house too when they run around, and ill find nuts in everything, from my pockets to my shoes. But its fun. Its fun. Lets take some prussian blue, black, alizarin crimson, well even throw some van dyke brown in there too, it doesnt matter. Good dark, dark color. O. K. , let me clean off the old knife here. Tell you what. Its time for your bravery test. Lets take the old two inch brush and go right into that pile of paint. Today i want to bring this brush to a nice chiseled edge, so to do that, bring it through the paint. Wiggle it. That pulls the paint down to the end of the bristles, wiggle it, and then go through and sharpen it, just like you would a fine knife. Look how sharp that brush is. But you can bring it to a very sharp chiseled edge, very sharp. O. K. Now then, with that, maybe in our world, you know me, i like big trees in my paintings. Take the corner, and we just push upward, and lets make the indication of a big evergreen that lives right here on the corner of the canvas, great big evergreen, strong, powerful. He sits here, watches out for all the Little Things that live here, and what a view that he has there we are. But use just the corner and push upward, and thats whatll create all those little leafy, fluffy looking things, very easy. Tell you what, while we have that old brush going, lets just do this. Maybe we have some things, little peninsula that comes right down like that. Who knows . Who knows . Just push upward though. Bend the bristles. Try to avoid letting it slide like that. See the difference when it slides . You dont have that nice leafy appearance. Were going to have a bigger bush there now. But see if anything ever goes wrong, you can always make a bigger bush out of it. Dont worry about it. Dont worry about it. We dont make mistakes. We just have happy accidents. There we are. Im going to load that old brush back up the same way again. Yes, lets go ahead, what the heck. Be brave. This really is your bravery test. Lets come in here and just put a huge tree. Maybe, yes, what the heck, what the heck. Nothing ventured and all that. Now lets just let this old tree just live right here, just push him out. There. Maybe, o. K. , lets go all the way down to the bottom, Something Like that. O. K. Now well take, i have several old brushes going here, im going to take another two inch with titanium white on it, little bit of the phthalo blue, little phthalo blue, so i have a blue color in the bristles. O. K. Now see, im going to take one corner and go through white paint, so i have blue deep in the brush and white on the tips. All right. Now then, with that, you can go up here and push upward and lets put on some beautiful little highlights, and every once in a while, just drag that one corner through a little bit of the titanium white, and thats how well highlight this. Think about shape and form and all the Little Things that are happening out here. There we go. Wherever. O. K. Theres another one, something about like so. And, we dont want this other tree left out, so let me load it deep with the phthalo blue and white, and then just the corner, once again, just the corner, see, into the white. Like that. All right. Just touch it, lift it. And lets go right in here and just pop those in. There. Now dont kill all the dark in your tree, because it gets working good and you get sort of carried away sometimes. I find that ive covered up the whole canvas with highlights, then ive lost my dark and all the deep shadow areas. And the little squirrels weve got would have a place to go in there and hide. Got to have a place to go and hide. All right. Im going to dip the brush into liquid white, then well go right through titanium white. Pull the brush in one direction. See there . Load a lot of paint into it, a lot of paint. Biggest mistake made is not enough paint. There. Now i went through the liquid white first only to thin the paint, because a thin paint, as you know, will stick to a thick paint, thin to thick. There we are. See, and we can just put all these little snow covered highlights on these things. And if this works just right, these little bushes will look just like lace. Just like lace. When i lived in alaska, its unbelievable, jack frost would come through there and do his magic, and the trees would be covered with ice fog that had frozen and its the most gorgeous thing you have ever seen. Its cold in alaska during the winter, but it may be as beautiful as the summer. Take a little titanium white, maybe, we can see a little snow right in there, right there somewhere, wherever you want it. There. No pressure. Allow that color to break, just graze it when you come across. And make long strokes, like that. But no pressure, absolutely none. If you put a lot of pressure on it, its going to look like you, well as my son steve says, look like you mooshed it in there and just iced a cake. I dont know if thats really a word or not, but you certainly know what it means. You really just mash too hard. And well put some Little Grassy areas around the edges here. O. K. Thatll sort of bring it together and make it part of the painting. There. Now, maybe in our world, maybe theres a little twig or two, so well take a little dark sienna and paint thinner, well want to make this paint thin, very thin, almost the consistency of ink, probably can see it running there. Its that thin. Now, while you have that, you can pull one side of that right through a little liquid white and maybe in our world, theres a little stick that lives right here, and by pulling it through the liquid white on one side, youll make the highlight and the shadow at one time. See there . Sort of sneaky, but it works well. There we go. Wherever. O. K. And that way weve got a little stick in there. Tell you what, all we need to do, take the knife here and there, we can scratch in a few little sticks and twigs, and we about have a finished painting. This is, as i mentioned earlier, this is a very simple little painting. If youve never painted before, its a good one to try, especially if you like very cold winter scenes. So i do hope you give it a try. From all of us, id like to wish you happy painting, and god bless my friend. When you hear the phrase so big you might think of a babys arms stretched upright. Today, that phrase gets an addendum. Sew big quilt blocks. I naturally want to spread my arms just to show you the size of the blocks. Debbie bowles is the designer of 18 quilt blocks that are speedy to peace but have great impact. Debbie, welcome to sewing with nancy. Thanks nancy. Ive always been drawn to the large fabric prints. Rather than cutting them up into small pieces all the time i designed some quilts that use 18 quilt blocks. The block is asymmetrical, and its turned and rotated within the quilt projects, creating drama and movement in all the sizes. Sew big quilt blocks thats whats coming up next, on sewing with nancy. Sewing with nancy tvs longestairing sewing and quilting program with nancy zieman is made possible by baby lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting and specialeffect threads because creativity is never black and white. Koala studios fine sewing furniture custombuilt in america. Clover, makers of sewing, knitting quilting and embroidery products for over 25 years. Experience the clover difference. Amazing designs and klasse needles. Debbie is a new sewing with nancy guest and ive been drawn to her quilts and to her teaching skills because of the simplistic size, the streamlinedness and i like that the blocks are asymmetrical. Thanks, nancy. This is a huge, huge quilt block, 18. Theres a lot of kind of new quilters that would like to make a big bed quilt. This is simply a great project for them because you can see that the block is big. Its just a light, a dark, and a Center Square. But in this large quilt, what youre looking at is 30 different blocks. Five different darks, five different lights and 30 centers. Thats a lot of blocks but it goes together so quickly. We want to show how versatile this pattern and design is that were going to be showing you during this First Program so we have a little showcase to start. This is traditional cotton but this next quilt is flannel. Right, and flannel is such a wonderful product to use but it does become kind of bulky when we do it. This is a great block because theres not very many seams. What youre looking at on this flannel lapsized quilt is two darks, two lights and four Different Centers making the design. Were going to be talking a lot about fabric choices during this twopart series, so not to worry. Well tell you how to do this. But then, fabric choices for tshirts were always getting inundated with questions on tshirt quilts. And this is a great one to use. It is, because when we do think of tshirts most of the time, our kids or our family members have been doing something active. So its fun to have them put into a quilt where theyre not just sitting there, theyre moving around. Its not one block, right after another. Theyre separated, and as you said, they have movement. Not only can you use nontraditional fabric like tshirts, and flannel, and cotton but you may also use a panel. So often, you can buy pretty panels of fabric but you can cut them up. Right, and i think sometimes as quilters we get a little stymied. If it was printed as a panel, we want to use it as a panel. This is a great pattern to cut up that panel making Dynamic Center squares. If youre wondering how were going to do this well, well be showing you exactly how to make this sew big quilt block how to choose the fabric, cut, sew, and how it all comes together, next. Whether youre making a queen size, twin, lap quilt the sew big quilt blocks arwith three fabrics. Yes, they are, nancy. We always have a Center Square, a dark, and a light. The quilt we saw earlier had 30 different fabrics for the Center Square so you wont be cutting strips for that. But for the frames, it is a strip quilt cutting. Its a small strip and a larger strip 21 2 and 41 2. They get paired up and stitched together into a strip set a large white, and a 21 2 dark. Then a skinnier white and a dark. One strip is loose and not part of a strip set. Like traditional quilting, when you have strip sets stitch together with 1 4 seam allowances which im doing here. At the end of the seam just butt the next strip seg and continue until youve stitched all of your strips. Absolutely, its very fast and easy sewing. Of course, youre going to be pressing them. Press to the dark like we press most things when we quilt. These will be long seams. Theyre going to go the full width of the fabric, so we want to make sure we do an up and down motion not a driving motion because that will curve our strips eventually. Everythings pressed to the dark side the dark fabric, not the dark side [both laugh] then we can do some subcutting. Well have the magic of another mat here. Debbies going to start with the wider strip. Weve already squared one end so that it was easy for her to begin. The wider strip is going to get cut into two different widths for the block. One is an 81 2 width, one is a 121 2 width. Youre actually making a big, big quilt, nancy. Youd probably cut your strip sets all of the 121 2 ones at one time all the 81 2 ones at one time. I do like, for my larger quilt projects to use a rule set that is all from the same manufacturer whether im cutting segments or trimming the blocks simply because the pieces are so large that if theyre off by a little bit from manufacturer to manufacturer it can make a difference. Thats the larger sized piece were going to cut. We have the smaller sized piece from the two strip sets with unequal strips. From these strips that are equal were going to cut 61 2 segments. Well need two for each block. You could double your fabric and cut them at the same time. For most of us, that will speed up the process. The problem with cutting at the same time is if you make a mistake, nancy, its multiplied. Then you have two that are not correct. So, you would cut yet another segment here, also. Then the last thing is the single strip that is not part of a strip set its also cut into 61 2 pieces. That will match up to Everything Else weve cut. So the cutting, really, is. Its very fast. Very fast, but it has the most detail in it. Then, to lay it out, to see what this looks like the magic happens. Right, so here are the components for one block. Heres my Center Square. Theres an edge and corner on each piece. Heres the shorter piece. Heres the longer piece. The very last piece, that wasnt part of a strip set thats what creates the frame. I have something stitched together here. You would sew together the right side. Correct, and were going to press it to the dark on this piece. Down here, were going to press to the dark. Over here, we actually press to the light fabric because these two seams need to interlock to make a smooth transition for that frame. We can show our viewers what debbie means by this. Pressing is as important as the stitching. Here youve sewn. Lets unpin this a minute, so our viewers can see. Youve sewn the right side. But then, when you meet this together this is that continuous seam that you want to keep. Here its been pressed to the light side which normally, you wouldnt do that. Especially when youre working with very light and very dark. It is more important to have the seam align perfectly. Because of that staggered seam allowance, it will align. Right, its easy to pin together. Sometimes, when the seams are so easy to do we tend to not want to pin them because we can just hold them in place. This is not one of those times. You really do want this to line up. Because youve pressed them as you have your fingers can feel how it goes. Yes, i like to call it a seam kiss. So heres a block. There it is. It is dramatic. Youre going to see later, as we put this together how they can be rotated, they can fit together. Heres how it overlays. Although these are slightly different fabrics than what was in this. If we just lay this up, you can see how it could have been a portion of this quilt and how it goes into that. We have one fabric color combination here. Yes. But youre not limited just to one dark, one light, one center section. Exactly. I wrote that pattern fabric requirements to make it easy for quilters to make a multifabric quilt. These are some examples of some beautiful fabrics that could be Center Squares that would go with anything we showed you in the main quilt or the blocks that we showed you earlier. Browns, rusts, oranges, anything. Quilters have often used this project to feature their collection. Everybody has a color collection. If youve been around the block a while. When working together, with the darks they dont have to be all from the same collection. Correct. What were looking at here is five possibilities that i would perhaps put into a quilt. Then i brought one that really didnt quite go. Its brown, its mottled but its a little bit lighter than Everything Else. I wouldnt probably use it unless i added another one. So if youre going to have something light then make sure you have two of the five. And then the lights. The same concept, nancy. These are all similar to each other. Then ive also added in one that i probably wouldnt put with this grouping because its a little green. So be cognizant when youre auditioning fabric that they blend that they have a little distinctiveness. Right, and i always like to throw in a little pattern. On this one, ive got this little pattern. Over here, i had one that was a little stripy. It gives you great versatility in this wonderful pattern. With most quilt designs theres maybe one or perhaps two layouts that you can have with the quilt block. But with an asymmetrical block, not so. Exactly. So, were going to look at just four blocks done in a pretty popular colorway. All different Center Squares all the same lights and the same darks. Were going to put them up, showing you just some really easy block rotations that you can do. Nancy is going to put her Center Square to the outside on top. Im going to put my Center Square to the inside corner. Then were going to each do the reverse of that for our second block. Mine is going to go on the outside, hers is on the inside. So this is one section of four blocks. It will look like this when its done. This is kind of random for some people so lets put them in what i call the marching look. Nancy, if you would rotate your block to the other corner the inner corner on the left now weve got three blocks that were going to march in a large 30block quilt. This would march all the way across, diagonally. Sure, i like that. Lets turn this one more time and put that on the outside corner just to give an example if you decided to put your blocks together. Rotate rotate it one more time, nancy, to the lower corner. Now they get a picture of what it might look like if they end up putting the frames touching each other. Its an entirely different look. It really puts each quilter into the design seat for their quilt, which is something not very common. Right, right. This has such possibilities. As you saw earlier, some of the quilts have movement and thats what i like about this. Exactly. So, rotation and positioning, audition your quilt blocks before you stitch them together. Sew big quilt blocks are not just for traditional fabrics. Thats right, nancy. Tshirt quilts are so popular, and as you mentioned earlier, theyre usually one tshirt pattern after another, or panel. But this has great style. And great movement. With your tshirt, youre going to cut it apart down the side seams. Add a knit fusible interfacing behind the logo. The block size stays the same. It does. Many tshirt emblems fit beautifully into this 121 2 square. So this ruler helps me get things aligned. This is the 121 2 mark. Later, youd go in and use your rotary cutter and ruler after youve marked the corners. Well, you know what i mean. Youd mark the corners so you know exactly where you would cut the block size. Exactly. You have a block already cut. We do. This is also a good time, nancy to talk about directionality of your prints. Because as we just showed them, the blocks can be rotated. This is what i would call the orientation of the block throughout your stitching process. But if you look right over here now the block is in a different corner. How are you going to decide if you want your blocks to all read right side up . The best way to do it, is you go to your design you put your blocks into the position and then put your bottom and side onto the quilt block as youll need them. This is actually how you would want this block for this. Nope, i dont think so. I did it wrong . Its that one . Well, anyway, thats how easy it is to make a mistake. You can put a block in each of the four corners which this little sample shows. Exactly. So, tshirts, back it with knit interfacing. Make sure the orientation is done. You remember calling this sew big blocks you can also call it kind of big blocks. Right, exactly. The project also includes a 9 version of the big block. Its the exact same stitching. There you go, slide it a little further. Its the exact same stitching. Everything is just halfsized, nancy which is a very fun thing to do for smaller projects and also just to mix it up a little. This one is different for another reason. Two colors. Its only two colors two beautiful colors, pink and black. Heres a block. Its got a black center. The pink is the light and now you have a dark frame on it. Right next door, youve got a pink center, a pink frame and now the dark is touching. So, very different in your fabric selection but a lot of really uptown drama. So, you make two. You make negative and positive. Exactly, thats what youre doing. Of each of them. So, well unveil the next option. You saw this quilt earlier when we were discussing the potential that you can work with. The panel, exactly. Now were going to show you the panel that it actually came from. Im just going to put it up here because i think you can see that there are four different blocks. But this is how it started. Its a beautiful panel spiky, long, i call it radiant star. But how was i going to use it . Lets put it back on the design table to show them some ideas for cutting into a large panel. We know going to be cutting 121 2 squares. Oftentimes, i spent way more time deciding how im going to cut it because theres only one piece of fabric here. So, i do preview, okay, if i cut it like that then i could also cut the other piece like that. Im going to lose some of my tips. Its just a matter of going through what are you going to have to cut apart and what are you going to sacrifice, i guess is what it amounts to. Now, some panels are squares that are premade arent exactly 121 2. Theres oftentimes beautiful printed batik squares handdone batik squares that you have picked up along the way at some great quilt show looking for great pattern. This pattern, because it does call for the 121 2 square none of my little batik panels were even the right size. They werent even all the same size. I simply added a very small frame, or a larger frame depending upon what it needed to round them out to 121 2 inches. I couldve redrafted the pattern but that would be crazy. No, just add a little frame. Now, for some drama for the end because now you can combine 18 and 9 squares. Tell us about this quilt, debbie. This roses quilt by my friend heide burger is just fabulous, isnt it . It is the same quilt block. Shes done 18 size and the 9 size. Shes also changed up some of the fabric combinations but she used the same roses fabric throughout the quilt. As the accent block. Exactly. You can see the 18 block with different colored borders or frames and then the 9 block. The layout is so wonderful. Its very fluid and really makes your eye move across the quilt. So, with a little construction knowhow of cutting, stitching, and rearranging the frames around these magnificent focal point blocks you have many options with debbies great design pattern for a quilt. We all love a success story. Todays nancys corner guest and his Business Partner had a mission to turn textile waste into fair wage job opportunities. Theyve turned their dream into a business that up cycles clothing and creates jobs with dignity. Please welcome ross lohr from project repat who joins us via skype from massachusetts. Welcome ross. Thank you so much for having me. This is a great story. Tell our viewers the history behind project repat. Sure, so i was running a Nonprofit Organization in east africa and i was stuck in this terrible traffic jam. When we got to the front and finally found out what caused the accident it was an overturned fruit and vegetable rickshaw and it was being pushed by a kenyan man who was wearing a tshirt that said, i danced my butt off at joshs bar mitzvah. So, we started thinking about, well is there some way we can take all these tshirts that end up in a place like east africa and turn them into Something Else. Behind you is an example of that. Yeah, exactly. Behind me is one of the blankets were able to make here. Customers send us their tshirts and we turn it into Something Else for them. You are located in massachusetts which was a textile town many years ago. Absolutely. Tell us about how you work with clients to give them a fair wage job. We have several different production facilities all based in massachusetts, all based in the usa. We work up in lowell with a woman who lost her job working at a textile company. Shes been able to start her own cut and sew company. We work at a nonprofit that employs individuals with disabilities. We also work in fall river, massachusetts which is a gateway city a former hub of textile manufacturing here and a leading Manufacturing Company there. All of our work is contracted out to those companies. Youre quite an entrepreneur. Thank you. Its very clever. I was humbled by the fact when you told me how much textile waste is in the stream. Yeah, i was a little shocked myself to find out that 5 of material waste or trash on earth, is used textiles. The average american trashes 65 pounds of textiles every year. Ouch. So upcycling and using what we have is really so important. As you mentioned, you work with many atrisk people to help employ them. Yeah, we feel like the best thing that we can do is provide people with a job that pays them a fair and living wage to do this kind of work. There are so many individuals out there who know how to cut and sew and we want to be able to give them jobs and give them the opportunity to make a good living. This is a relatively new business. Tell us when this started. So this started, we launched this in march 2012. Were taping this in the end of march the end of 2012, excuse me. So, in this short time, tell our viewers the number of customers youve had. Weve had more than 3,000 blanket customers in a very short period. That relates to a lot of textiles that youve kept out of dumpsters. It does, and it also tells a story how people have so many tshirts that they love and have a lot of memories associated with them and they want something to do with them and they want to put them all in one place. This is kind of serendipitous but in todays program, we had one little segment of how people can sew with their tshirts. But if they have so many this is a great way of having you work with them. Tshirts arent the only thing you do. No, you know, well take flannel shirts. Well take dress shirts anything with a fabric that we can sew. What has been your most challenging thing or time about starting this business . I think we got a lot of customers really quickly. In one week, we had almost 2,000 customers for a deal we did. Youre talking about so many boxes of tshirts coming into our office every week so finding a way to fulfill all that keep track of everyones tshirts make sure that they come back in a good amount of time. We were able to find a lot of great Production Partners who could really help us out and were able to produce these for us. Well, ross, this is an exciting story. You work with your Business Partner, nathan, correct . Yes, that is correct. You kind of feed things to your cut and sew people and then you ship them back to the customer. Yeah, and we try to make it really easy for the customer so that when they buy they get a box with a prepaid envelope in it. So, really, all they have to do is just put their shirts in. All the shippings on us. They send it off and four to six weeks later back comes a new blanket made out of their shirts. Well, thank you for sharing this great story because its a great way for people who have sewn for a business now can again sew. Youre a great entrepreneur, and i thank you for sharing. Thanks for being with us. Great, thanks so much for having me, nancy. Youre welcome. For those of you who would like more information on project repat, you can go to nancyzieman. Com and find all things sewing with nancy there. Next week, well be back with our Second Program of sew big quilt blocks with our guest, Debbie Bowles thanks for joining us. Bye for now. Debbie bowles has created a pattern that serves as the reference for the big quilt blocks featured in this program. Its 7. 99, plus shipping and handling. To order this pattern, call 18003368373 or visit our website at sewingwithnancy. Com 2701. Order item miq705 bq big quilts pattern. Credit card orders only. To pay by check or money order call the number on the screen for details. Visit nancys website at nancyzieman. Com to see additional episodes, nancys blog, and more. Sewing with nancy, tvs longest airing sewing and quilting program with nancy zieman has been brought to you by baby lock madeira threads koala studios clover amazing designs, and klasse needles. Closed captioning funding provided by oliso. Sewing with nancy is a coproduction of Nancy Zieman Productions and Wisconsin Public television. Martha it is wonderful that we can put thread through the eye of a needle and wield magic. We slide fabric into the sewing machine, and beautiful garments come out, like frilly skirts that make little girls feel like fairy princesses. Thread also makes beautiful hand embroidery possible, gorgeous stitches that turn a simple project into something special. Thread is so readily available in many colors and weights and so much fun to experiment with in our sewing. Welcome to my sewing room. We are going to have a lot of fun. Female announcer funding for marthas sewing room is made possible by and sew beautiful magazine. [whimsical classical music] martha im so happy to have as my guest today kari mecca. Kari is the owner and designer of kari me away. Shes the author of four books, a frequent contributor to sew beautiful magazine, and a teacher at the Martha Pullen school of art fashion. Kari, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, martha. Martha this is the cutest petticoat. Oh, tell us about it. Its a pettiskirt, and martha oh, pettiskirt, okay. Well, you know, what used to be underwear is now outerwear, so we have these adorable skirts that all the little girls are wearing, and they love them. Its actually two layers. Its made of nylon chiffon. Its super, super full, which you can see. Martha oh, is it ever. Its made with two colors. Theyre just too much fun to make, and you will be whoever is the receiver of this, youll be their favorite person. Martha how many yards of nylon . Precut ruffles, over 300 yards. Martha okay, well, it is adorable. Show us how you do that. Well, you know, its so full, we need our ruffler foot, so im gonna talk about the ruffler foot first, and so ive brought a sample to show you some of the features so that you can better understand. Theyre kind of scarylooking, but, you know, we do what we must. And you dont want to ruffle this with gathers. You really do need to have a ruffler foot. Martha can you imagine, 300 yards, oh. You really also want to have whatever foot is suggested by your manufacturer for your machine. You need to have the right foot for thethe right tool for the job, right . So here is my foot. Its a snapon ruffler foot, and lets talk about a couple of the features. We have a screw adjustment here. And this is actually on the front of the foot. Its very important because this tells you how much fabric is gonna be gathered in, and so there are some numbers just in here on the edge, and the lower the number, the less the fullness. The higher the number, the more the fullness. Now, we also have all kinds of things going on here. We have some guide plates, and we have an arm that actually swings back and forth, and it has teeth in it, and it grabs the fabric and pushes it forward. So the fabric you put underneath the foot, just like when you regularly sew, you know, fabric under your foot stays flat, and then we feed our fabric that we want to gather in where these teeth will grab it. And thats what im gonna actually be showing you on the machine is how to ruffleruffle fabric to flat fabric. But first lets talk about our fabric. We have precut ruffles that come on rolls. Its chiffon fabric, like i said. And its very sheer. And what ive donenow, if i was at home and not in the studio, i would go to the kitchen and get my mixing bowls and a couple of wooden spoons, and you would just put your wooden spoon through your roll, and i would actually put these in separate bowls. And im gonna put them, actually, at my feet, so i would put this one bowl in front of the other and set them on the floor. Now, i have the machine set up withready to ruffle, so my bowls are already on the floor. Im gonna put my flat fabric, which is my colored fabric, under the foot. Then im gonna lower the presser foot, and then im gonna wiggle my ruffling fabric in, and im gonna put it above this metal plate but below this top plate here. Now, ive set my machine with a six, i think, because i want five to six times the fullness. I mean, its very full. Im gonna set my machine for a straight stitch, but im gonna lengthen it a little to be a 3. 5. Now, you know, these settings are gonna vary depending on your machine. And i will tell you, you absolutely have to tighten your needle in your machine. Theres a lot of motion going on, and needles break, so just tighten it about every two to three minutes of sewing. Okay, now, im using my guide plate, and im letting this come wider than my fabric. Im also going to handlower my needle the first stitch, because theres just a center hole, and im actually gonna move my needle over just one needle position for this particular machine, because i want to hit dead center in that hole. Can you see that this swings back and grabs the fabric and its pushing it forward . Now, when youre sewing, that goes so fast, you cant see it, but you just want to make sure that everything is working, and im ready to roll. Now, once ive got my bowl set up and my fabric is set up in my little guide slots, you really just guide it with your hands back here, all right . So lets go. And can you see . Martha and the petticoat begins. The pettiskirt begins. And there will be miles, so if you havemake sure you have some space, because youll have, virtually, a Laundry Basket full of ruffled fabric. Martha how much fun. How much fun. And when youre finished, that is how you ruffle flat fabric. Martha i will say these are not just for little girls. I have a very dear friend named janet, was taking her two granddaughters to a theme park for a vacation. She made one for her to wear with her granddaughters. And she said, i have never seen anything like everybody in the park stopped to tell her how cute her skirt was. So it isnt just for little girls. I bet she was adorable. Martha oh, kari, thank you so much. And now kari has some sewing inspirations to share with you. Oh, kari, i love this pink pettiskirt, i believe we call it, not petticoat. And this is all one color . Done all in one color, super full, and also for the older girl. Doesnt just have to be for the little girls. Martha and we have a cute little leotard top here, a little camisole to go with it. Well, martha, you know, not everything has to be homemade. Purchased camisole, put some trims on it, and youve got a cute outfit. Martha i think its a cute outfit, and this is the little twocolor. Yes, were using two colors. Now, then, actually, ive gone ahead and put a bunch of roses all over it, because, you know, more is better. Martha more is better, absolutely, especially for the little girls. Now, the fabric itself, the chiffon, ive used that just on a play clothes project, and ive martha this is so cute, what youve done up here. Just wrapped some trim and kind of fluffed it between, and then also added it as a peekaboo hem, so very cute, very soft, and very martha and the little pantaloonsadorable. But this is so cute, to put the little chiffon as a hem. I love it. And once again. Now, this is a dressier dress, not just play clothes, but weve added the little ruffle for a peekaboo hem. Weve scalloped the hem. And here are those roses again. And then, also, weve added our touch of embroidery at the yoke, so you can have your little bit of handwork. You can have your cute outfit and have some fun with it. Martha and fun. I just think these are fun clothes, and little girls love them. Oh, kari, how much fun. Now, you know, were not through with our fun yet. Kari has a sew quick and sew easy fun project for you. Kari, this is adorable. A pettiskirtor on a baby knit, on a bubble. Absolutely precious. And you know what . Now, tell us about these. Well, now, we have just some flowers that ive made and some ruffled leaves, some purchased trim around the arm holes. Martha cute little ruffle, more flowers, and looklook. A little tutu. Martha oh, a little tutu, and its a littleit really is a little romper, so it grippers on. Its a baby romper. Its a baby bubble. They can whirl. They can twirl. They can play. They canits a baby knit. Martha or just sit, if you make them small enough. Well, you can do that as well, and they still look darling. Were actually going to attach the ruffle in a scallop pattern, and so what ive done is, ive just laid my baby knit out. Im going to measure across the front, and i just across the front as it lays flat. This actually has a full skirt on the top, and so it does have a little extra fullness at the side seams. Dont worry about it. Just make it flat. Measure across. Divide it into thirds. At that point, i made a paper pattern that was this wide, and then i just folded it in half and cut a scallop, and then i just traced it on. Now, you want to make sure its below the waist. Now, my trim is six inches wide, soor, sorry, my fabric. So i want to make sure that this measurement to the hem is less than six inches, because you dont want to see this hem. So this is actually 5 1 2 inches. And you dont want your scallop to dip more than one inch. Too pronounced of a scallop is justits not necessary. Its difficult to sew. And its just cute this way. So were gonna actually then turn our bubble over and trace three scallops on the back. Now, after that you set that aside. Then youre gonna go to your sewing machine. Youre gonna use your ruffler foot, like i showed before, and were gonna ruffle just the chiffon. And again, i turn it up to be maybe six times the fullness, so my screw adjustment will be between six and seven. So once you have ruffled that, now were gonna attach it. So this bubble has a skirted front, so its a separate piece, or an overlay. So when we sew, were going to sew the chiffon to just the overskirt. Well start at the side and just pin it to the line. But when you get to the side seam, youre going to need to readjust and sew through the bubble, so open your snaps, and then just keep going until you have it attached all the way around. Now, from there. Get all kinds of trims and flowers and things. And i have made all kinds of things. And just simply. Add leaves and flowers and then also trims. And its as simple as that, martha. Martha and fun and adorable. Oh, this is just too much fun. It is. I mean, you can get carried away. Martha kari me away. I gotcha. Thank you so much, kari. And now we have a segment for you called and sew on. Im so happy to have as my guest today jeff williams. Jeff is president of presencia threads usa. Jeff, welcome to the show. Thank you, martha. Martha you have some beautiful things there. Let me just kind of beautiful hand crossstitch pieces. This beautiful swan. Now, jeff, is traditionally the floss what people do hand crossstitch with . Traditionally, yes, two plies of the sixstranded floss. Martha however, i do know that a lot of people do crossstitch as well as smocking with this thread. Now, tell us about it. More and more people are going back to the traditional threads for the crossstitch and the embroidery, which is the traditional pearls. Martha the pearl cotton i know patty smith still does all of her smocking, lets see, with the number 8 pearl cotton. Let me just show a couple more of these beautiful pieces that you brought. The hand crossstitch. Isnt this gorgeous . And you know what i love about this . Is the beads that have been sewn in the bottom. Just adds more flavor, some texture and some pizzazz to it. Martha you know, there are a lot of people that love crossstitch, including me. Oh, and we have the little matching girl at the seaside very classic, very beautiful. And then this, absolutely beautiful, the roses. All done by hand with either one of the threads, the traditional floss or the pearl cotton. Correct. Martha now, youve got some wonderful ideas to share with us about threads. I cannot wait to see. Now, typically, i mean. When youre looking at fibers, there are general properties that you want to look for as to, you know, how theyre made and what theyre made out of. The better the cotton, the higher the quality of the thread. The spinning and the processing is all important as to what you end up with as the end result in the thread. The egyptian cotton is the highest quality on the planet and then goes down from there. The dye process is very critical. Theres bleachfast dyeing, and there is reactive dyeing. The reactive dyeing is what you typically see, and thats whats termed colorfast. The colorfastness means it can be washed in 95 degrees celsius, in detergent, and will retain its color. And many fibers are colorfast. Specifically, there are some fibers that you want to look for if you need that property to be bleachfast. And anything that youre going to stitch or make thats gonna be around food or around children or people, on clothing, you would prefer to have a bleachfast fiber. That way, if you spill coffee on it or mustard or any food item, it willyou can then wash it hot and bleach it and have your fiber survive. But not many fibers still offer that bleachfast dye. Martha now, look at those beautifulthis one right here. Thats what i want to do. I find so fascinating. That is beautiful. Now, is that handsewing thread . This is a hand embroidery rayon, very unique. Itswas not designed to be used on a sewing machine at all and typically is not. Its a hand embroidery for hand stitching. But what quilters and sewers in the United States have found is, theyll bobbinstitch with it. Theyll wind the rayon around the bobbin, use a metallic thread in the top of the machine, and get a fantastic, very luxurious, and shimmering effect, you know, from the mixture of the two threads. Martha what i wanted to ask you to show us, quickly, is thatwould you show us that bowl of bleach you have over there . And lets see what the difference between before we started the taping, we put a skein of this floss, of our floss, into 100 bleach. And after. 20 minutes, you can see they are the same color. Martha absolutely. And you see, i like that, because that means that when you wash them, no matter what, its not gonna fade. And some threads do fade, as we know. Jeff, thank you so much for sharing these ideas about threads. And to me, this is very fascinating. Thats chlorine bleach, by the way. Yes, it is. Martha and now we have some hand embroidery to share with you. Im so pleased to have as my guest today my very dear friend wendy schoen. Wendy is the designer of petite poche patterns. Shes the author of five books. She is a regular contributor to sew beautiful magazine and a teacher at the Martha Pullen school of art fashion. Wendy, welcome to the show. Martha, thank you for having me. Today i have a drawnthread stitch to show you. Now, this represents a grid. And actually, this particular type of hemstitching is called a hemstitched eyelet. So im gonna show you how to do it. Martha thats so pretty, wendy. Thank you. Okay, so, now, this grid consists of a total of four squares, and each square contains 24 threads. Now, im gonna go ahead and start with a waste knot. Now, the waste knot can be anywhere. Remember, its going to be cut off after, so dont worry about where you put it, as long as its out of your way. Im going to tie on with two backstitches inside the square. Now, the backstitches that you do on your regular work with tiny thread will be a lot more indivisdivis invisible, excuse me. Okay, now, what i have done ahead of time is, i counted off 12 threads across and 12 threads down so that i could find my center. Im going to insert the needle into the center, and im going to emerge four threads from the righthand corner, because i plan on bundling four fabric threads. Okay, so to begin the stitch, you want to bring the needle beneath the four threads, and you want to keep the thread, or the working thread, below the needle. Okay, so make sure you have just the four threads. And when i tighten the stitch, im gonna cause a little knot there, and thats what you want. Now, im gonna go back into the center and come out four threads beyond that last stitch. And then this stitch is placed exactly the same way and tightened. And every time i make a stitch, i want to go back into the center, the exact same place i chose first. It happens to be right in the center, and thats the best choice possible. Now, you might need magnification to do this, because you want to be as accurate as possible. Now, thisthe work is going to progress around the edge. And every time you stitch in the center, its going to open the center up a little bit wider, and thats what you want to achieve. Oops. Youre gonna continue to work until you get all the way to the end. Im gonna try to get there as fast as i can. Sometimes needlework takes a little longer than you think. Okay, so when you get to the end, then youre going to now come out four threads down on the center boundary. So let me show you what happens when you get to the end of that stitch. Okay, so ias you can see here, ive completed my very first square. Im gonna take the last stitch down over the final corner, or the final bundle, bring it down to the back. Let me turn it to the back so you can see what im doing. And now i need to actually move to the next square. So im gonna take my needle in beneath the stitches and just bring it across so that i can now begin my second grid. And this time, im gonna come out just four threadsthats right, were doing four threadsfour threads over from the edge, and then im gonna begin by stitching my first bundle. Remember, youre gonna go back into the direct center of the next grid and then continue working across. Now, this particular stitch is usually done on fine linen. It can be done on any size, but what you need to remember is that when you choose your linen, try to get an even weave so that you have a true square. If youre working with an uneven weave, you need to make allowances for however many threads go in what direction. Sometimes you may need to put 12 in one direction and 18 in the other. Just make sureor 19 or whatever number youre choosing to bundle. You can also do bundles of three or two, because 12 is a number that you can use either one of those configurations. And then a work this size, i want to try to keep it instead of just doing two grids, id like to do maybe 12 squares and then do every other square for a nice pattern. Other than that, this is a variation you can put on Childrens Clothing or linens for the home or anything you think is right for it. So, martha, thats really all there is to it. Martha wendy, that is absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much. And now i would like to share a piece from my vintage collection with you. One of the wonderful things about collecting antique petticoats is that you really can use the petticoat and turn it into a christening dress if you want to. Ive always thought that was what i was gonna do one day with this. This petticoat is obviously pretty wealthy family, because it has a tiny little monogram. The initials s. L. Are embroidered on the top. Just wait until you see the details on this petticoat. It is one of the most beautiful skirts i have ever seen. All right, lets come down. This beautiful lace, really wide lace. Then the skirt has panels. The beautiful wide lace goes down to the ruffle. This is a beading which could or could not have had ribbon run through it. I really guess it probably did have ribbon run through it originally. The beautiful wide lace, and then we have tucks, three tucks one size, three tucks a little larger, three tucks a little larger. Such a beautiful, beautiful panel in between the wide lace, once again, then the beading. I kind of fantasize that this might have had pink ribbon run through it, or maybe even white would have been pretty. Then we go down to the bottom of the panels. This beautiful wide lace again. And this fancy band, or this rufflenot a fancy band but a ruffleis absolutely beautiful. Do you see the little puffing . So the gathers connect to the lace, and then the gathers connect to the lace again. But a little piece of puffing. And then i wish i could tell you that lace this wide and beautiful was available today. It isnt. Look at that beautiful piece of lace. Now, i have to tell you, it hasnt been gathered, really, but you see its connected to the bottom of the puffing. Then there was an underslip thats simple and sweet. But again, the swiss batiste with just a little bit of lace. When i get a piece again, when i purchased this, i thought, you know, one day, im going to make this into a christening dress, because it would be such a beautiful and what i might do, i might cut it off here and use new batiste, and although theres some batiste in part of the petticoat, there really isnt enough, i dont think, cause i like long christening dresses. So i could cut it off here and then do the other part of the christening dress and have something perfectly magnificent, which i think is fun to do with petticoats. Thank you for joining me in my sewing room today. Id like to invite you to come back next time. Announcer to receive a newsletter written personally by martha with sewing tips and a great recipe, visit our website. For more information on show projects or to purchase the marthas sewing room series, log on to or call the 13program series is available for 39. 95 plus shipping and handling. Funding for marthas sewing room is made possible by the warm company dedicated to providing Innovative Products for the quilting, crafting, and sewing industry. Koala studios highquality sewing furniture custombuilt in america. Floriani the name that means beautiful embroidery. Presencia manufacturing highquality cotton, rayon embroidery, and sewing and quilting threads. And sew beautiful magazine devoted to providing inspiration to stitchers everywhere. Captioning by captionmax www. Captionmax. Com dean hi, welcome back to hometime. Well this is the spot where we built our first log cabin a little over 20 years ago and of course after that amount of time theres always a few things that could use a little attention. One of those is to redirect one of the homes Critical Systems which has fed a lot of growth in an area where believe it or not growth is not real desirable. Well explain whats going on and show you how to fix it. Then if you think that autumns too late to plant trees we got news for you in the form of another little project weve got going on. Well like usual we probably bit off more than we can chew but lets see how far we can get. Man 1 what we need is some elbow grease. Man 2 yeah, you can. Oh, are you kidding me . Man 3 gmc, proud to lend a helping hand to hometime. Dean now one thing that were going to be doing is updating a septic system. When this place was built over 20 years ago this is where the drain field was located where all these trees are. Well thats not exactly the way you want your drain field to look. What happened are these trees kind of landed there, started growing and with all those nutrients in a drain field they just exploded with growth. So consequently this is not going to be working that much longer so were going to relocate the drain field up into the woods in a place that hopefully is going to work just fine. So we have Jeff Rasmussen and his crew here today so jeff its not a great idea to have trees growing on top of your drain field right . Jeff not at all dean. What happens is the roots are so attracted to the effluent that goes in there and those laterals that are within that old drain field are just they get so plugged up with the old root eventually itll stop the flow. Dean now from our original system were going to keep our two septic tanks, right . Jeff correct. Well keep the original two 800 gallon septic tanks in the series and install a new pump chamber thatll pump the effluent up to the new drainage cells. Dean so how do we get started with the whole thing . Jeff were going to come in and dig a excavate for the new hole for the new pump tank. That pump tank again is about 5 x 7. Dean and you guys make that big Concrete Tank yourselves, right . Jeff we do make that Concrete Tank. The depth of that tank that will be about 71 2 deep and from there from the top of the cover well bring manhole risers above grade, bring it up to code so we can able to set the pump and such in that pump tank. Dean now the key to the whole system is we have to pump the effluent from the lift station up to our drain field. Now to do that you need a really strong longlasting pump. Now this thing is made out of cast iron, powder coated so it wont rust for a long time. Actually the company. Can i have that dean . Dean you bet. The companys been around a long time, made in kentucky so it should be a reliable one. It has a factory tested half horsepower motor driving a vortex impeller at 1725 rpm. And theres also an inch and a half discharge with a 2 adapter. Now in a perfect world, the effluent flows up the system and then percolates out in little holes in the pipes up in the drain field but if any solids get up there it can plug those up so what theres a couple ways of filtering. First of all, the pump and this sit inside this basket right here. The effluent flows in here, gets to the pump and then the pump can pump everything out and it does through this system right here. Now this