Wahoo and A Book Review

First the “wahoo”: I will again be presenting at the Saturday Night Sampler at International Quilt Festival-Long Beach on July 28th! Last year’s Saturday Night Sampler was a blast and it was one of my favorite teaching moments of the year. I loved the crowd there, meeting people from all over the world and feeling the enthusiasm for my topic.

If you get a chance to go to any of the IQF shows (Cincinnati, Long Beach, Houston), the Saturday Night Sampler is a must. There will be a room full of teachers, all doing simultaneous presentations in their area. You walk freely from teacher to teacher, absorbing just as much as you want before going on to the next one. It is an excellent opportunity to see if you like a teacher enough to take a full class from them, see if you like a particular technique, decide whether a particular notion is worth purchasing, etc.

As a presenter, I loved the fast pace, the interaction with many quilters and seeing what others were presenting. I made a table runner as a blatant incentive to bring students my way and I met so many quilters that way. I will be making another table runner to give away again this year. I hope to see many of you there!

Book Review: Mastering Metallics, by Ann Fahl

The bottom line is this: if you are working with metallics or are even thinking about working with metallics, you need this book.You may recall I have been working a Saw Tooth Star and most of my quilting has been with metallic thread-YLI’s Silk Sparkle. I have worked with metallics for years with nary a problem, but at one point on this quilt, I could not stitch more than 4″ without thread shred. I know a lot about metallic threads and was baffled by my issue.

I had heard about Ann’s book  and ordered it immediately. It is a self-published booklet and she sells it in tandem with a booklet on bindings, both for $18 (plus $3 shipping).

She covers everything there is to know about metallics and I think the main thing about metallics is that you need to get everything right: tension, needle, spool orientation (horizontal/vertical), type of fabric, bobbin thread and proper use in your machine. Metallics push the limits of our domestic machines and that’s why the margin of error is so small.

She walks you through all the issues with metallics in a clear manner with great illustrations, reference charts and troubleshooting guide. There were some new tricks in there for me like “try putting the metallic thread in the freezer before using” and that thread near the end of the spool is more likely to misbehave!

I knew a whole lot about metallics before I read the book as I have worked with metallics often but I still had much to learn. The biggest take away for me was that I was somewhat doomed from the get go with my tightly woven backing fabric and 2 layers of spray basted batting. I did everything right after that but I think the thickness of my quilt sandwich combined with a tightly woven backing created my shredding issues.

The separate binding book that comes with the metallics book was great too-I learned some new tricks there also. Example: Ann does not double fold her bias bindings for wall hangings. The binding lays better with a single fold and you don’t need double fold binding for a wall hanging as they get no wear and tear-forehead slap!

I do love the way my Sparkle thread looks on my quilt-love it! It was worth the hassle. If you are having any trouble with your metallic thread or are afraid to try, get the book so that you can enjoy the process-it’s so worth it.