New fabric and sewing tip!

                                                                                                                                                
Oh, the silly photos we take on vacation! Tom wouldn’t let me take his photo like this so I’ll just embarass myself. It’s the last week of January, and it doesn’t feel like winter here in Spokane. We’ve had very little snow so I’m posting this photo of me in Florida last month. I’ve been working frantically on designing new quilts with digital images of new fabric collections so I can write the directions, determine the bolts we need, and then order the fabric waaaaaay ahead of time.  In 20 1/2 years as a quilt designer, I have never worked on fall or Christmas projects this early in the year.
This is called “Sweet Liberty” by Pat Sloan for P&B Textiles. This company does print fabric ahead of time and sends out fat quarters to design with which is great!  LOVE this patriotic yet Americana collection! I will be creating a pieced and appliqued banner for the July issue of The Quilter; and also a lap quilt exclusive to my web site with the great new collection. I’m a sucker for collections like this with lots of variety to choose from, and with great contrast, too. I’ll keep you posted on what I’m doing it with this later in the spring. Hurrah for the red, white, and blue!
New Collection:

Michele’s Sewing Tip:
I am a quilter that cuts the pieces for blocks and borders as I go through each step instead of cutting everything out all at once. I base my border strips on what they should be mathematically, but your quilt may not come out exactly like the size of the sample (for various reasons). This is why I recommend that once your quilt center is done and you are ready to cut the borders,  measure your quilt to determine what size your quilt center is for the borders. Measure at three different points horizontally on the quilt top. Take the average of these numbers as the width of the quilt. Measure at three different points vertically on the quilt top. Take the average of these numbers as the length of the quilt. All the borders and binding for your quilt will be determined from your measurements from this point. The amount of fabric strips noted in my directions will be more than enough for these borders. Measure twice, cut once!

Have a pieceful day!
Michele