Telecast Thursday - Dan the Quilter Man & the Singer Featherweight Sewing Machine

It's Telecast Thursday and today I'm turning my blog over to an "experienced" quilter, Dan the Quilter Man. You may already have seen Dan in some of my previous blogposts and videos. (If you have, you'll know why I'm using the term, experienced, with reservation!).

You may have noticed that Dan has a couple of buddies, Charlie and Teeka, who are accompanying him in his journey to embrace his new quilting hobby. While Charlie and Teeka could be considered reasonably intelligent and responsible (especially when compared to Dan) they are no substitute for the adult supervision that is so desperately needed.

Dan’s innate ability to discover risky and unanticipated uses for perfectly good quilting equipment reaches a new level when he discovers a vintage sewing machine from his wife’s collection. You may think that Dan could find sewing machines to be dangerous considering that they include sharp objects (i.e. needles) combined with motors and electricity, but it is never that simple. Dan continues to surprise when he combines that (unwilling) assistance of his buddies with a Singer Featherweight sewing machine.

You can watch the (disastrous) video below or on my Youtube channel.

Subscribe to my Youtube channel to receive automatic notifications when new videos are posted. You can also click on the Chatterbox Quilts logo in the lower right corner on the video itself to subscribe. If you like what you see, please share my videos with your fellow creatives.

I hope you're using your vintage sewing machine for its intended purpose - to stitch. Remember, don't be a Dan!

Creatively,

Dan the Quilter Man - Pressing Matters

Okay, we have firmly established that it is too early in Dan’s quilting career to allow him to use anything sharp. It is time to get back to basics and have Dan ease into the quilting process. As any quilter knows, one of the first things you have to do is press your fabric so pressing is probably a good skill for Dan to learn.

Well, we should have known better than to leave Dan unsupervised while in possession of a potential lethal appliance (i.e. an iron). One of things that Dan likes most about his previous hobby of woodworking was that he got to use lots of power tools. Unfortunately, for the quilting community, in Dan’s mind an iron is pretty darn close to a power tool. Not only does it have buttons to push but also produces copious amounts of hot steam that can be used in ways probably not imagined by the makers of the iron.

Dan’s foray into the world of “hot” quilting tools is a disturbing combination of power tool intoxication, coworker abuse and pure unadulterated incompetence.  Be warned.

You can watch the video below or on my Youtube channel.

In case you were wondering, an iron is a very helpful tool to press your patchwork seams flat when constructing a quilt. Make sure you're using it the proper way - not like Dan does!

Creatively,

Dan the Quilter Man - Scissors and Cats

Never let it be said that Dan the Quilter Man is a quitter (or a quilter, for that matter!). He is not going to let the unfortunate outcome of his initial steps into the world of quilting stop him. Not while he is still breathing anyway. It is pretty clear that Dan is not ready for the more complex (i.e. sharp) tools in a quilter’s toolbox, so it is time to explore something a little more common. How can you go wrong with a pair of scissors?

Well, apparently Dan can find a way.. Most people take pleasure in using well-designed tools for the purpose for which they were designed. Cutting fabric with a good pair of scissors is a sublime effortless experience when they are used correctly. On the other hand, never let it be said that Dan is afraid to explore alternate uses for perfectly good tools. In some ways you have to admire Dan’s sheer inventiveness in the ways he can create injury-inducing moments out of perfectly common situations.

Watch the video below or on my Youtube channel to see how you shouldn't use scissors.

If you do use scissors for your quilting projects, please don't follow Dan's example and keep them away from cats.

Creatively,

Dan the Quilter Man

One of the best things about being part of a crafting community is the interesting people you meet. There are many talented people out there who have spent years honing their skills and creating stunning projects.  Unfortunately, Dan is not one of them.

This is Dan the Quilter Man. 

Dan is the type of guy who lives by the philosophy of “why bother to do it right when you can do it twice (assuming you survive the first attempt)”. It is not that Dan is stupid (although the jury is still out on that one), it’s that he refuses to invest the time to learn how to do things properly. This attitude combined with an unhealthy amount of curiosity and a complete lack of any ability to foresee the consequences of his actions results in one disaster after another. 

For most people having a hobby is an important part of living a healthy life. However, in Dan’s case, hobbies are apparently designed to shorten his life span. Dan’s most recent hobby, wood working, resulted in a disaster that landed him on local news where the community got to see his woodshop burn to the ground. The only thing Dan managed to save was his buddy Charlie.

Now with lots of time on his hands (always a dangerous situation for someone like Dan) and the woodshop gone he has decided to take up a new hobby. Dan’s wife (who will remain nameless to protect the innocent) has been a quilter for years so Dan has decided to join her in that time-honoured hobby. Frankly, it is possible that the quilting community will never be the same.

NOTE: No cats were harmed in the making of this video - only Dan!

You can watch the video below or on my Youtube channel.

You can see that Dan's first attempt at using a rotary cutter wasn't very successful. Don't be a Dan! Follow these tips for safe rotary cutting:

• Always close your cutter after making your cut. Always! Get into the habit of cut, close, cut, close and you'll never have an unfortunate accident, like Dan.
• Use a ruler when you are rotary cutter to prevent the cutter veering off in an unexpected direction. Ouch!
• Keep one finger on the cutting mat and the other ones on the ruler. This helps to stabilize the ruler when rotary cutting.
• Pay attention when you are cutting. Don't let purry assistants, like Charlie, distract you from your task.

While I don't recommend cutting up your shirt to use for quilting, I sometimes buy shirts from the thrift shop for just this purpose. I found Bonnie Hunter's video helpful in deconstructing an old shirt for quilting fabric.

I hope you have better success in attempting your first quilting project and remember: don't be a Dan!

Creatively,