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,

Telecast Thursday - EuroSteam Next Generation Iron - a Review

Welcome to Telecast Thursday! This week I'm sharing my review on my latest acquisition.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have purchased a new iron. Previously I had been using one of the standard irons that you can buy for regular ironing - you know, clothing and things like that (I can't remember the last time I ironed a piece of clothing!). I have never purchased a "quilting iron". I was okay with the iron I was using, but was on the look-out for a new one as I'd had this one for several years and it didn't seem to be getting quite as hot as it used to.

Luckily, there was a booth at Quilt Canada 2015 that was selling the EuroSteam Next Generation (sounds Star-Treky, doesn't it?) iron, and, at the encouragement of my husband, I decided to check it out. 

EuroSteam Next Generation iron

Wow, was I impressed! First, the saleslady was so knowledgeable about the iron and had her spiel down pat, but she also was able to answer all the questions I had. In the space of about 5 minutes, I'd bought one and was looking forward to trying it out on some quilt fabric once I returned home.

I was a bit sceptical that the iron would perform as well at home as it did at the show, but I didn't need to be concerned. This iron is wonderful! It has an internal water tank/boiler and when you add water (it uses regular tap water) to it and turn it on, it heats up very quickly. You can choose to have steam with it or not. You can have constant steam, which is helpful for ironing draperies or using on a vertical surface and you can adjust the volume of this steam. If you prefer, you can keep the steam off and just use a burst of steam when it is required. This uses up less water and you won't have to refill the tank as often.

Increase your level of constant steam by turning the black dial to the right. Turn the dial all the way to the left for no steam and press the white button in the centre of the steam control dial to get a burst of steam.

The iron came with a measuring cup to use when filling the tank as well as a cap remover to use when taking the cap on and off the iron (helps to get this very tight and makes it easy to loosen). Like a radiator in a car, you need to let the iron cool down before taking the cap off to add more water (or to empty the water). A rubber mat was also included on which to put the iron when not in use.

The measuring cup and cap remover - some of the accessories included with the iron. Note the red line on the measuring cup which indicates how much water to put in the iron.

The function I like best about this iron is that I don't have to stand it on its end - it remains with the soleplate down when you're not using it. And... you can leave it on fabric and it won't scorch the fabric! It's hard to believe, but it's true! As I use my iron for cotton fabric almost exclusively, I have scorched other fabric types when pressing as I turned the heat on the iron up too high. I don't have to worry about this with the EuroSteam iron. I can go from pressing cotton fabric to pressing silk ribbon without any concerns. This is brilliant!

Okay, do I sound excited about my iron? Well, I am. It presses much better than my regular iron and is quick to take out all the wrinkles in my fabric. It's simple and has no bells and whistles, but it does exactly what I want it to do: press any of my fabrics quickly and without scorching. You just turn the iron on, choose the steam level (or not) and you're ready to press. I also like the fact that it doesn't shut off automatically. I dislike that feature in an iron because I use it when I'm quilting and I like my iron hot and ready at all times. 

On or off - no need to select special fabrics for this iron to work.

To see how the EuroSteam Next Generation iron works, watch the 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.

So, if you're looking for a new iron and aren't sure what to get, I would highly recommend the EuroSteam Next Generation iron. Tell them Kim sent you!

Creatively,

Telecast Thursday - Dyeing Quilt Batting

Welcome to another episode of Telecast Thursday!

Today I'm stepping away from quilting to bring you a tutorial on dyeing quilt batting. Okay, it is sort of something to do with quilting, but you don't usually get your hands wet when you're doing that! Although I do wear gloves when I'm quilting...

Back to today's subject. I have lots of small batting bits that are left over after quilting my quilts and I keep them stuffed in a big plastic bag. They're too small to be of much use (unless I use them for dusters and who wants to dust?!), but too big to throw away. What can be done with these leftover batting pieces? Dye them! Yes, quilt batting dyes easily and makes great appliqués. Check out the video to see how easy it is to do this.

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

Let me know if you've ever tried dyeing batting and what your results were. If you haven't yet tried this, I hop you will and send me photos of your results. See, your microwave isn't really meant for cooking!

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.

Creatively, 

Celebrating!

I'm doing a happy dance today and I'll tell you why: I've reached over 1000 subscribers on my Youtube channel!

I can remember when I only had a handful of subscribers and was just thrilled that someone was watching my content. I was over the moon when I reached 500 subscribers and am definitely doing a happy dance due to my over 1000 subscribers.

Thanks so much for your support. Your comments and questions let me know that you're watching and interested in what I'm creating.

Charlie and Teeka are also excited about this milestone and want to share their excitement with you. You can watch the video below or on my Youtube channel.

I hope you'll continue to watch my videos and let me know what you're interested in seeing on my channel. As for me, I'm planning my next videotaping so you'll continue to receive new videos each and every week – guaranteed!

If you aren't already a subscriber, be sure to join the group at Chatterbox Quilts.

Creatively,

Telecast Thursday - Quilting Motif Choices

It's Thursday again and time for another Telecast Thursday!

I'm sure you've had to decide on what quilting motif to use on a project. This can be a tough choice and sometimes you may decide to just put the project away until you can make the right choice (oh, maybe that's just me!). Don't worry about making the right choice, just quilt that puppy! 

In this video, I'll show you two different ways of quilting the same wall hanging. While there is a definite difference between these two projects, they both look great! The reason is simple: I quilted what I was comfortable quilting. Take a look to see what I mean.

You can watch the 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.

Creatively,