Quilt Top Marking Tutorial

I was looking for a way mark quilt tops with quilting designs without directly marking the fabric and came up with this technique which has been working extremely well for me. It utilizes water soluble interfacing and is better than the quilting paper because it tears off more easily and doesn't stress your stitching. Anything left in tightly quilted areas or under the quilt stitching just washes away! I've used it several times now, even on white fabric with white thread, and have had absolutely no problems with anything leaving a mark or color behind on the quilt.

Supplies:







Pinned quilt sandwich
Sulky's Solvy Water Soluble Stabilizer (on the bolt, then you can make one piece as long as you need it, and it's less expensive than the packages.)
Crayola Washable Markers, fine point
Tape
Pattern
Straight Pins

1. Pick and scale quilting pattern to size needed.

2. Tape pattern to table, tape stabilizer tautly over pattern.

3. Using washable marker, trace pattern onto stabilizer.

4. Pin stabilizer to quilt top. Remove any basting safety pins and replace with straight pins on top of interfacing as you go along.









5. Free motion quilt along pattern lines.











6. Tear off as much stabilizer as you can. (It will stick to dog and cat noses, so please dispose of it properly).

7. When top is entirely quilted and quilt is bound, wash and dry quilt.

Patio Tomatoes

To all my gardening friends out there with out a space in the ground to call their own:

The gardening catalogs have started to roll in and I thought this tomato planter from the Gardener's Supply Company looked interesting:












I have no idea how they will work, but they look interesting. They remind me of The Land ride in Epcot at Disney where they have the whole hydroponic thing going on.
I love that they have molds for making pumpkins, watermelons and cucumbers grow into Mickey head shapes. You know how I love shaped foods! Some people find them silly and pointless, but they amuse me.

Dinner Plans

Say what you will, but I love Martha. I have found many tidbits of wisdom and inspiration from Martha and her people over the years. Not to mention the fantastic and inspirational magazines. The funny thing is that it's my dad who originally introduced me to Martha back when she started her first t.v. show.

Contained in the food portion of the Martha website they have started a fantastic new area called the "grocery bag." Contained in the grocery bag is everything you need to plan your meals for the week. It spells out the meals, provides the recipes and the grocery lists! This is the most exciting thing for me. While I love to cook, I'm terrible about planning anything other than special events ahead of time. At the grocery store I end up spending way too much time and money on random things that I could possibly make, so the grocery bag is fantastic for me. The "cool creative dinners" is especially great because I grow all of the vegetables in it in the summer! Think of how little those meals will cost.

As everyone these days is looking to save money and time and be healthier, I thought I'd share this fabulous tool that Martha and/or her people have come up with for all of us to use.

As for my quilting, I don't have much to show right now as I have been spending my waking hours at home cleaning out and organizing my quilting room. It's such a mess that I just can't take it anymore and had to do something about it. Perhaps I'll do a couple of giveaways to help clear things out! Stay tuned for more information on that.