[bright music]
- Announcer: Proceeds from the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show
support PBS Wisconsin programming.
Your financial gift helps make this event possible.
Thank you.
- Deanna Springer: Good afternoon, everyone.
Welcome to the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, day one!
[all cheering]
Is everyone having a great time?
- Audience: Yes! - Yeah?
How many, this is your first year?
Wow, well, welcome!
You're part of the family now.
It's our 20th year here at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show.
How many have made it all 20 years?
Oh, yes, oh, yes, a few people.
Me too.
I'm a founding member of the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show
with my dear friend Nancy Zieman,
our company founder,
the host of Sewing with Nancy on PBS Wisconsin.
Yes, yeah, our dear friend, yeah.
We're celebrating Nancy tonight, in the Thursday evening event.
So we'll celebrate 20 years of the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show.
And I went back and I found photos from all over the years.
Okay, I won't get misty today, right?
I'm here to talk about our
10-20-30 minutes to Quilt As You Go.
Has anyone heard of Quilt As You Go?
Yes, it's super fun and super easy.
We were just talking before the presentation.
I had three-day-- you know, a three-day weekend,
Labor Day weekend.
The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show is always the weekend
after Labor Day weekend, so it's easy to remember.
I had three days, so I made a quilt.
- Attendee 1: Beautiful. - Thank you.
This is with batiks.
And just for you, we put together a kit.
This is nowhere else.
It's not at our store in downtown Beaver Dam.
It's only here at the Nancy Zieman Sewing Studio
and Quilt Shop booth.
So there's a kit for this quilt, but we'll talk about--
You can do it with scraps, too.
We'll talk about this quilt.
This is our original 12-block quilt
that we did with June Tailor.
Jill Repp was my guest on Stitch It! Sisters.
You can see our Stitch It! Sisters videos
at youtube.com/stitchitsisters.
So you can watch this video there.
You can watch the video for this.
This is called the 12-block quilt.
Right at the Nancy Zieman blog.
So nancyzieman.com/blog.
You can see the step-by-steps how we made this.
I'll show you this and I'll show you in person, too.
So here's the Stitch It! Sisters video with Jill.
And this is their product.
It's a batting, a pre-printed batting, for Quilt As You Go,
which I'll be showing you.
You can watch the video right here.
And you can see, we have a bundle box put together
with all the fabrics.
And then we always give you the list of supplies.
This is a listing of all the supplies I use to make this.
It's the absolute easiest way.
I'll share my tips with you as I put this together,
what I use for tools and products
that make it come together,
that make it possible to make that quilt in a weekend.
Of course, you don't have to use all of the tools listed.
So this is the 12-block quilt.
If you study the quilt, you can see the four corner blocks.
Those are all the same.
Now, if you made this scrappy,
you could make 'em differently, too.
Nancy was a sewing renegade.
She broke all the rules.
So we give you permission to break the rules, too,
and make it your own.
So there are four of those square-in-a-square
corner blocks.
There are four straight down the center.
Look right down the center.
All four of those blocks are the same.
So what looks complicated is all--
You're already recognizing that this is gonna be easy, right?
And then the four blocks on each center column are the same.
And that's the block I'll show you today.
So we start out with the printed batting.
The block is printed right on the batting.
Remember paint-by-number?
[audience murmuring] Yes.
We did a lot of paint-by-number when I was a kid.
It was a big '70s thing, I think.
My sister's still doing it today.
There's adult paint-by-numbers, did you know that?
[audience murmuring] Okay.
Do you see the backing fabric behind there?
That's just a square of backing fabric.
The squares are cut 15 1/2 inches,
and that batting is cut about 15.
It's all pre-printed.
You can't make a mistake.
So we spray-starch,
with the June Tailor Quilt Basting Spray,
the batting to the backing fabric.
In this image, the backing fabric is pink.
That's what makes it Quilt As You Go.
We are building a quilt block and piecing it
and quilting it all at the same time.
And there, I'm using the June Tailor Glue Stick.
It's purple when you first glue it down,
and then it disappears, it's clear.
And then I'll step over by my samples
to show you the rest.
I have step-by-step samples.
This is a row of three blocks, which we'll come back to.
But this is that same block that's up on the screen.
I make the samples,
I take the photos for the blog post,
and make the samples for the Stitch It! Sisters videos.
So these are the same samples from the photo shoot.
They're a little wrinkled 'cause they lived
in my suitcase this week.
Mm-hmm, so, I've glued with glue stick.
I've glued, with glue stick, that center square.
Okay?
And then, that was number one.
That square had a position of number one.
And you do receive instructions with the package
that have a cut list.
It tells you exactly what to do for fabric cutting
for each block.
There's a cut list of the fabrics and things you need.
So the first step would be
take 10, 20, 30 minutes and cut your fabrics.
The next step would be to place fabric number two on.
I'll upright it here.
So that's one, two, three, four, five.
And then you keep going.
I believe this one is up to 12, up to 13.
There's 13 pieces on this one.
Your next piece you would place on number two.
I place it where it's going to go,
I make sure I like what it looks like,
and then I place it right sides together.
So now one and two are placed right sides together.
You could put a little pin there if you'd like,
but these pieces are small enough.
I saw the light bulb go on in the front row.
Yep, you're Quilt As You Go gals now.
So you're going to set your machine, sewing machine,
for a scant 1/4 inch.
Don't do a full 1/4 inch.
You'll come up short.
These patterns are designed for a scant 1/4 inch.
Does everyone know what a scant 1/4 inch is?
- Attendee 2: No.
- It's 1/4-inch, but just a little bit smaller.
It's a seam allowance, right?
It's a scant smaller than 1/4 inch,
because when you stitch this,
you place one and two together
and stitch this with a scant 1/4 inch
or just slightly smaller than 1/4 inch
when you press it open.
Here it is stitched.
When you press this open and press,
once that fold-- that fabric folds over,
it makes your 1/4 inch.
So you need to leave a scant for that fabric to fold
and make it the full 1/4 inch, okay?
It is forgiving.
If you do, you can test it.
You know, go smaller than you think.
Stitch, press it open.
If it goes beyond the blue line,
then you know you have to change your machine setting
and do a little bit wider.
If you do too wide of a seam allowance,
you will come up short and your lines won't match up.
So you won't quite know what pieces to put where
and you'll come up short around the outside.
But you'll see, it's a little forgiving
if you come up a little short.
I'll show you later.
I'll remind you about that later.
So you may guess what step is next.
One and two.
So here's piece three in position.
It's stitched and pressed open.
And I'm working from the center out.
I started in the center and I'm working out.
Now I'll place piece four.
And it's a rectangle.
These are all cut 2 1/2 inches.
When we get to the half-square triangles,
those are not 2 1/2 inches.
But these strips so far have all been 2 1/2 inches.
You place it where you want it to live.
And you'll be working on your table.
You won't be hovering in the air.
Place it right sides together
and stitch with your scant 1/4-inch seam allowance.
And then, when you press that open...
you'll see the center
of the square in a square starting to form.
Now, I'll share a tip with you.
We, as quilters, are used to pressing
as you go with the heat of an iron.
Here's the tip.
This batting is not designed
to put an iron directly on the batting surface.
You could melt it.
So wait to press it with your iron
until the block is complete.
I have my tools here.
And I use a, it's called a Magic Seam Wand.
It's a hardwood tool with a beveled edge, right?
And then I just press.
I press that seam open.
So I first-- You stitch it with your scant 1/4 inch,
you press it open,
and then you take the Magic Seam Wand
and you press that seam open.
Now, if you're thinking, "Oh, I want it a little bit more open,"
take the Magic Seam Wand, put it on the heat of an iron,
the soleplate of your hot iron, warm it up.
It's hardwood, it'll be fine.
Get it nice and warm.
And then press your seams open.
Press them away.
So you can use this tool for a lot
of different things where it's hard to get an iron,
a large iron, into place.
Place five.
Now, with this fabric, it doesn't--
it's not so directional.
When I was making the batik quilt,
I thought, "Oh, that looks nice,
but I think I'll turn it around."
I like how it looks that way.
Again, with this one, it's a really small pattern.
It has little white scissors on it.
It doesn't really matter.
Place it where you want to go, place it right sides together,
and then stitch with your scant 1/4 inch, and then flip.
We also call it stitch and flip.
Quilt As You Go, sew by the numbers,
stitch and flip-- it's all interchangeable.
So look at that, we have a square in a square.
Okay?
The next piece is a triangle.
So we need piece number six right now.
I place it where it needs to go, I fold it down...
stitch, and then press it open.
Triangles are kind of difficult to cut.
If it said, "Cut six triangles this size,"
it would be kind of difficult, not so great.
So what the instructions do is tell you to cut squares.
So everyone can cut squares, right?
Use your rotary cutter, your ruler, your cutting mat.
Cut squares.
And then, diagonally, cut the squares in half.
Here, I'll visualize it here.
This was a square first before it was triangles.
The easiest way to make half-square triangles in a quilt
is to make a square first and then cut it in half.
So we have all the pieces on here.
So you can see now, it's a block on point,
once you add the triangles.
So I've added all four triangles,
and now I'm going to place piece number 10.
So you can visualize how quickly
you can build a quilt, a block.
So in 10 minutes, you could sew this block.
Maybe the day before,
you spent 20, 30 minutes cutting your pieces out.
Now you can stitch and flip and press
and you'll have a block within 10 minutes.
The cutting took me the longest,
cutting all the backing pieces and the pieces on the front.
I enjoy cutting fabric.
When my non-quilting sister comes to the sewing studio
and sees us cutting up fabric, she's like, "Why?
"Why do you cut up the beautiful fabric
just to sew it back together again?" [laughter]
Yeah, yeah, we get it, we get it.
So, here we go.
We place it where we want it.
Place it right sides together.
And stitch.
On this one, you can see, the triangles overextend the line.
So even with the stitch and flip,
Quilt As You Go method,
you do have those little dog-ears,
Nancy always called 'em, 'cause when you stitch that
and flip it open, they'll be there,
but it doesn't matter.
Now that you see the process, I'll put these-- It's nice.
It's almost like a flannel board.
I can stick these on, and you can visualize.
And then I can use my samples over and over again.
You can come see me at the booth and,
"Okay, how did you do that?"
You can find me at the Nancy Zieman Sewing Studio booth,
right inside the front door.
So here's a block, right?
I'll kind of recap it.
The package comes like this,
with all the batting that you need.
Pre-printed batting from June Tailor.
It's 12 blocks.
What if you wanted a larger quilt?
Buy another 12-block set
and just make it as big as you want.
We're just talking right now about making the blocks.
But these are the three different pre-printed blocks.
And I cut them apart.
These are 14-inch blocks when they're finished.
So I cut them apart,
leaving a 1/2-inch seam allowance
all the way around the printed batting.
So once you cut out your batting,
then you cut out your backing at the same time.
I'll show you my blue.
So I cut out, for the back of this quilt--
Here, I'll show you the back of this one.
This is more scrappy.
So check out the back.
Oh, surprise! [audience exclaiming]
Uh-huh, look at that.
What a way to use your scraps up.
We don't put the backing fabrics into our kits
because I know a lot of you have a lot of fabric,
and this is a good way to bust your stash, use it up.
And I think it's really fun.
It makes the back interesting.
I'll show you the back on the other one.
This is the blue batik quilt, I'll walk it over.
Now, this is the same pattern, the same packaging,
but I changed the position of where the blocks went.
Can you see that?
Wow!
Now, all of a sudden, it's like a radiating star.
And the picture is on the packaging.
I just followed the picture
of where I placed the lights and the darks.
That's what quilting is, right?
Lights and darks.
We tend to gravitate towards all mediums.
We love the mediums.
Well, you can't make the mediums pop
unless you put some lights with it.
So look at the back.
It's all the same fabric.
I used a wide backing, a batik wide backing.
Yes, batiks are available now in wide backings, I love it.
I used a wide backing, and it was very quick,
'cause the back, each back square is cut,
I believe, 17 1/2 inches, squares.
And I'll show you that.
I'll move this back a little bit so you can maybe see the board.
Same quilt, different fabric,
different positioning of the blocks.
So I laid this on my living room carpet
when they were 12 different blocks,
and I arranged 'em in different ways and took a picture.
'Cause what I can see in person,
you can't really feel that radiation.
So look at the picture on your camera phone,
your picture phone.
And that really helped me with the placement of the blocks.
So here are my backing fabrics.
And, you know, in 10 minutes or less, I had all of these cut.
So you start with the background fabric.
We'll rerun the samples here.
And the first thing I did...
is, I spray-basted the backing to the pre-printed batting.
Okay, here's my backing and my batting.
And the next step is to stitch all the way around
that outside line.
Stitch on the line.
And what you're doing is basting.
You're basting the fabric in batting
so that it's one piece and it won't shift on you.
So stitch on that outside line.
That line becomes important later on
when you build your block and you get to this point.
Okay, now you're supposed to stitch all the way around
the outside of the block.
Well, where?
Where should I stitch that?
Turn it over.
Restitch or duplicate stitch
over that line you've already stitched and you have a block.
Okay?
And then you trim your blocks all to 14 1/2 inches.
And you may sometimes, and it and it happens to me, too.
I may come up short a little bit.
Say, on this sample, I came up a little bit short
on the corners.
As long-- And we'll talk about Sash-In-A-Dash next.
In this sample, I've started sewing my blocks together.
Here's a trim block.
And Sash-In-A-Dash
is bias-cut fabric that's already pre-sewn for you.
And I've passed the sample around.
Did everyone see that?
Did you study that?
It's already made for you, it's already made for you.
It will reach you soon.
I see the sample coming around.
I've sent around a sample of the--
It comes in a 10-yard pack, in different colors.
I used navy for that quilt, white for this quilt.
And it comes in a 10-yard package like this.
We did already cut it
and put it in the kit for the navy-purple quilt.
It's right here.
Your yardage to make this quilt is all in there.
And think of it as trim by the yard.
I've never seen anything like this.
I don't think anyone has ever come up with this
before Jill Repp did at June Tailor.
I think it's genius.
She's one of our quilting friends, I think, that has
the most patents of anyone I know.
She's invented so many things.
So once you have your blocks,
then you sew rows of three and you use the Sash-In-A-Dash.
I'll dash over to the computer
so we can get a better look at that.
So after today, you'll be masters at Quilt As You Go,
and you could teach this, right? [audience chuckling]
So here's a little review.
Start in the center, work out.
Do you press with a hot iron? - All: No.
- Deanna: Not until the block is completely stitched,
you've stitched all the way around,
you've trimmed it down,
everything's encapsulated by that fabric.
Then you have permission to press.
- Attendee 3: What ink do you use
that you're putting on the batting?
- Deanna: The question is,
what ink is the batting printed with?
An ink that won't transfer over.
So there are different inks.
You know, sometimes, think of an iron-on transfer
for hand embroidery and things.
It's not that type of ink.
It's a permanent ink, so it won't transfer over.
The issue is not pressing with a hot iron on the ink.
The issue is the batting.
Imagine ironing on your batting.
Well, that could be a mess right away.
Good question.
So here we are building the block.
It's Quilt As You Go.
Did you see, when I showed the backside of the block,
you could see the stitching?
It's already quilted.
Every time you stitch and add a piece of fabric,
you are quilting through all layers.
And in 10 minutes, you can make a block,
because you have all the fabrics pre-cut.
And here comes the magic.
I didn't show the finished block,
but here's the finished quilt and the assembly.
Oh, what am I doing here?
[audience murmuring]
I'm using my 3/4-inch Clover Bias Tape Maker.
Look back at this quilt, okay?
Here's the block with the sashing.
The Sash-In-A-Dash, right?
Compare it to this quilt here.
This quilt has pink trim.
See how much white you see with this?
Once you put some trim in place,
you barely see any of that white.
It becomes an accent color.
Remember our favorite medium-tone fabrics?
That white makes your medium tone really pop
and it really finishes the quilt.
This trim is optional.
You don't have to do it if you like the look of that,
whichever color of Sash-In-A-Dash you choose.
You don't have to put the trim.
But this is what I do.
I take an 1 1/2-inch strips
and I put it through my 3/4-inch bias tape maker.
Even though it's called a bias tape maker,
the fabric is not on the bias.
I'll show you a sample.
Has anyone ever made bias?
Yeah, my sister Dana,
when I showed her the bias tape maker,
she came to work with me in 2018
and she didn't sew the Nancy Zieman way,
with all of our notions
that we use to make things go easier with the process
and things come together.
So when I showed her the bias tape maker
that you start with a wider fabric,
you put it through the bias tape maker
up on the screen, and it comes out folded.
She was like, "Whoa!
I didn't know that you had a tool that could do that."
She used to do it on her ironing board with a fork.
I've never heard of anybody-- Kitchen fork.
You've seen that?
Okay. - Attendee 4: Yeah.
- All right.
I grew up with a bias tape maker.
I started working with Nancy in 1989,
so I've been sewing, yeah, I've been sewing
the Nancy Zieman way for a long time.
So after the first bias tape makers came out--
And they're in all different sizes.
I like the 3/4-inch one for this project.
It's just the right size.
And after the bias tape maker came out,
then Clover came out with the Fusible Bias Tape Maker,
where you can put fusible tape down the center of the maker.
Does anyone have those?
It's a different set.
It looks a little bit different.
Check out the Clover section
at the Nancy Zieman Sewing Studio booth.
John has one there, and he can show it to you.
And I'll be there after my lecture, too.
And I can also share this with you after the lecture.
This is the absolute easiest way to make trim.
I did not cut this on the bias.
You can make bias trim with a bias tape maker.
You can also make straight trim.
This is probably a 45-inch width fabric.
This is one crosswise fabric strip.
And I made all the trim, and it's kind of fun.
I put music on, I put on the yacht rock, right?
And I just started grooving to the '70s and sewing.
I don't know why I chose that music that day,
but it was all last weekend
I was listening to yacht rock on Labor Day weekend.
My point was, this is when you add the trim, okay?
When it's flat,
when you first sew your blocks together is
when you stitch your trim on.
Don't wait 'til you have an entire quilt built
and then stitch it on.
You stitch it on now.
If you forgot to add your quilts together,
you want to add it later, you can.
You can add it later.
You just kind of have to weave it together
like a top pie crust-- over-under.
So here's a close-up.
I got right down on the cutting mat with my camera phone
and took a close-up picture of that Sash-In-A-Dash.
Okay?
It is-- It's incredible, it is!
When Jill showed this to me, I'm like, "Are you kidding me?
Why didn't I ever think of this?"
But could you imagine
if you had to cut your own bias strip fabrics?
And then, if you opened it when it passed around,
you saw it was two pieces of bias fabric
stitched down the middle and then pressed through a folder.
That would take a long time to stitch that.
Well, June Tailor does it for us.
You just buy it by the package,
and I think it's in six or more different colors.
So as you can tell,
that's how I start stitching my blocks together.
Your finished block gets tucked into that Sash-In-A-Dash
and you can pin it, but I bent a couple pins.
Even the heavy-duty flower pins, I bent the pins.
So I switched to using Clover's Wonder Pins.
Clover's Wonder Pins are a safety pin
that you can put through all your quilt layers with one hand.
And they hook.
So that, I found, worked really well.
But what I liked even better was glue stick.
I would run the glue stick down my fabric.
And the June Tailor Glue Stick is just the right width.
Now, you're probably not gonna sew a quilt in a round,
but I would glue baste it.
I'd glue baste it to my block on both sides
and then I'd stitch.
So I could just stitch away.
I would glue baste everything.
I'd do an entire row, glue baste it.
I'd glue baste a second row, and then I'd go sew.
The glue would be dry.
So glue basting, I'm in love with glue basting.
I don't have to take time pinning.
It's really fast.
I was getting so fast at it that the glue wasn't dry.
Okay, so we took a lunch, we broke for lunch.
And then, after lunch, the glue still couldn't keep up with me.
So I thought, "What if I try speed-drying that
with the heat of my iron?"
I speed-dried the glue, so...
I don't always speed-sew,
but I wanted to finish that quilt.
It was like a weekend challenge, a three-day-weekend challenge.
"I'm finishing this quilt!"
And it took me longer
because I was doing the layout for you.
Now I have the layout figured out,
so I know you can do it in a weekend, too.
So once you have your blocks together in three rows,
that's when you add your decorative trim if you want to.
And you make three rows like this.
And with-- That's the back side.
You'll make two rows like this.
Okay?
Maybe I'll show you here.
See the bottom row?
On either quilt, the bottom row,
you make two of those, because the top of the quilt
is the same thing, only turned upside down.
Mm-hmm, yes.
So the center two rows are the same.
Just change the fabric up.
So you're really making three different blocks,
four patches each, four blocks each,
and you have this 12-block quilt.
Same thing here, I'll hold it up again.
And you'll recognize the top.
The top row is the same as the bottom row.
Do you see that?
The two middle rows are the same,
just one is tipped upside down.
It's incredibly easy.
All your non-quilting friends
will be enamored with your quilt.
[laughter]
So, as you can see, we'll look back at the blog posting.
I don't ever have to create PowerPoints for presentations.
I just go to the nancyzieman.com/blog
and pull up one of my blog postings and look at that.
So we have our row of three blocks.
And then the next thing you would do is
add the sashing across the width.
So because I just sewed this last weekend, the other one,
I know that the short Sash-In-A-Dash are 15 inches,
15 1/2, and the wide one is 47.
Same thing.
Same thing, just longer Sash-In-A-Dash.
I took over the kitchen counter and the peninsula,
and it just kept growing and growing.
I tested out, you know, making the bias trim
not bias, which worked fine.
So I thought,
"I'm going to take my glue stick and glue baste this down."
What a great idea.
I didn't like the way it looked.
The glue basting wasn't as straight.
The edges kind of got wide and narrow.
It's minor, you can look at the quilt and see it.
But then I thought, "I'm gonna pull out my bias,
my Clover Bias Tape Maker that has the fusible."
It has a channel, I put the fusible tape down it,
and that was the cat's meow.
I fused this in place, no pinning.
It stayed in place.
It didn't go wide and narrow on me.
That glue stick is wet.
Okay, when you go to make a pressed seam,
whether you're sewing quilts, garments, whatever,
when you press with your hot iron
and add a little steam, that sets the fold.
But if it gets moist or you didn't quite dry it,
it won't stay folded.
Have you had that happen?
You have to dry it completely.
And that's where we use a tailor's clapper
and dry all that moisture out of the fabric to set that fold.
That'll stay.
There's no glue on this.
I just dried it completely when I pressed it.
Well, guess what happened when I added wet glue to-- Mm-hmm.
It started opening up.
So that's when I went to the fusible tape.
And this is, I think, 1/2-inch fusible tape.
So good tip to try.
Okay?
So now that we know how to Quilt As You Go
by the quilt block, as you can imagine,
what if you have blocks at home?
You have blocks at home.
A lot of people call them orphan blocks, right?
A leftover block.
Sometimes, we make a test block before we sew the entire quilt.
You have those leftover blocks.
Whether it's Quilt As You Go or not,
you can use the Sash-In-A-Dash with your blocks.
All you'd want to do is stitch--
and you can't really see it on that one--
stitch your block through a batting to a backing.
Make your own Quilt As You Go
and just stitching on your seams.
And you can use this Sash-In-A-Dash with any block
once you attach a background to it.
Once you have your block, your Quilt As You Go block
or your leftover block stitched to the back, with backing,
this is when you can take it to your sewing machine.
Think crazy quilting.
And you can set your machine for some decorative stitches,
and you could decorative-stitch every seam
with a different decorative stitch.
But you do it when you're in the block,
when they're individual blocks.
Do it before it's put together.
That's another fun way to go.
So that's how I make a 12-block quilt.
Now, I promised you a trunk show of techniques, right?
Or a trunk show of projects.
And on your handout, you'll see just a few of the ideas
that you can do with Quilt As You Go.
The second one, which is a really fun one to make,
is called the sewing machine cover and caddy.
Now, I don't know about you,
but my sewing area is really dusty. [chuckling]
There's a lot of fibers in there.
I don't know where they come from, but...
So if you want to keep your sewing machine nice and clean,
make a Quilt As You Go sewing machine cover and caddy.
And it's the same, only different.
It's a pre-printed batting.
Of course, we did a video with Jill,
Jill Repp from June Tailor.
We have the bundle here.
If you want to make your sewing machine cover and caddy
with these beautiful Caribbean batik fabrics,
we have it for you all put together.
This one includes the backing.
So here it is.
It starts as two separate.
We always spray-starch.
The June Tailor Starch Savvy.
Here's the tip from Jill.
She was, Jill Repp at June Tailor
was a scientist before she was a quilter.
So when we started having issues with spray starch,
remember we started using grocery store spray starch
to starch some of our quilting fabrics?
Pressing and starching the fabrics
make it so much easier to sew.
Once I learned that, I stopped trying to sew noodle fabric.
Have you ever tried to sew wimpy fabric?
Yeah, so spray starching is great.
But spray starching from the grocery store can flake
and be white flaky, right?
Yes.
Do you know why?
It's made from vegetable starch.
Mm-hmm, and-- Yes, interesting, right?
And different vegetable starches.
That causes the white flaking.
But as you're working on your ironing board
with your spray starch--
You don't know where this is going.
I didn't know I was going here either.
That white flaky is residue left over.
And people were getting bugs in their ironing board.
The bugs were coming to eat the starch.
[audience exclaiming] Yes.
So Jill's like, "We can't have that."
So she, with her, you know, background,
made this recipe for Starch Savvy
in her own personal kitchen.
So it's a non-vegetable-based starch
that will keep your ironing board nice and shiny.
Just a sidebar.
Here's the cut list of what different shapes you would cut,
what shapes you'd need.
So it's all right here in the blog posting, too.
So we cut a lot of strips.
And here's the batting.
Well, that's interesting.
That's not a quilt block, right?
But if you've ever made a bag, it kind of looks like that.
This is the sewing machine cover.
You have those cutouts, if you tipped it on your side,
it would look like the letter "H."
When we stitch that together later,
that makes the gusset so that it fits over your sewing machine.
Here, I'm gluing down piece number one.
Now, I didn't use the glue stick again on those blocks.
It was really piece number one that we glued down.
You can glue down the outside edges
or pin them down before you stitch all the way around.
I stitched from the back on the outside line,
so I like to glue-stick down the first pieces
and the last pieces.
Then they stay in place when I go to stitch them.
So we put down piece number one, piece number two.
Set your sewing machine for a scant 1/4 inch
and then press open.
And we're working from the inside out.
And there's that Magic Seam Wand I showed before.
Remember, don't press your hot iron on batting.
And you just build from the inside out.
So there's the strip.
It's all numbered.
So next, it looks like piece 15 and 16 are next,
just longer strips.
And pretty soon, you have the quilt top.
This is the handle.
We covered a little handle.
The sewing machine cover and caddy comes
with little webbing, cotton webbing, for a handle.
Well, I didn't want a boring handle
on the sewing machine cover.
It's a luxury, designer sewing machine cover, right?
So we just covered the webbing.
You can do this for purses and tote bags, too.
We do it all the time.
And we use Clover's Hot Ruler to press under the fabric.
And you just make the little handle and topstitch it on.
You can see the little Xs to really hold it in place.
And then you have a stylish--
Oh, here, we're making the gusset.
And we clip out the corners.
And when you align that and stitch that,
that makes that gusset, that makes that square, boxy look.
And then there's some binding around the bottom edge.
And we just, you can bind any of these pieces,
these projects with your favorite binding technique.
We did not use bias binding again for this.
The times that we do use bias binding are
when the quilt has curves or the project has curves.
That's when you need to have your binding cut as bias.
Otherwise, you can always sew a straight bias.
And we have our absolute easiest binding method
at nancyzieman.com/blog.
So I did a little video for you, too, of that.
And then this just looks like the quilt.
So this is the caddy.
We made a Quilt As You Go.
It looks like a table runner.
We fold it up
and then topstitched the edges and made some pockets.
And you have a sewing machine cover and caddy.
Now, I did bring a trunkload of projects with me to show you.
What about Fido?
[audience murmuring] Mm-hmm, right.
The same thing, it's shaped.
So this is a shape that you would need to use
bias binding for because it has curves.
I love doing bias binding.
Yeah, it does need to be bigger, doesn't it?
It's cute.
There's also one that's fish for the kitty cat.
Yeah, this is for tiny Fido.
But once you've learned the technique,
you can start designing your own things.
Get some 80/20 batting,
a marker, and draw your own projects and try it.
Right?
Here's a makeup bag, a big makeup bag.
A set of two.
This is called Zippity-Do-Done Cosmetic Bag.
And now that you know Sash-In-A-Dash,
lookit, meet Zippity-Do-Done.
Uh-huh, quilters can now do zippers.
The zipper is stitched in the middle of that
Zippity-Do-Done.
Mm-hmm, I'll show you a pillow, too.
Oh, I did it so matchy-matchy, it's hard for you to see.
There's a zipper right here, okay?
See that zipper?
I'll show you the inside.
Okay, think Sash-In-A-Dash,
but there's a zipper down the middle of it.
And you're welcome back to the booth to see the samples, too.
[zipping] So now you can do pillows.
Here's the block, Quilt As You Go.
This is a set of three pillows.
So you can make three pillows really quickly.
Well, let's look at here.
Since now you've met Zippity-Do-Done,
these are Project Bags.
We talked about leftover quilt blocks.
You have a leftover quilt block,
you can add-- Here's the Zippity-Do-Done.
This is the navy one with no trim on it, okay?
[zipping] Same thing, opens up.
You insert your fabric.
More light bulbs going off in the front row.
You're gonna do zippers now, I just know it.
Right, so this is clear vinyl.
And if you wanted to use the June Tailor version,
we carry this, and it's called Project Bags.
It's a set of two, two different sizes.
And it comes with a clear vinyl.
And the biggest question is, "Oh, Deanna,
"I've tried sewing with clear vinyl.
"My sewing machine foot just sticks to it
and doesn't go anywhere."
Well, great news.
You're stitching on the Zippity-Do-Done.
Your foot never touches the vinyl, so it's perfect.
If you do have to sew on vinyl,
a Teflon foot or a roller foot is the key to that.
Or if you don't have that,
put strips of tissue paper, like gift--
A gift bag has tissue paper in it.
Strips of tissue paper, sew on your clear vinyl,
and then it just perforates and tear away.
That's how you get through the night at midnight
if you don't have a roller foot.
So that's a set of two Project Bags.
I love making totes and purses.
Lookit-- Quilt As You Go.
This entire bag was made as Quilt As You Go.
This is a class we offered at the
Nancy Zieman Sewing Studio and Quilt Shop in Beaver Dam.
And if you imagine this laid out flat, it was flat.
We made a flat quilt first
and then we sewed the side seams and the gussets
and added handles.
So you can make totes.
Well, what about a little fanny pack?
The Zippity-Do-Done is back.
This could be a crossbody.
It could be a crossbody, it's adjustable.
So we have the hardware for bag-making, pouch-making.
These have a new-- I grew up calling these fanny packs,
but now they have a different name.
I think they're called crossbody bags.
So they didn't like our version called fanny pack, right?
[laughter]
It's a fanny pack.
Right? [audience murmuring]
Okay, look at this.
This is a lunchbox.
So it uses Quilt As You Go and Zippity-Do-Done.
And it even includes the bag shaper for the bottom
that you can wipe down each time you come home with your lunch.
So mixing quilting, Quilt As You Go,
bag-making, and zippers.
Yes, we can all sew zippers now, right?
Another class I recently taught was this bag.
This is a crossbody bag.
It's adjustable.
We have, actually, here in the booth this week,
these fabrics.
Once fabric is discontinued, we cut it up in one-yard chunks
and we give it to you at, like, $6 a yard
at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show.
So in the booth, there are hundreds of one-yard cuts
for the fabrics that are discontinued.
This one's discontinued, but the one-yard cuts are here.
Here's that navy Zippity-Do-Done, all covered.
There's my 3/4-inch trim again.
And I fussy-cut the trim so that it would make a designer bag.
And it makes a reversible bag with a pocket all in one.
Thank you, Tina.
Good thing the computer went out during my trunk show.
Well, here's my project.
Do you want to see what I'm working on
next for Christmas?
I'm making a tree skirt.
It's already a blog posting, so you can see it.
And an insider secret behind the scenes.
It looks like it's done on the blog posting.
It's not done yet, I haven't finished it.
But the way I photographed it, "Oh, it's done, I got it done."
No, I didn't get it done yet.
But, as you can see, you start with a center wedge
and work your way out and Quilt As You Go.
I think, like, Dresden-wedge style.
And then I wrapped Clover's fusible piping.
I love this product, Clover's jumbo fusible piping.
This is a product Nancy and I developed.
It is piping with fusible already wrapped around it.
So all you do is wrap your--
I did use bias strips-- around it and press.
There's no sewing to this.
Yes, it's fusible.
? Ahhhh! ?
So here's my tree skirt.
You're the only ones that know that it's not finished.
But I had to bring it as part of the trunk show.
Okay, now is the time for questions.
- Attendee 5: What booth number? - What booth number?
801, we put it on the handout.
We have a huge Nancy Zieman Sewing Studio and Quilt Shop
village right inside the front door.
So our friends from June Tailor and AccuQuilt have joined us.
And you'll see AccuQuilt, June Tailor, Clover,
Laurastar, Bernette Sewing Machines,
and all of our favorite notions and all of the Quilt As You Go
and all of those one-yard fabric cuts.
Great time to buy those.
So Booth 801, you can remember that.
And I did want to talk about that.
This is Quilt As You Go potholders.
When you signed up for your lecture,
you saw this as my featured image.
I can't talk about it this weekend because these are gone.
But I saved a few for you.
We're gonna give two of these away.
But these are potholders that I die-cut little gingerbread.
Are you familiar with AccuQuilt? [audience murmuring]
Well, great job, it's new to me.
I've been busy working with Nancy for over three decades,
so we really hadn't had time to play with AccuQuilt.
So for those of you who don't know what AccuQuilt is,
stop by our booth, and we'll demonstrate.
But this is great.
I'll put my quilt back up or unbury it.
Trunk show in reverse.
Again, you can take a look at the samples after session.
I'll put my pretty quilt back over here.
Most everything, besides the triangles,
the half-square triangles,
most everything in this quilt is 2 1/2 inches.
So I'm thinking, "Why don't I use the June Tailor--"
excuse me-- "The AccuQuilt?"
June Tailor and AccuQuilt are owned by the same company now.
And Arrow Cabinets.
So it's June Tailor, AccuQuilt, Arrow Cabinets.
So a lot of Wisconsin companies.
So I thought, "Why don't I use the AccuQuilt GO! Die?"
This is a better picture of it.
Okay, this is a big die that you put through a cutting machine.
This, the board, is the cutter.
There are cutting blades inside this board.
And this is the 2 1/2-inch strip one.
So you just lay your fabric,
fold it and press it, and lay it covering the lines.
And you put it through the AccuQuilt cutting machine.
There's an electric one, there's a crank one,
and there's a little GO! Mini
that we have a great show special at.
And we just cut our strips for that.
And it went really fast, and they are trimmed
and they're straight, and it worked great for that.
So, I wanted to blend AccuQuilt with Quilt As You Go,
so that's why I showed this little project.
And this is the Quilt As You Go potholder.
And I'll give you also
the little gingerbread that go in here.
And Lori is here with Quilt As You Go and AccuQuilt.
And you can try this out,
and she's demonstrating in the booth.
So you can blend.
Imagine if you could put appliqués with your
Quilt As You Go project.
So you could put a different shape:
hearts, stars, kitty cats, puppy dogs, everything.
There's even a sloth.
So yeah, you can now blend
and you can make appliqués so quickly now with the AccuQuilt.
But you all already knew that.
Yes, question.
- Attendee 6: Yes, if I wanted to get creative
and do my own blocks,
you know, do the markings on the block and all that,
what ink, and how do you make it so
that the batting doesn't stretch and gets all wonky on you?
- Yeah, she's asking, if she wants to get creative,
'cause I gave her permission to,
and make her own Quilt As You Go blocks.
I've tried it with all types of batting.
I've tried it with a Sharpie marker.
[gasps] Yeah, permanent marker.
If you don't mind that being in your quilt.
If you're a purist, you can use pencil
or air-erasable or water-erasable marking pen.
Clover has a whole bunch of marking pens you can use.
Also, the Chaco Liners.
The Chaco Liners are fabulous.
It's just a temporary line of chalk
that just puffs away when you sew on it.
So, great question.
This is made with, like, an 80/20 batting.
You can use the poly batting.
You're gonna get a little bit puffier or loftier quilt
if you use the polyester battings.
But really, anything goes.
Yes.
- Attendee 7: Well, you did the front of the quilt.
What about the back?
- I did the front of the quilt, what about the back?
- Attendee 7: I mean, you don't have anything on there
that we can sew the back.
- Right, right.
So she's talking about the back.
And it's just a solid fabric with a bunch
of quilting through it, right?
So she wants to get creative--
- Attendee 7: I can do that. - She can do that.
She wants to get creative and, at the same time,
do a patchwork on the back.
- Attendee 7: You got it. - It can be done.
You just cut twice as many pieces, okay?
You have no backing when you start.
So you'd stitch your first piece down, you know,
your one and two, and don't press it open yet.
Flip it over and do your one and two on the back
and then press them both open.
But if you're doing that, quilt as you go double time,
use the glue stick on every piece.
So we look forward to seeing your
double-time Quilt As You Go blocks next year.
- Attendee 7: Well, thank you. - Great question.
Do I have a technique for making my blocks
square with each other?
I do, I do.
And, you know, the most forgiving thing about
Quilt As You Go with Sash-In-A-Dash
is that Sash-In-A-Dash covers things that don't align.
So if you look at the quilt and you really study it,
like some of you were before class,
you can see, when I had this on--
you know, I had it on the kitchen peninsula all laid out,
and I tried lining up the points of the blocks
in the center of the block with the point.
But this technique is so forgiving
because you have that inch-and-a-half Sash-In-A-Dash
disguising that, "Oh, I didn't quite align it," okay?
It plays tricks on the eyes.
And you don't have to line it up anymore.
You still should get it kind of close, but yeah.
Does that help?
Okay, question.
She wants to do that with her own fabric.
You can.
Are you saying you want to make your own Sash-In-A-Dash?
- Attendee 8: Well, either that or just...
- The instructions include cutting directions.
I've lost it up here in all my samples in my trunk show.
The instructions include that original way
of doing the Sash-In-A-Dash with, it'll disguise it.
You won't really see it like you see this.
Okay.
So it includes those original directions
and directions for the Sash-In-A-Dash.
- Attendee 8: Okay. - Great question.
If you're not supposed to iron on your unfinished blocks--
- Attendee 9: Would it still be okay to use the
Clover Mini Iron just to--
- Oh, she's trying to cheat. [laughter]
Is it okay?
She's saying, "Can I--"
She's asking my permission to use the Clover Mini Iron.
"You know, it's the iron, Deanna,
it's the iron that's just no bigger than my thumb."
Well, you go ahead and be really careful.
If you run it off the edge and hit the batting,
eh, yeah, you'll melt it, you'll get your iron gunky.
Yeah, you go for it and be precision.
- Attendee 9: Okay.
- Maybe lay some aluminum foil on each side.
Yeah, all right, one more question.
- Attendee 10: When you sew the block on
and you used that scant 1/4 inch,
and then you flip it flat--
- When you stitch the blocks from the center
out with that scant 1/4 inch, you flip the block.
- Attendee 10: Does the outside edge lay right against the...
- Does the outside edge of what you've just stitched--
You should just see the edge of that pre-printed line.
If you cover the edge of that blue printed line,
you won't know where you're going next time.
So if you take too big of a seam--
I'll exaggerate it.
If your seam is too big, you'll come up like that.
[imitates buzzer] That's not gonna work, right?
- Attendee 10: So it should just cover it.
- It should just cover it.
So try your scant--
Try a skinny scant and then press it open.
Oh, and it's too much, I covered the blue line.
Go back and stitch right next to your original stitching line.
And then do a test sample
and write down, on a Post-it note,
on your machine, what setting you used
for this project, or program your machine.
If you can customize your stitches
and save your stitches in the machine, save it.
Thank you so much.
Should we do a prize drawing?
[audience applauding]
- Announcer: Proceeds from the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show
support PBS Wisconsin programming.
Your financial gift helps make this event possible.
Thank you.