Featured

My Best Tip for Curved Piecing

No matter what techniques you try, what foot you use, or how many pins! This tip will make it better every time. I promise.

How Many Circles

My best tip is starch.

Seriously, starch.

“Starch?!? Who has the time for that, Jenny?!?”

I never used to because I didn’t see the point. It seemed like an antiquated step we modern quilters didn’t need to take.

I was wrong. You may have tried starch before and think “what is the big deal?”. Before I tell you WHY I was wrong, I want to tell you HOW to starch. Then I will explain why it is a big deal.

I am serious about water…

Our fore-quilters washed laundry every week. One day was Wash Day. The next day was Pressing Day. To prepare for pressing, they sprinkled the damp fabric with starch, rolled it up and while it was still damp, they ironed it.

When I read that in Little House on the Prairie, it was a light bulb moment. “What if I tried that with quilting? Would it make a difference?”

I tried it and it is brilliant!

Step 1. Wet the fabric. I am serious about water. Spray all of the fabric. You want it “ready for the dryer” kind of wet.

Not quite THAT wet. But close.

Step 2. Spray starch. Cover that fabric with starchie goodness! This is not the time to be skimpy. I have tried all kinds of starches but Faultless Spray Starch is my go-to. It is my favorite for several reasons: It works beautifully, it is inexpensive, it is easy to buy in the middle of the night before an am deadline, it can be shipped to you in a 12-count box, and, again, if you follow this method, it works beautifully.

Faultless Spray Starch is my FAVORITE!

Step 3. Let the starch soak into the fabric. If you press too soon, before the starch has permeated the fabric, you will get white flakes of starch, yuck. Go organize your scraps or something.

Step 4. Time to press. Using a super hot iron, carefully press the still-damp fabric one section at a time. If you do it right, you will see steam rise from where you are pressing. Don’t move the fabric too quickly. Make sure it is pretty dry or you will add wrinkles. And no one wants that!

My version of “hot and steamy”

Now for the WHY! Properly starched fabric will feel different in your hand. It will feel stiffer and more crisp. So much so, I like to say it can walk to the cutting table! It will not easily distort and it will press beautifully. Crisp seams, no distortion and beautifully pressed are the qualities we want in curved piecing.

No matter HOW you do curved piecing, properly starched fabric is WHAT to do it with. It will be better every time. I promise.

And that is how I do all my curved piecing.

Check out How Many Circles, my latest pattern in the Dangerous Curves series. It has this tip and plenty more. If you have tried curved piecing, with less-than-glorious blocks, this is the pattern for you. You CAN do it and get GREAT results.

Up your game and get the custom templates!

Thanks for reading,

Jenny Kae

P.S. If you want to see my two step-by-step videos on this subject, click Part 1 and Part 2.

Featured

I know you are not supposed to have favorites but…

…I can’t help it! Meet my new favorite quilt, Bumpy Road!

Looks lovely on a bench. (That sounds like the start of a Dr. Seuss book.)

If you have never tried curved piecing or had limited success, fear not! More than cut-and-sew, not just the pattern on the cover, this booklet is full of my tips and tricks to make your curved piecing a success!

Wanna see my best curved piecing tips and secrets?  Yep, its got that.
Want help with scrappy color placement?  Yep, its got that, too.
Wanna make a stunning quilt?  Yep, its got all that.

How about some custom acrylic templates to make the whole thing easier? Yep, you can snag a set of those as well!

Step-by-step, I show you how to do curved piecing.  Bumpy Road is a my new tell-all booklet. Using the classic Drunkard’s Path, you will learn all my tricks and make an amazing quilt.

The only thing to make this better is if it is on sale. Yep, we got that, too! Friday, August 2, 2109, is a “First Friday for $5” kind of day!

Bumpy Road pattern booklet is on sale for $5 for 24 hours only! 
Bumpy Road is available in both printed and download versions!

Bumpy Road, the first project in the Dangerous Curves 4-part series, is a bargain at $12. It is a steal at $5. Don’t miss your chance.

Get your copy today!

Got questions? Ask away!

Thanks for reading, see you soon!

Jenny Kae

Featured

Dangerous Curves!

Dangerous Curves Table Runner

Everyone remembers their first time piecing curves. Usually accompanied by frustration, WAY too many pins and a wonky block that AIN’T supposed to be wonky.

WAY too many pins. Ouch!

Wait! Before you shove that project into time-out or reject curved piecing forever, I can help!

It’s not you, it is the methods.

Don’t get tangled up in how we are SUPPOSED to do it, instead of finding how it really works for you.

Let me show you how. Dangerous Curves is a my new tell-all workshop booklet. Using a table runner pattern, it teaches you how to make the classic blocks used in quilting, Drunkard’s Path, Rob Peter to Pay Paul and Winding Ways.

This workshop pattern includes the printed templates and teaches the three classic blocks, Drunkard’s Path, Rob Peter to Pay Paul and Winding Ways.

But this pattern is MORE than cut-and-sew. I show you how-to from my viewpoint, reveal my mistakes and how I fixed them. It is like a private lesson, just you and me.

Step-by-step, you and me.

I take you step-by-step through my techniques, sharing all my tips, tricks, everything you need to know for successful, dare I say it, beautiful curved piecing.

Below are the next three booklets in the series.

Dangerous Curves debuts Friday, July 5th, 2019 for $16. It will be on sale for 24 hours only. And you can snag your copy for only $5!

Dangerous Curves, first in a 4-part curved piecing series, is a bargain at $16. It is a steal at $5. So don’t miss your chance.

Got questions? Ask away

Thanks for reading, see you soon!

Jenny Kae

P.S. Save time and quadruple your accuracy with Dangerous Curves custom acrylic templates! Available beginning Friday, July 5th, 2019.

Featured

Help! UFOs have Invaded My Life!

So you know where I am coming from, I like the idea of setting goals. I admire those who set them and accomplish them, but I am not naturally a fan. I often see setting goals as just another way to disappoint myself. So I struggle to find the best method for me to set and reach goals. This is a way which feels like a good fit. Let me explain.

I shared in a video ways to deal with UFOs, or UnFinished Objects, as quilters like to call them. Know what? My advice didn’t help me a bit. I thought it would work. That is how everybody says it should work. But it didn’t work for me…

Hey, hey! Ho, ho! These UFOs have got to go!

See, somewhere along the way, these projects changed from being an inspiration, something to spur me to creativity, to being a debt I owed, with the collections agency harassing me every time I darkened the door.

I know I have the project somewhere…

Along the same theme from my post, “Leave Quilts, Not Fabric“, this year (#newyearnewyou, right), I tried something new. I took a page from Dave Ramsey about how to get rid of credit card debt.

Leave quilts, not fabric.

First step – acknowledge the disaster. Get an honest, clear-eyed accounting of all you have. I took every, and I mean EVERY, UFO out of the hiding bins and tubs.

I promise to have the bed cleared off tonight, honey.

Before you go farther – This is a good place to sort out what you don’t love and pass it along to someone who will love it.

Second step – Assess what steps it will take to clean up said disaster. One at a time I named each project and listed all the actions needed to FINISH that project.

Count your blessings, count them one by one…

Step three – Count how much TIME it will take for each action. Above each task, I wrote how many hours I think it will take to complete each step. This gave me a project total.

Before we even start on Step four, I confess I actually felt a sense of hopefulness. Suddenly this looming mountain was divided into smaller, manageable chunks. “Hey”, I thought, “I might actually be able to do this!” Suddenly, like a wanderer lost in a cave, I turned a corner and saw light!

Step four – sum up and divide. I added together all the hours (385hours) and divided it by 52 weeks, which equals 7.4. To finish ALL the UFOs on my list would take, drum roll please… 7.4 hours per week. That’s it? Yep, that’s it. I can totally find 7.4 hours per week!

7.4 hours per week? That’s awesome!

Step five – Pick a starting place. I have five projects which have deadlines. So those are first in line. After I finish those, I will start with the least number of hours first. I will tackle my 4s, 6s and 8s. The more you knock the smaller ones out of the way and the more successes you have, the more encouraged you will be to keep going and tackle the big ones.

Step six – make it pretty. Just for grins, and because I have a new Quilter’s Planner, I transferred the list to the Projects pages. (I kept the original list so I could track the hours for each task.) Then I added colors to show what was already done. Can’t wait to color the rest in!

All pretty in my Quilter’s Planner

I am very encouraged about this plan. We will see how it will go over this year. I anticipate I will need to make some tweaks but that is how I make a plan what works for me!

So what works for you?

Blessings,

Jenny Kae



Featured

How to Make a 1600 Quilt

Cover Image
Lovely quilt!

I am sure you have seen them.  The quilts that are all stripes. I find them fascinating!  You have no idea where the fabric will end up.  And I LOVE how crazy-fast they are to make, like just an hour!  Seriously! Crazy!

I call my version 1600 because the piecing method gives you a strip about 1600″ long.  And because the term “Jelly Roll Race” belongs to Missouri Star Quilt Company who are the brilliant creators of this quilt.  And also because the term “Jelly Roll” (aka 2-1/2″ strip sets) belongs to Moda, the inventors of pre-cuts (aka fabric bait).

I have a designed a few different versions.

Classic
With chips
Waves
One-third, Two-thirds

 

But let’s get to basics and learn how to make the regular quilt.

jelly-roll-2-e1522982853348.jpg
I’m sure you have one of these round, right?

Supplies needed – 40 2-1/2″ strips, sewing machine, scissors, a friend to cheer you on, and Flight of the Valkyries playing in the background.

I also start with two or three bobbins, ready to go. And I use Aurifil because, well , I love Aurifil. For my complete thread philosophy, see this post

Two Bobbins of Aurifil

1. Make a pile.

Make a pile
Make a pile, a big, messy pile.

Don’t be fancy or organized.  Those things take time.  This quilt is all about SPEED!

2. Select your least favorite colored strip.  Cut off 18″ and save it for another project.  We do this so the strips will NOT be even stripes.

Trim 18 inches
Trim 18 inches

3. Prepare the first strip. Use the same piecing method that we use for binding, at a 45 degree angle.  Place the first strip on the table, right side up.  Place the strip you want to add on top, right sides together. Stitch from the upper left to the lower right. Draw a line if you feel the need.  Pin to your level of comfort.

Right sides together
Pin if you need to

This next trick is SO important, especially if your fabric is the same on both sides.  After you stitch, if you are not careful, you can twist the strip and get those seams going every which way.  To avoid that, I “stitch and flip”. (It is like the “bend and snap” but not as attractive.) After you stitch, put one hand on the fresh-pieced strip.  With your other hand, flip the end of the same strip over your hand so the right side is up.  You are now ready to add the next strip.  If you don’t flip now, you WILL rip later, just saying…

Next fabric in line.

 

Add all the strips in your pile.  I try to avoid putting the same fabrics right next to each other.  I also try to vary the colors – Oh, I haven’t used green in a while, I’ll add green. And don’t worry about pressing, seriously. Just turn the iron off, you won’t need it for a while, um, about an hour.

Once you have made the strip, clip the threads and trim the ends, leaving the 1/4″ seam allowance.

Clip and trim
I am saving these for something…I just know it.

3.  Make the first pass.  Here is where you can start to race.  Find one end. (You dropped it, didn’t you?)  Now find the other end.  (I promise it is there somewhere…it HAS to have an end.)  Once you have your beginning strip and your ending strip, put them right sides together.  Chose one side and sew.  It doesn’t matter which side. (Pro tip here – after you sew a few feet, place the beginning of the strips under your tush.  That way you can find it.) Sew all the way to the fold at the very end.  Clip the fold apart.

Sewing beginning and end together

If you get a twist, sew as far as you can, then clip the twist apart and sew the last bit.  If you get a big twist, trim with scissors and even out with the rotary cutter.

 

4. Finish the race. Continue each pass until you are done.

Keep going
And going
Clip that last fold

How will you know?  You will cut the fold and VOILA, there is your quilt!  Hold it up and get a picture because that was awesome!!!!

Completed Top

5. Press well and square the top.  If you find any folded seams, clip a TINY bit of the seam allowance to make it lay flat.

Press well.
Clip flipped seams.

That’s it! Take a break, you must be exhausted because you sewed ALL DAY.

So much of quilting is accuracy and precision and exactness and blah and blah and blah.  And I really do love and value and teach those skills.  But a 1600 quilt allows you to just SEW and break free to see what will happen!  And they are fast enough, I always want to try another to see what will happen.  I am sure I have a jelly-roll around here…

Need some inspiration?  Here are some of my happy students.

See you next time!

Jenny

 

 

 

My Dad Passed Away

My dad passed away.

Happy Father's Day

I know you probably came here for the quilting stuff, and I do have a TON of stuff to share, but I could not let this event slip by unmarked.

My dad and I had a rocky history.  My two earliest memories of him are emblematic of our entire relationship.

First is him holding my tiny hand while our family walked into the Baskin Robins 31 Flavors ice cream shop. We both wanted chocolate and that made me feel special.

Christmas Day.jpg
Christmas Day, 1975 with Mom and Dad.

Second is being in the front passenger seat of the car while my dad climbed onto the hood, screaming and pounding his fists on the windshield of the car while my mom raced backwards out of the driveway. And that made me feel awful.

Camping Trip 1977
Camping trip with Dad and step-brothers in 1977.

No wonder I have trouble being consistent.  No wonder I confuse food and comfort.  No wonder I always fear I will not be good enough.  No wonder I am soaring high one day and in the depths of despair the next. 

My parents divorced when I was in 3rd grade.  Even though he moved just down the street to be with my soon-to-be stepmom, I saw him mostly only on birthdays and holidays.  And as an adult, it was the same.  I tried to keep connected with Christmas and birthdays but visits were difficult, for so many reasons.

Yearbook photo 1988
Dad, Glenn Endsley, the math teacher, in my senior yearbook photo – 1988.

On August 9th, I found out he had lung cancer.  I was driving when I got the text and had to pull over.  After I stopped gasping for air and could see clearly, I drove straight to his house.  Over the next few weeks, I was able to visit him.  Once, we chatted on the front porch for over an hour – such a wonderful gift from the Lord to me.

Then on September 12th, he was gone.

Wedding Day 1999
Dad and me on my wedding day – 1999.

All I ever wanted, Dad, was to be that special girl you held hands with on the way into Baskin Robbins.  I never wanted to be a burden, a snitch or make you feel guilty.   I just wanted to love you and to be loved.

I will miss your ribald humor, your raucous laughter, your rag-time piano-playing.  I will miss all that you were.  And I will miss all that never was.

Goodbye, Dad.

All my love,

Babe

 

P.S.  Thanks for reading this.  I know many of you have and are suffering so much worse and you have my thoughts and prayers.  Thanks to all of you for the kind words of support and sympathy.  It means the world.

 

 

The Making of Gecko Chase

“It looked like a good thing, but wait till I tell you.”  So begins O. Henry’s classic and hilarious story, “The Ransom of Red Chief“.

This line went through my head many times while designing, sewing and writing Gecko Chase.   I thought a few other classic phrases like, “How hard can it be?”  and “Stop, you’re making it worse!”.  Perhaps you have thought them, too, or it is just me?

Gecko Hero 2 - Copy

It all started with an email from Timeless Treasures.  Did I want to submit a pattern for an upcoming fabric collection?  My heart leapt when I spotted, tucked in the rest of fabrics photos, this set of green and purple batiks.

Fabric Scans
Rolling up my sleeves because I can work with this!

Come, my friends, off to EQ8 (quilting software)!

EQ Scrapbook

“How hard can it be?”.  Design a quilt that is fresh and interesting and unique?   Ba!  This stage requires much back-and-forth, set-aside and try-again. Notice that I went through 46 DIFFERENT designs?  Crazy what I will do for lovely fabrics and perfect layout. Cuckoo bananas.

I got a thumbs up from Timeless Treasures and a box a fabric!  Squeeeee! Swoon!  Faint!

Gecko Batik

Next up, sew and write the pattern. How hard can it be?

Waves

Er, um, I meant, next up – trail and error and a couple unplanned dates with a seam ripper. Yea, that’s exactly what I meant.

*See the problem was I THOUGHT all the green stripes were the same.  They were NOT.  Keep that in mind when you make the pattern.  Just saying…

Ripping
Stop, you’re making it worse!

 

With all the blocks completed, I was ready to lay it out and piece the top.  Woo hoo! Piece of cake, right? I have made dozens of quilts.  It will only take a minute…

Layout

Wait, now this one goes over here…and that purple goes this way…mercy, better check the pattern again.

*Keep the pattern handy.  And by that I mean actually IN YOUR HAND.  Just saying…again.

I cannot express my joy at adding the last border and shipping this baby off to the quilters. Whew!

I then let my pattern testers find all my mistakes, er, I mean, add the finishing touches…yep.  Just a little dusting was all it needed.  After 2 TOTAL rewrites, I was ready to add a cover shot.

How hard can it be?  It is not very windy.  It should be fine.  (More classic lines.)

Coming Soon

Perfect…exactly what I had in mind…

But, this classic and hilarious tale has a happy ending.  Actually, it has a few.  I learned…

  1.  How to make triangles accurate and square – mystery solved!
  2.  How to cut and square these what-was-I-thinking-angles, er, um, non-standard angles.
  3. How to make a random quilt – harder than it looks, my friend!

And I included all this quilty learnin’ in a lovely finished pattern! Boogie, oggie, oggie!

Gecko Chase Promo Shot B

Gecko Chase First Friday for $5 is THIS Friday, July 13th, 2018.  The sale is for 24 hours MST so grab it right away at my website. After that, the price is $12.

Instagram FFfor5

Consider it your chance to learn from all my mistakes…and make a unique and beautiful quilt.

Thanks for reading, hope it was a blessing.  See you next time.

Jenny Kae

P.S. Shout-outs to my picture-taking hubby, my pattern-testers, my graphics genius, Anne and Timeless Treasures.  Y’all are awesome.  Thank you!

 

 

 

Scrappy AND Happy? An Introduction to Scrap Theory

Confession time – I am a recovered scrap-quilt-phobic.  (Hanging my head in shame.)  And this is my journey from scrap-hater to scrap-lover. Blocks Day 10

I DID NOT understand the passion some folks had for these things! I think it started with a question to my quilting friend.

“Patty, how do people make scrap quilts?”

“It’s easy.  Cut a bunch of scraps to the size of patch you need.  Then toss them in a paper bag.  Without looking in the bag, pull out the first piece you grab and use it.  Keep going until the bag is empty or your quit is done.”Scraps Day 6

WHAT?!? I was horrified.   No carefully selected colors or planning lights and darks?  What if it doesn’t match?  This is MADNESS and I refuse to participate in scrap quilts, period!

I wanted to make sublime quilts.  Quilts where the color almost beckons you to come closer. Quilts like Jinny Beyer’s makes, one of my personal color heroes.

Moon Glow Quilt
Jinny Beyer’s Moon Glow Quilt Kit

Her quilt, Moon Glow has been in reprinted and re-kitted continuously for almost 20 years! A very rare accomplishment.

So what changed my mind?  My other color hero, Gai Perry, who is known for her watercolor quilts in the 1990s.  Now, I LOVE color, obviously, and all that color can do in a quilt. So I picked up Perry’s book, “Color from the Heart”.

Color from the Heart 2

The first project?  Brace yourself!  A scrap quilt, with scraps…in…a…bag. Quelle horror! I could hardly read over the ringing in my ears.

Before she gave instructions for the first project, Perry’s explained her rule for scrap quilts.

“Most fabrics will blend in a pleasing manner if the size of the individual pattern pieces are small (two inches of less).”  (I have added to this rule, but more on that later.)

She is right.  Here is the quilt I made after the first exercise.

Scrap Quilt - Perry.jpg
My version of Postage Stamp Quilt from Gia Perry’s book – Color From the Heart.

This simple project was a revelation to me. It offered new freedom and creativity previously unknown.  I realized I could make a scrappy quilt AND be happy with the outcome.

Side-note – This is also a project I have students work on in my color classes. Look how happy they are! Thanks, ladies!

 

I tried many other scrap quilts, some great, some meh.  But EVERY quilt is a learning quilt.  EVERY project has something to teach me!

Here is what I learned about being scrappy AND happy.

  1. Trial and error – you just have to try.  That is how I solidified my techniques, how I clarified what I like and don’t like.  Make it work for YOU!

Don't Weep for Me, Bonnie Hunter.
“Don’t Weep for Me, Bonnie Hunter.” Christmas Lights Mystery quilt

I call this quilt “Don’t Weep for me, Bonnie Hunter”.  I ripped outScrappy AND Happy more stitches in this quilt, than any other project.  See, I didn’t know how this mystery quilt would look, so I foolishly selected a fuchsia for the “pink-red” color. Disaster! Hubby said it looked like the Muppet’s Christmas Massacre. I traded all the fuchsia for a strong Christmas red.  Much better.  I also learned mystery quilts don’t work for me.  And I am fine with that.

2.  Divide and conquer with lights/darks.  In True Blue (a Miss Rosie pattern) I used a light and dark in every block and then arranged the darks to create a nice layout.

True Blue 1
True Blue (pattern from Miss Rosie). Make the most of lights and darks.

3. Chose a color theme.  For example, in my pattern Gecko Chase, my color theme was purple and green.  I used green for the lines and purples for the triangles.  By limited the uses of the colors, I kept the design clear.  I am very pleased with the outcome.

Gecko Chase
Gecko Chase with Purple/Green theme

Ok, quick recap.

My rules for Scrappy and Happy

  1. Fabrics will blend in a pleasing manner if they are similar in size and amounts.
  2. Trial and Error – just sew it!  It is the only way to learn, seriously.
  3. Divide and conquer with lights/darks.
  4. Choose a color theme.

There is SO much more I want to say about color and scrappyness, like how to organize for random and techniques to use when selecting fabrics and…and…and.  We have barely gotten started but it is enough to get you started. 🙂

So, go get started.  And share how you are Scrappy AND Happy.

Thanks for reading, I hope it is a blessing.

See you next time

Jenny Kae

 

P.S. Check out these video links for more about Scrappy AND Happy or Color Courage.

P.S.  Thanks to Timeless Treasures for the lovely fabrics used in Gecko Chase. Y’all are awesome! 🙂

 

 

 

Leave Quilts, Not Fabric

Ruby's ShootI consider myself a Professional Fabric Enabler.  But I want to share another side.  This is one of the saddest stories from my days working in a quilting store.

A woman came in and asked if we accepted charitable donations.

“Yes, we can always find a place.”

“Well, I have a LOT, two big tubs.  Is that still ok?”

“Sure, bring them in.”

Fabric Tubs
Tubs of Fabric

 

 

She went to her car and returned with two huge tubs, bulging with fabric. Feeling the need to explain the bounty, she said, “My mom passed away and we are cleaning out her stuff.  I don’t sew and my brothers have no interest so we just want to pass them along.”

Wow, how sad, I thought.

“Oh, and I need to tubs back, so can you empty then now?” she asked.

“Of course.  We will be right back.”

Another staffer and I hefted the tubs to the back, found boxes which looked large enough to hold everything and began transferring the fabric.

As we shifted layer by layer, we found yards, fat quarters and scraps. Perfectly normal, I thought.  Soon we found bags from quilt shops with all the fabric and receipts still in them.  Yep, I have a few of those myself… Then we began to find pieces and patches, pinned and ready to sew.  And patterns started but not finished.  Abandoned blocks and units, sorted into baggies and labeled 1, 2 and 3.

Sorting Fabric.jpg
Sorting the fabric donation.

I was surprised at the grief I felt, unpacking this woman’s legacy of un-quilted dreams.   It was sad she had no quilting friends who would welcome this treasure.  It was sad her children had no love for what their mother loved.

Sadness Falling
Image of Sadness from Inside Out by Pixar

Who knows what happened in this woman’s life.  Maybe she finished 100’s of quilts.  Maybe she became ill or other life events kept her from finishing everything she started or wanted to start.  Maybe that is the sadness, we want to start but it is harder to finish.  We want to collect, not execute. We want to dream and not push the reality.

Fabric Storage
My stash and UFO’s. Ugh.

Do I have UFO’s? Enough to make me a little nauseous!  When I finish them, I cross them off the list.  But now I have a new focus – leave quilts, not fabric.  I want to leave completed projects for others to love, even if it is not relatives.

That is my encouragement to you, whatever stage you are in, if you need to purge, sort, plan or sew – leave quilts, not fabric.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Leave gifts for future family and for those in need.

Leave completed treasures for your quilting friends.

Leave proof of your creativity, passion, ingenuity and persistence.

Leave quilts, not fabric.

Thanks for reading this.  I hope it is a blessing.

Jenny Kae