COMING SOON!

THE 2006 INTERFILK QUILT
from GaFilk 

	Kathleen Sloan won again in 2005. She had given her 2003 quilt to Jan DiMasi, who was battling breast cancer at the time. Kathleen says, though, that she's KEEPING this one.
Shirley Frantz won the 2004 quilt. This year it was even less finished than normal by the time of the drawing, but we basted-up a dummy so she could get her picture taken with it. A LOT of the blocks this year were done by the Younger Generation: Talis Thorndyke Love, Carly-whose-last-name-I-missed,  Gavin Knighton, and at least one other whose name I missed totally.	The Label. Margaret has obviously rediscovered her stash of embroidery threads...	Here is the finished product, which got shipped just before St.Patrick's Day. This one raised $260 for Interfilk. The kids were so prolific in block-making, that there are four left over with which to start the 2005 quilt.

Kathleen Sloan gloats over FINALLY winning an Interfilk Raffle Quilt at GaFilk Five (Jan. 2003)	AAnnnnnnd...here's the finished product! (Which was actually shipped to her only about a month after the convention. This may be a new personal best for us.)

update 3-17-2004

This all started with the observation of all the finger and fiber crafts going on around the filk circle at the first GaFilk. Besides my own (Margaret Middleton speaking) patchwork project, there were Margaret Bumby knitting, Dell Stinnett doing Hardanger embroidery, Kathy Horning with needlepoint, and somebody else doing counted cross stitch (probably Melissa Glasser). That’s enough for a show-and-tell panel for next year, I observed to Brenda Sutton during the DeadDogDinner Sunday night.

A couple of hours later, she came back with how-about the craft panel actually make something at next year’s con? My response was: everybody do their thing on a square of fabric ahead of time and we could come up with something.

The eventual result, you can see. We spent most of  Saturday at the back of the program room, with two sewing machines, an ironing board and iron, various quilting notions, and [a last-minute inspiration which paid off big-time] a modest but eclectic palette of fabrics out of my and Brenda's stashes in case inspiration struck on the spot.

The second year, I brought along a supply of ready-to-decorate blocks, which proved very popular. Decorations-added included rubberstamped dandelions by Kathy Mar, a stamp of the FKO logo, and a cat applique'. Seeing the format in person inspired several other folks to do squares-within-borders blocks using the fabrics brought by Brenda and me. Melissa Glasser brought a small counted-cross-stitch kit which she did at the convention and then set borders to, to bring it up to the 8" square size we use.  The quilt's size varies from year to year: 4x5 blocks for the first one, 4x6 blocks for the second, 5x5 blocks for the third, back to 4x5 last year. Realistically, 5x5 or 5x6 is about as large as can be conveniently hung on a wall or used as a lap quilt while traveling. If we get more blocks than that, we’ll have to consider doing 2 smaller quilts, perhaps with the second one being sent to a different Interfilk fundraiser. [If there are only one or two blocks left over after getting the quilt to a sensible size, we can discuss Interfilk Potholders…]

WHAT TO DO FOR THIS YEAR

THE BASICS

• Do your thing on a n 8.5 inch square of (preferably cotton) fabric, or order one of the kits to decorate.
• Stack that together with an 8 inch square of low-loft quilt batting and a 9 inch square of backing fabric. Be precise in the centering, since the back and the front have different seam allowances.
• Quilt the stack together, leaving at least a 1.5 inch margin un-quilted all around.  Use a plain running stitch or machine stitching.
• Sign your block just inside the quilted area.
• Bring or send the block to GaFilk 2005 or to Margaret Middleton or to Brenda Sutton. [Note that Margaret has moved since we started doing th is]

(Those of you familiar with quilting have probably recognized the early steps of Georgia Bonesteel’s lap-quilting technique in these instructions.)

THE DETAILS (Margaret speaking)

As I worked-out the basics, quite a few technical questions occurred to me. I’ll list them, with my answers. If I’ve missed anything, email me the question and I’ll respond, and add the set to this page.

How much (tremble) quilting do I actually have to do?
Outline Your Thing. Mark and stitch the outline of a 5 inch square around Your Thing, if it doesn’t fill up that much naturally.

Why the 1 3/4 inch margin, and how do I manage it?
The margin is needed so we can fold the batting and backing away from the stitching line when we start splicing the blocks together. Look up Lap Quilting With Georgia Bonesteel at your library for more details, if you want.  To mark the margin, measure in from each edge of the fabric square 1 3/4 inches and use narrow masking tape to mark the lines, leaving a 5" square window open in the middle. You can quilt right up to the tape, then pull it off and leave no pencil markings. Or you can buy or borrow a quilters' washable marking pen to mark the lines.

What if My Thing runs over the 5 inch square?
Don’t outline whatever extends into that 1 3/4 inch margin. Find some interior lines to stitch instead. Pin a note to the block reminding us to finish the outlining once the block is spliced to surrounding blocks.

Can I applique a piece of needlework fabric onto the cotton, once I’ve done my embroidery thing ?
Yes. Just outline the applique’d piece same as if it was embroidered direct on the cotton.

How about crocheted or knitted pieces?
Same thing. Center the item on the 8.5 inch top square and stitch it down, then outline with quilting.

What sort of fabric should I use?
Cotton solid colors, tiny-print calicos, or (the newest wrinkle) "Textured Solids". Ask the clerk at the fabric store to show you some.

How do I make my signature permanent?
Most decorative would be to go over it with embroidery thread or liquid embroidery paint. (Ballpoint pen ink is actually pretty indelible on fabric...)

How do I keep the stack of fabric and batting from shifting?
Lots of little safety pins. Start at the 4 corners and the middle. Keep adding pins in open spaces until it feels manageable. After you figure where your quilting lines are to go, move pins as-needed so you won't be stitching across any.

I don’t sew at all but I want to contribute.
Find a print fabric at the store with a picture you like which will fit inside an 8" square. Make a paper pattern that size, to be sure. Ask the clerk to cut you just enough fabric to get a 9" square centered on your picture (the extra is for seam allowances when we splice the blocks together). You can use some of the rest of the fabric for the back or you can get another fabric entirely (get 1/4 yard). Or, you can order Margaret's Handy-Dandy Filk Quilt Kit (see above) If you are feeling brave enough, get back with me (Margaret) and I will coach you through the stitchery. Or  you can put the arm on a friend who DOES sew to stitch around the outline of your selected image.

I sew, but I’ve never quilted.
Quilting is really big just now. The library will have lots of books on it, and the local fabric store will have even more. Singer has published a really good one (on quilting by machine, natch) with excellent photographic illustrations.

How do I get less than a whole quilt’s worth of batting?
Go in with some others and buy a quarter yard of 45" batting-by-the-yard. That will be enough to do 5 blocks. Or order the H-DFQK mentioned above and detailed below.

MARGARET'S HANDY-DANDY FILK QUILT KIT FOR 2006

Contents:
Top = an 8.5" square pieced of various fabrics.
You can decorate the square however you want: embroidery, fabric paint, applique,...(see samples below)
Back = a 9" square of random fabric from the same stash.
Also: one square of batting, a card-bobbin of quilting thread, and a quilting needle.
Basing prices on my local Wal-Mart, I get a dollar even for the materials cost,
and postage and the cost of the envelope add 75 cents to that.
The quilting thread will be tan or white.

If you email me ahead of sending the $1.75, I can have your kit ready to go as soon as I get the check.

I can take PayPal now: send the money to msminlr@sbcglobal.net
 This has been upgraded to-where I can take payments funded from a credit card, but that means they charge me a 30 cent fee on every transaction, not just the credit card ones. So if you order by PayPal, the kit cost will be US$2.00 even and I'll eat the difference on the fees.

This is a block from 2004's quilt. It came from Francine Mullen of Tulsa, OK. She cites her inspiration as Anne McCaffrey's book "The Ship Who Sang"

SAMPLE BLOCKS, AND INSTRUCTIONS

(A) Mark 1.75” in from the outside edge of the kit block, all around. 
(B) Decorate the block inside that square however you want.. The yellow block is done with glittery liquid embroidery paint. The blue block on the right is done with cut-out images from other fabrics heat-fused in place, then anchored with zigzag machine stitching. This is how we do a lot of the made-at-the-convention blocks. The blue block on the left was pieced in crazy-strips around a central piece containing a picture.
(C) Stack and quilt the fabric, batt, and backing together. [Be precise in your stacking, as they are different sizes deliberately. It is important to line up the center points.] On the yellow block, I stitched around the outline of the image, and around the edges of the center square, plus a few random curved lines

Link to Interfilk  ||  Link back to GaFilk