Basics

I began my first quilting class on January 20, 1987 from Nancyann Twelker, who was a very well-respected quilt authority and teacher in the Pacific Northwest. It was from Nancyann that I learned the very basics of quilting, from vocabulary and technique to fabric choice and bias binding. (Nancy is why I still make 2" binding for all my quilts. Only in the last few years, did I stray from making bias binding for every quilt.)

Anyway, I thought of Nancyann last night, as I pulled out the last project of the Prairie Women’s Sewing Circle, a six-part kitted quilt along. This project has been on my W.i.P. Wednesday since the beginning, and I seriously want it done.

What brought Nancyann to mind was the "sandpaper board" I use every time I need to draw diagonal lines on squares, like I did last night for "Gentleman Caller", project #6 of the PWSC (basically a good old-fashioned bow tie quilt).

This board, made by Nancyann's husband, was purchased in that first class, and I have used it time and time again. I find it really does stablize the fabric as I draw those lines from corner to corner. Basically it's a piece of rough-grade sandpaper glued to a lap-size board.

I have tried The Angler 2 Tool, where no marking is involved, but usually come back to my tried-and-true (though boring) pencil and ruler method. At any rate, progress is underway, and I even got the first set of bow ties stitched up! 19 sets to go . . .