Quilting Acronyms

Wow!! Look at this and I found this list on:

http://with-heart-and-hands.blogspot.com/

Why do the good ones, sound so bad???

•BOM=Block of the Month
•Candy Bars=Stacks of 2 1/2" x 5" fabric pack
•Charms=Small pieces of fabric, usually 5" squares or hexagons, all different fabrics in the pack
•Charm packs=package of pre-cut charm 5" squares: Mini's are 2 1/2"squares in a pack
•CQ=Crazy Quilting (traditional quilt pattern with embellishments)
•COC=Cream on Cream
•DJ=Dear Jane (a traditional quilt pattern)
•D4P=Double Four Patch
•DIC=Double Irish Chain
•Dimes=10" squares
•DIY=Do It Yourself
•DSM = Domestic Sewing Machine
EQ=Electric Quilting software, now EQ5,6, or 7
•F8=Fat 1/8th or 9"x 22"
•FART = Fabric Acquisition Road Trip
•FIU=Finish It Up
•FLIMSY=pieced top
•FM=Free Motion, quilting technique w. random stippling, swirls, or patterns, w. or w/o dropped feeddogs, usually on a GSM
•FQ=Fat Quarter, 18" x 22" of fabric, sold by unit
•Frog Stitching=rip it, rip it....ripping stitches out
•FW=Featherweight (Singer) sewing machine
•FW=Fusible Web (take care to iron this one, sew with the above)
•Giterdone=Get 'er Done! Term most often used for ancient or dreaded projects
•GFG=Grandmother's Flower Garden, a traditional quilt pattern
•HP=Hand Piecing
•HQ=Hand Quilting
•HST=Half-Square Triangle
•HSY=Haven't Started Yet
•Jelly Rolls=pre-cut 21/2" x 42" fabric strips, rolled up and sold in a set
•LA=Long Armer, professional machine quilter
•LAQ=Long Arm Quilting machine
•LC=Layer Cakes, a pile of co-ordinating 10" squares
•LQ or LibQ=Liberated Quiltmaking, free form quilting without striving for precision or perfection
•LQS=Local Quilt Shop
•MAQ=Mid-Arm Quilter
•Nickles=5" squares
•NQR=Not Quilt Related, as in board or group off topic, topic and it's oppostie QR
•OBW=One-Block Wonder
•Orphans=as in Orphan blocks, in LQ, orphans happily co-exist with one another w/o prejudice of any kind and are highly valued and treasured members of one's STASH and Parts Dept.
•OSMG=old sewing machine guy, your go-to fellow for repairs
•Parts Department= a collaborative quilting term for orphans or other pre-made blocks, sashings, bindings or trim pieces that can be put together and live in harmony in new quilts. First used by Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran in "Collaborative Quilting " and "Freddy & Gwen..."
•PFD=fabric that is Prepared For Dying
•PHD=Project Half Done
•PIGS=Projects in Grocery Sacks
•PIM=Project in Mind
•PIPs=Project in Progress
•PITs=Projects in Totes
•PIW=Project in Waiting (not yet a WIP)
•PP=Paper Piecing
•QAYG=Quilt As You Go-A quilting/piecing process which incorporates sewing together a block and quilting it at the same time.
•QUIMM=Quilt In My Mind
•QUTD=Question Of The Day: quilting group or board top for discussion that day
•QR=Quilt Related and NQR: it's opposite
•Quilt Candy=Small charm pieces of fabric, folded up to look like candy
•QST=Quarter Square Triangles
•RR=Round Robin (quilt exchange, passing around a group taking turns with it)
•SABLE=Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy
•SAQM=Small Arm Quilting Machine
•SaS=Steam a Seam iron on double faced interfacing/non stitching product
•SEX=Stash Enhancing eXperience (or eXcursion)
•SID=Stitch In (the) Ditch, quilting technique
•Siggies=Squares of fabric with signatures and other info on them
•SnW=Stack 'n Whack, pile them up and cut them all at once block pattern
•SQ=Simply Quilts
•Squishy=Envelopes filled with swap fabric or gifts sent/received in the mail
•STASH=Special Treasures All Secretly Hidden
•SUI=Shopping Under Influence (usually with a friend) - this must be Karin!!
•SWAN=Swap Without a Name
•TBQ=To Be Quilted
•TGIF=Thank Goodness It’s Finished!
•TIC=Triple Irish Chain, a traditional quilt pattern
•TOAD=Trashed Object Abandoned in Disgust
•TOT=Tone-on-Tone
•TUFO=Tuesday UFO night, also WUFO etc.
•Turnovers=6"triangles fabrics in a pack
•UFO=UnFinished Object
•USO=UnStarted Object
•WHIM=Work Hidden In Mind
•WHIMM=Work Hidden In My Mind
•WIP=Work In Progress
•WISP=Work In Slow Progress
•WIVSP=Work In Very Slow Progress
•WIWMI=Wish It Would Make Itself
•WOA=Work Of Art
•WOF=Width of Fabric
•WOMBAT=Waste of Money, Batting, and Time
•WOW=White On White
•WWIT=What Was I Thinking
•VIP=Very Import Project
•YBR=Yellow Brick Road, a popular quilting pattern
•YoYo=a circle of fabric, gathered and sewn into a puffy circle; also one who makes them
•401 F=Fabric for Retirement
•401 P= Patterns for retirement

No followers??!!

On Tuesdays I can pretend to be rich (with the emphasis on ‘pretend’). I have a cleaning crew (5 ladies) coming in once a week and tackle my house from one end to the other dusting, buffing, scrubbing, wiping and vacuuming every inch. They unfortunately do not cook, do laundry or ironing but one day….. when I’m really rich, watch me. My biggest job is to collect my pets and move out of their way and then I have an hour and a half of pure heaven. Sitting outside under a huge old tree breathing in the fresh air, laptop fixed on all the blogs I follow and a little handwork in my hands. Speaking of followers, I changed my background and layout on blogger and wha-la suddenly all my followers disappeared. Shame I feel so lonely now. Care to follow me again please?

Got these little heart blogs done after reading Shirley’s request for help on her blog.

Part 2 done

Okay I’m still keeping up and managed to finish part 2 of Quiltville’s Mystery quilt but Bonnie warned that it will get tougher in future.  So if you don’t see any more posts regarding this in future………. I’ve obviously fallen behind.

Fixed and finished

Remember my upside down block in the post here? Fixed…. but not in the way most other quilters would have done it. I did it my way. There was just no way that I would unpick the whole quilt from the border right down to the incorrect block. So…… I just unpicked the block, flipped it around and stitched it right back from where it came. For a moment there having the wrong block removed I thought to myself if I don’t get it back I’ll simply call it my “Hole-in-the-wall” quilt.

I used dense free-motion pebbles to fill my cubes leaving the cube sides un-quilted further enhancing the illusion of depth.

Completed:  28 November 2010

Online video course offer

I found an excellent 10 lesson online quilting course called “Quilting Quickly: Patterns, Techniques and Tips”. Any person who would like to do an intensive beginner course, using pre-cuts, in their own time and at their own pace, should consider doing this at a very reasonable price of $39. Even seasoned quilters can do this to refresh their memory, ‘get back to basics’ and learn many more options on making quick quilts from pre-cut fabrics.


While following lectures on video, for once, you will be in charge of the neat remote control on your screen. You can pause anytime to fix yourself a cup of tea or test any of the instructions you saw, skip to another chapter or even move forward to the next lecture. Not only is general quilting techniques shown and discussed but tools to make the job easier are demonstrated.

Before starting a new chapter you will be able to go to a link on the side of your screen allowing you do download a PDF document with all the materials needed for every lesson so you can buy your fabric in advance and make your project step-by-step along with Jenny’s instructions.

Jenny Doan, the presenter, has a clear voice and comes across relaxed showing examples of most everything she talks about. The really neat part of this course, to me, is that when you follow any of the lectures and quilt along with these, you will end up with a completed quilt top or project.

I’ve been quilting for 10 years now and even after having made heaps of quilts I found this course’s instructions for half square triangles the best and fastest method ever and I’ve never seen this anywhere else.

The other very nice feature of this course is the ability to post a comment, ask a question and Jenny and your fellow course mates will answer or give their take on a solution to a problem. Once you’ve signed up for the course you only need to remember your password and you can come back to the site and continue your course whenever you feel good and ready to do so.

I have been given the opportunity to give this course to my blog readers at a discounted price of ONLY $19!! So what are you waiting for? Copy and paste the link at the bottom to make use of this special deal.

www.sympoz.com/app/ext/3001039.html

Scraps for a Bargllo - Method 1

Before going to bed yesterday evening I quickly cut and stitched the binding to this Bargello. I could then do the back by hand in bed and almost finished before sleeping. Today in between classes I managed to finish the binding and add the label. This is the scrappy version of the Bargello designed by a local quilter, Iessie Steenberg. This is a lovely pattern with 2 different versions and a total of 6 different layouts and went really fast.

Completed: 24 November 2010

Part One done!

With the first of 2 dinners going in the kitchen – I cook 2 dinners today seeing that I have 2 quilt groups coming over tomorrow, the first starting at 9 am and the last only leaving at 9 pm – I started cutting away on my first strips sets of the mystery quilt
.
Finished the dinners long before finishing the strips but I made a deliberate decision to work from my scrap drawers and then I put another obstacle in my way by deciding not to take another fabric unless there was REALLY not any 2 x 2” square left from those I already used. So towards the end I was joining 2” blocks instead of strips. No use however to try and make a dent in your scrap pile by putting more scraps back and for anything smaller than a 2” square, I don’t have use.

Only a little quilting on a Monday

I usually don’t quilt much or any on a Monday for it is my “rescue-this-house-after-the-weekend” day and I’ve been particularly busy having to do grocery shopping, get in a trip to the pharmacy for multi-vitamins for my burnt out family and a couple of other nitty-gritty errands, so on Monday evenings I am rather tired. Had to stay focused however as Frances, fellow quilter and soon to be quilt judge – the only one from our guild – came over to critique a block of mine for one of her assignments. She too had heaps to do and didn’t stay long but then DH couldn’t get home from the office early as the married kids had their very first brand new bed tailor made to their liking and dad offered his company driver to fetch their bed from a town called, Rustenburg, where the bed was made. He then waited for the driver to return and I waited for him to serve dinner, so I did some quilting simply to stay awake.

Friend Karin thought it would be a good idea if we did the mystery quilt currently running by Bonnie Hunter, called Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll. Unlike Terri from Threadtales, who decided to stick to Bonnie’s suggested fabric colors in fear of screwing it up, I reckoned by now I’m so used to screwing up, I might as well select different colors and at least feel at home with what I’m doing. The screwing up part started from the offset as first I cut my strips 3” instead of 2” and then I pressed the seam allowance to the wrong side and only read the instructions again after sub-cutting! See, I already feel right at home with this mystery. So here goes part one of the mystery and I luckily have until Friday to finish before part 2 will be unveiled.

YUK!!!!

Okay what does a quilter do when she gets tired of quilting?  She quilts something different!!  By Friday, after having had quilters for lessons over every day of the week and stitching one Bargello after another, I honestly was done with quilting for a while.  Well that idea lasted about one evening and then the little voices in my head started talking again.  So different from a Bargello would be a………………. and I grabbed my all time favorite books from Alicia’s Attic and before long I was stitching the day away on a quick weekend project.  All went well until Catsidy, our black cat, demanded his fair share of attention and having my blocks packed on my cutting table instead of my design well (never too old to learn hey?) a slight mishap happened.  Obviously…………….. I only saw this once the quilt had borders on and pinned to the design wall.  Check the marked block – it is upside down!!

Trip to Kimberley

Karin and I drove all the way to Kimberley (city of diamonds) today to do what we promised we’d never do soon again....... shopping for fabric. We found this amazing fabric shop selling quilt fabric at less than a quarter of the price other shops do, making a trip of slightly more than an hour worth our while.


The owner, Mr Imtiaz Wookey, must be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and one amazing shop owner greeting every customer by name and you can bet his shop was buzzing with clients. We even met quilters coming from Cape Town to shop here. Here Mr Wookey is cutting one of the 59 meters of fabric I bought just for personal use let alone the orders I took for fellow quilters.

After spending 2 solid hours in the shop we went for breakfast at the Big Hole, Open Mine Museum seeing that Karin hasn’t been there in ages. We ate at a place called the Occidental Bar and I’m still wondering what this word means.



Karin at the entrance




Me at a tavern from the days gone by














The shopping nearly killed Karin
so here she fits for a coffin




A hearse from those days
looking more like something
from a Cinderella story.













While in Mr Wookey’s shop, another customer told us about a quilt exhibition in the museum and we ended up at the wrong museum at first finding this memento from the ‘apartheids’ era.

Finally got to the right museum and saw these beauties. Then I made Karin pose at what must be one of Kimberley’s most famous landmarks – miners holding up a diamond digging pan with the water rinsing the stones.

A lovely day, nice trip, good company, so now I have to turn those fabrics into quilts.

Our last guild meeting for 2010

Another year almost at an end along with it our guild’s 21st birthday celebrations but that did not deter the ladies responsible for the catering to go all out and select the most beautiful Christmas decorations for the snacks.

Our outgoing chairlady was dressed in a traditional African Schweschwe outfit and looked stunning. We are sure going to miss her.

Here she greets the current committee members.

Leigh Mienie introduced a new member to their group in Smithfield and the very FIRST male member of our guild, Fabrice Rebouillat and he showed us some of the beautiful quilts he made with most any and every fabric he could lay his hands on. Welcome Fabrice.

This meeting had it all with several speakers covering a load of topics from doll therapy for children, premature babies and their needs, Christmas decorations and felt ornaments.

 



And the winner is............

Remember my post on beanies for premature babies over here? Well one of my fellow quilters in the Saturday group won the first price for the most beanies handed in. Congrats Rina!! I got the third price and the doctor in charge of these little babies handed over our prizes after giving us a nice talk about how important these beanies were to keep the little ones from losing body heat. Cindy won the second price and she also won the prize for best challenge block quilt.



Cindy with her winning challenge quilt



Rina with her first prize



Quilting thru the night - Friday

This time my house, same people - each working on her own project. I finished one panel of the summer Bargello but then turned my attention to unpicking the stitching with tension problems on my Scrappy Bargello method 1 and guess what? - Karin and Marie did not even bring along one single sweet, petrified of the sugar high we apparently get from eating these. So we very maturely had a decent seafood meal before setting off to work.

Notice we’re all wearing red? This was in support and sympathy with one of our local female doctors having been raped by thugs while on duty at the hospital. One can only wonder when our government will step up and do something about the high crime rate in our beautiful sunshine country.

Earlier the day I went to the post office to fetch my order from IHAN and I could show off my leave rulers. Still not sure when, where and why I will use these but let’s give Kelly, IHAN CEO credit, she is one hell of a sales person. I always end up buying stuff after reading her blog posts.

Now looking at this last photo – this was about 3:15 am – who needs sugar for a good giggle when things like these happen. We laughed ourselves wide awake!!!

Quilting thru the night - Thursday

The crime scene – Karin’s house


The culprits – Karin, myself and Marie (our local PFAFF agent)

The victim - ...... can you guess? ANOTHER Bargello – Summer version through Quilt University (class long over but I am somewhat behind – take note just ‘somewhat’)

We seriously worked hard, cutting strips, planning rows and actually getting some sewing done too. Karin’s daughters report to her husband over the phone the next day however went something like this.... “dad, you won’t believe how much they giggle but if you see the amount of sweets they eat, you will know that they go on a sugar high and that causes the giggling!”

Scrappy Bargello - Method 1 in the making

With my computer out of action and hubby off to a fancy dress party – representing a band member of Smokey (could you guess that???) I had much more time on hand and started Method 1 of Iessie’s Scrappy Bargello Design and it turned out a massive quilt of 2.6 x 2.4 meters and it was no fun task getting this little one quilted especially having to move the weight of one of the cats along. 

Then to add to my frustrations of late I got a piece of lint/fluff/thread caught between my tension plates and only realized the stitching on the back of the quilt was one big mess when I ran out of bobbin thread and checked the underside.  Unpicked the mistakes during a quilt-thru-the night session with friends Marie and Karin and now just need to fix the mistakes and do the binding but I am still recovering from quilting through the night 2 consecutive nights and now desperately needs some sleep.

Scrappy Bargello - Method 2



Catsidy

 I’ve been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY and not always just with the fun things in life. Virus on computer, losing valuable information, having to learn new programmes, dogs fighting and having to get stitched up, sterilizing the baby cat, Catsidy, and high veterinarian bills, were just a few of the less nice things happening to me lately BUT I finished a huge Scrappy Bargello that I started during a course in June along with my February beginners. My quilt has even been nominated at our guild’s meeting as one of those selected by the members for viewer’s choice and I received a handy gift for this.




Posing with my gift


The pattern for this quilt was designed by a local teacher, Iessie Steenberg, and has 2 methods and 6 different ways one can lay it out. One of the nicest patterns I’ve ever worked on and the only pattern that I will easily make again.




Talking about my quilts (my previous Bargello in the
background)














Quilt completed: 19 October 2010