Jun 6, 20223 min read

ONLY 3 KITS LEFT! MY NEWEST TIP, CQA DEALS, $1600 TO UKRAINE RELIEF FUNDS

It’s been a long while since I wrote and I know that because now emails are arriving checking to make sure I’m OK!

CQA preparations have been underway in the studio since January, but with one week to go until set-up for the show we are now in overdrive. But more on that later.

First things first…

the kit for my latest Upside/Downside quilt is almost sold out. Only 3 remain at a price of $169.00 which includes shipping to Canada and continental USA. Let me know if you want one, or go to my Etsy store to make your purchase. The feature fabric from Japan is no longer available so unfortunately these last three kits are all there will be.

Friday marked 100 days since Russia invaded Ukraine, forever changing the lives of millions of families. WCK’s Relief Team in Ukraine and neighboring countries continues to serve hundreds of thousands of fresh meals each day. We also distribute food kits by the tens of thousands—each containing enough ingredients to feed a family for about a week. All together, across 290 cities and towns, WCK is distributing close to 1 million meals every single day. Secondly and VERY importantly…

Together we raised $1600 for relief efforts in Ukraine through your generosity in participating in my sale to benefit Ukraine. As you recall, participating in the sale you received 20% off and I gave another 20% to the relief efforts.

With your help I was able to send $1600 to directly assist those working on the ground to help Ukrainians in the war zone. Doctors Without Borders received $800 as did the World Central Kitchen.

Thank you SO much for participating in this effort. I even had some customers who did not need more fabric send donations to be included in this effort. You are all wonderful!

I’m now on the mailing list for both organizations and am sending along a link to the latest information sent by Jose Andres World Central Kitchen.

Thirdly… you do not want to miss the great prices and great selection you’ll find at our CQA 2022 booth June 16-18. It’s a lot of work preparing for a show and we decided that if we were doing the work we wanted to SELL LOTS. How do we do that? With amazing selection and prices better than you will find anywhere else.

SO… run, don’t walk, to our booth when you come to Quilt Canada. You will find inspiring new quilts, unique curated bundles of fabric and designs that they can be used with, individual M cuts at significantly reduced prices, and a clearance section with even more amazing prices. And lastly, I want to pass on a new technique I’ve started using. I like quilts that stay “square” after they are sandwiched and quilted. Both the sandwiching and the quilting process create opportunities for my quilt top to be stretched in one place or another, causing the final quilt to no longer be a proper rectangle.

To avoid having my quilt top get stretched out of shape, I’ve developed this easy technique that I’d like to pass on to you. Here it is:

I like to stabilize the outer edges of the back side of the quilt top to avoid any stretching when sandwiching and quilting it. To stabilize it, I use a lightweight cotton woven fusible (Presto Sheer is my preferred stabilizer), cut into 1 ½” wide strips. Here are the instructions for that step if you want to stabilize the top:

Measure the exact width of the quilt. Divide that number by 2.
Cut four 1 ½” wide strips of Presto Sheer, each the length of half the quilt width.
Starting from the centre of the top edge, iron one of the pieces onto the back along half the top edge out to the side of the quilt top.
Starting again from the centre of the top edge, iron one of the pieces onto the back along the other half of the top edge out to the other side of the quilt top.
Repeat 3 and 4 for the bottom edge of the quilt.
Measure the exact length of the quilt. Divide that number by 2.
Cut four 1 ½” wide strips of Presto Sheer, each the length of half the quilt length. (Since this quilt is 80” you will need 5 strips and will use that strip to get the extra inches needed for the length of the quilt.)
Repeat 3, 4 and 5 for each side of the quilt top.