Friday, January 08, 2010

Quilting Shows

ARGHHH!! There's a reason why I don't subscribe to quilting shows or watch them. It's not that I don't want too. I'd love to see some decent shows. The problem is that they just cut out the most important parts of a technique and then wander off to some useless "cutesy" topic.

I just finished watching "The Quilt Show" episode with Jinny Beyer and was eagerly anticipating how she was going to finish up the Lamoyne Star sections and they finished the segment before it was done!! I have no idea how she finishes hand piecing all 8 points in the center!! Then they go off onto another subject and on with the show.

I attempted 16 points with my Dahlia quilt and it came out pretty good for a first time attempt. It meets, but there's a nice bulk in the center. I was SO hoping she'd show how to work those pieces together. That's why I watched the episode!!! *puts head on the table and sobs*

Well, at least the episode was free.

On the positive side, I learned that most of what I figured out for hand piecing on my own through the Dahlia quilt wasn't completely wrong. Now I can sort of fine tune the hand piecing should I go there again.

Sigh. I'll just email Jinny and ask her how to do it. Or find a book. TV shows are worthless.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL I'm laughing here -- not at your expense though. I just finished watching the free Jinny Beyer episode 10 minutes ago, googled something unrelated, ended up at your blog; and I have to say I was disappointed that they didn't show her finishing up the 8 pointed star either! [What were they thinking??]

But I have seen Jinny sew together an 8 pointed star on an old "Simply Quilts" episode. Basically, you are sewing the two halves together like Jinny sewed together the 2 halves of the four patch. You'll just have more seams to push to the side and slide your needle through. Does that make sense?

If you want to see the Simply Quilts episode, go to the HGTV site, search Simply Quilts, then search Jinny Beyer. It's the Quilting by Hand - Part 3 episode.

~Erin

Anonymous said...

I hand piece constantly. One of the best tips I ever got, and it was by Linda Franzen, when you have many pieces meeting in the center, and you are sewing two halves of the block together, like 4 diamonds on each side of a LeMoyne Star block. You stitch to the center, stop on your dot, then you run the needle through every seam, all the way around, snugging each and every point at the dot to the start of where you meet the seam, then slip the need through the seam only, and continue sewing to the other end. Its very important that you have blunt ends on your diamonds, not points, thats almost a 1/4 inch of fabric that you don't need in their. Think of them as dog ears, when pressing, press in a clockwise motion, don't pay attention to the dark or light, just press clockwise, the center will open up, and spiral and will create a nice tight center, since you literally sewed all those points together. This will also make the little hole disappear that forms if you don't snug that center up by sewing through all the those middle seams. Does this make sense? If not google Linda Franzen, she drives me nuts, but she does piece everything by hand, and does a great job of telling how.

Anonymous said...

I watched it, too. Loved her house. I have a Beyer book which I didn't find to be very technique specific although it had wonderful stories about her handquilting.

Thanks to the two previous comments for the info. Appreciated.

Barbara said...

Go to www.jinnybeyer.com and look at the Quilt Tips. One of them is called "joining 8 points". Maybe that will show what you need.