Mentor’s Table – Page 2 – Thumb Butte Quilters' Guild

Panel Play

Shirlee Smith at the Mentor’s Table
1/2″ strips are added in between cuts
Wonky stars add interest and width.
Panel not wide enough? Add borders. Here coordinating dragonflies add to the width.

Everyone has panels – some have more than others. Most likely because you couldn’t resist the beautiful or fun picture of the panel or maybe you thought you would do something creative and different with all of the blocks on the panel. But, alas, where has the time gone and the creative incentive? Or perhaps you just forgot that you had them. My goal at the January meeting was to bring back that enthusiasm you had when you bought that panel and give you some fun and creative ways to just go ahead and sew up that panel.
You Tube is a wonderful source for panel ideas and many of the quilt companies on You Tube have free patterns. The patterns I brought to the meeting were from Jordan Fabrics at – jordanfabrics.com They offer these patterns for free. So get busy – challenge yourself – and pick just one panel to see what you can do with the ideas that I presented. I dare you to bring at least a top that you have created with an old panel.
Have fun – Shirlee Smith

Folded Christmas Tree Napkins & Ornaments with Shirlee Smith

Folded Christmas Tree napkin demo –

The website below will give all of the specifics for the napkin that I demonstrated. However, I did make a couple of changes to this napkin as follows:

I cut the half circles at 9” radius – resulting in a 9 x 18 half circle.
I only sewed the right sides together with a 1/4” seam at the straight edge, then turned right sides out – pressed – and top stitched the straight edge at 1/8” from edge.
On the curved, semi-circle edge I stitched a decorative design about 1/2” from the raw edge, then trimmed the edge with pinking shears to within 1/4” from the decorative stitching.
That’s it – follow the folding instructions.

https://snapguide.com/guides/make-fold-decorative-christmas-tree-napkins/

Folded Ornament demo –

The website below will give all of the specifics for the ornament that I demonstrated. However, I did have some suggestions for different ways to use this ornament:

Use as a coaster by eliminating the button in the middle
Place a decorative button in the middle and connect the two side points in the back to form a napkin ring.
Lay the completed ornament on the middle of the dinner plate as a gift to each of your guests.

https://youtu.be/VwvNU1pGd-Y

Labeling your Quilts – with Carolyn Edwards

Guest Mentor, Carolyn Edwards shared tips on everything you need to know about labeling your quilts – the right information to put on your label, the right marking pen to use when writing your label by hand, and where to place your label on your quilt.

Information to include on your quilt label…Tell your quilt’s story.

Name of quilt.
Quilt maker’s name, address.
Name the quilter if different from Maker.
Date completed.
Name of pattern, technique.
Quilt measurements.
Reason item was made.
Occasion for giving item and to whom.

Note: the pen I like to use is Pigma Micron # 08, black.

Carolyn Edwards with suggestions for quilt labels

Coloring your Quilts – with Karen Adams

Karen explained how you can take a copyright free coloring book drawing and transfer it to a piece of muslin. (A dot test should be run to make sure the colored pens do not bleed). If you don’t have access to a lightbox, tape your picture to a window and then securely fasten the muslin on top and transfer the outline drawing to the muslin (Karen used Sharpie fine tip pens for this process). Karen used FABRICO Acid free markers to color in the designs. Her grandchildren did their own mandalas for her studio using Tulip Fabric Markers bought at JoAnn’s. After it is all colored you can piece a background and sew it to the muslin. Or, as Karen explained, she cut her giraffe out close to the outline, placed it on her background fabric, quilted it on and then quilted the background fabric.

Karen explains the process to Beverly Bowe

Using Deco foil to embellish your quilts – with Shirlee Smith

Shirlee Smith, chair of our Mentor’s Table shared the art of embellishing quilts with Deco foil. Foil is an easy and fun application that you will want to use on many of your projects. It also can be added before or after your project is finished. This technique was used in the creation of the 2018-19 Opportunity Quilt.