Saturday, April 11, 2009

Confessions Of A Modern Day Quilter

I just love my digital camera. Remember the days of worrying about having enough film or even wondering if you got that precious shot and having to wait to develop to find out? ~ So over! 

I confess I have even used my digital camera to sort of cheat while quilting! After I made up the blocks for my string quilt I laid them out and rearranged until they were just where I wanted them to be (a different arrangement would make it look completely different).

Traditionally the next step for me would be to put a little piece of masking tape to each block and mark it according to row and block order (ie. A1 to denote first row, first block). You then take the blocks to the sewing machine and sew them up, hoping all the while you are holding them in the right direction!

This time I took a photo of the blocks in their desired layout. I then moved my machine to the kitchen counter so I could see my blocks that were laid out on the floor. (don't worry I cleaned it first!) I then sewed the rows together. There aren't many blocks in a row so it wasn't too taxing of a job to do while standing and I do take frequent breaks to chase the baby!

After I had my rows sewn together I moved my machine back to my sewing area (aka dining room table) and used the photo I had taken to put the rows together in the right order. 

Viola! The wonders of modern technology! 

10 comments:

  1. Lovely quilt, nice colour combinations! I don't think using technology to your advantage is cheating--perhaps when women started putting tape on their blocks, others thought it was cheating too (a sign of poor memory?). lol

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  2. Beautiful string quilt! Isn't it wonderful what technology has done for quilting - no more cardboard templates, and we don't have to rip out seams because we got the blocks together wrong!

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  3. Great idea! Your string quilt is gorgeous and I LOVE your blog layout/format...looks fabulous!

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  4. Sometimes I forget about digital cameras and take it for granted... then I go through old pictures and remember they were taken at a time when we didn't have them... and I wonder how much more I would have captured if we had them then!

    Love the quilt!

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  5. That is such a nice quilt, I want to make one!

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  6. That's a great tip. And I love how your quilt came out - the scrappy ones are always my favorites!

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  7. What a beautiful, beautiful quilt! And I must know where in the Adirondacks????!!!!

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