[calming music] - Welcome to "Lap Quilting", our ninth series and my new studio away from home.

It's so good to be back with you.

Our series is titled Potpourri, a mixed bag of patch fun and applique treats with two goals in mind.

First to inform you and second to inspire you in the field of quilt making.

Yes, we invite you to sit and absorb for this half an hour, but then we command you to be a doer, and learn the benefits of creating something with your own mind and hands.

Now stay tuned for the opening show.

Round and round we go, learn the basics of speed cutting with the up-to-date rulers.

Then learn a new flying geese technique, it's dimensional.

What fun to make place mats with a new way to place your silverware.

[uplifting music] ♪ Could you imagine a more clever object?

♪ ♪ Warms of body ignites the mind ♪ ♪ A child sleeps under mother's creation ♪ ♪ Together forever ♪ ♪ The art of the heart and design of the mind ♪ ♪ Puts you to bed one day at at time ♪ ♪ The art of heart and design of the mind ♪ [calming peaceful music] - [Announcer] "Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel" is made possible in part by grants from Leisure Arts, publisher and distributor of needlework and craft publications.

Including an assortment of quilt books and related products.

By VIP Fabrics, a division of Cranston Print Works Company, America's oldest textile printer.

Additional funding by Omnigrid, the original patented black and yellow ruler.

And by Bernina, delivering sewing technology and education to sewers worldwide.

- Each of our 13 shows will be divided into three parts.

The how to portion will be our live and learn, then second on the road with cover lover conversation, and our third part, questions from the mailbox.

Now they won't always be in that order.

Our mantelpiece and all of its changing decor will be the springboard for each show.

Just like my quilting friend Francis Gardena decorates her own mantle.

- Good morning.

- It's an exercise in style, an opportunity to take one theme, a fireplace and devise unique creations from ruffles to lace, to blue willow plates.

What is patchwork and applique anyway?

Another exercise in style.

We changed 300 and degrees with fabric to create quilts for beds, for walls, and garments.

Our motto is to keep cutting and sewing.

My log cabin color quilt is a sampler full of the many angles we use.

Today the how-to technique has changed, in fact, there's been a revolution.

The changes begin in the sewing room, that space that you have allowed for yourself.

Like many quilters today, we even have two computerized sewing machines and then there are the tools we use.

No longer do we rely on old fashioned wooden and tin rulers.

Why, I almost feel sorry for scissors today.

What has taken over, are the round rotary cutters and the thick rulers.

The cutters come in three sizes today, a small, medium, and a large.

Each of these will cut one layer of fabric just fine, but your smaller cutter is for cutting curves and for miniatures.

This is your all purpose cutter and then your larger cutter will cut more layers and it's also nice if you have any arthritis in your hands.

I can't stress enough the respect you need to give these cutters.

It's a very sharp blade between two discs.

I've listed a few do's and don'ts for the cutters.

Make sure you learn how to change the blade.

The blade does not go behind this black disc, but between the two.

The fact that when you're cutting, you have to always cut away from yourself and you have to press down, and then also against that thick ruler.

If your blade is hard to open and close, sometimes I put two thumbs on top and that gives me a little more power.

Make certain that you keep these away from children and if you're traveling and even at home, I store mine in an old eyeglass case and that's a good place to keep it.

To go with the cutters, we need rulers.

A few guidelines, make sure they're thick, they're well marked, they have an eighth of an inch marking on the whole surface.

And then I have come up with what I call a starter set.

That would be a one inch by 12 inch ruler, just a narrow one.

Notice how your yardstick beam compass can slide right on that.

A six inch square, a six inch by 12 very handy, three inch by 18.

I couldn't live without my six inch by 24, a large square, either a 15 square inch ruler or a 12 inch square ruler.

And then the very latest, these two rulers that have the seam allowance built in.

They're companions, they're like a set, I say they're married to each other.

This is your long grain line, straight of the grain for the flying geese, and then the sky or the right angle triangle goes with it, seam allowance, all built in.

Nice thick edge for more cutting.

The cutting mats are an essential part of this setup.

They come large for your work at home.

When you're traveling and going to workshops, you'll probably want a smaller mat and they even come in miniature today with 16 inch markings.

As for the actual use of the cutters, I found that Nancy Johnson-Srebro's book has some wonderful tips.

We can't go into every one of 'em, but I would like to touch on a few.

When it comes to using the large ruler, which is really my favorite, you'll use this for bargello, for log cabin trips, the borders on your quilts.

And by the way, you'll probably wanna cut the borders on your quilts with the straight of the grain.

It'll be more taut than that crosswise.

We have a set here on the crosswise from salvage to the fold, and I've already made a couple of cuts, I'm gonna make another one.

Remember that it will mean moving your hand as it grips the edge of your ruler.

I like to let a finger fall off so it's holding onto the mat and the edge of the ruler.

Release your blade, make your cut, and then I quite often move my hand so that it's stabilized.

Once that's been cut, you'll open up and look at your cuts and all of a sudden you'll put it down and realize that it's not exactly straight.

Sometimes it'll have almost a V in the cut.

Well, it's because you haven't kept, as you look here, you haven't cut so that your salvage is even with the straight of the grain and it all gets out of true.

Do you see how that's going at an angle?

Well, it means that you have to line it up again, prune the edges.

And here's where I use the lines on my mat too as a guideline, and I just see that I need to trim it up a little bit, get rid of that excess, and now I'm ready to start cutting again.

That's something you just get rid of.

So once you've made your long cuts, then you'll wanna think of squares and rectangles.

Here's where I go to the smaller rulers, they're easier to handle.

I often work with the one, one right up in the corner that allows me to come right over.

If this is one and a half, I come from here over my one and a half, or I believe this was yes, two and a half.

So I'm going to come over two and a half for my squares, and if I'm doing rectangles, I might come over four and a half, always keeping my edges true with the previous cut.

Once I've made my medium cuts, I would use the smaller rulers for my miniatures or maybe paper and foundation piecing.

When it comes to the large ruler, that's where you're going to cut out squares, and you're also going to true up your blocks.

You're going to have raw edges around an eight and a half or a 12 and a half inch block.

So here I would find that one, one marking, and let's see here it is all the way here.

If you're left-handed, you'd probably be more comfortable with it down here, but I'll come and line this up on my block and anything that eeks out, I would simply trim off, come here and here, and you can either turn your mat or the block or I find it easier to simply turn my ruler in the opposite corner.

Say for instance, I wanna cut out, oh a perfect square that's going to be... Oh maybe seven and a half, cut away from myself down to seven and a half, remove that and then come over here to seven and a half.

And then all I need to do once again is swing that ruler to the opposite corner.

And now all I need to do is find my seven and a half again, where's my seven and a half?

And then I'm ready to cut.

Now you get real smart when you learn to switch hands and of course holding your ruler in place and pressing against that ruler, I can then cut out and quite often you can turn your body so that you can get that nice seven and a half inch cut.

What about those angle cuts on your rulers?

They're very important, especially if you're going to be cutting diamonds.

Say I have a couple of strips cut here, and of course where you'll use that 45 degree more than anything is when you're cutting bias cuts.

The 45 against the salvage or the crosswise grain will always give you that true bias.

If it's off a little bit, you'll still get a bias, but it isn't what we call the true bias.

So line it up right against the salvage and you're ready to cut that true bias, the kind of thing that you'll use for stems on appliques and the binding around your quilt.

What if I'm going to be cutting out diamonds?

Then I would simply take my 45 degree, line it up on the previously cut edge, cut, and then I'm going to come down.

And if I've cut three inches, I'll come down three inches and cut another 45 degree angle.

And I could of course have three layers underneath here and be cutting out multiple diamonds for my lone star quilt.

So that's how I make my cuts, and I think you'll be using your rotary cutter, and your mats, and your rulers all the time in patchwork.

How about a quick review on some of the speed piecing that we learned?

A few basic math additions to our quilt shapes will simplify our rotary ruler cuts.

Now I keep these handy taped to the back of my calculator.

All one eighth divisions converted to decimals.

Quick piecing relies on the two right sides of fabric being aligned.

If it's to be sewn together, why not cut it out together?

Four patch, take half of the finished size and add 0.5 to include all of those seam allowances.

Rectangles, take one half of the height and then add 0.5, add 0.5 to the length.

For half square triangles, add seven eights or 0.875 to any cuts.

That measurement includes the quarter inch at the right angle, and then for that pointy end, that extension where the 45 degree is.

Now, the quarter square triangle has two of those 45 degree angles, so this time we add an inch and a quarter.

Flying geese rectangles, where the length is twice the height includes both of those triangles.

For the big one we add an inch and a quarter, for the right angle triangle, we'll add 0.875.

For equilateral triangles, add three quarter inch to the finished height and cut out your strips.

Then you can introduce that 60 degree angle and see how that angle allows you to make those cuts.

Let's go to the sampler quilt and find another 60 degree angle.

If we superimpose this right up on this star design, we can see the 60 degree aligning right at that angle.

For our 45 degree, we'll come down to a more acute star point.

Going over to another block, we'll find a flying geese with two seams but I have a flying geese technique with only one seam.

My collar is based on a panel that hangs across the back.

It's 10 inches long by 17, the whole extension goes down to 22 inches and I did put a little pocket at the end with more flying geese tucked in.

Notice that at each end, I have these dimensional flying geese and what happens is there's one seam underneath.

Now what you're really interested in knowing is how to cut that rectangle that goes in.

You take the height of your background strip.

In this case it's an inch and a half, and add 0.5, which is a half an inch.

Then for the long side, go to the finished height of your foundation.

This time it's an inch and a half, so double that then add 0.5.

So I know that this is three inches plus that 0.5, we have a three and a half by two inch rectangle.

That is folded and it's placed, the raw edges against the seam, making sure to leave a quarter inch at the top.

Then I'm ready to pin that and do my sewing.

Once that has been sewn, when I open up, I hold on to the corners and notice what happens, I just pull that outside to cut the next row.

I'm all ready to sew another set of place mats that I did alternate my bias strips here so I get a little bit of pizazz in the back of that collar.

When you're cutting that out, go to the adjacent corner each time of your fabric to alternate the cutting of the rows.

This side was cut over here and then I went to the next adjacent side to cut the next row.

I'm all ready to sew another set of place mats and notice how it's all pinned together, the fold at the top each time, and I can just do my chain piecing to complete that.

Isn't it interesting how one technique can lead to a whole new project.

This time a garment but instead of horizontally, I've gone vertically.

I'd like to show you how these are sewn at the machine.

Before we start stitching today, can I just review two things?

We are using a quarter inch seam allowance in our most of our patchwork today, and you do want a neutral thread that is a good quality thread.

I have two of these rows stitched together, but I am ready to do some chain piecing with three of the rows.

Remember that fold is up at the top, and so I can just do my nice quarter inch seam and as I come down, I'll just keep stitching to get the next segment put together.

It's all right to have a little air in between, but I do check and make sure that my raw edges are aligned as I'm coming down.

And then for the last row... [sewing machine stitching] I'm ready to go to the ironing board.

And there are a couple of hints I wanted to share with you here.

In most of our patchwork, we do keep closed seams, but in this particular instance, I have found that on the backside before I open that up, I will actually separate that seam and that means kind of little fussy work that you've gotta get in there.

But once you get the iron to open that, you'll see what a nice action you get there, how that softens that intersection.

And then that allows you to come on this side and open up those right angles, and all of a sudden you've got that dimensional flying geese.

You haven't had to sew those side seams.

This isn't for all of your patchwork because it does create extra layers, but for a novelty idea, I think you'll have fun with it.

I know you're tired of straight line, so let's do curves.

Do you remember drunkard's path?

Once the quarter inch was sewn, there was always some fabric until the actual curve started.

Well, Virginia Walton and her Creative Curves process has softened that curve, so she's pulled it all the way out to the actual corners.

She has done some unique designs and put it all into a little "Creative Curves" book full of color, each designed different, but based on a two patch system.

If you take a look at the very classic Dutchman's puzzle and then start looking at the changes that happen and ponder each time the two patch idea, in other words, here's the green in a straight line, but when it becomes a convex curve, look what happens.

Take the pink and make it a concave.

Now, I always remember concave because you walk into a cave so you can remember that curve.

But each time, look what happens with the unique 16 patch block it takes on an entire new concept, and very often she can even eliminate a seam by making one entire unit.

Now, all of this has been done by creating three sizes of rulers, three inch, two inch, and one and a half.

We're gonna deal with the three inch right now and give you an idea of how it's cut.

You can start with three and a half inch strips of fabric in this case, we have a two color system, but if you're cutting just the simple one three and a half inch square, you would of course cut out a three and a half inch square.

And then by just lining up the black lines on this corner, and of course holding my rotary cutter, I can go ahead and cut one convex and then to cut the concave in a contrasting, I just turn my ruler, line it up with a black line again, and then very gently go to the inside and I'm ready to sew my curves.

You will find that they sew together so nicely when you do the actual sewing.

Be certain to put the concave area against the feed dogs so that you're lining up.

You're going to be sewing these two together, so you'd be coming just like this and start with your right angles aligned right up here, and you'll come out each time to the end.

I just sewed this one and it turned out beautifully, go ahead and press it into the convex area.

The other idea that's so fascinating is that anytime you can eliminate a seam, that's a good idea and to do that, simply cut out a three and a half by six and a half, you know you're going to have two units.

This time I simply place this on one corner and cut my curve and then by turning it...

I didn't get it exactly right there.

Then by turning it, I can come and line it up again and I'm ready to to do my cutting.

So many ideas just waiting to be stitched.

[cheerful uplifting music] Betty Smith from Atlanta writes, "Do those new sharpening devices for blades really work?"

Well yes, I have tried them and they work.

It's a matter of putting the blade inside these little handles that do screw together, and then a little drop of oil enhances the honing device.

You start with a light side first and simply put the blade in and twist it, forward and backwards, and then I turn it over and do both sides of the blade.

Now it works best if you have a nick in your blade, it doesn't work too good if you have a warped blade, then you end up with the darker side.

I think it's nice to store your blades in these little containers.

I quite often label them if they're warped or if I'm saving them for paper.

Sometimes you can collect a lot of blades and send them to LP Sharp in Minnesota and we'll give you that address and have them all sharpened at once, and you might go together with a group of your quilting friends.

Well, it looks like Susan Brown has run into a problem with a rotary cutter.

She's come up with the rotary tiger, he looks pretty fierce there.

In the same letter, Betty asks, "What are those white spatulas that come in book promotions?"

Well, we all know these as a hera and this smooth edge, the very sharp acute side is intended to roll against fabric to leave an indention so that you can quickly quilt it right away, it will disappear after a while.

But I think Sue Mueller has come up with even a niftier idea.

At a most recent Christmas party, she was seen wearing these as earrings.

[cool groovy music] Finally, finally fabric!

Oh, excuse et moi.

Our international travels would not be complete without going into a quilt shop.

We are in Aix-en, Provence, and we're with Jacqueline Garria.

Welcome, Bonjour today, - Bonjour madame.

- And we are so excited to come and find out what sort of American patchwork classes you have here and all this wonderful French fabric, right?

- I have nearly 900 fabrics, American fabrics.

- American fabrics?

- Yes.

- Oh, how exciting.

- Because French women, they prefer American fabrics.

Well, we're pleased to know that.

Next time on "Lap Quilting", we will focus on fabric, American fabric.

[cheery inspiring music] ♪ Could you imagine a more clever object?

♪ ♪ Warms the body, ignites the mind ♪ ♪ A child sleeps under mother's creation together forever ♪ ♪ The art of the heart and of the mind ♪ ♪ Puts you to bed one day at a time ♪ ♪ Heart and design of the mind ♪ - [Announcer] "Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel" is made possible in part by grants from Leisure Arts, publisher and distributor of needlework and craft publications, including an assortment of quilt books and related products.

By VIP Fabrics, a division of Cranston Print Works Company, America's oldest textile printer.

Additional funding by Omnigrid, the original patented black and yellow ruler.

And by Bernina delivering sewing technology and education to sewers worldwide.