Hello! From here you can access your My Star Collection subscription (button on the left) and visit our bookstore (button on the left or top menu). Also, enjoy your favorite cartoon Mrs. Bobbins, read some fun blog posts, and get to know our authors. Enjoy!
The Gift That Keeps on Giving
I know, I know, Christmas is over. But that doesn’t mean that the quilters in your life don’t have birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day and other occasions when gifts are appropriate.
It would be perfect if you would give them a book. Especially one that I’ve written. Oh, wait, that’s a very self-serving suggestion and, really, I was only kidding. Not that a book wouldn’t be perfect, mind you. And I really do put out a pretty darn good book but be that as it may, I have another idea for you.
Here at The Kansas City Star, we have a feature called My Star Collection. It is an online subscription service that delivers a Kansas City Star pattern on a weekly basis. Every Wednesday subscribers receive an email that reminds them to go to subscriptions.pickledish.com where a new pattern is available to download.
To give you a little background information, The Star printed more than 1,000 quilt patterns beginning in 1928 and ending in 1961. A few years ago, Diane McLendon came up with the idea of starting a subscription service.
It wasn’t too long before the idea became a reality and we were off and running. Judging from the amount of renewals we get every year, our subscribers seem to love the service.
For $20 per year, subscribers get one of these historical patterns once a week. However, the pattern is updated, has rotary cutting instructions whenever possible, and always includes templates whether you need them or not. We also include little 
diagrams showing you how the block goes together.
Subscribers also get a block of the month pattern. So far we have given the art and instructions for The Horn of Plenty Quilt and the Memory Bouquet Quilt, both designed by Eveline Foland. Right now we are in the midst of The Happy Childhood Quilt designed by A. Bullard. It’s a sweet child’s quilt that would look so cute on any little boy’s or girl’s bed.
I write the instructions on how to make each block. Mind you, these are instructions for making a block so I don’t try to figure out fabric requirements for every size quilt imaginable. But you can make any block using scraps or fat quarters. There are some great websites out there that will figure how much fabric you need for any quilt as well.
Personally, I am delighted about this project. I’m not sure how long it will take but eventually every pattern The Star has ever printed will have artwork that clearly shows seam allowances and updated written instructions for today’s quilter.
For more information, or to sign up, click here.
Think about it, 52 patterns per year for a measly $20. That’s less than the price of two yards of fabric! This is just too good of a deal to pass up so go to subscriptions.pickledish.com and sign up. You won’t be disappointed!
Filed under Edie McGinnis, History, My Star Collection
Progress
Yesterday I took quilts down to The Star to have them photographed for a book I’m writing. One of the quilts I’m including is a quilt I made in 1994 when I was fairly new to this pastime. I think it’s the fourth quilt I made.
I was still in my snotty stage where I thought the only quilt that really counted was hand pieced and hand quilted. It was also during the time when I didn’t have a sewing machine that was worth the time it took to plug it in to the outlet in the wall. That might have contributed much to my attitude.
Another quilt I took with me was a new one I just completed. The pieces were appliquéd onto the background by machine and it was all put together on my machine. My friend, Brenda, quilted it on her longarm.
The new quilt has the hand pieced, hand quilted one beat by miles.
The most noticeable improvement was on my binding. It’s hard for me to look at the edge on the old quilt. My binding is wider than what I use now and the corners! Oh, my stars! You cannot believe what a poor job I did on the corners of that quilt.
I thought I had mitered them but when I took a hard look at them, they were rounded. No, seriously, they were rounded. I don’t think I had a clue about how to miter the corner of a quilt. Oh, actually that is clear to the most casual of observers.
I’ve come a long way since that quilt. On the new one, the corners are at an exact 45-degree angle and are sharp. The binding was cut from bias strips that were cut 2-inches wide, folded in half and applied to the quilt. Then I whipped the binding to the back.
The old quilt has a few bulges and doesn’t lie exactly flat. The new one has no lumps or bumps and is flat as a flitter.
The two quilts have little in common other than the fact that they are both scrappy and I was the maker of the two.
No matter how much I improve as a quilter, each quilt I’ve made is dear in its own way. I’m not about to toss my old quilt on the scrap heap. Instead I look at it and marvel at the fabrics used. It is a study in dress scraps from The Princess Peggy dress fabric from Peoria, Illinois.
The dress factory operated during a 50-year time span and sold bags of scraps by the pound. You can find the same scraps in four and five different color ways. It’s one of those quilts I can look at forever and never tire of the variety it represents.
I wish I had not used the quilt and washed it as often as I have. I noticed that some of the pieces have faded to the point where they now appear to be white rather than printed. I wish I had been a better quilter when I made that quilt. But we all know what they say about wishes!
That old quilt has a story to tell and it isn’t just about the fabric used from the dress factory. The story is also about the quilter and how much there was still to learn. I expect that’s the part I need to remember rather than making a bunch of foolish wishes.
Filed under Books
