Ask Jo

In a recent blog post I told you that my friend Connie had been looking for a cutter quilt.

After that post I had several people write and ask, “What is a cutter quilt?”

I call any quilt that is getting to the point that it is beyond repair a “cutter quilt”.  Often time crafters and quilters cut the quilt up and make things from the quilt.  I did a little google searching so I could find some examples of things made from old quilts.

These pincushions are cute…

This old teddy bear is cute.  I made Buck and Karl teddy bears with cutter quilts when they were little.

For this one it looks like a fan was cut out just beyond the outer edge of the fan block.  In the right house this would be a cute candle mat.

If you search Pinterest or Google typing in “cutter quilt” or “cutter quilt projects” you can see lots of things that people have made with cutter quilts.

For some, cutting into a quilt is a sin.  I have mixed emotions about it.  I’ve cut into several in the past…but only ones that are beyond fixing.

Coming up on soon I am hoping to host a “auction” here on the blog again.  This quilt will be offered then.  I classify this as a cutter quilt.  What happened with this quilt is that the maker used good quality fabric to make the blocks but didn’t use a good fabric for the alternate squares.

You can see the poor fabric in this picture.  This quilt was tied so whoever is interested in this quilt might buy it with restoration in mind.  They might seam rip it apart and resew it together with a new alternate block fabric.

Someone else might be interest in it as a cutter quilt cutting the pieces and making it into a teddy bear.

Yet another person might preserve the quilt carefully folding it and stacking it so that no damaged blocks show.  Most looking at the quilt would never be able to see any of the damaged parts of the quilts.

Everyone has their own opinion about cutter quilts and what do with them.  There is only one thing that bothers me…that’s if the cutter quilts get thrown in the garbage.  I’d love to read about how all of you feel about cutter quilts…just remember that whatever you say, make it kind.  Each of us is allowed our opinion.

Every once in awhile I get comment from a blog reader that I think others would be interested in as well.  Rather than answer them individually I answer them here on the blog.  Today is one of those days.

This comment came from a blog reader, Becky Clay, who finds us via her Facebook feed.  Becky writes, “Where have you been?”

Let me do a little explaining on how this all works.

We have our blog.  We are on the internet with the domain name “Jo’s Country Junction”.  Any minute of your day you can type www.joscountryjunction.com into your web browser and find us.  Many of our readers have alternate ways that they find us.  Some find us through an email.  Some find us in their Facebook feed.  Some find us through even more places.  All of these “alternate” places to find us, we don’t have much control over.

Let me explain it like this….Every so often I get a notification on my smart phone that says I need to do an update my phone.  I do the update and my phone changes slightly.  Suddenly when I go to my camera, my camera looks mostly the same but it’s a little different.  The camera part of my software updated.  This happens regularly.  I have to futz with it a little bit and then can figure it out.  This happens all the time with with computer related things.  Most of of curse the changes, then ten days later, we’ve adjusted to them.

Well this is what happened with the program that picked up my blog posts and transferred them into your Facebook news feed.  It updated, something changed and then it no longer worked like it previously did.  Facebook users quit getting a notification that I had a new blog post up.  I realized this in early June….that was about the time that our daughter Kayla was in Utah and daughter Kayla is my computer person.

She was here….

She was chaperoning a high school hiking group.  They hiked Utah National parks for 10 days.

She very much enjoyed it and hopes to chaperone again.

Well…over the years of working on computers, I’ve learned very little.  I know how to write a blog post.  I know how to get it to publish.  I know nothing else.  If I need anything done, I beg and plead to Kayla and send her some Paypal money for the work.  It’s so much easier than trying myself and crying because I can’t do it.  Besides, what she can do in a half hour takes me days.  She would happily do it all for free but I insist on paying her something and trust me, the $50 I send her, is nowhere near what a professional would charge.  Kayla is the best….as long as I’m patient.

So…I had to wait for Kayla to come home.  Once she got home, she got put on Auntie duty with these guys… [Read more…] about Ask Jo: Where Have You Been?

Every so often a question or comment comes from a blog reader that I think other readers might like the answer to.  When that happens I answer the questions here on the blog for all to see.  Today is one of those days.

The question of the day comes from JanetB:  “In one of your “ask Jo’s,” can you talk about piecing quilt backs. I typically buy wide backs because I like the convenience for quilts that I keep or gift. I have some charity quilts and need to piece the back and I’m procrastinating because I’ve never done it. Do I just start whacking fabric and stitching it together, or it there a method to the madness? Nobody does YouTubes on pieced backs.”

In the comments section another blog reader gave a try at answering Janet’s question.  Barbie said, “I’ll throw in my two cents worth for Janet’s question about piecing a quilt backing as I often piece mine. I start by determining if I have additional blocks or sections from the quilt front that didn’t get used. It isn’t unusual for me to make a top and have an additional blocks. Then I see if have additional fabric that was also used in the top. That gives me a terrific start as I can often piece a vertical column out of components used on the front. Depending on the size of your quilt you can built out from that and that might mean piecing more pieces or finding some yardage that will coordinate and adding that.

I’ve seen all kinds of pieced backings and the sky is the limit. I once just pieced a bunch of solids in big chunks as the front had a lot of small print pieces and the back turned out to be as interesting as the front! Start small and play with what you have. Good luck!”

In thinking about Janet’s question I am not sure exactly how much piecing she needs to do so…I’ll start super basic.

I am showing 3 diagrams.  I hope they help explain it.

When piecing- first ask yourself how long your quilt top is.  If it’s less than 82″ or so you’re in luck..less piecing for you.  Simply measure the width of your quilt add 6″ to that measurement and cut two pieces that size.  Sew them together with the seam going horizontally.

This shows that the seam in the fabric will run horizontally down the middle.

If your quilt is bigger than 84″ wide you can likely use graphic #2.  Here the seam is running vertically.  Simply measure your quilt top length.  Add 6″.  Then cut two pieces of fabric that length and seam them together with the seam running vertically as shown.

Now if my quilt is over 84″ wide but under 100″ wide-most all of mine are, you’ll need to use graphic #3 which is below… [Read more…] about Ask Jo: Figuring Backing Yardage and more

Often times blog readers ask questions that I think others might be interested in as well.  I answer them on the blog.  Today is one of those days.

After my blog post about the garden getting tilled I had a couple people, including Susan the Farm Quilter ask, “What a fun day for everyone! Why do you put the tile around the tomato plant? Is it to keep rabbit or other pests away from the plants?”  You can read the blog post here if you missed it.

We live in farm country.  Farmers previously used these tiles for field drainage.  Growing up, we always had extra of these tiles lying around.  My mom always put these around her tomato plants.  There are several reasons why she did.
1-the tile protects the new plant from the springtime winds.  As the plant grows and peeks out of the tile it slowly adjusts to the climate and winds.
2-the tile protects the plant from hungry springtime critters.
3-the tile warms in the sun and acts a bit like a greenhouse
4-later in the season when if the plants need to be watered we water directly into the tile.  It keeps the moisture targeted to the plant.

But the main reason…my mom did it.  I don’t know any different…I think my mother in law did it too.

My next question came to my email…..It’s from Kathy on the west coast of Canada.

“Love your blog look forward to reading it ever day. I was wondering what is happening about the areas in your yard that are sinking. Hope they are not getting all lot worse.  Take care of your self you are special.”

This question came after I post about the sink hole in our yard.  This is how it looked on March 31st.  Read about it here if you missed it.

Here is how it looks today.

The grass is so long it the area that we can’t see if the hole got bigger.

Nothing has been done to it.   Out rural where we live patient truly is a virtue.  The guy in our area who has a back hole to deal with this is also the guy who cleans out our driveway in the winter and also the guy who fixes the farmers waterways, digs holes for basements and new construction and also the guy who fixes the roads in town and also the guys who digs and puts in tile in the farmers fields.  Needless to say, our little sink hole problem is WAY-WAY down on the low priority list.

We’re okay with that and understand.  We know the kind of emergent calls he gets as we have made some of those calls from time to time.  When we needed the basement dug for the house here, we called and said the cement guys can come next week we HAVE TO HAVE the basement dug this week.  He came…we had our basement on time.

I am guessing that we’ll be on the end of July/early August calendar.  It could be frustrating if I let it be but why?  This is part of my world in my part of the country….it’s rural life.

So for now, we keep the fence up and check on it periodically.  I promise I’ll do an update on it when something happens.

Next up…a question to me from me.  I’m sure several of you have been dying to ask…..”Are you ever going to host that Double Wedding Ring Quilt Along?”

Remember I promised one for this quilt…It’s going to happen.  More details coming soon.  I promise.  We just needed to get past the big Market at White Barns.  That was this weekend…More on that tomorrow.  In the meantime if you want to join along get yourself a copy of the June 2018 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.

They are probably not on the news stand anymore so you can order a copy here.

That’s what I have today for the Ask Jo segment if you have a question that I missed drop me a note at rogjok@iowatelecom.net.