Helen Butler

I'm home!  I'm ready to stay put for awhile too and get some things done around here :)


This is the one class I took at Quilt Fest.  I signed up for two, but the other one was cancelled. This class, taught by Helen Butler, from Utah, was outstanding.  I'll share some more pictures of her quilts tomorrow - her work is fantastic. She had at least two quilts in the show too. I learned a lot of great tips and tricks in her class too.


I'll share a couple of little tidbits in this post....

She talked a lot about bindings.  She cuts hers at two and a scant eighth inches.  She said 2 1/4 inches is standard for a 1/4 inch binding, but the scant 1/8 makes it nice and tight, with the binding completely filled and no extra on the back.  She uses her 1/4 inch foot to sew on the binding and she generally cuts her binding on the bias.

She also pins on her binding!  Do you pin on your binding??  I've always just started on one side and sewn around!  She said she pins one side, flat on the floor, sews it on, then pins the other side etc.  You do have to stop at each corner anyway so why not pin I guess.  Sometimes I tug too tight as I'm sewing on the binding and the edges of the quilt kind of curl up, so pinning might just be the ticket to help me with that issue!  (I am curious as to how many of you pin your binding before sewing!)

She said to take tiny stitches, by hand, to tack it down on the back.  Mine are probably not tiny enough....

She demonstrated how she does scalloped borders.  She said to make your borders plenty wide so you have plenty of fabric to make the scallops.

She then folds her quilt in quarters or even eights and designs a scallop on paper.  She then cuts out the paper scallop and uses that to mark the scallop on the quilt. Wow!  That saves a ton of measuring and trying to figure out how many scallops are going to fit on each side etc.  This looks way easier and I'm going to have to give it a try.

She then demonstrated, with a damp quilt, how she blocks her quilts, which was really helpful to actually watch her do it.

A few other tips:
She uses Retayne to set fabric colors before she puts them in her quilt.
She uses Synthrapol to wash the quilt afterwards if she's worried about any fabrics bleeding.  She also likes to use Orvis soap if she's not worried about bleeding fabrics.
She dries them until damp and then blocks them (which is what I do, but I did learn a lot of great tips about blocking).  She also puts a fan or two on them while they're drying (being blocked)

She taught about piping, and how to make these Sawtooth borders, which she uses in a lot of her quilts, including the one pictured below.

She sews the two fabrics (in this case the red on top of the white) right sides up, with a quarter inch seam on the left.  She makes a cut every two inches, almost to the seam and then folds into a triangle and hand appliqués the triangle down.  I am definitely going to try this!


All of these extra little touches make for fantastic show quilts! I learned so much and have a lot of new things to try!

Off to the quilting room - oops I guess I need to go get some groceries first :)