Then we decided that a new EQ7 project file with a Dresden Plate design would be a more downloadable kind of plate, and calorie-free.

There are several variations of Dresden Plate in the block library of Electric Quilt already. This one is in the Inklingo Basic Pieced Shape Collection, but not in the EQ block library, so Monkey and I drew it for you.

Dresden EQ7 Project

You can download the project file and start designing for the ClubEQ May Challenge of Red and White Quilts.

Whoa, Mama! These are just a few of the many blade variations in the three Inklingo Dresden Plate Shape Collections (Appliqué, Basic Pieced, and Fancy Pieced). What a treasure trove!

If you have the Dresden Plate Fancy Shape Collection, and you are ready to learn about EQ, you can draw some of the Farmer’s Delight and Rising Sun variations.

The Inklingo blocks are 9, 12 or 15 inches. Everything you need to know about Dresden Plate is in the Design Book (74 pages, download, $10 or free!)

The Inklingo blade variations in the Appliqué Shape Collection are impressive too, and you can create fabulous designs with them in EQ for the ClubEQ Challenge.

Even if your designs for the challenge are elaborate, you can sew them in this lifetime with Inklingo shapes to print on fabric!

Inklingo calls all of these variations Dresden Plate, but they are sometimes also called New York Beauty, Farmer’s Fancy, Farmer’s Delight, Ferris Wheel, Sunflower, Wheel of Fortune, Rising Sun, and other names. No matter what you call them, they are fabulous.

Inklingo makes spectacular designs like these possible for many more quilters. You don’t have to be an expert to get wonderful results. With Electric Quilt to design, and Inklingo for the rest, you have the best of both worlds.

Inklingo makes these designs so much more fun. You don’t have to tell anyone how easy it is to sew with the cutting and stitchig lines printed on the fabric with Inklingo, but we hope you will.

Love the lines. Quilt more!

We hope you like the EQ7 Dresden Plate project file and that someone makes chocolate chip cookies for you too. Happy Mother’s Day!

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares  in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

I will never forget it.

The Quilt Show BOM with Inklingo by Mary

Mary is too quiet and unassuming (and too busy quilting!) to do this herself, so I have collected most of her Inklingo quilts and works in progress here. She sewed some by hand and some by machine. Some are completed quilts, and some are blocks laid out on the floor. Some are traditional, and some are not. All are wonderful!

Lone Star with Inklingo by Mary

Mary taught me how to hand piece with freezer paper templates in January 1998, when we were both spending every winter in Naples Florida. We had already been friends for several years, although she lived in Wisconsin and I lived in Ontario. She was the first person I ever heard use the strange word “Paducah,” and the first person I ever knew who had a “stash.” 

Seven Sisters with Inklingo by Mary

Mary has had a huge influence on my quilting life from the beginning, and she was the one who convinced Russ that I should get a new computer, so I could get online. Early in 1996 (or 1995?) she cunningly showed Russ (the chef) some cooking sites on her laptop, but he said he already had more recipes than he could ever use.

Russ famously told me, “Of course, you can get a new computer, but what are you doing to DO with it?”

We still tease him about that. I did not jump right away, but in 1996 I signed my Christmas cards as linda@no_net.yet and russ@bahnet.com. Mary had convinced me. We got online in 1997.

Red Toile

Alabama Beauty

Alabama Beauty laid out on the floor.

Alabama Beauty laid out on the floor.

Farmer’s Delight (from Dresden Plate Fancy) in Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

Farmer’s Delight, ready to quilt.

Snowball

Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses (POTC)

Lucy Boston Octagon quilt

Lucy Boston Octagon quilt (detail)

Half Square Triangles (HST) by machine.

Mary sometimes pieces by hand and sometimes by machine.

LeMoyne Star

LeMoyne Star

Green Toile

Grandmother’s Flower Garden (GFG) flowers

Farmer’s Wife Sampler (FWS)

Farmer’s Wife Sampler (FWS)

Flying Geese

Drunkard’s Path

Leaves you speechless, doesn’t it? 

Mary is also the first quilter to tell me, “Inklingo is the next revolution in quilting, equal to the rotary cutter, paper piecing, acrylic templates, and Internet lists.” That favorite quote is on the back cover of The Inklingo Handbook.

After all these years, Mary continues to keep me inspired. I will make sure she sees any comments you leave here, but Mary is one of the very talented, quiet quilters in the Inklingo Yahoo group, so you can leave comments and ask questions there too. Maybe we can find out what she will do next!

I don’t think anyone can catch up to Mary, but if you would like to try Inklingo now anyway, there is a way to get a Quick Start (free).

I am very grateful to Mary for her friendship, and for letting me share her photos here. Aren’t you glad you came for a visit? Quite an amazing amount of inspiration this time, don’t you think? 

Linda & Monkey

One of the best resources on the Inklingo web site is the Index of Shapes under the Support tab.

Any time you need a shape for a pattern, you can easily see if it is “inklingoable.”

For example, if you are making flying geese, there are dozens of sizes of Half Square Triangles (HST) in different Inklingo shape collections. The triangles are named with the finished size (excluding the seam allowances), and are listed in the index like this:

Inklingo makes it simple! There is no need to add 7/8ths or do any math to find the right one. The green type on the web site is clickable, and it will take you to the page that describes the shape collection.

There are a few different Inklingo triangle shape collections, but triangles are also in other collections like Storm At Sea and Inklingo Lite # 4 (for Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses).

In addition to triangles, there are pages in the Index of Shapes describing hexagons, diamonds, polygons (squares, pentagons, octagons, etc.), and shapes with curves.

Some quilters like to print the Index of Shapes for their Inklingo binder, so Cathi of Quilt Obsession offered to create a PDF file, which she will update as new collections are added. It is on the web site now—17 pages already.  Thank you, Cathi!

There are tips for printing the Index on the web site now too.

The Index of Shapes is a necessity because Inklingo shapes are so versatile that the collections are difficult to name.

For example, you might not expect to find these blocks in a collection called “Dresden Plate,” but that is where they are. You can see all of the “shapes with curves” in the Index of Shapes. (The ones above are described in the Dresden Plate Design Book, free download, $20 value.)

Monkey and I hope the Index of Shapes will encourage you to discover other great tools and info on the Inklingo web site.

The best way to stay up-to-date is to join the Inklingo group on Yahoo. Please join us online!

We are grateful to Cathi for creating the PDF, and we love receiving suggestions like hers from Inklingo quilters.  If there is anything you would like to see on the web site, please let us know. We’re listening.

If only it was not so hard to name the shape collections! Who knew that the versatility and flexibility of Inklingo would cause such a “problem.” Oh, well. Thanks to the Inklingo Index of Shapes, and Inklingo freinds like Cathi, we can live with it.

Thank you for visiting.

Linda & Monkey

I have been getting great advice from the Inklingoists in the Yahoo group about what they would like me to say to Pat on Pat Sloan’s Creative Talk Radio on Monday (April 12, 4:30). Some of my favs:

“Do tell her that a dyslexic 69 year old can do it.”

“Emphasize that machine piecers get as many benefits from Inklingo as hand piecers.”

“Point out that any old Inkjet printer works. I sometimes get the impression people think they have to buy a special or expensive printer.”

“How extremely simple those quite-difficult-to-make-quilts are to make with Inklingo … but also, that the books alone will give you all you need to get going.”

“Tell her it’s the best thing to happen to quilting since the rotary cutter.”

Let’s show everyone what we do with Inklingo!

Jeannette in Australia has made several of these with Inklingo

If you have a photo of an Inklingo project to share, please send it to Tilde so she can add it to the Inklingo Projects Blog before Monday. It doesn’t have to be a finished quilt.  Some of Jeannette’s Farmer’s Fancy blocks were just added, and they are spectacular. She made them with the Inklingo Dresden Plate Fancy collection.

The difficulty with Inklingo

The hardest part about Inklingo is explaining how easy it is. Many quilters understand in a nanosecond, but some think it is harder than it is.

There is a Quick Start Guide on the Inklingo web site, but some quilters have a really hard time deciding to print that FIRST sheet of fabric. It is a mental block. It would be great if you could look at that page and let me know if there is anything I could add or change to encourage the scaredy cats to Just Do It!

What was it that motivated you to print your first Inklingo?

Pat Sloan is an inspiration to me. I don’t know how she has time to write on her blog so often. I am going to try to write more here, following your suggestions.

More tomorrow, okay?

Linda & Monkey

P.S. The sale prices on the new Inklingo Storm At Sea collections ($20 instead of $25) has been extended from April 11 to April 14, so quilters who only find out about it on the radio show will benefit.

Back-basting overcomes the disadvantages of traditional needle-turn appliqué, and it is simpler than some imagine, so Monkey and I have prepared this little summary.

Traditional Needle-turn 

Let’s review traditional needle-turn first.

Trace the outline of the patch—a heart, for example—onto the front side of a fabric patch (or print with Inklingo). Cut out the heart, leaving a narrow turn-under allowance. Pin it in position on the background and and turn the edges under with the needle, a little bit at a time, so you can make invisible stitches to attach the heart to the background.

Advantage: The  preparation is faster than template methods.
Disadvantages:  It is more difficult to accurately position because each heart is bigger than its space since the edge is not yet turned under. It can be hard to see the outline of the heart, especially on dark patches. It can be tricky to use the needle to turn the fabric edge under accurately and make invisible stitches at the same time.

Back-basting

Back-basting is a variation of the needle-turn method, and overcomes the disadvantages. It is my favorite method.

1. Instead of tracing the outline of the heart on the front of the appliqué fabric, trace the entire design (or print with Inklingo) on the back of the background fabric.

2. Postion a rough-cut patch right side up on the front.  To ensure that the fabric completely covers the outline of the heart, cut it big and hold the background up to the light, or place pins from the back as a guide.

3. Working from the back, baste the patch to the background (hence the name “back-basting”), following the outline of the heart, using a big needle and thick thread.

4. Working from the front, trim the rough-cut fabric patch, leaving a narrow turn-under allowance.

5. Working from the front, clip and remove the basting stitches one small section at a time— just enough to allow you to needle-turn and stitch the next half inch or so. Use invisible stitches.

How Back-basting Works

Basting with a big needle and thick thread along the line on the back holds everything in perfect position and marks the edge of the patch!

Holes in the background and the patch

When the thick basting thread is clipped and removed from the front, one small section at a time, the line of temporary holes is a visual guide and temporarily “perforates” the edge, so it is easier to needle-turn accurately and stitch in place.

Appliqué with Inklingo

Inklingo has advantages with all appliqué methods, whether you are printing on freezer paper for templates or printing shapes on the patch fabric or on the background.

There is a complete chapter on appliqué in The Inklingo Handbook, including illustrated instructions for back-basting layered designs, stitching direction, needles, thread, invisible stitches (tack stitch and ladder stitch), inner points, outer points, etc.

If you like needle-turn appliqué, you will LOVE back-basting, especially since it eliminates all positioning issues.

If you have found traditional needle-turn appliqué difficult, it is time for you to try back-basting. Back-basting makes it easier to position the patches and to turn under the edges accurately. You will be amazed by the difference it makes, and I think you will understand why this old technique has become popular again.

You can subscribe to receive an e-mail whenever there is a new entry at All About Inklingo from the sidebar. Thank you for visiting.

Linda & Monkey

Dresden Plate Design Book (FREE, 74 pages)

There have already been “complaints” about the new Dresden Plate collections—too much choice, not accurately named, irresistible, causes heart to race, etc.  LOL  These Inklingo collections include so many blades, backgrounds, and variations that to call them “Dresden Plate” seems misleading. I’m sorry. The shapes were so exciting, we could not stop!

So—infinite design possibilities AND a choice of traditional appliqué, back-basting appliqué, hand piecing, machine piecing, and hybrid piecing. Quilters who don’t even like Dresden Plate, will like some of these:

As one Inklingo friend wrote, “This is not your grandmother’s Dresden Plate!

These Dresden Plate collections got so big and beautiful that it took a whole book to describe the possibilites.  The Inklingo Dresden Plate Design Book is free and it is a fantastic tool for quilters and pattern designers. 

A Worksheet from the Design Book

Today is my sister’s birthday and we are taking her out for dinner. I have to stop now to get dressed up, but in the next few days, I will share more images of the new Dresden Plate collections here. In the meantime, I hope you will visit the Dresden Plate page on my site. You can also see a photo of the first “Dresden Plate” block (that we know about) . It was made within the first few hours by Tilde.

INTRODUCTORY PRICES  Be sure to check out the special sale prices. You could save up to $15 if you order by January 24th. (Details on the web site.)

FREE  Order and download the Inklingo Dresden Plate Design Book now, and leave a comment to let me know what YOUR complaints are, okay?

Thank you for visiting.

Linda & Monkey