Appleton Dance

Eastern elevation of Harmonite buildings erected ca. 1825 at Old Economy Village on northern banks of Ohio River in current Ambridge, Pennsylvania, looking southwest across village garden toward bluffs on southern bank of the Ohio River, west of Pittsburgh, PA. Photo: Linda Theil, May 27, 2017. Old Economy Village is once again facing existential threat if Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf's current budget cuts to the Pennsylvania  Historial and Museum Commission are ratified by the legislature. After the economic crash of 2008, Old Economy Village was briefly eclipsed, but clawed its way back from oblivion to its current, financially-diminished state, only to be faced -- once-again -- by disregard for its unique status as a cultural and historic asset to the citizens of the commonwealth of William Penn's vision and the entire United States of America. Secured by the state in 1916, the Harmonite village of Economy -- a priceless architectural asset along the Ohio River we...

Here is my second Mini-toot video tutorial. I made it to demonstrate the first block on Moda's new FaceBook site,   "Moda Blockheads -- Public Group" .  The block is "Block 1: Whirligig - Kansas Troubles Quilters, Lynne Hagmeier, Designer" .  A PDF file with complete directions can be downloaded from the Internet by clicking on this link . This design is not optimum for a mini-tutorial, but since I wanted to make the block, I thought I might as well take the photos and use the free Adobe Spark application to make another video. I think my first mini-toot, "Cross Block" , is really cute; and I am learning more about the video process as I go along. I made the "Cross Block" mini-toot because it showed an improvisational block, and I wanted to make this "Whirligig" mini-toot because it uses a "layered" patchwork technique that I wanted to investigate.  In this "layered" patchwork method of making the Whir...

Modern, improv "Cross" block mini-toot by Linda Theil, created with Adobe Spark The Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild recently announced that the entire guild is invited to make blocks for a quilt that will be awarded to a guild volunteer this year. They chose the "Cross" block because it is fast, easy, and beautiful; but also because it is a great example of a modern, improvisational block. When I saw Kathy Schmidt's post, "Modern AND improv -- Great!" on the GAAQG blog, wanted to try it right away. So I looked up all the links Kathy provided in her post -- there are a lot of tutorials out there about how to make this block.  I thought wouldn't it be cool to to have one of those cute, short, video tutorials on how to make this block -- so I thought I'd try the Adobe Spark video option using photos I took while putting together my red and gold sample block.  I could save and download the video I made, and could even get code ...

I love this Missouri Star Quilt Co. Quilt Snips Mini Tutorial of the "Crosswalk" block .  I made a sample out of leftover strips from a "Sumatra Batiks" jellyroll (2.5-inch strips) by Blank Quilting, and a piece of buttery gold sheeting.  I liked the block so much I added a few borders to make a 21-inch square and made a pillow top out of my sample block: I hand quilted the block with batting and a lightweight backing. I pressed some iron-on batting to a 21-inch square of leftover sheeting for the back of the pillow cover. Using a cording foot, I covered 2/5 yards of 1/4-inch cording with left-over strips of the batik prints, and, using a zipper foot stitched the cording to the quilted pillow top. With right-sides-together, I sewed the quilt top and the pillow back together around all edges, leaving a 12-inch opening on one side to turn the pillow cover.  I turned the pillow cover, inserted a 20-inch pillow form purchased from Jo-Ann Fabric and stit...

For a quick holiday project, make these cute facial tissue covers that everyone on your gift list will love! Whip them up in a jiffy using my directions for "Easy Facial Tissue Cover"  on Appleton Dance .  You need only two,  six-by-eight-inch contrasting scraps for each cover.  The red, Scottie dog print I used, above, is from the "Storybook Christmas" line by Whistler Studios for Windham Fabrics. Fill the covers with pre-packaged facial tissues such as the Kleenex brand "go packs" pictured here. These also make a great, easy project for beginner sewists. Click to hear "We'll Dress the House" by Alfred Burt. More tissue covers!

We Cut the Tree  by Linda Theil available from Blurb I wrote  We Cut the Tree  in 1984, the year our family moved to Howell, Michigan from our native home in southwestern Pennsylvania. The story is told from our eldest son's point of view, and chronicles the annual live-tree capture from our family's earliest Christmas holidays. The story was first published as our holiday greeting card that year. I published the story, again, on this weblog as a  Christmas greeting in 2010 . Two years ago, I began to create photographs to illustrate a small hardcover edition of  We Cut the Tree  that may be ordered from the print-on-demand publisher, Blurb. I used Tinrocket's  Waterlogue  application to create a dream-like appearance to the illustrations and used  Blurb's  online software to lay out the 20-page, picture book. The book is dedicated to our late husband and father, Stephen A. Theil, Jr. The cover features an image of a tiny...

I gave a workshop on how to install LED lights on a sewing machine at the Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild Quilt Day on November 19, 2016. Here is the information I shared: Sewing machine with retrofitted LED lighting strip. Photo courtesy of Inspired LED. You may purchase a light kit that will allow you to outfit your sewing machine with a strip of bright LED (light-emitting diode) lighting. Kits are available online and at some quilt stores. We have purchased our  Inspired-brand kits on Amazon  at a cost of aproximately $30 per kit. Other brands such as  Bonlux , that we also tried and liked very much, are also available from Amazon.  The kits we purchased are designed for use on all sewing machines; they are complete lighting sources that can be used in any situation that requires illumination. The kit includes: a strip of LED lights backed with adhesive that may be trimmed to any size needed, a plug and converter that is used ...