Quilting Featured Article

How to Care For Your Quilts

A quilt is not just another blanket or comforter, used to warm your toes on a chilly night. It is stitched with utmost care, putting in a lot of time, effort and a lot of love. Often quilts have memories attached to it, like a quilt given as a gift at someone’s birth or someone’s death. These heirlooms have to be taken care of in the best way, so that you can cherish these memories forever.

Storage and Transport

Once the quilt is complete, it is often stored carefully or gifted to another person. Transportation should always be in cardboard tubes, taking care that the actual cardboard doesn’t come into contact with the quilting fabric. This can be achieved by wrapping the quilt in muslin and then transferring it into the cardboard tube. This is also the best way to store it

For people who deal in quilts or who own several each tube should be labeled, with the quilter’s name and the date of completion. Professional quilters keep a file of the quilt’s details including a photograph of each quilt. Textiles are unable to breathe in plastic wraps. Therefore, un-dyed, unbleached muslin is the best wrapping material, as it prevents mildew stains. Make sure the fabric is clean before storage, as insects like to feed on food stains and spray starch.

Quilts should be aired every three to six months. At this time, it is a good idea to fold the quilt in a different way, before storing it again. Wrinkles can be minimized by rolling muslin or tissue between the folds.

Washing and Drying

Cleaning the quilt is another important aspect of preserving it. The best way to clean a quilt is by placing a screen on the quilt and then using a hand vacuum to remove the surface dust. Dry cleaning should be completely avoided because the chemicals are too harsh for the fabric.

In situations where wet cleaning becomes a must, remember to test for color fastness before hand. This is done by rubbing a white cloth over the different colored fabrics, to check for any bleeding of colors.

Quilting stores have a special detergent called Orvus which is especially gentle on quilts. Do not attempt to load the quilt into a washing machine which isn’t large enough to let the quilt circulate freely; in such cases hand washing is the better alternative. The quilt should be soaked for ten minutes, then agitated, then allowed to soak. This should be done until no soap residue remains. The dryer puts a strain on the stitching of the quilt, and therefore, though more tiresome, air drying or drying under a fan is a preferred solution to machine drying. Once it dries, it can be fluffed in a dryer, using no heat.

Baby quilts or lap quilts, which need to be washed regularly, should be stitched keeping that fact in mind. Fabric used should be machine washable and preferably fabric should be pre-washed before piecing to avoid shrinking in the future.

To increase the life of a quilt, it is essential to take all precautions to keep it away from dirt, heat, insects and direct light. Completing a quilt is a one time accomplishment, caring for it is a life time endeavor.

Filed under Hand Quilting, Patchwork Quilting, Pattern Quilting, Quilting, Quilting Fabric, Quilting Kit, Quilting Machine, Quilting Material, Quilting Notions, Quilting Stencil, Quilting Template, Quilting Thread by

January 27, 2012

Easy To Learn Magic Tricks That Wow Your Audience

The simplest magic trick is essentially card tricks. They need less props and can be performed with the least amount of hassle plus a modest amount of practice. Children and adults alike are capable of performing ‘on the spot’ card tricks that could be smoothly executed at any given time.

Let us begin with these easy-to-do card tricks:

1. Who’s Deceitful? Prepare a bundle of cards, bearing in your memory exactly what card lies beneath the deck of cards. Pick a random viewer to select a card from your fanned-out pile of cards. During this time, he flashes the card to your audience, although not to you.

While their concentration is diverted at staring at the shown card, close the cards and leave the stack with their face down on the table. Let your assistant to cut the deck into equal heaps and to set his card right on top of your pile you pointed out. Now put the second stack ON TOP of your volunteer’s card. The card that you placed underneath the pack was the one KEPT IN MIND ahead of your trick and is currently right above from your volunteer’s preferred card. Then let your volunteer to say “No” every time you turn over a card, in spite of whether her own card has actually been turned up.

Have your viewers know that the cards will make it known to you in case the volunteer is lying. You will know whenever the chosen card is close by since your memorized card will be the one before it. When you turn over the selected card and your volunteer says “No”, you shout “Liar!”

2. Tens are Up. You might desire an Assistant for this act. Pick 10 cards amongst the deck of cards; including the number ten. Place the cards face-up above the table, in a matching display as the place on the number 10 card, (H-shape). Tell your volunteer to choose a card despite you aren’t looking. Your assistant’s work is to help you find out which card the spectator opted. Your assistant taps all card in turn uttering “Is this the one?” As soon as your assistant is done tapping every ten cards you choose the one the volunteer selected. You are going to recognize which card your volunteer selected by the LOCATION on the Number 10 card your assistant touched. It will match with the volunteer’s option as you might have placed your cards inside the Number 10 array. This is a trick you will be able to duplicate at any given time nobody will be able to figure out the method you employed!

Several other easy magic tricks that do not necessitate sleight of hand or costly props are:

Mind Reading with numbers – you can find plenty these around that use number games to trick maybe even one of the most witty spectator member; or take a shot at the Disjointed Thumb accurately where your thumb appears to come separately and rejoin as you desire; what about the Banana Buster, where you magically generate a banana slashed into parts even if it is still inside its peel. All of these are straightforward tricks with very simple props that require only a small amount of practice and ability. Try it now!

William Kent has been doing easy magic tricks since he was in high-school. He learned his first card magic tricks during their school’s annual Prom party. Since then, he’s learned various other magic acts that made him famous among his friends and colleagues. If you want to know more about how to do a magic trick, go to www.HowToDoMagicTrick.org

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The Art Of Photography And It’s Rapid Expansion

Photography is one of the beautiful definitions of a skill that expresses the picture portrayed. The three components linked with Photography are the artist, medium, and the art work. The 3 components are inter-related to each other.

Many people found photography to be a trifling reproductive medium and hence the reason why photography truly struggled for nearly one and a half century.

Photography is definitely an art work, it requires a lot of talent and imagination to portray an expression through a straightforward portrait. It's an art of recognizing the littlest effects on reaching the center of the picture. It isn't only clicking the photographs, however it is about giving them a sequence, background picture, liveliness, and a medium. A Photography artist brings the Photos to life when they are clicked. It’s a beautiful art of recognizing the natural behavior of nature, person, or a situation.

There have been many artistic photographic giants during the past like Henri Cartier Bresson, Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange who proved themselves in the sphere of photography. Today there are many photographic artists like those of by the expressionofwendy.com who make their work known to the world through their finest art of photography by portraying it on the internet site.

Photography as a skill has taken its place and fame in the present market. There are many folks around the globe who are wild about Photography. There are people who need to choose these professions because of their creative interventions. Photography hasn't diminished rather it has found a way to win the hearts of many folks.

Photography being a skill is also a challenge; it is showing the true self out of a non-living thing. For instance, it brings life to the picture that may be so dead. When we think of a simple picture such as nature, photography can bring those easy pictures of nature alive by adding colors and definitions to it to make it alive in the eyes of the spectators.

Photography is the best thing, it's the imagination of the head and it is the imagination of our thoughts. One can get simply engrossed in the line of photography. There are several photographers who spend several hours throughout the day, in outlining the easy clicks and making them alive. To do this yourself nonetheless you'll need a good photo editing software. Why not pick up 1 or 2 photo editing software reviews that other pro photographers have really used.

Adding colors or adding a sense of life to something that's non-living, is an art. Photographs of varied inbuilt instincts bring to our imagination of photography being a defined art. Many times Photographs show a lot about an individual that even the person themselves are not mindful of.

Photography as a skill has just been recognized in the recent years, over the years folks have accepted the secrets of photography and what it can portray. Photography shows the known from the unknown; it is an art of going to the depths of understanding the potency and the nature of any picture.
Photography is also a stunning art of imagination, it's an art of dream and it's an art of bringing the dream to reality. The major sequence of photography can be seen thru numerous examples given by the photographers of the past.

If you are serious about becoming a creative photographer you'll need to download photo editing software. If you're unable to afford it at this time a free photo editing software could be something to think about to begin with.

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