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This is an excellent contemporary instructional dvd set. It included a wide variety of quilting instructions, tips, and up to the minute information on techniques, supplies, and innovative design. The presentation by the two hosts is warm, competent, and informative. The filming made each step clear and easy to see. I particularly enjoyed learning some new techniques for piecing. I am so impressed with this dvd set that I not only intend to rent their other series, but also plan to subscribe to their Love of Quilting magazine!
This dvd may be appropriate for someone who has never quilted before. I consider myself a beginner. I've taken several classes and am working on my second quilt. However, this dvd was too basic for me. In its favor, it was organized and gave clear step by step directions for a specific machine pieced and machine quilted quilt. I personally would not rent another dvd by Hip Line Media. Instead stick to Fons & Porter and/or Sewing with Nancy.
I loved this dvd for many reasons. It features ideas for very young children, older children, and actual children in the designs. It shows how to personalize with names, select letter size, and choose fabrics. They showed many examples, and commented on all of them. I thought a landscape quilt would take a lot more creativity than I have, and would be much too difficult for me to construct. However, Nancy Z. and Natalie Sewell gave so much general information on choosing background, foliage, animals and/or children, letter size, construction tips from start to finish, cutting, sewing, quilting, borders, and everything I need to know to construct a landscape quilt. I especially liked their tips for constructing the landscape with depth and tilting images to give them whimsey. I also like general information that applies to any design rather than instructions on making only one specific design. I took notes, and watched much of this dvd several times. I can't wait to finish the quilt I'm working on now, so that I can start a landscape quilt for one of my grandchildren.
These dvd's by Fons & Porter are the best! Very professionally filmed, clear close-ups of the work featured, many examples shown for each technique taught, and varied techniques presented.
These dvd's by Fons & Porter are the best! Very professionally filmed, clear close-ups of the work featured, many examples shown for each technique taught, and varied techniques presented.
The 600 series comes with two dvd's. They are both excellent, very professionally done both in content and clear explanations. Every level of expertise will find something new and interesting.
Excellent dvd with a lot of basic instructions on chain stitching, pressing, combining darks and lights, framing squares, varying arrangements of same blocks, and strip piecing. Instructions and filming are very clear. There are a lot of examples in varying colors of each block and arrangement which I really liked. I learned a lot from this dvd. An added bonus was behind the scenes preproduction, taping, and the control room. I've rented quite a few dvd's from Smartflix, enjoyed most of them, and this is one of my favorites!
In this excellent dvd, Sharon Malec an artist, teaches free standing applique. She says not only can a beginner do these picture quilts, but also you don't have to be an artist. In ten steps she clearly shows and explains how you go about selecting a photo, tracing and cutting it apart, choosing fabric, and all the way to quilting and selecting a border. I would never have imagined her beautiful work could be simplified into these steps for even a beginner. It's worth watching even if you're not interested in creating a free standing applique.
I did not like this dvd at all. The presenters seemed ill prepared. Their dialogue was stilted, the camera did not always get a good view of what was being featured, and the sound quality was poor when overhead shots were taken. It might be an ok dvd if you knew nothing at all about quilting, but in that case I'd advise against bias binding in the final step. Instead order dvd's by Fons and Porter, and Nancy Zieman.
Nancy Zieman and guest, Terry Atkinson, teach and demonstrate how to choose colors based on value (light to dark), variety in prints, and variety in print size. They demonstrate this using fat quarters folded into card size, thus the title. In addition various combinations from the color wheel are demonstrated both with fat quarters and actual quilts. This was such a great dvd that I tracked down the book and bought it, but don't buy the book without seeing the dvd first. If it's a choice between the dvd and book, rent the dvd.
Nancy Zieman and her guest, a quilt historian, show and discuss true vintage quilts. Then Nancy demonstrates quick updated techniques to piece and quilt these designs. This is another excellent dvd for everyone who quilts or is thinking about quilting.
Lisa Maki demonstrates a unique way of piecing using a gridded pellon. First she places fabric squares and sashing on the grid, and irons them on. They are arranged so that the finished piecing is on point. After all the pressing is complete everything is stitched. A number of projects are demonstrated with lots of hints along the way. I don't think this is for me, but I found it very interesting nevertheless. If you're looking for a foolproof method of piecing, or just something different you'll enjoy this!
Nancy Zieman and Natalie Sewell do an outstanding job of taking you through every step to construct a landscape quilt. They include instruction on choosing a picture for your quilt; what works and why. How to plan the scale of the overall landscape as well as the scale of fabrics for foliage, tree bark, flowers, etc. Instruction on using markers, chalk, acrylics, paint, and even white-out for shading and spicing up colors are demonstrated. Many, many landscape quilts are shown with comments and instructions on special techniques used for them. They show how to square the quilts, apply borders, and finally quilt to complete. I watched this one twice.
I had already taken a class in paper piecing and completed a small project before watching this dvd. I was pleasantly surprised that it added so much information to what I had already learned! According to the instructor this is an excellent method for beginners, because of its accuracy. After a tour of her studio, she shows her favorite products, and explains what she likes about them. She demonstrates how to organize & label your fabrics in preparation for assembly line sewing. She shows how to sew, press, & trim; how to do a needle check when sewing blocks together for accurate alignment; how to calculate amounts of fabric; and how to correct any mistakes. This is an excellent instructional quilting dvd.
Mary Stori makes you want to run out and buy beads to embellish your quilting. She details kinds of beads, needles, marking tools, threads, and frames. She clearly shows how to adds beads for various designs. She gives lots of hints and advice about how and when to apply beading. I loved seeing so many of her own quilts demonstrating the techniques taught.
Deborah Melton Anderson who does commissioned work is featured on this Artist in Residence series. I would describe her as non-traditional quilter who prefers imprecise stitching. She takes you through each step of her creation starting with drawing on a blackboard. She shows many quilts starting with one made between 1780 -1830 in England where the fabrics were wrapped around paper, then whip stitched. She shows many of her own creations and discusses her inspiration for them. She is more of an artist than I would ever hope to be. I especially enjoyed the tour of her studio, which I'd describe as non-traditional as well. While this dvd was interesting, I prefer the more traditional how-to quilting dvd's.
This dvd features 9 women from the New England Quilters Guild. They take you through 7 lessons to make a beginners quilt starting with choosing a design, selecting appropriate fabric, various methods of making templates, marking, piecing, sandwiching, and hand quilting. I like that they showed various methods of these steps according to their own preferences. They cover several things that I haven't seen before: how to draw and adapt a pattern to different size blocks; how to choose the block size based on the quilt size; how to preview the look of the quilt using colored paper blocks; how to choose an appropriate colored border to bring out the color(s) of the quilt; how to determine the number of blocks needed for different size quilts (formula given); and grain lines on templates. This is an excellent, very informative dvd!
I love all the Fons & Porter DVDs, and this one is no exception. Clear and detailed instructions are always given. One lesson in this series teaches how to quilt the Brave New World pattern. It gives lots of design options, and tips on trimming triangles to make them easy to line up with squares. In between lessons they comment on their 25 years of quilting together, and show clips of old shows with their comments about them. (very humorous) They also show family photos as part of their 25 year association. The second lesson is on paper pieced English ornaments. #3 is embroidering large quilt blocks. #4 is Wedding Wishes Quilt using equilateral triangles. Tips are given on triple fabric triangles, using fabric economically, and various arrangements to create different effects. #5 features a guest who uses novelty fabrics. #6 is the Pine Burr Quilt. Each block has 100 pieces which are pre-cut using laser technology. #7 is a vintage handkerchief quilt, and #8 features guest Ann Regal who uses thread to paint scenes on her quilts.
Part 2 of the 700 series has 5 great lessons. The first is on long arm quilting with guest, Marily Badger. Though I'll never get a long arm machine I found some valuable lessons for machine quilting on grids, circles, and echo quilting. Lesson #2 is on rotary cutting: squaring up your fabric, cutting straight strips accurately, squares and rectangles, and two types of triangles. There is lots of info on tools to use & patterns. My favorite is 1/2 and 1/4 square triangles, the formulas to use to measure & cut them accurately, as well as where you want the straight grain & why. Flying geese is the theme for lesson 3, and the 4th is on triangle trimmers to make piecing easier and more exact. The last lesson is a 1/2 yard challenge with rules for piecing, and examples of the outcomes from many quilters. This is an EXCELLENT dvd!
I LOVE the quilting university! I look forward every month to receiving new dvd's. I've learned a lot. I especially like the dvd's, because I can stop, back up, and see a particular skill as many times as I want and/or need to understand how to do each step. I watch each dvd at least twice. The first viewing is to watch it completely. The second is to take notes, since there's always something new that I want to remember. I can't believe you can offer this service for such a reasonable price. Thank you smartflix!
Joining the Smartflix quilting university is one of the best things I've ever done! I look forward every month to receiving new dvd's, and I can hardly believe the low price. Watching them in my own house whenever I want, and being able to stop, go back, and rewatch each step is great. Thanks for a your excellent up-to-date dvd's and superb service, Smartflix!
