I was just out of college a couple of years when the personal computer was introduced. For half a decade, my best friend’s husband had been working for IBM, “the” name in computing. So iconic was this company that HAL of “2001 Space Odyssey” was the voice of calm and stability that is IBM. (“H” comes before “I”, “A” before “B”, etc.)
Like everyone else of that era, I knew how dependant big business was on mainframe computing. One of my summer jobs before graduation was as a balance clerk at a Lincoln bank. Overnight, we made sure the small town banks’ ledgers were accurate. Through a large picture window, we saw the massive machinery in its air-conditioned sanctuary. We were in awe of the highly skilled technicians who were allowed access.
A far cry from our hand-held data masters now, the computers back then were a technology for serious pursuits. That is why our carpool gang of three wondered what in the heck a person would do with a home computer. I was at a complete loss as to what to store in the thing but wondered if it might be handy for organizing my recipes. Don’t laugh.
Now computers are being paired with our art of quilting. From hand-carded and dyed fabrics to longarm quilting machines, we’ve come a long way. Time-consuming techniques of yesteryear are child’s play for easy for the computer-driven longarm.
One of these features is called “masking” where a section of sewing is skipped as it were so a similar design can be inserted to emphasize the overall pattern. I love adding it to my customers’ quilts. It can be as little as a four inch square and take the quilt from “ok” to “wow”. A 12 inch square “masked” motif adds less than $3. It might be just the icing on the cake that your Christmas quilts are calling for.
See this beautiful quilt technique:
Back of Quilt showing overall design interrupted by single motif blocks.
Check us out at http://www.ForeverQuilt.com We are not a fabric store. Your quilting order is our only priority. We take orders from all 50 states. Give is a try.
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