Web Tips: CTRL Keyboard Shortcuts

Who doesn't love shortcuts? Luckily, computers a few shortcuts of their own that are pretty standard Windows shortcuts that work in most programs. 

How do they work? Simply press and hold the key combinations shown below after selecting the text, image or document you wish to perform a task for. Easy Peasy.

CTRL + A = SELECT ALL
Select all the items within the document you are working in

CTRL + B = BOLD
Bold the selected text within your document

CTRL + C = COPY
Copy the selected text/images in your document

CTRL + F = FIND
Find text within a document

CTRL + I = ITALICS
Italicize the selected text in a document

CTRL + O = OPEN
Open a window or document

CTRL + P = PRINT
Print the document in which you are working in

CTRL + S = SAVE
Save your document. If you have not Saved your document yet, then it will prompt you to save with a new file name and location

CTRL + U = UNDERLINE
Underline the text in your document

CTRL + V = PASTE
Paste the items you cut or copied

CTRL + X = CUT
Cut the items selected

CTRL + Z = UNDO
Undo your last changes in a document


Get these and more CTRL functions here. Try them out and see how much time you can save with these quick and simple keyboard shortcuts.

Pat Sloan: Eat Your Fruits and Veggies

Quilters spend a lot of time figuring out how to contain fabric. Do you stack it based on who designed it? Do you sort by type or by color? Is it on shelves so you can see it, or in drawers so things look tidy (and nobody knows how much you really have)?

If you’re Pat Sloan you might do any of those things, but when it’s time to design a quilt out it all comes. “Fabric is like a big paint box of color,” says Pat. “I pull everything I want to work with. If I’m thinking yellow, I get everything from pale buttercream to deep, dark mustard. If you don’t pull it all out you might forget about it and miss a great design opportunity.”

Pat speaks about those “great design opportunities” from years of experience. She started designing quilt patterns professionally more than a decade ago and is excited about her first line of Moda fabric, Eat Your Fruits and Veggies.

“The whole reason I quilt is to play with fabric,” she says. “I like just about every color—it can be dusty or bright, and I like to mix pattern and bold prints together. Plaids, stripes, big florals—you wouldn’t want to wear ‘em together, but they can look great in a quilt.”

Though Pat’s fabric love started when she was young—her early memories include sewing Barbie doll clothes and learning the finer points of stitching in ninth grade home economics class—her first career was in computers, where she worked as a project manager and wrote software. A friend encouraged her to try quilting and Pat took a series of classes in which everything was done by hand, using cardboard templates. She loved it, and went on to hand piece Double Wedding Ring and Mariner’s Compass quilts. “I appreciate hand piecing, because you learn so much about construction, but it’s kind of nutty when I look back on it,” says Pat with a laugh.

Today Pat’s quilts are machine pieced and she uses her computer skills for interacting with quilters through her web site, Facebook, Twitter , online forums, and daily blog posts. With her husband Gregg, with whom she owns and operates Pat Sloan and Company, she travels the country speaking and teaching (you can find her workshop information here). “We’ve been so many nice towns and met wonderful people,” says Pat. She’s also kept busy interviewing quilters for her weekly Pat Sloan’s American Patchwork and Quilting Radio show, now in its third season. “I really enjoy learning how people think and work, what they used to do,” says Pat. “Just because we all quilt doesn’t mean we think the same or have the same experience.” 

And somehow amidst it all, she makes sure she has gets to pull out those fabrics and sew for fun. “I still enjoy the satisfaction of making a quilt that doesn’t have a job,” she says with her signature laugh.

Off the Shelf Patterns

Welcome Lynne Wilson Designs

to the United Notions/Moda Fabrics family.

Lynne has a new pattern line named, Off the Shelf.

The patterns are designed using fat quarters, which makes the projects

easy to kit, easy to sew and combine fabric lines.

I love these patterns so, I thought I would try one out. I also love hexagons

and these are big pieced ones, so I thought I would make this pattern first.

Pattern # LWD12, Hexagon Magic # 2.

 I decided to combine the blacks, tans, cremes and greys from

Mama's Said Sew by Sweetwater

and

Little Black Dress by Basic Grey

Combining different groups gives a nice

"clash factor" in both color and pattern.

I can't wait to get this quilted because the hexagons will really

pop and the semas will disappear.

I know the perfect household for this quilt to reside in!

These fabric collections are available in stores in August.

In case you want to kit/sew this quilt I have included the stock numbers.

All you need is a fat quarter of each.

Mama Said Sew

5493-14 and 33

5497-13 and 23

5498-23,  5495-15

Little Black Dress

30300-11, 14 and 15

30302-12, 14, and 18

30150-160,  163, and 165

30307-12, 14 and 15

30301-11, 13 and 16

30303-16

30305-12 and 15

For borders you need 4 fat quarters of your choice.

I used 30303-16

30300-14

30307-15

30302-18 

 

-modalissa

New Free Patterns

Looking for a sewing project to work on this weekend? Check out all the new free patterns posted on the Moda Fabrics website. There is something for everyone, modern to traditional. We are sure you will find one that you will love.

Don't forget... Father's Day is just right around the corner.

Brigitte Heitland: Juggling Summer

There’s a cliché that quilters are either right-brain people or left-brain people. The stereotype suggests that left-brainers love the math of rulers and the geometry of quilting but panic at choosing fabrics. Right-brained stitchers, on the other hand, whimper when it’s time to figure out yardage but revel in giving quilt patterns a personal tweak via color and texture. And then there are the talented few who seem to be have both sides of their brain working in tandem.

Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic is one of those lucky souls. With her new fabric line Juggling Summer, it’s readily apparent that she’s in touch with her artistic side. But she spent years in a decidedly left-brain field: accounting.

“I had taken studies in interior design and textile design when I was in school,” says Brigitte, who hails from Germany. “But the funny part is, I was a little bit of a rebel and became an accountant instead.”

Though she tried to deny her right-brain tendencies, Brigitte was fascinated when she stumbled upon a book of quilts. “I’d never even heard the word ‘quilt’ before,” she says. But she was hooked, and to support her new habit she opened an online fabric shop. “Then I couldn’t help but get a long arm machine and to pay for that I started an online quilting business,” she says with a laugh. Encouraged by a fabric rep, Brigitte reached back to her textile design days and started creating fabric through Spoonflower. Last year she brought her fabrics and quilts to Quilt Market, where Moda found her.  

This spring, Brigitte was back at Market with quilts made from the Juggling Summer line that are minimal and modern, yet warm and soothing. In addition to the patterns themselves, her quilts are notable for their organic long-arming patterns. “There is a full tradition of quilting out there, but I need to translate that into a contemporary language,” she says. “So, for example, London Tube has rounded off stripes and so I used corresponding lines in the quilting.”

Sounds like the perfect combination of logic and artistry, doesn’t it?

For more about Brigitte, visit her blog (in English and German).

Quiltspirations!

Ok quilters, this creative new card pack is about to add a whole new element of fun to your quilting! 

I had the pleasure of meeting Ebony Love, the inventor of this game, at market and she is such a doll.

I was immediately inspired as she explained how her new Quiltspirations! worked. 

are ideas to inspire your quilting, crafting, and sewing and they are packaged in this 

adorable, colorful pack of cards.

   is the name of the game you play with the cards. 

There are lots of ways to play, some variations are printed 

with the card set.

Depending on how you play, you will either get several ideas or techniques to try, 

or you can sort the cards and pull an idea from each catagory for an entire project.

You can play alone, or with a group of friends. This will be so fun for parties, retreats, guild challenges, round robins, black swaps & more! 

There are 40 total cards divided into seven categories...

 Colors, Shapes, Styles, Embellishments, Borders, Layouts and Whimsy.

Here is one sample card... 

Pick a card, any card! And let the Quiltspiration begin. 

Can't wait to get a group together and play! 

How about you?