Jan T's Lensography

A special story 

How I found my Dad

When I was little I went everywhere with my Daddy. He took me with him when he went out on his bike. He left me when I was not quite three, and I looked for him for almost 54 years. I found him living in the same street where I was living at the ti...

Jan T? Who's Jan T? 

This might help

What is it about Jan T (Urquhart) Baillie

Many things to many people, a very complex lady with lots of joie de vivre. Funny, bright, lively, can be serious. Find out all about her here. Do you know Jan T? Do you know any of Jan T's secrets or her hidden talents? Her name keeps cropping u...

More stuff about Jan T 

things you might like to know

When the dog bites, when the bee stings...

What are your favourite things? Do you have a special dress, a special song, favourite place to visit, favourite recipe? I think about my favourite things in this great country of ours, Australia, whenever I need to distract my self from everyday lif...

Where I live: Jan T's Hunter Valley

at least at the moment — I am in the Lower Hunter Valley, close to Maitland, NSW. I have had more than thirty addresses as an adult. My brother-in-law said when I came back to the Hunter in 1999, that perhaps I would stay put. My sister said,...

Ulysses butterfly: Jan T's talisman

For centuries, the butterfly has been the symbol for new life, and there are many things written about why this is so. The most popular seems to be the partial death of the caterpillar before it emerges totally transformed into a glorious ethereal bu...

25 things about Jan T

Only 25 things! Let's see... There's... and then there's... oh yes... then... there's... just too many to pick from! Big Wheels Keep-a-Turning, 30" x 30" by Jan T Urquhart. 1990. Isometric perspective, 3D quilt.

Jan T patchwork author

Showcasing the books, articles and websites of renowned quilting writer, Jan T Urquhart Baillie, on the subject of patchwork and quilting. Jan T also writes extensively about computer quilt design software for Australia's first patchwork and quiltin...

Triumph over adversity lensography 

a seven year journey

A journey from sadness to recovery

One of my daughters had a massive brain stem aneurysm in 1994, was in a coma for five months and died five months later. That was a terrible thing to endure, but it was just the beginning. Seven years of sadness and sorrow followed. Years of having...

Loss and Grief 

of Jan T's

Chapter 3: Jan T's Despair

Deep, deep terrible sadness permeated my whole being. I needed help, but I was unaware that I did. I kept walking, but I wasn't getting any further down the road.

Chapter 4: Jan T's Recovery

A long road. But with God's help and the help of my daughter, Angela, and my friends, I'm back.

Chapter 5: Jan T's Healing

Healing comes from many sources, not least is the healing that comes from being loved again by a special man, my Bobby. He cares for me, and I for him, and between us we heal each other's hurts, and rejoice in each other's joys. The night before the...

Chapter 2: Jan T's Sadness

I had a few more journeys to make yet. The road God was sending me on was going to get more difficult. Paul pictured with his beloved Harrilil (Harriet Lillian Urquhart, our grand-daughter) about two years before his death.

Chapter 1: Jan T's Sorrows

Between 1993 and 1999, the blows kept coming. How do you deal with deep grief? Prayer is good, reading about grief is good. Having wonderful friends is the best. And then you are with you. My seven year journey from grief to recovery had many hills...

Lenses about Bobby 

my (latest) husband

His treasures, add mine: full house!

And your collections can take over your house if you are not careful. Add to this, two collectors getting married and marrying their collections. This quilt is part of my exhibition, entitled Collections, held in Perth, West Australia. There are p...

Eh? What did you say?

I suffer from hearing loss. Not mine, Bob's. It is so frustrating to have to repeat myself over and over. Does your partner yell instead of speaking? Perhaps he or she has hearing loss. Are you tired of being able to hear the television from the oth...

Bobby's Girl: A Bride At Last!

I always wanted to be a beautiful bride, but... I have had five (yes, five) wedding ceremonies, but only three husbands. In the first four weddings, I wore street clothes, albeit nice ones, for several different reasons. When I married Bobby, he in...

Collecting things

I searched for the term 'collecting things' and that was how many pages were found. If I widened my search to 'collecting', the result was 68 million. 'Collectibles' gave a staggering 126 million pages! So collecting things is a very popular hobby...

How do you cope with an ADHD partner?

And how! But... ...recently at a trade show I met up with someone who asked how was married life going. I replied that it was great, but that Bob drove me insane sometimes as he is ADHD. She said, "Two of you!"

Licorice (?) Allsorts 

other lenses that don't quilte fit into any category

Helping others: passing kindness on

Even those who can't help you in return? Have you been helped when you were really in need? I'm sure most of us have been there at some time. Did the person who helped you expect anything in return for their kindness? What if you were never able...

Mind your (table) manners

I think I had table manners fed to me. I still have an abhorrence for really bad table manners, but do we need to be formal in our everyday lives? My mother — who would rival Hyacinth Bucket (that's boo-kay) in her efforts at keeping up appea...

How to attack panic attacks

Do you awake from a deep sleep terrified for your life and have to run? Are you having trouble going out of the house / into a lift / onto an escalator? There are ways to manage your panic without drugs. Images purchased from iStockphoto.com

Jan T's Zazzle Gallery Showcase

Designs by Jan T featuring quilts, butterflies and the Artful Quilt Design School logo. Designs with the wonderful photographs of Paul Urquhart, showcasing the Australian landscape. I made this page because I work hard on my Zazzle gallery and my de...

Furoshiki: beautiful, reusable wrappings

Anything you can wrap in paper, you can wrap in cloth. Japanese traditional cloth wrappings called furoshiki, are the greenest package wrapping you can get. Reusable, beautiful, environmentally friendly wrapping for food, gifts, for anything at all....

Odds 'n' Ends 

Lenses

High tea at Sheraton on the Park: a review

Do you love to relax and be waited on in luxurious surroundings? Is tea served with a sense of old time elegance what you like? Afternoon tea at Sheraton on the Park in Sydney is an occasion. We recently stayed at the hotel, and enjoyed the delights...

Plan your Hunter Valley Escape

Travel to Australia's famous wine country, the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, where there's much more than wine to delight you. Historical buildings — both public and private, antique shopping, boutique shopping, festivals, top class accommod...

Collecting things 

maybe I collect lenses?

Do you have collections within collections?

You begin collecting every item you see for your collection of [thing]s, then you start to become more discerning. You weed out what's not good enough, you swap your extras and you look into the history of your [thing]. Refining your sets of favour...

Top ten ducks in my flock

Collecting ducks was an accident, but I have great fun finding fun ducks to join my flock. They range from ¼inch high buttons to 12 inch high garden ornaments. Of all my many ducks, I decided to show you my top ten. I hope you like them. Rea...

Collecting things

I searched for the term 'collecting things' and that was how many pages were found. If I widened my search to 'collecting', the result was 68 million. 'Collectibles' gave a staggering 126 million pages! So collecting things is a very popular hobby...

His treasures, add mine: full house!

And your collections can take over your house if you are not careful. Add to this, two collectors getting married and marrying their collections. This quilt is part of my exhibition, entitled Collections, held in Perth, West Australia. There are p...

Quilt/Textile Design School lenses 

Visual diary? What's that?

These are all descriptions of workbooks kept by practitioners in which they record ideas, designs, thoughts, inspirations, indeed anything that will help them in their artistic pursuits They can be quite elaborate, or very basic. What matters is th...

Quilt and textile art design study

Welcome to the Artful Quilt Design School lens! Here you'll be able to find information on the study of colour and design as these relate to textile/quilt art, as well as information about my new online quilt school. Some of the contents are excerpt...

All of my patchwork and quilting lenses 

are on this lensography

Best Patchwork and Quilting Tips from Jan T

I know lots about patchwork and quilting that I'd love to share with you. Do you want to make better quilts? Have you got some patchwork/quilting tasks that you need help with? Let me help you. I'm Jan T (Urquhart) Baillie. I've been teaching and...

Quilt tales for you to enjoy 

some funny, some uplifting

Healing Hearts quilt for Paul

Paul, my second husband of 34 years was killed at work in March 1999. Devastated doesn't even begin to describe the loss. My online quilt group sent me more than a hundred healing heart blocks to ease my pain. This is the story of the quilt.

Crazy quilting: it's freedom!

Crazy quilters love the freedom that doing their own thing with even the tiniest scrap of ribbon or some satin from a much-loved dress... One of my students, Margaret, is currently learning how to do crazy patchwork. She's making a quilt for a young...

Embellishing quilts: with fire?

They can be traditional, crazy patched or very out there. Sometimes it's great fun to get out there and experiment! This is the story of such an experiment.

Charity quilts: Cancer Council quilts project

Quilters from all walks of life are ready to help whenever the call goes out that people are in need. And the help they give? They make quilts, of course! Quilts to be raffled for fund-raising, quilts for the elderly in nursing homes, quilts for neo...

Embellishing quilts: with stitchery

That is often the question for many quiltmakers. I don't embellish my quilts with heavy encrustations of bead trails or buttons. I use hand or machine embroidery, some ribbons and large ribbon roses.

More quilting lenses 

It's my thing!

Choosing fabric for patchwork

How do you pick from the thousands of fabrics that are out there? Isn't it scary when you first go into a patchwork shop? There's so many patterns, fabric types, colours. How do you decide? You thought you knew exactly what to buy, and now...

Better patchwork quilt photos

Actually there's more to taking photographs of quilts than you might think! As the webmaster of an Australian art quilt site, I have been sent some truly awful photos to put on the site. Crooked, cropped off at the edges, badly lit, the list goes on...

I love Electric Quilt

EQ — Electric Quilt — and I have been friends since 1992. It didn't take me long to fall in love with it. I'm known as the eq guru in Australia because I have been writing about the software in Down Under Quilts magazine for some years....

Photos, patchwork, and scrapbooking = cute quilts

Are scrapbooking and patchwork two of your hobbies? Combine the two into one, and make cute little scrapbook style quilts to keep, or to give as gifts to someone really special. Love to include them in your quilts? My late second husband took hundre...

From photos to fabric to quilts

If you've ever wondered how quilters got photos onto the fabric in their quilts, wonder no more. Let me show you how simple it is using readily available materials, Electric Quilt and your computer. In the detail at left, I used pictures placed ins...

Guess what these ones are about? 

Knew you would!

Electric Quilt Tutorials

She's an expert in the software Electric Quilt tutorials for you to download and enjoy. Excerpts from Jan T's Computer Quilts column in Down Under quilts — free for you. Let Jan T — the EQ guru — show you how to design quilts usi...

Mystery quilts? What fun!

Have you heard of mystery quilts? They are popular in Australia and online. The idea is that patchworkers get to make units for a quilt, over a period — usually at weekly intervals, not knowing what the outcome is to be. Some mystery quilt si...

Patchwork in Australia, then and now

Patchwork has been around in Australia for more than 40,000 years. Yes! 40,000. The Aboriginals made patchwork cloaks from animal skins. The first documented traditional patchwork was that made by the female convicts sent out in the transports from...

Teddy's puppy love quilt

Theodore Edward Bear came to live with me when he was six weeks old. As he grew up, I decided to make a quilt about him, using photographs of him in the back yard. Little did I know that someone would poison him and I would need the quilt as a memo...

What can you do with a 'walking' foot?

A 'walking' foot for your sewing machine is essential if you are a quiltmaker. It is used for several purposes: attaching bindings straight line quilting curves —yes curves! Let me (Jan T Urquhart Baillie) show you how to use your walking foot f...

And these? 

Making on point quilts sets simple

Setting a quilt on point is not as hard as is thought. To set blocks together on point, requires several setting triangles — the triangles which are needed at the edge to get the quilt to have straight sides. The triangles along the borders in...

Using triangles in patchwork quilts

The importance of straight grains when cutting triangles for patchwork quilts cannot be emphasised enough. In patchwork, there are two kinds of commonly used triangles: half-square triangles and quarter-square triangles. Actually, from a maths poin...

Best patchwork tools, ever!

Let me tell you about my favourite tools for patchwork quiltmaking. Every cook has a favourite knife, every photographer a favourite camera, quilters are no exception.

Preparing to machine quilt

Many people are afraid to machine quilt their quilts on their home sewing machine, because they think it's too difficult. Not so! Prepare your work space properly and the job's easy. Jan T Urquhart Baillie shares her tips for the best results.

Beginner's guide: Basting a Patchwork Quilt

Good, well-made patchwork quilts have been successfully basted to make the quilting step easier. I have invented a fast-piecing system, and love 'big bits and fast', but there are some things that you MUST NOT take shortcuts with, or disaster will b...

Lenses on? 

no more, p-le-ease

Beginning patchwork: perfect quarter inch seams

Because patchwork made by machine is usually based on what is known as a 'template-free' method, perfect ¼ seams are imperative for accurate piecing. It is essential to press your work as flat as possible between seams. This is a lesson on ho...

Make your first patchwork block

How to make a Four Patch quilt block with Jan T. Step by step, I'll take you through the easy process for making a simple patchwork block: Four Patch. This such an easy block to make, and can be used in combinations like small bocks with larger bloc...

What is stipple quilting?

Let Jan T show you her best tips for getting great results when free machine quilting. It's not hard at all. After you have done all the blocks, assembled them into a quilt topthe next stage in making a quilt is the quilting. Free machine quilting...

Design inspiration from a photo

See how Jan T used some of her late husband's photos to get the creative juices flowing. Isn't Captain Billy's Landing on Cape York a wonderful wild spot? Accessible only by 4WD, it's beauty is evident. I made a quilt about this too.

Jan T is a Rocket Mom 

isn't she lucky?

Rocket Moms Quilting Bee

Show and Tell is an integral part of patchwork and quilting. The favourite part of any quilt gathering is when others show their latest blocks, or quilts to the meeting. The oohs and aahs are only part of the joy. Most of it comes from sharing you &...

Rocket Moms Rock 

These lenses use the RM's template

Charity quilts: Cancer Council quilts project

Quilters from all walks of life are ready to help whenever the call goes out that people are in need. And the help they give? They make quilts, of course! Quilts to be raffled for fund-raising, quilts for the elderly in nursing homes, quilts for neo...

My Squidoo How-To lenses

When I started to Squidoo, I was already quite experienced at web design, but I didn't know anything about how Squidoo worked. I learned lots from other lensmasters, and realised that I could use my skills to help other Squidoo-ers who were new to t...

Rocket Moms Quilting Bee

Show and Tell is an integral part of patchwork and quilting. The favourite part of any quilt gathering is when others show their latest blocks, or quilts to the meeting. The oohs and aahs are only part of the joy. Most of it comes from sharing you &...

Bobby's Girl: A Bride At Last!

I always wanted to be a beautiful bride, but... I have had five (yes, five) wedding ceremonies, but only three husbands. In the first four weddings, I wore street clothes, albeit nice ones, for several different reasons. When I married Bobby, he in...

When the dog bites, when the bee stings...

What are your favourite things? Do you have a special dress, a special song, favourite place to visit, favourite recipe? I think about my favourite things in this great country of ours, Australia, whenever I need to distract my self from everyday lif...

Rockin' on 

more RM template lenses

Beginning patchwork: perfect quarter inch seams

Because patchwork made by machine is usually based on what is known as a 'template-free' method, perfect ¼ seams are imperative for accurate piecing. It is essential to press your work as flat as possible between seams. This is a lesson on ho...

Top ten ducks in my flock

Collecting ducks was an accident, but I have great fun finding fun ducks to join my flock. They range from ¼inch high buttons to 12 inch high garden ornaments. Of all my many ducks, I decided to show you my top ten. I hope you like them. Rea...

Plexography of all Jan T's lenses

All the lenses I've made and published to date are listed here. Lenses about: Me My family My passions: web design, quilting Squidoo tips Collecting things Sorrow, despair and recovery My quilt design school A long list and still growing! In Joyf...

My most prized possession

Love tokens come in many forms: traditionally they are coins from circulation, edges filed down and smoothed, engraved by hand with loving messages. My husband Bobby's love tokens are different. He sees some small thing that he thinks I'll love and...

Font fun for lovely lenses

The right style of typeface (font) for your Squidoo lens sets the tone for your page — serious, humorous, formal, friendly. More importantly, lens visitors want user-friendly web pages. As some fonts are more readable than others are, choose y...

My web design lenses 

are on this lensography

Jan T's web design lensography

Creativity explodes out of me, I just need to be creating something. In order to do that I need to be up with what's the current thinking in web design. This lensography will direct you to my lenses which look at my favourite parts of designing for...

I love web design 

More of my lenses

Why I love Adobe Dreamweaver

... it makes designing for my clients so simple. Because it can show me live what my designs are doing (or not doing). The dreamcatcher at left catches your dreams while you sleep and weaves them into your mind's eye. Adobe® Dreamweaver® ca...

Why I love Adobe Fireworks

Although explosions of design creation are common. Adobe Fireworks® rocks! I used to always use Photoshop® for my web images but not any more. A few years ago I downloaded a trial version of Fireworks™ and I was hooked. Image free f...

I love web design

I have been designing websites in Australia for nearly fifteen years. My fascination with the Internet has increased as time went on. I can't get enough of new techniques, new styles. This is the first design for the first commercial quilt site in...

All my Squidoo Tips 

in one place

My Squidoo How-To lenses

When I started to Squidoo, I was already quite experienced at web design, but I didn't know anything about how Squidoo worked. I learned lots from other lensmasters, and realised that I could use my skills to help other Squidoo-ers who were new to t...

Tips for lens making 

that may be helpful to you

What are cascading style sheets (css)?

Cascading style sheets are special rules that web browsers understand. Known as CSS for short, these rules tell the browser how to display parts of a web page, such as the headings, the links, and the colours for the 'look' of the page. If we still w...

Contents at a glance list too long?

Once you develop a content-rich Squidoo lens, you will have included many modules whch are listed in your Contents at a glance links at the top of your lens, right under the introduction. (This bit!) The list of links can be so long, it might be eas...

A beginner's guide to Squidoo lens modules

It took me some time fiddling with different ones, but I came up with my best ever list for you. After you peruse the lens, tell the rest of us what your favourite module is. Enjoy!

Warning! Warning! There are no images here!

Why not? Images make the page pretty. Do you need pretty? It depends on the topic. Images are to illustrate content, not for pretty pages. If a visitor to your page is vision impaired, they can't see the images, so can the text stand alone?

css code snippets to spice up your lenses

Separating style and content is what Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is all about. You can write the content, take the pictures and then using what is called a stylesheet, you can change the look by calling up styles for paragraphs, headings, images, gi...

More Squidoo tips 

learn a new thing every day

More white space: more 'readable' lenses

Improve the readability of your web pages by altering the white space before and after lines of text, or paragraphs. Too much white space can break the continuity of your articles, too little makes them difficult to read, and so understanding is limi...

What's an image bucket?

If you want to include images in your text modules or other lens content on Squidoo, and you'd like them to be inserted into the text, then you need some sort of storage for your images. You can store them in an 'image bucket' — a lens devoted...

Font fun for lovely lenses

The right style of typeface (font) for your Squidoo lens sets the tone for your page — serious, humorous, formal, friendly. More importantly, lens visitors want user-friendly web pages. As some fonts are more readable than others are, choose y...

Default Template with Divider Lenses 

my lenses styled with this template

How to attack panic attacks

Do you awake from a deep sleep terrified for your life and have to run? Are you having trouble going out of the house / into a lift / onto an escalator? There are ways to manage your panic without drugs. Images purchased from iStockphoto.com

Mind your (table) manners

I think I had table manners fed to me. I still have an abhorrence for really bad table manners, but do we need to be formal in our everyday lives? My mother — who would rival Hyacinth Bucket (that's boo-kay) in her efforts at keeping up appea...

Easy Street Template lenses 

my lenses styled with this template

Chapter 4: Jan T's Recovery

A long road. But with God's help and the help of my daughter, Angela, and my friends, I'm back.

Chapter 5: Jan T's Healing

Healing comes from many sources, not least is the healing that comes from being loved again by a special man, my Bobby. He cares for me, and I for him, and between us we heal each other's hurts, and rejoice in each other's joys. The night before the...

Chapter 1: Jan T's Sorrows

Between 1993 and 1999, the blows kept coming. How do you deal with deep grief? Prayer is good, reading about grief is good. Having wonderful friends is the best. And then you are with you. My seven year journey from grief to recovery had many hills...

Chapter 3: Jan T's Despair

Deep, deep terrible sadness permeated my whole being. I needed help, but I was unaware that I did. I kept walking, but I wasn't getting any further down the road.

Chapter 2: Jan T's Sadness

I had a few more journeys to make yet. The road God was sending me on was going to get more difficult. Paul pictured with his beloved Harrilil (Harriet Lillian Urquhart, our grand-daughter) about two years before his death.

Gone Camping Template Lenses 

my lenses styled with this template

Embellishing quilts: with fire?

They can be traditional, crazy patched or very out there. Sometimes it's great fun to get out there and experiment! This is the story of such an experiment.

Patchwork in Australia, then and now

Patchwork has been around in Australia for more than 40,000 years. Yes! 40,000. The Aboriginals made patchwork cloaks from animal skins. The first documented traditional patchwork was that made by the female convicts sent out in the transports from...

Healing Hearts quilt for Paul

Paul, my second husband of 34 years was killed at work in March 1999. Devastated doesn't even begin to describe the loss. My online quilt group sent me more than a hundred healing heart blocks to ease my pain. This is the story of the quilt.

From photos to quilts

Landscape photos can inspire you to design and make quilts or textile art in several forms. Literal or interpretitive: Printing the photo onto fabric and using that as part of the quilt; or making an abstract interpretation of the picture. Either w...

Mystery quilts? What fun!

Have you heard of mystery quilts? They are popular in Australia and online. The idea is that patchworkers get to make units for a quilt, over a period — usually at weekly intervals, not knowing what the outcome is to be. Some mystery quilt si...

Gone Camping Template Lenses 2 

my lenses styled with this template

Furoshiki: beautiful, reusable wrappings

Anything you can wrap in paper, you can wrap in cloth. Japanese traditional cloth wrappings called furoshiki, are the greenest package wrapping you can get. Reusable, beautiful, environmentally friendly wrapping for food, gifts, for anything at all....

Photos, patchwork, and scrapbooking = cute quilts

Are scrapbooking and patchwork two of your hobbies? Combine the two into one, and make cute little scrapbook style quilts to keep, or to give as gifts to someone really special. Love to include them in your quilts? My late second husband took hundre...

Teddy's puppy love quilt

Theodore Edward Bear came to live with me when he was six weeks old. As he grew up, I decided to make a quilt about him, using photographs of him in the back yard. Little did I know that someone would poison him and I would need the quilt as a memo...

Best patchwork tools, ever!

Let me tell you about my favourite tools for patchwork quiltmaking. Every cook has a favourite knife, every photographer a favourite camera, quilters are no exception.

Design inspiration from a photo

See how Jan T used some of her late husband's photos to get the creative juices flowing. Isn't Captain Billy's Landing on Cape York a wonderful wild spot? Accessible only by 4WD, it's beauty is evident. I made a quilt about this too.

Moment of Zen Template lenses 

my lenses styled with this template

Embellishing quilts: with stitchery

That is often the question for many quiltmakers. I don't embellish my quilts with heavy encrustations of bead trails or buttons. I use hand or machine embroidery, some ribbons and large ribbon roses.

Best Patchwork and Quilting Tips from Jan T

I know lots about patchwork and quilting that I'd love to share with you. Do you want to make better quilts? Have you got some patchwork/quilting tasks that you need help with? Let me help you. I'm Jan T (Urquhart) Baillie. I've been teaching and...

How I found my Dad

When I was little I went everywhere with my Daddy. He took me with him when he went out on his bike. He left me when I was not quite three, and I looked for him for almost 54 years. I found him living in the same street where I was living at the ti...

Paintball Template Lenses 

my lenses styled with this template

Jan T's Templates Lensography

Squidoo has introduced templates. Now you are able to select a template from a list of eight and of course, the default makes nine. Sets of lenses with the same subject matter can be given the identical template so they look like a series. Gone Camp...

How do you cope with an ADHD partner?

And how! But... ...recently at a trade show I met up with someone who asked how was married life going. I replied that it was great, but that Bob drove me insane sometimes as he is ADHD. She said, "Two of you!"

Jan T's Lensography

All you ever wanted to know about Jan T (says who?) all about my lenses and other stuff about: what I do and who I am and what I like and what I don't like and who I love and where I live and... Reach for the Sky 1990, 3' x 4' A three sided boomer...

Crazy quilting: it's freedom!

Crazy quilters love the freedom that doing their own thing with even the tiniest scrap of ribbon or some satin from a much-loved dress... One of my students, Margaret, is currently learning how to do crazy patchwork. She's making a quilt for a young...

Purple People Eater Template Lenses 

my lenses styled with this template

What is stipple quilting?

Let Jan T show you her best tips for getting great results when free machine quilting. It's not hard at all. After you have done all the blocks, assembled them into a quilt topthe next stage in making a quilt is the quilting. Free machine quilting...

What can you do with a 'walking' foot?

A 'walking' foot for your sewing machine is essential if you are a quiltmaker. It is used for several purposes: attaching bindings straight line quilting curves —yes curves! Let me (Jan T Urquhart Baillie) show you how to use your walking foot f...

Making on point quilts sets simple

Setting a quilt on point is not as hard as is thought. To set blocks together on point, requires several setting triangles — the triangles which are needed at the edge to get the quilt to have straight sides. The triangles along the borders in...

Preparing to machine quilt

Many people are afraid to machine quilt their quilts on their home sewing machine, because they think it's too difficult. Not so! Prepare your work space properly and the job's easy. Jan T Urquhart Baillie shares her tips for the best results.

Beginner's guide: Basting a Patchwork Quilt

Good, well-made patchwork quilts have been successfully basted to make the quilting step easier. I have invented a fast-piecing system, and love 'big bits and fast', but there are some things that you MUST NOT take shortcuts with, or disaster will b...

Purple People Eater Lenses 2 

my lenses styled with this template

Why I love Adobe Dreamweaver

... it makes designing for my clients so simple. Because it can show me live what my designs are doing (or not doing). The dreamcatcher at left catches your dreams while you sleep and weaves them into your mind's eye. Adobe® Dreamweaver® ca...

Why I love Adobe Fireworks

Although explosions of design creation are common. Adobe Fireworks® rocks! I used to always use Photoshop® for my web images but not any more. A few years ago I downloaded a trial version of Fireworks™ and I was hooked. Image free f...

I love web design

I have been designing websites in Australia for nearly fifteen years. My fascination with the Internet has increased as time went on. I can't get enough of new techniques, new styles. This is the first design for the first commercial quilt site in...

Electric Quilt Tutorials

She's an expert in the software Electric Quilt tutorials for you to download and enjoy. Excerpts from Jan T's Computer Quilts column in Down Under quilts — free for you. Let Jan T — the EQ guru — show you how to design quilts usi...

The Professor Template Lenses 

my lenses styled with this template

Contents at a glance list too long?

Once you develop a content-rich Squidoo lens, you will have included many modules whch are listed in your Contents at a glance links at the top of your lens, right under the introduction. (This bit!) The list of links can be so long, it might be eas...

css code snippets to spice up your lenses

Separating style and content is what Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is all about. You can write the content, take the pictures and then using what is called a stylesheet, you can change the look by calling up styles for paragraphs, headings, images, gi...

What's an image bucket?

If you want to include images in your text modules or other lens content on Squidoo, and you'd like them to be inserted into the text, then you need some sort of storage for your images. You can store them in an 'image bucket' — a lens devoted...

What are cascading style sheets (css)?

Cascading style sheets are special rules that web browsers understand. Known as CSS for short, these rules tell the browser how to display parts of a web page, such as the headings, the links, and the colours for the 'look' of the page. If we still w...

Best images to use for the web

But not if they take a-a-a-a-ages to load! How can you make sure that they will be fast loading? What makes a good web page image? What's the right format to save them as? Read on.

The Professor Template Lenses 2 

my lenses styled with this template

Warning! Warning! There are no images here!

Why not? Images make the page pretty. Do you need pretty? It depends on the topic. Images are to illustrate content, not for pretty pages. If a visitor to your page is vision impaired, they can't see the images, so can the text stand alone?

More white space: more 'readable' lenses

Improve the readability of your web pages by altering the white space before and after lines of text, or paragraphs. Too much white space can break the continuity of your articles, too little makes them difficult to read, and so understanding is limi...

A beginner's guide to Squidoo lens modules

It took me some time fiddling with different ones, but I came up with my best ever list for you. After you peruse the lens, tell the rest of us what your favourite module is. Enjoy!

My lensographies 

all together here

A journey from sadness to recovery

One of my daughters had a massive brain stem aneurysm in 1994, was in a coma for five months and died five months later. That was a terrible thing to endure, but it was just the beginning. Seven years of sadness and sorrow followed. Years of having...

My Squidoo How-To lenses

When I started to Squidoo, I was already quite experienced at web design, but I didn't know anything about how Squidoo worked. I learned lots from other lensmasters, and realised that I could use my skills to help other Squidoo-ers who were new to t...

Rocket Moms Quilting Bee

Show and Tell is an integral part of patchwork and quilting. The favourite part of any quilt gathering is when others show their latest blocks, or quilts to the meeting. The oohs and aahs are only part of the joy. Most of it comes from sharing you &...

Best Patchwork and Quilting Tips from Jan T

I know lots about patchwork and quilting that I'd love to share with you. Do you want to make better quilts? Have you got some patchwork/quilting tasks that you need help with? Let me help you. I'm Jan T (Urquhart) Baillie. I've been teaching and...

Jan T's web design lensography

Creativity explodes out of me, I just need to be creating something. In order to do that I need to be up with what's the current thinking in web design. This lensography will direct you to my lenses which look at my favourite parts of designing for...

More Lensographies 

Jan T's Templates Lensography

Squidoo has introduced templates. Now you are able to select a template from a list of eight and of course, the default makes nine. Sets of lenses with the same subject matter can be given the identical template so they look like a series. Gone Camp...

My Plexography 

all my lenses listed in a Plexo

Plexography of all Jan T's lenses

All the lenses I've made and published to date are listed here. Lenses about: Me My family My passions: web design, quilting Squidoo tips Collecting things Sorrow, despair and recovery My quilt design school A long list and still growing! In Joyf...