The Last of the 2010 Projects

I tried, and tried, and tried, and tried... to finish up projects or get them significantly further along before the turning of the new year.  Here's how I fared.

CMQG Name Tags

Back in June, my quilt guild had a sew-in project to work on pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer and a nametag project.  I decided to model my name tag after our logo (which is the Chicago skyline in fabric) and a couple of people liked it and asked me to make one for them.  Well I ended up with so many to do that I didn't get to finish mine or my friend Vicki's, so here they are:



Oh Cherry Oh! Disappearing 9-Patch
I went CRAZY buying Moda's Oh Cherry Oh! line of fabric.  Every time I could find a fat quarter, or a jelly roll, or a charm pack, I bought it.  I found a layer cake & thought I'd died & gone to heaven.  My brilliant idea was to take the layer cake and make a couple of quilts - this was before I decided to buy Mr. Darcy (my longarm) so I liked to keep quilts under 60" so I could still finish them on my table top machine.  Well, after I cut up the layer cake, I needed more yardage for the sashing, and more for the binding, and pretty soon, I had 4 quilts on my hand.  Well, I pieced all the tops, pieced all the backs, squared them up, and got them ready for quilting:


I also made the binding for all 4 quilts - two will be bound in green and two in red.  I finished these so fast, I forgot to take progress photos!

Art Quilt Coasters
Back in 2009, I got a custom order for a wedding to make 100 art coasters (or sets, I can't remember which) for a wedding, and I ended up having leftovers.  I finished up some yellow and purple sets - 18 total - and I think I'm done with these for a while:


Gyleen's Pineapple Quilt
When I went to Quilt Market, I was helping Gyleen Fitzgerald in her Pineapple Quilt Exhibit, and purchased her book and new pineapple ruler.  While working on a video technique for the AccuQuilt strip cutters, I decided to make a sample block to demonstrate how to use these two tools together.  Well, now I have a pineapple quilt going!


I really love this block but I worry that my obsession with symmetry will make this project unsustainable.  I might relegate this block to the back of the quilt & do a completely random scrappy one instead, but in the mean time, I have a new quilt project.  :)

Double Wedding Ring
This is a "leaders & enders" project for me - whenever I'm piecing another project, I'm working on this one at the same time, so progress on it was expected to be pretty slow.  That is, until someone requested that I do a video on it.  Well, I ended up completely re-doing the technique I was using for piecing, because I found it pretty frustrating to try to demonstrate it via video, given all the swearing and ripping I was doing.  The new technique gives a much better block, without set in seams, and you basically get the quilt to the point where you can sew it in curving rows. I ended up producing 4 new videos to cover it all - it was like doing a television series!

Here's how far I've gotten thanks to the video production:

So I'm back to "leaders & enders" on this project, but I'm really glad to have gotten this far.  Unfortunately it also means a little bit of seam ripping on my Cothron Wedding Quilt so I can assemble them the same way, but I'm glad to know this project will be so much easier to piece now.


Bargello Table Toppers
Remember my insane Bargello project that generated almost 30 table toppers?  Well, that project is seemingly endless.  I did decide to railroad these onto Mr. Darcy using a single piece of backing and batting:


I used it as an opportunity to use up the Warm & White batting that I don't like very much anymore, and to practice several pantograph designs.  I used about 3 different designs across the 23 toppers that needed to be quilted still.  Next time I decide to railroad, WIDER is BETTER.  I was using up a bolt of 60" muslin, but I would have been better off stitching them together & working with it in a 120" wide section.  Why?  Well, when you're railroading, you have to advance the quilt after every pass.  Since I could only fit 3 across on a 60" width, I had to advance 8 times.  Had I used the 120" width, I would have cut that in half, and it would have been a much better use of my 12' machine.  So, lesson learned!!  I'm going to keep that in mind when I work on the Oh Cherry Oh! quilts; even though they have 4 separate backings, nothing is stopping me from stitching those together so I can railroad those 4 quilts too.  It makes sense for quilts that are going to have the same pattern or thread used, to railroad them on the frame.

While I worked on these, I ended up having to splice the batting while it was on the frame:


I overlapped old with new by about 4", then I cut a wavy line through both layers (being VERY careful not to cut the backing too!)  Then I handstitched the two pieces together.  I normally don't like seaming batting in the middle of a project, but for something small like a table runner or wall hanging, it's not a big deal.

When they were all done, I pulled them off the frame.  I think this came out to 60" x 150" - so the equivalent of a king sized quilt:


I think they look cool railroaded like this, and it seemed a shame to cut them apart.  In any event, I did, and stitched all the binding onto the front (you'll recall I made 54 yards of binding for these) so I could practice my machine stitching binding to the back.

I decided to give my Martelli Binding Foot another go; I didn't have much success with it before, but with so many bindings to do, I wanted to give it another shot.  I swear - for every 10 inches I stitched, 9 of them were missed.  It was incredibly frustrating to constantly rip out and reset.  So I went back to my pinning method and using my stitch in the ditch foot:


This worked out pretty well; I did have a couple of misses here & there, but it was significantly less than with the Martelli foot.  So many people swear by this foot but I haven't been able to get it to work for me yet; I think because I like really full bindings, I use a 3/8" seam allowance when attaching 2-1/2" binding by machine, and I think that may not be enough leeway for the Martelli foot to stitch down & consistently catch the back.  I'll have to try this again, but it's too late for this project since all the bindings have been stitched at 3/8".


In the end, I got 6 of them bound, but there are just too many of them to finish and I want to move on to something else.  I don't expect these will be UFOs for long, but I really wished I could have finished them before the end of the year.

And so ends 2010!

Happy quilting!

Organizing & Rearranging the Studio

After working on my Liberty of Paris quilt, I realized that my sewing machine arrangement is not ideal for the work I was doing.  This queen sized quilt top was always dragging itself onto the floor, and I got lots of aches trying to keep it on the table.  Meanwhile, my serger was sitting in a prime L-shaped spot. I'm terrible at taking "before" and "after" photos, but here's a photo of me trying to maneuver a king sized quilt to do the binding:

Notice how I shoved the ironing board under there, to get an L-shaped work surface?  Well, no more!  I swapped places with the serger & now my area looks like this:

The bonus for me?  I can look out the window into my garden, and it gets GREAT sunlight.  Why didn't I think to do this before?!?  I use the serger maybe once a week, where the sewing machine gets daily use!  Now I have an L-shaped space to support my quilts.  It really works out a lot better.  I will be relocating the ironing board.

Speaking of, I recently purchased a Long Board by Reliable, which gives a whopping 19" x 55" wide SQUARE pressing surface, plus a separate rack to store the iron.  I can now press fat quarters in one pass.  This thing is massive, sturdy, heavy, and perfect for tall people as it raises to a height of 38".

I also attempted to replace my leaky Rowenta with a steam generator, the Rowenta DG8030.  However, when using the steam generator, it was kicking off all these wicked fumes, and after a day of using it, I now know why:

You see those two odd shaped divots in the housing above the tip?  Well, that's not a design feature - that's my generator getting so stinking hot (literally) that it started melting itself.  I'm so utterly disappointed and had to send it back.  Incidentally, I purchased this from Allbrands.com because it was cheaper than Amazon + free shipping & also came with a free 3-year extended warranty, but the really killer part?  I had to foot the bill for the return shipping on this defective item to get a replacement.  What is that saying in Spanish? Lo barato sale caro.  The cheap comes out expensive.

Not that this iron is "cheap" by any stretch of the imagination, but I highly doubt it's supposed to exhibit this kind of "feature" and kill me with toxic, plastic-meting fumes.  I really hope the replacement is fine, because if it isn't, I am TOTALLY done with Rowenta.

Since I'm on this organizing kick now, I decided to take care of my last pile of fabric yardage to be organized on my new boards:

What makes this task somewhat daunting for me is my OCD requirement to measure the yardage & label it with an inventory number, yards, and original cost per yard.  It's a little frightening to know exactly how many hundreds of yards of fabric I have now, and exactly how much it cost.  So with the exception of my last influx of fabric which has already been ordered, 2011 will be free of fabric purchases.  Seriously.  The only fabric I will purchase is fabric which is needed SPECIFICALLY for a customer project & won't be going into inventory.  It's time I learned to make do with what I have.  Because what I have is a LOT.

Here's the "before" picture:

And here it is, "after":

I am so very thankful it's all folded & accounted for.  And - glad to be going on a fabric hiatus, because there is no more room at the inn.

Happy quilting!

Liberty French Quilt - Top Completed

I've been on a quilting jag the last couple of weeks.  Normally this happens when I'm supposed to be doing something entirely different, and I work on a completely unnecessary project.  :)

In this case, I really felt compelled to finish the top to my Liberty quilt, which is meant to be queen sized.  It's going to be my first queen sized quilt since the Queen Sized Monstrosity sucked the life out of my desire to work on large quilts.

I managed to get all the blocks pieced, sashed, and stitched into rows, but in order to finish this quilt, I needed more fabric since I only had remnants of the Liberty prints.  As usual, a trip to my LQS (Quilt Play) yielded several options.  I spent probably an hour auditioning different fabrics, and finally came up with this selection:

Most of the fabrics are from Moda's line "French General" so it's quite apropos, don't you think?  They also have some lovely ribbon trim to go along with it, that I'll probably go back and purchase when I start working on the matching throw pillows & shams for this quilt.

The bright red is used pretty sparingly in the quilt, but was absolutely necessary to assemble the rows because they serve as the corner stones:

To bring this quilt up to size, I added 4 different borders.  The first border was a piano key along the top and bottom, made from some of the Liberty scraps.  I didn't measure the piano keys at all - they were made from scraps of various widths, and too dear to trim & cut unless absolutely necessary.  Then I added a plain creamy brown for the side borders:

From this point forward, this quilt was unruly and quite vexing!  The second border was just sides, pieced with a blue fabric plus the red again serving as cornerstones.  I wasn't able to draw it exactly in EQ7, so for the piecing I had to do some dry fits and some odd measurements like 12-7/8" in order for the cornerstones to line up in with the centers of each block.  There was a lot of frogging & recutting happening!  Then I added another set of side borders from a different brown fabric, and then lastly, I added a large dark brown floral border all the way around:

I'm actually not that crazy about the dark brown now that it's on the quilt, but it is going to stay.  I've never ripped out a queen sized border and I don't intend to start now.  It's all squared & pressed & ready for Mr. Darcy when the backing fabric arrives.  I found a cool tan paisley in a wide quilt backing, although I'll very likely be adding some pieced elements from leftover fabric once it arrives.  Stay tuned!



Happy quilting!

Work One Wednesday Challenge: Yarn & a Magnet

One of my new Facebook friends, Jennifer, is hosting a weekly challenge on her blog.  As soon as I saw this week's challenge, I got an idea immediately.

Yarn.  And a Magnet.  Huh?  Well, last year, I got this fancy-schmancy professional button maker, had it calibrated to accept fabric, and planned to turn out hundreds of 2-1/4" pocket mirrors.

Well, in my packet came some samples of things like keychains and magnet attachments, and since my machine is calibrated to accept thick materials, I thought I would run it through its paces by using some decorative yarns:

 

I ended up making about 8 of them, until I ran out of magnetic backs. They now adorn the front of my refrigerator:

One thing that I learned - eyelash yarn is messy - the little shreds were everywhere!  But actually I saved some of the larger pieces for a thread scrap project (yes, I'm certifiable, I know) and used an old paintbrush to clear all the loose fibers from the machine.  I don't know that I would do it again, but it was fun to procrastinate even more today from my daunting to-do list.

Happy quilting!

Doopy, doopy doooo... Waiting for yuuuuu... My New Toy!

I have a new toy in my studio!

Look at what I made:

Ok, so you might be asking yourself, what's so special about a muslin bag?  Well, it's not the muslin bag, it's what is printed on the muslin bag!  Yes, that's my logo & tag line.  How did I do that?  With this:

Yup, it's a Yudu!  I finally broke down and got a screen printing machine.  Why a screen printing machine?  Because I like doing things myself, and instead of paying oodles of money to have t-shirts & bags printed, I wanted to see about doing it myself.

The process is pretty straightforward, but preparing & burning the screens is very fussy & I currently suck at it.  This is actually my second screen - I ruined the first one by wetting the screen too much and washing most of the emulsion down the drain of my laundry sink.

This one is actually ruined now too, but I managed to get two sort of decent prints off of it.  This process uses what's called an "emulsion sheet" which is really tricky to get on correctly, and if it doesn't adhere correctly, it won't solidify properly, and you can get ink that leaks through in the wrong places, as you can see.  Oh - and I should say, the screen itself is reusable, but I forgot to buy emulsion remover so it is effectively "ruined" until I can get the screen scrubbed off & start over.

Mr. Yudu sits in the same room as Mr. Darcy, and because of the ink, I have to be extra careful not to do screen printing on the same day I plan to quilt something. It is a little bit messy, but the bonus is that my laundry sink is just steps away!
 
Hopefully the third time's a charm? I'm done messing up $10 emulsion sheets & $3 transparencies, so I'm going to switch to traditional screen printing emulsion which is liquid that you spread yourself, and a box of inkjet transparencies that I can pick up at any office supply.  Oh - and I'm hacking the ink too & switching to Permaset.  I'll probably post more of my exploits once I get all my hacks next week.  I think I have a new hobby!


Happy quilting!

Busy Little Bee & the Running Toilet

My vacation is proving to be... not much of a vacation, but at least I am managing to get some quilting done.  I also had to take a conference call from work yesterday! Bah humbug!

I haven't felt like I've gotten much accomplished in the 5 days I've been off so far, so yesterday I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish yesterday.  I managed to get them all finished (though admittedly some of it ran over into this morning):

1. Fix toilet
2. Shovel driveway
3. Post AQ video
4. Fold laundry
5. Finish apple core top
6. Borders on table toppers
7. Make binding
8. Load table toppers to Mr. Darcy

So here's how I fared:

1. Fix toilet.

So, this is one of those humdrum things that come along with owning a home.  Sooner or later, a toilet will cease working properly. In my case, the toilet would flush, but the tank would never finish filling.  I traced the issue to the rubber flapper doohickey thingy, and went to Lowe's for assistance.  I picked up a replacement part along with a new mailbox.  (Yes, fixing the toilet reminded me of the mailbox that will probably end up in the shovel of the next plow that comes by.)  And... about 40 flushes later, I got it adjusted so the flapper lifts when you push the handle, and the chain doesn't get caught underneath when it closes.  Now I can stop running down 2 flights of stairs to the other bathroom in the middle of the night.  TMI?

2. Shovel driveway.  

Apparently, it's winter.  And apparently, it snowed overnight yesterday.  I figured if I didn't put it on the list, I'd never go outside & do it.  This was actually a job for my little electric snow thrower.  It's the BEST $200 I've ever spent on anything. That, and the 100' outdoor cord that allows me to throw snow all the way down the sidewalk too.  I'm also really glad I did this yesterday, because overnight last night, we got some wicked rain that basically made a sheet of ice over everything.  Made taking the garbage out pretty easy, I just gave the cans a shove & they went right down to the end of the driveway!

3. Post AQ Video

Oh, I'm in trouble now.  I've just posted the last video that I have recorded.  Well, technically I do have one more, but it needs serious editing and I think I'd rather re-record it with another bunch of them today.  We'll see.

4. Fold laundry

I never claimed to be the world's best housekeeper, but even this one makes me blush.  I don't have a problem washing clothes, but folding them has always been my downfall.  I am proud to say that the "in basket" is empty (well, not enough for a full load of anything anyway) and the "out basket" is all folded!  Putting all the clothes back in their drawers is the topic of a different to-do list.

5. Finish Apple Core Topper

The subject of a new video is this apple core table topper:

I think the actual "to do" was just to finish the top, but I really wanted to get it quilted & bound.  I'm quite proud of my binding, by the way! It's continuous bias binding to go around the curves, complete with perfectly mitered corners.  I also finished it completely by machine, stitching from the front. I'm improving with every project I think.

6. Borders on Table Toppers 

One of my UFOs this year consists of about 30 table toppers in various stages of completion.  Over the last couple of days, I've been piecing them, and yesterday was all about getting them to the point where they could be loaded onto Mr. Darcy.  Yesterday's attempt completed 15:

7. Make Binding

Well, with a total of 24 table toppers that need binding, I decided that when I cut the borders I would cut the bindings too.  So I had a marathon binding session, to create 54 yards of binding.  That's right folks - almost 2,000 linear inches, all in one session:

With so much binding to make, I got very tired of trying to keep the binding from falling off the ironing board, so here's my solution:

I just pinned a little length of ribbon to the end of the ironing board, threaded the binding through it, and now when I pull the binding to iron it in half, this little invention of mine straightens it out with the wrong side up!

8. Load Table Toppers to Mr. Darcy 
I decided to railroad these onto Mr. Darcy, meaning that they will share the same backing (muslin) and be quilted in the same quilting pass:  I really had a debate about these; I have 3 widths of muslin available, 45", 60", and 90".  If I used the 90", I would have been able to do more at one time, but it's my Robert Kaufman premium muslin that I wanted to have available for long arm clients.  In the end, I decided to use the 60" muslin because it's the only size that's on a bolt that doesn't fit any of my cabinets or shelves (so stands in a corner.)  I'm using Warm & White batting, to help use up the roll you see underneath, and again to save the best of my batting for LA clients.


Also, because I'm railroading 3 of these table toppers, I needed to create "extensions" for my clamps to grip, so my machine can go all the way to the edges.  I just made these out of lengths of white muslin & pinned them to the sides.  I'll have to unpin/repin with every advance of the quilt.

These are going to get a nice pantograph, mainly because I want them done quickly, and I do need to get some practice in on pantos.

Happy quilting!

Cothron Wedding - As Far As I Can Go...

I don't know why I felt compelled to work on this particular quilt today, but for some reason, I wanted to just get as far on it as I possibly could so that I can put it away, knowing that my client is the key to this getting finished.

The back of the quilt is entirely dependent upon them getting all of the signature squares returned to me, which won't happen until after the holiday.

The quilt top is built around three rings of the Double Wedding Ring pattern.  I can't complete assembly of the rings until they decide whether they want pictures in the ring centers or not, and without the rings, I can't complete the quilt top.  In spite of this, I was still able to make a ton of progress.

Perhaps the most daunting task was hand-cutting 50 letters that are around 1-1/2" in size.  Once I got going though, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I finished in a relatively short period of time.

The four patch blocks were already made, although when I laid out the pieces, I realized I was actually two blocks short.  Don't ask me how that happened!  It's kind of funny because I found 8 triangles that had been cut from one fabric, but the other two fabrics were missing.  I'm so glad that my policy is to keep any extra fabric yardage with each project until the binding & label go on the quilt; that way, I don't treat the fabric like scraps to be cut & sorted into my scrap bins & make it impossible to correct errors.  So I was able to make the two extra blocks and keep going.

Essentially, I've assembled the top 1/3 and lower 1/3 of the quilt, cut out all the letters, assembled the melon shapes for the rings, and made the binding for the quilt.  I feel like there's still so much left to do on this quilt, but honestly I've gone as far as I can. Time to pack it away neatly, clear off my cutting table, and pick another project to piece!

Happy quilting!

Shabby Chic Kitty - Finished Quilt

Wow - Mr. Darcy finished this quilt so quickly that there was hardly any time to take progress photos & post them!  The quilt was loaded last Sunday, but I didn't get to start stitching it until Thursday.  Well, Thursday morning, before I left for work, I did the basting and one row, and when I got home that night I finished it - including the binding!  And I was not up very late at all.

I mentioned last week about having serious tension issues when working with a spool of YLI, and so I switched back to Superior So Fine for this quilt.  Did I have tension problems again?  You betcha!


This happened while I was basting the quilt to the backing fabric, and was completely user error.  When I first started, I asked myself, "Should I check the tension before I baste?"  My self quickly replied, "Nah, it's just basting.  You can check it after."  BOY!  Was that a mistake!  I should have known something was wrong when I felt NO resistance at all on the top thread when I first threaded it, and it wouldn't pick up the bobbin thread for tying off.  Did I check then? Nope.  I actually basted all 3 sides, and started a sample before I actually checked the tension.  Boy, was I surprised at what I found underneath the quilt!  I just gave the tension wheel a good crank clockwise, and that was it - problem solved.  I actually had an epiphany then... So Fine needs a tighter tension because the thread is so thin, so when I want to use monofilament or King Tut, I should loosen the tension from this point.  Hopefully that will keep me from mucking the tension too much - I shouldn't need wide cranks left or right, and if I do, that means something is horribly wrong. Brilliant observation I think.  :)


I chose a creamy white for the quilting stitches.  It blends in pretty well with the quilt in most places, and where you can see the quilting, it looks pretty cool.  I chose a 10" pantograph design with a floral motif to go with the fabrics, and discovered that I actually do like 10" pantographs.  Why?  Well, the harp area on my machine is 24", which gives me about 22" of actual quilting space front to back.  So on a 10" panto, I can actually get two full passes without having to roll, versus a 16" design where I'd have to roll after every pass.  I guess it just depends on how intricate the design is; this quilt took about 3 hours to quilt, maybe a little less because I take frequent breaks.

Here's a pretty good photo of the quilt top.  I actually took the time to set up the lights, and I'm much more pleased at the color interpretation - now you can see that the quilt is actually pastel!


The back was also fun to make - pretty large stripes with some extra blocks incorporated. This is a really great shot of the quilting too:


The binding I did completely by machine.  I stitched the binding to the front, flipped it to the back, stuck a whole bunch of pins in it, and did a stitch-in-the-ditch from the front of the quilt.  I was pretty much sewing blindly, but the key to the stitching is to have a very precise stitching line, and to GO SLOW.


No, it didn't look perfect everywhere, but I can attribute the bobbles to me not using my walking foot from the beginning, and stitching too quickly.  I will definitely do more quilts this way; as much as I love binding by hand, I simply can't spare the time for most of the ones I want to do.  I am very much a perfectionist, but I've seen some pretty famous quilters with their not-so-perfect binding, and I think maybe if I sacrifice a little perfection in favor of getting more things done, people won't holler about it too much.

After I did a final inspection of the quilt (clipping loose threads, giving it several good passes with a lint roller, making sure the binding is quite secure, and a final spell-check on the label, I packed it up into a pillowcase I made with the fabric that was left over.  I even had a piece of leftover binding that, with a serged edge, made a perfect tie for the pillowcase!


Making this pillowcase gave me a great idea for future customers who get longarm service through me, and as a result, I have a new toy winging its way to my Studio.  I have the perfect spot for it in the room with Mr. Darcy, but it will require finding a new home for my spare sewing machine.

My client has seen some progress pictures of the quilt, but I didn't show her the quilting, the binding, or the pillowcase.  Hopefully she'll be pleasantly surprised!  She already sent me a note saying I "have a customer for life."  That's pretty cool!

Happy quilting!

100 Free Quilts Update

I finally got the opportunity today to catalog more quilts, since I braved the horrendous traffic and mad-shopper conditions to acquire more quilt hangers. These final quilts have been languishing in their boxes, and while I still have not checked every single one for square sides, pressing, and other such things that I requested, I think the sheer variety will give me tons of experience. There are some flannels, some foundation pieced items, some interesting piecing techniques, applique, embroidery, and overall some real beauties.

The final list came to about 30 quilts. One of them (in the HOLD spot) is actually a quilt that another longarm quilter did, and to be honest, it looked AWFUL. The person who sent it over wanted me to add stitching to it, but it hurt my eyes to look at it (plus pre-quilted quilts are not ideal for long arming.) I asked for this stitching to be removed, which was quite easy to do since the stitch length was about 3 or 4. That's right - 3 or 4 stitches to the INCH, as if this quilter was basting it instead of quilting it. They also used these looooong lines followed by a loop, then another looooooong line, and then to make matters worse, quilted in puckers & pleats. Ugh. I should have taken a picture of it but no one needs to see the horror this poor quilt went through.  It made me mad to think of someone expecting to get paid for doing that.

I took the opportunity to photograph and measure each quilt, and document the contents of each box. For those folks who sent checks to cover shipping, I did cash your checks already since I'm sure it's much easier to balance a checkbook when outstanding checks are accounted for.

As I photographed each quilt, I gave some thought as to the color thread I would use for the design. I noted several things in the process:

1. Wow! What a way to build up my thread stash! Do I really need 5 different reds and 3 different oranges? You betcha!!
2. Am I ever glad that I had the presence of mind to order color cards well in advance of this moment - for both King Tut and So Fine! This was immensely helpful in doing an appropriate color audition for threads without owning 150 cones.
3. I love working with Superior Threads, and seeing as how Handi Quilter uses it in their factory to test their machines, I think I'll stick with what works. I know that some people sent over spools of certain other things, and maybe I'll venture to try them on smaller samples or test runs, but for reliability of my machine operation, Superior is, well... superior.
4. On a couple of quilts, I did decide to venture a little bit out of norm for me, still with Superior, but on one quilt I'll be using metallic thread, and on another a monofilament.  Unfortunately, Superior's MonoPoly Clear is so popular, they can't seem to keep it in stock long enough for me to order it.  Let's hope I'm a little faster on the purchase button when it comes back in.
5. In the long run, it's going to be better for me to provide batting for my customers. I know some of you are shaking your heads "I told you so", but honestly, I was curious to see what other people were willing to put into their quilts.  I have a ton of Legacy batting in the Studio, but that doesn't mean they have cornered the market on awesomeness in the batting department.  Seeing what people are sending in is more about the fiber content that most people choose vs. the manufacturer. There are some interesting selections among the bunch though: a 100% Wool batting; a 100% Cotton by Hobbs; and several different kinds of Quilter's Dream.  (May I soon get to see what the fuss is about.)  Most of it was either 100% poly, or 80/20 blend.
6. I think people need help choosing backings just as much as they need help putting borders on straight.  Ok, no one appointed me Backing Police, but as I auditioned different threads, I have to say I put more weight on the thread choice due to the color of the backing versus the fabrics in the quilt top.  It's probably worthy of it's own post, but there's just one thing I have to say now:  Busy Backs are a quilter's friend! If your quilt has all these adventurous colors on the front, and then you decide that a solid white backing is the way to go, your long arm quilter may not have the guts to use a thread color that will just highlight mistakes.  Now, if you instead decided to go with a printed back, with other colors incorporated, the quilter has more options for thread choices and can really have the freedom to play.  I believe solid backings limit options.  There are exceptions to this that I've seen in my pile, but not many.
7. Not every quilt looks good with a variegated thread.  I was actually quite surprised at how few quilts for which I selected variegated thread, given my love for them in general.  I found solid colors suited many more quilts, although there were a couple which literally screamed out for variegated (Mary's quilt comes to mind.)

I am on vacation now from work for 2 solid weeks, but even so, I don't think I'll be quilting up any of these anytime soon.  Why?  Well, I'm devoting several days to just cutting & piecing, and then I also have a ton of new videos to record for AccuQuilt, which I cannot do with my cutting table all covered in piecing projects.  I also am committed to finishing my carryover UFOs, which means commandeering Mr. Darcy for a marathon session of about 30 table runners.  That should be very fun, simply because I can railroad them and just play completely at random.  There are so many of them, if I make a mistake... eh, who cares?  I can also practice binding on the long arm.  That should be interesting. Oh, and I suppose on at least one of those days, I should carve out a few hours to finally hang my closet door panels!  I took my bedroom closets apart back in February, and here almost a year later - still not done.

So when I do get around to quilting up the free quilting, what should my first project be? I'm considering #10-13 (this is a railroading project so working on one is working on all four, but they are strip quilts & I can use each row for a different stitch); #18 (it's a baby quilt so it should be FAST & give a sense of accomplishment), or #1 (because it was first & it would be sort of a good-omen to open the free quilting.)  What do you all think?  Which quilt should I start first?



Happy quilting!

Mr. Darcy's Adventure Continues With Another Quilt

 The holidays are fast approaching, and I've been super-busy trying to get through all the stuff I committed to doing before the year is up. I am still determined to get all the 2009 UFOs off my list & not carry them into the new year, but I also promised to get a few things done for customers & for myself!

First, let's talk about poor, neglected Mr. Darcy.  He's been out of commission nearly since I came back from Quilt Market in mid-November.  You'll recall his arms & brain were sent back to Utah before Thanksgiving.  I loaded a quilt in the frame in anticipation of his health being restored.  Well, at the end of November, his parts came back, and after I reinstalled them, we found out that his right eye (lights) had been put out.  So HQ sent me another set of arms while I continued to work with him half blind, and BOY!!!  Was he ever upset or what!!!  It took me hours to work through tension issues, breaking thread, picking out stitches, and get him to work joyfully.  The quilt I was working on was 64" square, and I paid for every last inch of it.

It was another of my experiments in free-motion quilting, using a 40 wt. YLI cotton thread on top & So Fine on the bottom.  The YLI thread in the color I had only comes on spools, and I found it really, really difficult to balance the tension on the horizontal spool holder.  Sometimes, it would spin loose and mess up the tension, so I'd adjust it again, then it would spin tightly and break the thread.  I had a thought to use the cone holder and he HATED that, giving me loopies for the first time.  Loopies would look cool except for the fact that it signals a horrible problem!

I changed needles, changed bobbins, used my TOWA bobbin gauge, rethreaded, oiled, cleaned... and finally got to the last border.  Yes, there are some tension problems on the back, but considering the problems I was having they are pretty mild in comparison!  I also have to say... were it not for Mr. Darcy... this quilt would probably have sat for years, not getting quilted.  It's one of those quilts that borders on being too big for my domestic machine.

I free-handed the outside border, with flowers, leaves, and an echoed swirl:

I used a variegated thread, so this shows up pretty well until the color changes to purple, then you can't see it anymore. On the sashing, I freehanded another design, which is just loose tassels.  The blocks themselves were a little challenging.  At first I was going to draw in grass & tulips and all sorts of sprays, but when I did about 1/4 of one block, I hated it.  So I ripped it all out and started over. I feel bad for that because one of my friends was at my house & she stayed with me for almost an hour watching me practice those tulips with a marker & giving me input!

I like the new design better - here's a shot of it from the front:


The back is pieced from leftover fabric, but I found a spot on the back that seems to show off the quilting better:


I think it turned out pretty cool, even though it took me a lot longer than it should have.  I'm not so crazy about my choice of thread now that it's on here (I could have gone with a solid green on the front & I think it would have been just as nice.)  The batting is wool.  It's my first time using wool batting, but I'm not going to say whether I like it or not.  I had so many problems with the tension, that I'd want to do another quilt using thread on a cone, and see how it quilts up. 

Here's a more complete photo of the quilt:


You can even see those muslin pieces on the side where I tested tension.  There are so many of those on the quilt that I actually ran out of room in the margins to test the tension!  Very odd because on my first quilt (where I used a spool too) I hardly ever had to mess with the tension so much that I needed to do this.

Well, the binding is made, I just have to attach it & finish up the quilt.  My whole reason for getting this one complete though is so that I can get a client's quilt loaded on the frame.  Yes, it's the Shabby Chic Kitty!  We figured out where to place the cats, and I appliqued those on the front and also put one on the back:
 

It's not my personal taste, but my client loves it and so I am happy to be able to accommodate her.  I was able to finish the appliques (printing, fusing, cutting, placing, stitching) piece the back, get everything squared up, basted to the zippers, and then zipped onto the frame this evening:


To be able to do this, I had to suspend video recording this weekend, so I'll be doing mostly re-runs of AccuQuilt videos this week over on Quilt Possible! I do have two new videos to pull from, but it's not enough to carry a full week.  My sincere hope is to get this quilted on Friday & Saturday, work on the binding & label on Sunday, and get it in the mail first thing Monday the 20th.  It'll have to go Priority to get there in time for Christmas.

Ordinarily, I'd try quilting this during the week, but it's a pantograph and that takes some focused time to set up before the brainless quilting can begin.  And besides... this week I have a DATE!  (GASP! Shocking, isn't it?)

Happy quilting!

I Sent You My Quilt... Why Isn't it On the List?

I have 4 unopened boxes of quilts.  Yours is in there somewhere.  Or maybe it isn't because I didn't get it. How will you know?

Patience please... I ran out of hangers, and I refuse to open anymore boxes until I get some.  It's very important to me that your quilt is hung like every other "free" quilt, so it doesn't get mixed up in my regular customers.  I'm finishing up customer quilts for December 23rd delivery, so right now, those unopened boxes don't have a really high priority, and I'm sure you don't want me sending YOUR quilt to MY customer - though they will love it immensely. 

Plus, I'm just OCD that way.  I can't bear to have mis-matched hangers in my quilt closet.  Have you seen my studio lately?  'Nuff said. When I can go to Target to get the EXACT hangers, I'll be better inclined to open boxes.

Happy quilting!

New Custom Quilt - Shabby Chic Kitty

Recently I was contacted by a client to work on a quilt for her best friend; Christmas is on the 25th, her friend's birthday is on the 27th, and then she's going into surgery on the 29th.  Since it's already December, a custom quilt is a tall order for holiday delivery, but by now you know that I have a tendency to go BIG and not say "no" even when the odds are against.

With that in mind, and knowing that I also have 25 videos to post between now and Christmas, I had to do some creative thinking to fit this project in.

An idea occurred to me: if I could somehow incorporate the quilt into my video process, I'd be able to squeeze it in, and coming up with a pattern that could be easily executed on my AccuQuilt cutter was also a bonus. Luckily, my client understood that in such a short time frame, she'd have to accept what I came up with, and readily agreed to the plan if I could get her quilt done.

The pattern is very simple, and is based on a layer cake I cut on my Studio in 4 passes.  The video will be posted later this month, probably the day I deliver the quilt so you can see the video with the quilting complete.

In the mean time, here are some progress pictures as the quilt comes together.  The color scheme is so far from what I usually work with, and the block placement was as random as someone like me could possibly manage. The fabric required consultation with the ladies over at Quilt Play since nothing like this exists in my stash, and I am always grateful to them for their advice and help.

The theme of the quilt is shabby chic, and is to have some photographs of a kitten incorporated into it somewhere as yet to be determined. (I know what you are thinking!  But sometimes a masterpiece is really about how much people will love something, and not what we would prefer or feel comfortable doing ourselves.)

Here are the fabrics, though I am quite vexed that the colors are not faithful in the photos.  The colors are softer & more muted than they are represented here:



And here is the interior of the quilt top. This is my first quilt where I've pressed the seams open on the entire quilt.  I'd especially like to see how Mr. Darcy appreciates this effort when it comes to him next week.



Once I got this assembled and photographed, I decided that it needed another row added, and then I applied the borders.  Again, the colors are not true; the narrow inner border that you see is not red, but rather a dusty pink.  I took all these photos with my iPhone, so I'm pretty sure that has a lot to do with it.  Once the quilt is completed I'll set up the photo lights and take a really good picture.  I really like the way this turned out, and the piecing came together very quickly.  It's a top that can be assembled in an afternoon, even for a slow quilter like me.



Happy quilting!

Free Quilting - List Closed!

Thank you to everyone who has sent in quilts for me to practice on! There are still 3 boxes that I haven't opened yet, but it looks like I'm going to top out around 30.

My open offer closed yesterday as the deadline to send your quilts was December 1. If your quilt is not already in the mail to me, DO NOT put it in the mail. If you put it in the mail to me already and it hasn't arrived, you have two choices: I can keep it and you can pay for my quilting services, or I can return your quilt to you using your enclosed postage.

The only exceptions to this are:
1. Charity quilts from people who have already contacted me and for which I have agreed to do the quilting;
2. Quilts from people in CMQG who contacted me to make an exception due to a family emergency and which I agreed to quilt; or
3. Quilts which I delayed acceptance of delivery on so that said individuals could see Mr. Darcy with his arms back on.

Speaking of, Mr. Darcy's arms arrived on Tuesday, and I'm hoping to get them reinstalled and operational on Friday. Then, I have a quilt in the frame to finish, and directly following is a client project with Christmas delivery. Provided I can get that wrapped up quickly, I anticipate choosing the first "free" quilt to start before the end of the year. So exciting!