All the Places I Need to Make My Website and Blog Work

You know, it wasn't until today that I realized exactly how many places I am using to connect my blog, my website, make my forms work, accept payments, publish photos, manage my email... so I thought I would list them out so you can see what madness this all is:

1. Ovi.com (a photo storage site I was using in the first 2 years of my website & blog)
2. Flickr (all new photos, finally broke down & went Pro)
3. JustHumans.org (form validate to eliminate spam)
4. CAPTCHA
5. FeedBurner (for RSS)
6. Site Meter
7. Twitter
8. Facebook (4 pages + personal profile)
9. Yahoo (3 email accounts)
10. GoDaddy (5 domains, 2 hosted, 6 email accounts)
11. Gmail (2 email accounts)
12. Google Docs
13. Google Analytics
14. Issuu (brochures & stuff)
15. Box.Net (large file sharing)
16. DreamHost (1 hosting account)
17. Blogger (5 author blogs)
18. VistaPrint (newsletter publishing)
19. Etsy (4 stores)
20. ArtFire (2 stores)
21. Networked Blogs
22. Twitter Feed
23. PayPal

And that's just to keep the virtual stuff running, not to mention the off-line sites that help me manage my in-person interactions:

1. Phone People (my toll-free number)
2. Trust Fax (for my fax service)
3. Square (credit card processing)
4. ProPay (credit card processing - haven't decided Square is reliable yet)

It's bananas!!  But now that I am moving to the new site I can see a couple of things that I can probably eliminate or consolidate, and one day I'll get the courage to disconnect my fax number despite the thousands of business cards I have printed with the info.  :)

To endless possibilities,

Ebony

MAJOR Site Overhaul

The time has come to bring a more professional, polished, and comprehensive look to LoveBug Studios.  I've decided to give up my free Blogger site, and move to my own hosted WordPress installation.

Late last year I talked about consolidating some things, and giving up some others, in order to make room for new and promising things that I want to do.  Part of that consolidation is to stop managing my sites across four different platforms - Blogger, WordPress, my own HTML site, and ZenCart.

I've enlisted the help of a super-fantastic web developer, but to keep the cost down, I'll be doing a lot of the work myself.  This is quite an adventure for me because it's something I've been talking about doing for years, and only just now deciding to take the plunge.

When I move to the new platform though, it will almost be like starting from scratch.  Because my blog address is changing (it will be on lovebugstudios.com), you'll have to follow me again in order to keep my blog content coming to you.  I think you'll still be able to add it to a feed reader (or get it through email) but each of you will have some work to do.

I'll keep you posted as I make the changes, and I'll probably keep some bare-bones blog stuff up to point people to the new site for a couple of months at least.

Why I decided that TODAY is the day, I don't know, but now that I've decided to start, I have to keep going.

To endless possibilities,

Ebony

More Feathers...

There was a show new to Chicago called the "Sewing and Quilting Expo" that was here last weekend, and I had the opportunity to take more classes and continue my feather exploration.  I took a total of 3 classes - one was an applique class where I learned a new method to applique circles, and the other two classes were on the long arm.  I was fortunate to have signed up for a class called "Feathers for the Feather Phobic" and I'm really glad that I did because I learned a third way to make feathers!

I don't know for sure which method I like better, but I can see where they would all have their different applications.  The neat thing about making these feathers is that they don't incorporate any backtracking and they don't have to be connected together.

Here are a few photos from my sampler. The basic feather looks like this:


The things you have to watch out for is to make sure you "hook" around deep enough to form the shape, and that you leave yourself enough room to bounce back out of the hook.

Once you get that method down, you can start to vary them.  Here's one variation with spirals:


Here's another variation with multiples stacked on top of one another, and a different flourish at the tips:


I had a lot of fun trying the different techniques.  I personally find this one easier to do than the other methods I've learned, but it could be that because I had the fortune to take the other class first at Handi Quilter (and so closely to this one) I was able to adapt more quickly to the movement.

The instructor gave me a very nice compliment too - she asked if I'd considered teaching, because I'd be good at it.  I was going around helping other people with the machines and their feathers.  We were working on the Gammill Vision (a fussy machine if I EVER saw one, and so glad I didn't get it & got Darcy instead!)

Once I got the hang of it, I started combining techniques - stacking rooster combs, combining with spirals... the possibilities are virtually limitless.


We ran out of time to do shapes, but I did manage to try to fill a large triangle.  Let's just say that one is gonna take a lot more practice.  :)

To endless possibilities,

Ebony

WHY? An Artist's Manifesto (Part 1)

First, I have zero expectations that anyone will actually read this post (or any subsequent related posts) entirely.  I was going to write this out by shorthand, then I was going to type it in Word, and then decided if I'm going to pull out the computer anyway, I may as well post it to my blog.  I fully expect this to be a loooooong post, 99% text unless I can break it up visually with some completely non-related photos, and the only reason I'm calling it "Part 1" is that I don't really even know if I can write the entire thing in one sitting.

I've borne witness to some pretty public (entertaining, shocking) meltdowns recently - via Facebook, Blogland, and even Amazon of all places. If I were an emoticon, I would be the smiley with the confused look and the question mark over its head, for as many times I have asked "why" and shook my head at the sheer cuckoo-ness of people & what they are willing to reveal about themselves in a moment of extreme emotion.

Before you all turn into confused emoticons yourselves, let me assure you that this post isn't going to be of the meltdown kind... maybe you could consider it as a melt-UP.  An epiphany of sorts, a eureka moment, the "aha" that I came to today, when I least expected it.  And right now, I'm actually in the midst of it, so I haven't had the benefit of thinking this all the way through.  I'm thinking about it as I write it, so maybe some of you may actually get a sick thrill out of reading through the process of someone awakening to themselves and their own personal "why."

If you're still reading (why?) perhaps a little background might be in order.

A couple of years ago, I was asked to create an artist statement for a show I was exhibiting.  I racked my brains for days trying to come up with something profound.  The first sentence of my artist statement says, "I create because I MUST."  It's a simple statement, very cliche, very trite perhaps too... but to me, it was the deepest expression of how I felt.  Not creating because I "have to", but creating because I "must."  There's such a subtle difference between these two statements.  To me it is not a choice that I make, to create or not, like it's an obligation that I've resigned myself to.  The only reason I even have a sense of the difference is because I've personally felt "have to" versus "must."  "Have to" has names, like things I've promised, obligations I've created, deadlines I've set, quantities I've defined.  "Must" is for things like this, where I can't simply go to bed, even though I'm dead-dog bone-tired, my feet hurt, my back aches, and yet the words are pouring out through my fingers like a sieve.

More recently, I was asked to read a book called the "Nibble Theory," in which you are asked to find your kernel, your center, the "stuff" at the core of your being that stays with you wherever you go.  In order to help you find this kernel, you have to start asking "why?" In the face of that, a statement like "I must" just doesn't stand up to further scrutiny, because as soon as someone asks me, "Why must you?" all I can come up with is a blank stare and a half-hearted shrug.  I don't know why.  I haven't really dug that deep. Probably because what I really, really fear is finding out that maybe my well doesn't run that deep and I'm not all that profound or complex or worthy of the answer.  Just a sampling of the questions the book asks of you to help in your exploration:

• What are your strengths? The ones you were born with, not the ones you've learned.
• Why are those strengths important to you?
• What makes you say that?
• Why?
• What is at your center?
• Why is this important?
• What is your kernel?

It certainly seems a bit repetitive, but it's like a constant probing of reasoning and explanation until you reach the bottom of the well, regardless of how deep it ends up being.

 About a day after reading this book (and if you're interested, this is a quick read - if you went to B&N you'd probably finish the book before reaching the cash register) I had dinner with a friend and mentor, and she asked me basically the same question, "Why?" She wanted to know why I create.  She said that if I could come up with the answer to that, I'd probably see a clearer path forward than I do now.  But asking "why" is easy - answering "why" is a lot harder.

Maybe some of you think I'm nuts because as you read my blog or look back at the highlights, clearly I must be moving forward because things are getting finished, goals are getting checked off, happy little surprises keep happening, and it seems like I'm moving forward because I am getting things DONE.  Where you see forward progress, I see circles.  Even though I am finishing stuff, it's really a drunken walk through a parade of UFOs and to-do lists, and everytime I ask "why?" I find myself back at the beginning.  So please don't envy or covet my ability to pack 30 hours into every 24-hour cycle; the reason I do this is because I have to (yes, HAVE TO) keep asking "why" and the answer is unacceptable.  So I do something else to see if the answer can be found in that activity, and when I ask "why" I go back to the beginning again.  It's completely unfocused and random.  I get an awful lot done, but I don't know why, and so in that, the effort seems pointless, because it's not leading anywhere.

Don't misunderstand me... you can create a very full life and feel very busy and engaged, needed and appreciated without having a grasp on "why" you are here - what your purpose in life is, what makes you tick way down deep.  In the bigger scheme of things, one quilt block delivered on time on a Thursday doesn't necessarily send waves of transformation across the universe, though it might make a very small handful of people extremely pleased for a short period of time.  I do get a thrill from doing that, but that one moment, that one exertion from me is just the physical manifestation of the "why" I have yet to discover or articulate in anty meaningful way.  It's not connected to anything bigger.  Well, it is, but I don't know what the "bigger" is yet, so from my view, it's not connected.  Ugh - I think I just made some circular logic. Philosophers would love me.

Ok, at this point, I am so tired that my eyes are crossing and I actually may fall asleep typing this.  There are so many typos that I seem to do twice as much correcting as I do typing.  That won't do for composing a coherent manifesto, so why don't I continue this in the nect post.  It ptobably doesn't matter whether I do or don't since no one is reading ayway (and if you are....  :))

Part 2 sometime tomorrow.

To endless possibilities,

Ebony

Conquering My Nemesis: Feathers on the Long Arm!

When I first got Mr. Darcy, my feathers looked like this:

I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew I was in for a steep learning curve.  People told me to practice drawing.  I did - for a little bit... but that only proved to me that I couldn't draw them either. I watched videos, read some books, drew some more... a couple of folks suggested that maybe feathers weren't my "thing" and not do them, and then I developed a complete mental block over feathers because I told myself over and over how much I could not do them.  So far I've refused to put any feathers on a quilt - not even by pantograph.

Well, since this is the year of HONE (my word for the year) I've decided once & for all to tackle my fear and try to remove the mental block.  So this week, I'm attending a course called "Advanced Techniques" offered by HandiQuilter, and then on Friday I'll be attending a class at the Sewing & Quilting Expo called "Feathers for the Feather Phobic."  Yup, that's me!

So in my advanced techniques class, first we focused on micro-quilting.  We spent the day working on a little microquilting sampler with different designs in each, and a special set of handles.  Maybe I'll remember to actually take a photo of them so you can see them in action!  I don't own them myself... yet, but I can definitely see where they will come in handy.  Here is a picture of my sampler before I took it off the machine:



These squares are 3" - so that should give you a little bit of an idea of how small each element is.  I couldn't help pulling something out of the Leah Day manual and adding to my sampler in the lower right.  :)

One of the things we learned is how to mark the quilt using different marking tools.  Getting comfy with chalk, stencils, and different marking pens was one of the goals.  I normally hate marking quilts with anything but sidewalk chalk but I think the lightbulb went on that experienced quilters didn't get that way by not marking, and sometimes you need to do it to get the effect you want.  I also learned that microquilting can cause you to lose 6-8" across a quilt - WOW!  Whenever you microquilt, that should always be the last thing you do, after the rest of the quilt is stabilized and you've marked out the areas where the microquilting will go.

Anyway, as fascinating as this all is, the point of me getting up early, before class, to post - is to show you my feathers!

On Monday afternoon, we sat down to draw feathers.  The instructor drew them on the board showing how - we tried feathers with spines in a border, on a curvy spine, in a square, diamond, and triangle... and that darn mental block was super stubborn!  I was nearly in tears (literally!) because I get frustrated when something doesn't come easily to me.  Then we tried a little bit of McTavishing, and that made me nearly cry too because I know that it's just free curves and echoing, but for some reason I couldn't get that either.  I think I was just really tired - microquilting is no joke.  Those 19 squares you see took nearly 7 hours to do, and after you do all that, you're just really not ready for anything else but dinner.

After getting back to the hotel, I tried practicing drawing feathers, but I kept getting stuck, and with no one around to help, I just gave it up as a lost cause and went to bed.

The next morning, I went down for breakfast, and was trying to practice.  One of the ladies (SanDee - a sweetheart if you ever knew one) sat down at my table and coached me everytime I got stuck.  I'd stop and say, "I'm lost!" And she'd talk me through it.  Eventually... a breakthrough!

Yesterday, we had to create a sampler using rulers, stencils, and freehand feathers... on black fabric with a thick, loud thread.  Quilting with thick thread is like drawing with a felt tip marker - every hesitation or missed line shows up like you wouldn't believe.

My first feather was pretty scary looking (ok - all of them were scary) but as I practiced, my confidence grew.  I started to feel more comfortable with it.  I'm still not very good at it, but I'm better than I was, and I actually love embellishing the feathers - it hides mistakes like you wouldn't believe!  So here are a couple of photos of some of my feathers:



At the very top on the left is a feather that was created from a stencil.  I still had to freehand them to a certain extend because a lot of the chalk had rubbed off, and I couldn't see where they were. When you make feathers this way there's a fair amount of backtracking over things you've already stitched, and I don't have enough feather practice to always hit the line - and you can see that.

The feather on the lower left was also a stencil, and I went around the design once to create the design, then went back over it again to add the embellishments and the center design.  You can see how thick my backtracking stitches are around the paisley!

On the right are swags created from a ruler (I'm actually pretty good at ruler work) and then feathers I freehanded by using the swag as a spine.  I had a couple of "oopsies" but overall those were really fun to do & made me feel like I could put feathers anywhere.

Feathers also tend to look better the next day - when you're not standing over them stressing about a missed backtrack.  If I were using a thinner thread that didn't contrast so much, I'm pretty sure they'd look even better.

There's a sign in the classroom that says something about the pursuit of excellence being of real worth, and the pursuit of perfection as a colossal waste of time because there is no joy in that kind of effort.  I need to copy down that quote because it really puts things in perspective.

Here is another feather:


So what do you think?  Have I had a complete feather makeover? Anybody itching to have feathers on their quilt?

To endless possibilities,

Ebony

Long Arm Quilting: #24 Ellen Finished Quilt & How I'm Picking The Rest Of Them...

This weekend was incredibly busy!  I did manage to finish all three quilts that I set out to do this weekend which is awesome.

The next one on the list was from Ellen.  She actually sent me two quilts, but this one was just so small I thought I could get it done really quickly.

This time, I remembered the stopwatch.  Start to finish, it was about 2 hours to do this quilt, which included loading, bobbin winding, and the actual quilting.

Ellen's quilt gave me some specific challenges that I want to use as illustration.  This isn't meant to be a dig or bashing of Ellen's quilt AT ALL.  That is not my intent and I hope no one looks at it that way.  I think it's been pretty taboo in the quilting world to really talk about the issues and things that can and will go wrong, but I've said before that it's not all sunshine & roses, and I really want to be candid about the what & the why so that everyone can benefit from the experience.  The only place I've seen it discussed is a video spoof & song some wrote that says, "I Can Quilt That Out!"

I've talked a lot about how important it is to make sure your quilt is square if you want to have it long arm quilted.  This is a benefit to you because if you send it square, it will get quilted square, and you get the bonus of having the quilt perfectly basted for you to attach your binding.

If you don't square your quilts before sending them out, several things can happen:

1. The quilter will square it for you, and you might not like what they do.  Plus, they will charge you for it.
2. The quilter will load it as-is, and take tucks & folds where necessary, and you might not like what they do.
3. The quilter will refuse to quilt it, and return it to you as-is, and you may not like that either.

Sometimes, the quilt can be squared with only a minor shaving that would not be noticeable, and other times, there's just no way to square it no matter what you do.  That was the case with Ellen's quilt:

If you notice the right side is fairly square, but the other three sides are not, and there's no way of trimming it or easing it to make it square without significantly impacting the design.

Here is one spot where it is going to cause the most issues:

That's a pretty big pucker and definitely presents a challenge.

Because of the puckers & general unevenness, I opted to float the quilt top entirely (which means that it wasn't attached to any of the rails) and baste it down wherever I could get a complete line of stitching.  In some places, the basting stitches are as much as 1-1/2" to the interior of the quilt.  I'll remove those stitches before sending the quilt back to her, but I had to be able to keep the quilt from creeping around as I went.

I chose Whirlpools from Leah Day for the quilting and adapted it for the long arm, keeping the spirals and echoes very loose and big.  This kept the puckers from being as obvious on the quilt and it kept me from having to take pleats in the quilt.  The thread is Superior So Fine #450 Spring Green.  The batting was not branded, but it had the consistency of felt and quilted up just fine.

In the end, Ellen won't be able to cut a perfectly square line on the edge of the quilt to attach her binding, but she should be able to just trim the edges from block to block and it will be fine.  The quilting creates enough movement across the front that your eye doesn't really get a chance to settle on whether a line is straight or not.

While quilting this, I noted that it's really difficult to make big sweeping curves when you're tensed up, so definitely relax your shoulders and arms if you want to do big curves.  I quilted this super-fast (the stitch regulator beeped at me on more than one occasion when I was outpacing its ability to regulate.)  The curves are very organic and I like the way this one turned up.

Loved having the busy backing!  Even though the backing is brown and the thread is green, the pattern is busy enough that you don't really notice the stitching & it makes a nice texture.

Now, that's the last of the quilts that I had picked out of the closet on my own.  The remaining quilts will be completely left up to chance.  My target is to finish all the quilts by Christmas, so if I work on 2-3 a month I should be able to meet that.  Of course, I do have about 5 customer quilts due before June and 2 of my own that have to get done, so I may slack off over the next couple of months & then need to pick up the pace later this summer.

So if you want to know who's next, here's how I decided:

So #3 Clair - you're next!

To endless possibilities,

Ebony

Long Arm Quilting #1 Donna - Time, Bobbins, and Batting: Oh My!! And Some Long Arm Tips Too

At about 12:30 PM Saturday afternoon, I decided that I was going to get three quilts done on the long arm.

By 6 PM, I knew that wasn't happening, and by 12:30 AM Sunday morning, I was sooooo ready to call it a day.

That sounds like I've been hanging with Mr. Darcy for 12 hours, doesn't it?  Well, admittedly, not all that time was spent quilting.  I tend to take a LOT of breaks, not to mention I was feeling slightly icky for most of the day.  Woke up with a headache (which explains the late start), felt pretty woozy most of the rest of the time, and of course I had my mandatory Facebook breaks.  If I could only stay off the internet I'd probably get a lot more done.

The other thing of course is that even when you're at the machine, you're not always quilting.  There's time to load, time to advance, time to wind bobbins, time to check the tension, time to pin & unpin zippers, time to baste, time to oil.... the list goes on and on.  I'd love to hazard a guess as to how long the quilting actually took, but I can't.  Maybe next time I'll remenber to run my stopwatch.

Anyway, I did actually get two of the three quilts done that I was hoping for, and the third?  Well, maybe in the morning (later this morning) I'll load it into the frame so at least it can stop being a permanent fixture in my livingroom.

This post is about some of the lessons learned from Donna's quilt, and then later I'll post up photos of her entire quilt.

I struggled quite a bit in the beginning just figuring out the thread I was going to use. If you'll recall, I ordered 7 cones of thread for her quilt because the color cards I had just didn't identify a clear winner.  I also had a minor scare when I realized that I hadn't actually labeled the pictures I took of the thread when I first auditioned them, so I had to audition the thread all over again.  In the end, I settled on King Tut #909 Egypsy Rose (which is a lovely blend of deeper pinks and oranges) for the top thread and So Fine #415 Cherrywood (which is a really deep wine color) to match the back.

This was a pretty scary proposition if you think about it: using 40 weight & 50 weight thread, light & dark toned threads, and a solid fabric for the quilt back.  Couple that with unfamiliar batting and it sounds like a recipe for disaster, right?

Well, that's all part of the plan!! It was a great learning experience, and I'll share some of those lessons with you now while I can still keep my beady eyes open to type.

First let's talk about batting.  When I sent my call out for quilt tops, I asked people to provide their own batting so I could try different kinds.  So while I am going to do a little batting-bashing as we go, it should not reflect on the individual quilter AT ALL, because lots of people purposely chose some battings in order to give me variety.  Hopefully it helps people understand why some long armers will not use certain batting, or why a batting may not be appropriate for long arming even though the quilter might accept it.

The batting in this quilt was Mountain Mist 100% Polyester Batting.  On the package, it says "Uniform Thickness."  Ummmm.... no, it's not.

Here's a section with a weird flap that's extra thick:


And no - that's not a wrinkle.  I pulled on it to smooth it out and realized very quickly that nope, it was an extra flap.  You can also see spots where the batting is clearly not uniform, with holes and thicker deposits.  I also kept finding these plastic shavings embedded in the batting:


And since I didn't want to run over these with my needle, I had to fish them out.  Also, because of the various thicknesses and random high spots, whenever I needed to do a tension test, the batting kept getting tangled in my hopping foot:


I wish I could say this would be my last encounter with Mountain Mist, but I do believe some other folks sent me a sampling of it in other lofts.

On a positive note, the extra loft that polyester batting has in general, is quite useful for quilts that aren't perfectly pieced.  There's a certain amount of give & take with the batting, and you can usually smooth over puckers with it.


When you're choosing a batting for a quilt, you have to take lots of factors like that into consideration. Do you want the quilt to shrink around the stitches when it's washed to give that "antique" look?  Then you need to use a natural batting like cotton, bamboo, or wool.  Do you want the quilt to be extra warm? Use polyester batting.  Do you want the quilt to be really flat? Go with a cotton blend without the scrim layer. You also have to consider the quilting pattern - will you be quilting densely or doing a large meander?  Some battings you can only stitch 2" - 4" apart, while others allow you to stitch up to 10" apart.  Keep that in mind too.


I definitely much prefer backing fabrics that are NOT solid.  It really just calls attention to mistakes and makes it difficult to hide your stops & starts as you go along.  Still, it was a great illustration of how practicing starts & stops is necessary.  It did finally sink in that I need to use the manual hand-wheel (which is on the front right side of my machine next to the tension knob) to position the needle instead of using the needle up/down button and eyeballing it. (Sorry Donna, didn't come to that epiphany until a little later in your quilt, and really wish I'd thought to do it when I was doing all that ruler work!)  With that said though, I managed to survive the experience and live to tell about it.

I also have a really good example of why you absolutely must stay-stitch seams that are on the outside edge of your quilt:


Quilts get a lot of abuse while they are on the frame; they get stretched a bit, smoothed, yanked, rolled, poked and prodded to make sure they stay absolutely square on the frame.  If you don't stay stitch the edge, your seams can come apart, and this isn't something that the long armer can really fix once it is on the frame (sorry Donna!  I basted it down but you may want to take a hand needle to it too.)

 I had actually chosen the quilting to do on this quilt long before I settled on the thread - I knew I wanted to use one of Leah Day's designs for the main part of the quilt.  Since the quilt had two contrasting borders, I wanted to provide some separation there, so I chose to do Trillium Leaves on the outside and some Reverse Loops on the inside:


When starting work on the long arm, I always baste the top edge so that it is straight on the frame, then I baste the sides down to the edge of my quilting area.  This serves two purposes: one, it keeps the quilt from shifting, and two, it gives a visual guideline so I don't bump into the rail with my machine as I'm stitching along and mess up a section of quilting.  It's like a boundary line that I can come close to but not cross over.

I also quilt the outside borders first, and work my way into the center of the quilt.  This is the exact opposite of quilting on a table top machine where you quilt from the center out!


This design is completely done by free motion, and it's up to me to decide where to go next, how to best fill in the shapes, plan a path so I don't stitch myself into a spot that I can't get out of, and make it as random as possible so your eye keeps moving over the quilt and there aren't any obvious patterns.  The goal is to have a complete pass that fills the quilting space without breaking threads (intentional or otherwise.)  Sometimes, that's not possible; I have a habit of stitching out my bobbins, so sometimes I'm going merrily along and the bobbin will run out.  In that case, I usually have to rip out a good 3-4" of quilting to get to a good place to restart.  The absolute best place to restart stitching is in a point, or where two or more lines intersect or overlap. The WORST place to restart is along a curve, especially with contrasting or thick thread.  I managed to hit the trifecta on more than one occasion...

My last comment is about bobbins.  Because I use so many different colors in my long arm quilting, I don't like winding too many bobbins, but at the same time, it is annoying to stop quilting to wind a bobbin when you're in a groove.   The other thing is that if you happen to use the same thread in the top and bobbin, but you only have one cone, needing to wind another bobbin means having to cut your threads, wind another bobbin, and then rethread the machine completely.  I am terrible at estimating quantities of things, and bobbins are no exception.

I have a little sheet for each quilt that I'm using to document information about the quilts as I finish them.  The information includes the size of the quilt top, the thread used in both top & bottom, the type of batting, and how many bobbins were used.  I'm hoping to use this information to help me get better at estimating what I need to finish a project.  In the case of this quilt, I initially wound two bobbins, but I ended up needing 1-1/2 more bobbins to finish.  You really can't go by the size of the quilt to estimate bobbins; it's all about the density of the quilting.

I do feel more comfortable using different weight threads in the top & bottom, but you do have to resign yourself to tension needing to be more closely watched and checked, and also that you're going to get some amount of pokies no matter what you do.  Because the back was solid and the front was a lot busier, I tended to err on the side of the top tension being too tight, in order to make sure the top thread wouldn't show on the bottom.  I wasn't always successful, but I think overall I did a pretty good job at keeping them imbalanced in my favor.  I'm hoping that a run through the washing machine will take care of most of the pokies as the quilt relaxes more.

And with that... I'm pooped!  I've taken photos of Donna's finished quilt and it's all folded & ready to be delivered tomorrow.  At my current rate of productivity though, I'd say odds are pretty good that she'll see the quilt in person before the photos go up on my blog.  :)

To endless possibilities,

Ebony

In The Pink... Just in Time: Ravenswood PinkWalk

I was recently invited to exhibit a new piece of artwork for the first annual Ravenswood PinkWalk, sponsored by House Beautiful Magazine, to celebrate their March issue, The Power of Pink.  All of the artwork will be exhibited on Sunday, February 27th in the Ravenswood Art District, and four of the exhibiting artists will be featured in the magazine.  I figured it was a good opportunity to continue to HONE my skills through the pursuit of creativity anywhere it comes.

The only thing that posed a problem for me was coming up with a new piece of artwork with less than two weeks to go, and getting it to downtown Chicago by Friday. Oh, and I'm in the middle of hosting two quilt alongs with new blocks every week, 5 customer projects, and 30 quilts in my long arm backlog.  Other than that... no problemo!

I knew that I wanted my art to be framed, and I knew that this would be another great opportunity to work with Noriko Endo's technique of shredding fabric.  I came up with a really abstract concept, in various shades of pink to go with the theme, and then just let loose.  I didn't get very many in progress pictures, but here it is all layered and pinned ready to be quilted:




Here's the back of it so you can see the quilting.  The quilting is very dense, done in a pink rayon thread. I had to stitch very tightly because I knew I'd be cutting into it and I didn't want the stitches to come loose.  This was also not the project to get worried over the tension.  It was free motion quilted on my regular home machine, and I didn't take any measures to check or fix the tension. (See, even home machines have tensions issh!)


So at this point, I put it on the mounting board to see where I'll be making my cuts:


The piece is way too rectangular, and my goal was to remedy that without cutting out my favorite parts:


This is really tricky, because you can absolutely ruin a piece by cutting in the wrong places.  I just kept cutting until most of the straight edges were gone, and then I took the piece back to the machine and sealed the edges with a funky, chunky variegated yarn. Then, I took an upholstery needle, some 30 wt thread, and literally stitched the piece directly to the mounting board.

Here's the piece in the frame:


And here's another shot out of the frame so the glass doesn't reflect my dining room:


Here's a detail shot:


And another:


So the photography isn't the best, but I managed to finish it in time and get it over to UPS to be shipped before it would cost am arm and a leg for overnight air mail.  :)

I hope that people like it!  What do you think?

To endless possibilities,

Ebony

You Gotta Know When to Fold 'Em... The first QILT Debuts

As I finish up my most recent quilting project, the words to Kenny Rogers' song repeat over and over in my head:

You gotta know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run...

Except in my case, the song goes like this:

You gotta know when to free hand
Know when to pantograph
Know when to use rulers
And quit when you're done...

I got a new long arm client back in December, when I was exhibiting some quilts at a small craft fair.  I told her that I was new, and she said that was ok, and asked me to quilt something for her.  I readily agreed, not really thinking too much or asking questions.

When I got the quilt from her, she gave me the backing, top and batting.  She also handed over a magazine (which is where she got the pattern for the top) and in it, the instructions specified exactly what quilting stitches to put where. And that's what my customer asked me to do: "quilt it like this."  This will hereafter be referred to as a QILT (kilt).

Ordinarily, I wouldn't take on a job like that. I like having the freedom to choose and let my imagination run wild, but in the interest of learning and honing my skills, I agreed to do it.  I didn't look at the pattern in detail, but right off the bat I knew that it would involve lots and lots of ruler work, and at the time I accepted the project, I only knew one thing: I sucked at ruler work.

So I worked on a ruler sampler to try to improve my skills before loading this project, and after working on that quilt, I had enough confidence to load the QILT into Mr. Darcy.  And it's actually kind of comical because the part of the quilting that humbled me in the end had nothing to do with the rulers.

Before I get too far, I have to do a little commercial for Superior Threads.  They recently started offering pre-wound M bobbins of So Fine.  They don't have many colors yet, but the two staple colors that I use quite often - Snow & Pearl - were available so I got a dozen of each.

This was Mr. Darcy's first use of pre-wound bobbins, and I am absolutely 100% a convert.  I put one in the bobbin case, did a quick tension check at the beginning, and then had ZERO issues until it ran out of thread.  The only "complaint" that I have is that with metal bobbins you can actually hear the bobbin case run out of thread but with these paper ones, you can keep going for a good little bit & not realize you've run out!

Anyway, my humbling experience had to do with trying to replicate a computer-generated drawing with a hand-guided machine.

I've said it before - PRACTICE is so important. Anybody can doodle on a quilt, but if you want it to look like you know what you're doing, you have to PRACTICE.  That's something that I slack off on more often than not, but it didn't start to show until I got to the end.  We'll get to that shortly.

So let's talk about the ruler work in this quilt.  I have quite a few rulers at my disposal, and I put LOTS of them to work in this quilt:



These are the nine rulers that I needed at various points in the quilt.  The one that got the most use is the Versa Tool (top, second from left.) It has a stitch in the ditch guide, a couple of curves, some cutouts to guide the hopping foot, and a 90 degree cutout for crosshatching.  Very, very nice tool.

When using rulers, I should mention how important it is to take frequent breaks - even more frequent than if you're running a pantograph or freehanding.  That's because when you do ruler work, you're often contorting yourself into strange poses and postures in order to get the ruler where you want it without running over your fingers or smacking yourself in the head with the machine (yes, it happens!)

The paisley looking rulers (called "Judalators" by Judy Allen) are good for things like this:


Tracing around applique shapes is an absolute must (not just for this quilt, but it's a good habit to get into if you ever plan to enter quilt shows.)  The different curves on the tool allow you to trace around concave and convex curves, or just give your machine something to rest against as you go along.  I try not to keep too many rulers on the quilt at one time - not only do they weigh down the quilt & cause it to stretch & sag, but they are a safety hazard too.  Because they are clear, you could accidentally run over one and really mess up your machine.

The circles were used for this type of quilting:


Getting the different leaf shapes by using parts of the circles, tracing the center of the flower, or getting different arcs, all using the circles in various sizes.

The squiggly lines were actually done freehand; they turned out mostly ok but I could stand to practice that technique a bit more, especially the starting and stopping.  But so far so good, eh?


Luckily the quilt had a lot of repeating motifs, so in a way, the quilt itself was practice!


But the part that got me in the end?  The final border:


which I am in the process of ripping out.  The outside border is supposed to be alternating hearts & loops, which sounds like a no brainer when you say it out loud, but when it comes to freehanding,  is actually pretty hard to do.

The first challenge is in getting them evenly spaced, which is feasible if you're willing to mark the quilt.  The second challenge is in getting a smooth shape.  In my world, hearts are lopsided, and I just can't seem to make both humps the same height.  The third challenge is really about confidence, which can only come from practice.  The least bit of hesitation or doubt and it shows up in your stitching.  And lastly, thread choice.  I'm using the same thread color throughout, and using a stark white on a blue background is just inevitably going to call attention to less-than-perfect stitches.

I tried several methods of applying these hearts.  First, I tried chalking them in.  I don't like marking quilts with pens because of all the horror stories I've heard about marks that come back or get set into the quilt. But chalk also can be problematic on a fabric that simply will not hold a chalk line.  I tried freehanding the hearts and loops, but my freehand is just too, well, "free" for this buttoned up ruler-perfect quilt.  Finally, I tried doing it as a pantograph from the back of the frame, but that just proved to be too inaccurate and my hesitation stitches show.

I actually quilted 2-1/2 borders before finally deciding that this pattern is just not right for this quilt.  If I had a computerized system, it would be a no-brainer, but I just cannot duplicate the perfection of these hearts at my current level of skill.  If I had dozens of hours of hearts-and-loops practice under my belt, maybe, but right now, no.

So my last resort really is to just ask the customer if I can do something different in the final border. I really hope she says yes because there's no way I'm sending this quilt out with such a glaring imperfection; that would be the kiss of death to my long arm business (unless it already has happened from sending my experiments into the world!)

My advice to anyone who gets a request to QILT:  Just say no. There's definitely a difference between someone asking you to "quilt some flowers" and handing you a magazine with the quilt pattern dictated, but I think you'll find yourself turning out better things when you get to put something of yourself into your quilt projects.

In the event you do decide to accept QILTs, make sure you really understand what you're getting into.  Not all QILTs are created equal, and some can turn out to be more intricate than they first appear.  Needing nine rulers to execute one project is about 7 or 8 rulers too many, especially when the project is not an heirloom or wholecloth quilt.

To endless possibilities,

Ebony

My Happy Happy Crappy Crappy Blogging Style

I've been posting a lot about Mr. Darcy's adventures over the last several months, but I want to make sure that people don't misunderstand my posting.  Mr. Darcy is my brand new Handi Quilter 24" Fusion, and I love him dearly and wouldn't trade him for anything in the world.  Except maybe a million dollars, because then I could buy a couple more and build a beautiful comfy space for us all to live in happily together, along with my new Bernina, because well... why not when you have a million dollars? :)

I love Darcy because I understand him & his needs are simple - feed him good thread, clean his wheels, keep him oiled. He takes my ideas and commits them to cloth.  So far he hasn't presented me with a problem that I can't solve or enlist the support of my awesome dealer or his awesome parents (Handi Quilter) to fix.

I love tinkering, and tools, and gadgets, and problem solving, and learning, and trying new things.  Sometimes the stuff that I do causes more problems, which just helps me learn more... and I am so excited when I learn something that I can't help sharing, and the blog is the perfect way to do it since it bores my mother to tears when I drone on and on about what-Mr.-Darcy-did-today...

My whole intent behind this blog is to give people a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run my business.  I don't just post about the happy-happy sunshine stuff, but I also write about the happy-crappy stuff, and the just plain crappy-crappy stuff.  Why?  Because I think it's important for people to know that it takes WORK to turn out something beautiful. And sometimes you have to make an awful lot of crap before you can get to the good stuff.  I try to post my successes as well as my failures, because I think there are lessons to be learned from both.  Heck, maybe even my good stuff is still crap!  But maybe my crap might inspire someone else to make something better, or even help someone to avoid the same mistakes it took for me to get that far.

I read so many blogs out there where all you see is the final picture.  "Look at this beautiful thing I made and it only took me 10 minutes start to finish even though I spun the wool myself and it's hand beaded and I'm being published!"  Well, sometimes that makes me gag because real life rarely happens that way (and if that's your life, I'm not knocking you, but it still makes me gag a little.)

Now, I might post something like that one day, but by the time you've seen that, you've also seen the dozen posts about me burning a hole right through the middle of my cherished Thai silk, getting hand-cramps because I decided 1" tall applique letters were the way to go, or cutting 4,000 2" triangles when I really needed 3-1/2", or sending Darcy on a Tension Tantrum because I absolutely insisted on running 30 wt in the top and 60 wt in the bottom.

All that to me is LEARNING.  My goal is to HONE my craft, and I can only do that by doing goofy things sometimes. I'm not afraid to tinker, even when it gets me into trouble.  And I'm not afraid to tell people that I screwed something up (especially if I have also figured out a way to get myself out of my little pickle.)

I've put myself on a very steep learning curve when it comes to my long arm quilting.  Most people don't start working on customer quilts the day after they get their machine.  Most people don't buy a long arm and then immediately start feeding it different threads, different battings, and 30 different quilts made by 30 different people in an effort to learn as much as possible. 

Most people don't start out with custom quilting with nail-biting precision.  But I did.  So you're going to see me make a LOT of mistakes. You'll see me post about Darcy's "issues" even though his issues are mostly due to operator error.  You'll also find that I may only post when something remarkable happens, good or bad.  I mean, if Darcy's running just fine, cranking out a new quilt every 4 hours with perfect tension and flawless stitches... well, what's so interesting about that?  *YAWN*

My hope is that by telling not just the what, but the WHY and the HOW, that people can develop a deeper appreciation for what goes into making something; that budding artists and quilters and sewists and crafters understand that it's OK not to be perfect, or not finish fast, or even sometimes to not finish at all. 

I want, especially for new long arm quilters, to show that it's a process, and you need to understand that a lot about quilting has to do with confidence, and sometimes in order to build confidence you have to put yourself out there.  It is a little bit cheeky for me, as a professional, to admit that I make mistakes (and some doozies sometimes) and still believe that people should trust me with their quilts anyway.  But I firmly believe that if you're not making mistakes, frankly - you're not trying hard enough.

I hope that I only encourage, and not discourage, educate people, give good advice (well, the best advice that I'm capable of giving), and maybe even make you laugh at the sometimes ridiculous scrapes that I get myself into.  You are watching me go through an entire process of learning in a very, very short period of time, and I happen to think it's important enough to document my journey for everyone to see, good - bad - or just plain ugly.

To endless possibilities,

Ebony

Chiselry Is Not Dead - Finished Quilt

I finished the quilt for the cover and got some photographs taken.  I can't show you the finished quilt just yet but I'm glad to say it's done!

To endless possibilities,

Ebony

Long Arm Quilting: #1 Donna

Ok, I'll admit it.

Donna's quilt scares me.

Intimidates me even.  Why, you ask?  Because:


Donna's quilt has a solid backing fabric.

Any long arm quilter will tell you - solid backs are the kiss of death.  Or, really show off the skill and talent of the long arm quilter (not me right now!)  Supposedly, "busy backs" are our saving grace. Why?

Because of tension.  And you know how Darcy and I have had our differences over tension.  I think he's okay now, because since we had a little tension "come to Jesus" session, he's quilted up two really beautiful quilts without a peep.  I even did one with monofilament, but I can't show you because it's a pattern as yet to be released, and I keep those pretty well under wraps.

Well, ok I'll show you a little bit of it:


So when I was buying thread last month, I decided that the best thing to do was to buy thread that matched the back, so that any little tension issues would be well disguised.  And this is the thread I came up with:


Looking at it now, it's absolutely horrid.  The thread on the left is for the bobbin, and you can see it literally melts into the quilt backing - that's exactly what I want on a solid back.  But the top?  Ewwww!

When I was quilting Jen #18's quilt, I learned that a thread on top that uses a contrasting thread really shows everything.  And sometimes, that's the last thing that you want.  So with the top of this quilt being so light, and the back being so dark & solid to boot - what's a quilter to do?

So I went back to the Superior thread charts and ordered this:


And this...


Yup, one more...


Yes, this too...


Nope, still not done...


Yes, you saw that correctly.  7 cones of thread for just one quilt, because I just couldn't decide.  You're probably asking yourself, "Why on earth did she order 3 cones of the exact same color?"  Well, I didn't - but they are sooooo close that I couldn't pick the best one based on the color card, and I didn't want to choose wrong again and have to wait, and King Tut thread is soooooo yummy, and...

In any event, I think I've come up with a reasonable combination of threads, but I truly consider this to be the ultimate test of whether Darcy & I have truly come to an understanding about tension.

If we haven't... well Donna, that's what happens when you send your quilt in first!  :)

To endless possibilities,

Ebony

HONE Continues While Mr. Darcy Pitches a Fit

This week, I decided to tackle a technique that's been vexing me and evading my understanding for months: ruler work!

When I was at the Houston show, hanging out in the Handi Quilter booth, I started playing with the new rulers they had come out with.  And you know what I discovered?  I absolutely suck at ruler work!  And you know what else?  I bought some anyway!

I think actually I may have an obsession with rulers, because I keep buying them, and they just collect in a drawer.  I should point out - long arm rulers are different from quilting rulers; rulers for the long arm are 1/4" thick at least, so that the hopping foot doesn't "hop" on the ruler and break something important.  I know some quilters who have run over their 1/4" rulers anyway (myself included) but it doesn't happen often. Sure is scary because the needle does NOT break!

Besides the special rulers, you also need an extended base for your machine to help support the ruler.  I don't have a picture of mine but you can look at it on the Handi Quilter website:

You need rulers to do stitch in the ditch (SID), and also whenever you need to do circles or arcs or anything where precision is necessary.  Well, if I had the computer module on my machine, I wouldn't need rulers at all because I could just make the machine do it, but I like the challenge of learning this skill on my own.  That's what HONE is about.

If you are sending your quilts out to a long arm quilter, you can expect to pay a premium for ruler work.  It is definitely a skill to be developed, and requires additional tools to support it.  In addition, ruler work is SLOW work.  You can't go zipping across the quilt when you're using rulers; you have to slow down, focus on about 4-6" ahead of the needle at a time, and there are a lot of stops, starts, and adjustments.  If you just have a few block outlines it probably won't add too much to the cost, but if your quilt is nothing but crosshatching and SID, that's going to cost more than an edge to edge design.

At the end of December, I had finished piecing 4 quilts made from a Moda layer cake, and since I have 4 nearly-identical quilts, I thought it would be fitting to use one of them to practice with.

The rulers I employed included a serpentine ruler, 2 sizes of circles (4" and 8") and the Handi Versa Tool for stitch in the ditch.

The first thing I did was use the serpentine ruler to create a spine for some swirls I planned around the outer border.  Then I used the circles in some of the blocks, and finally I did stitch in the ditch work.  On the back of the circle templates, I sprayed them with 404 Repositionable Adhesive to make sure they didn't move, but I didn't do the same for the other two rulers.    Part of the reason for that is that for circles to be perfect, they can't be shifting around, but for serpentine & SID, you sometimes need to adjust the ruler a bit to follow the seam or fit to an area.


The key to ruler work is all about the right pressure: the pressure of your hand holding the ruler, and the pressure of your other hand guiding the machine.  It takes a lot of coordination!  If you press down on the ruler too hard - the machine can't move, but if you don't press down hard enough, the ruler will shift.  Likewise, if you push or pull the machine too hard against the ruler, you'll move the ruler, but if you don't push or pull hard enough, the machine won't follow the ruler and you'll get some crazy looking lines.  It's a fine balance because you don't want hand cramps either.

I actually trained myself to use the right amount of pressure by buying a ruler with handles. With this ruler, I was focused so much on gripping the handles between my fingers, that I didn't press down too much and was able to balance the pressure.  When I switched over to the rulers without handles, I got the hang of it pretty quickly.  It's funny to think on it now, that I was so scared to use rulers before and now I can't wait to do another quilt that needs ruler work!

Since this quilt is a disappearing nine patch with 9.5" center blocks, I took it as an opportunity to practice different stitches in each area.  I also had a thought that instead of doing the small block samplers from Leah's 365 Days of Free Motion, I could practice some of her designs on Mr. Darcy.  I started out with this circle:


On the inside edge, I used Swirling Petals, and added some swirls on the inside and outside.  I don't like the inside swirls as much - I could have planned them better, but I did like the petals.

Here is the next circle I did:


I know the inside is hard to see, but it's a variation of Bubble Path Spiral.  I say "variation" because my path isn't a spiral, it meanders around quite a bit.  That was really fun to do.  On the outside of the circle I freehanded some feathers.  Those still need a lot of practice! They are more challenging than you might think.

The next circle:


This is Skeleton Flower on the inside, and on the outside I just freehanded some lightning bolts.

The last circle:


This is Wormholes on the inside, and then the Pebbles that I love so much to fill in the outside of the block.  Wormholes is a really fun quilting stitch to do too - I love the randomness of it.

In the smaller circles, I used the same design, just wavy lines coming off the center and back again, it reminded me a bit of a sand dollar when I started, but I decided to fill it in a lot more.  As I stitched it, I was thinking about the hands of a clock, and I chanted as I stitched it: 12 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 9 o'clock...


I filled the inside of the circle first, then on the outside, I made more little spikes, but when I came to another part of the block, I just took off in long wavy lines.  You'll see that better in other pictures.

The final design in the border was just an all over swirl in the vine.  I decided to add more texture to the swirls by adding 3 spiky points to them as I exited the spiral.  I don't know if Leah has a design like this or not, I didn't consult her designs for this one.


Now, just as I was coming to the last half of the quilt, Mr. Darcy pitched a fit.  You see, he has several modes of sewing for stitch regulation, and the one that is critical for free motion is the one he just wouldn't stitch in consistently.  I spent a half hour on the phone with his parents (Handi Quilter) and the verdict was that we needed to replace his brain.  Mr. Darcy isn't fully computerized, but he does have quite a few computerized bits anyway, and there just seems to be a bug in his.  I was able to coax him into cooperating to finish the quilt, but it's quite maddening to want to stitch something a certain way, and have him refuse to do so.  You will obey me, Darcy!!  Please?

The last part of the stitching I want to point out is the SID.  You can't really see it from the front (that's the point) but on the back, it really sets off the blocks nicely:


I am very pleased at how straight my lines are on this quilt, and I love how the blocks are set off.  The one thing I would probably change is to not have stitched the lines on the inside of the smaller circle.  It's important to think about the quilting and how it will look both with and without block lines!

Now here is the whole quilt from the front:


And here it is from the back:


Isn't that just super fun?!?!

To endless possibilities,

Ebony