Long Arm Experience

I found a quilt shop through an ad in my local guild newsletter that rents out time on one of their long arm quilting machines. I think it is a Huquavarna / Viking something or other. They showed me how to load the quilt on and pin it in place. I had to bring my own backing and batting and had to purchase 2 spools of King Tut variegated thread. I matched the top nicely and chose a quieter beige for the backing. I could not believe how big the needle is that is used.  After choosing a simple swirly design and programing the computer, we basted the top to the backing and batting. The top was not pinned on. It was centered and patted down.

When we did a tension check, we found the bobbin thread was all loopy so had to un stitch and figure out what the problem was. I suggested that I always re thread the top thread when this happens and that did the trick. After this, the machine just did the stitching. It is a robot. I stood there hovering over it making sure that it was moving along smoothly and not catching on anything. The design was programed to be 8 1/2 inches square and there were 12 repeats. I had to cut the threads, unhook the clamps and roll it to the next section.

It was not such a bad experience, except I did not get to do any free motion playing around on it. Will I do this again anytime soon? I don't know. It cost $25 per hour and took 4 1/2 hours to do. I am not about to invest $15,000 in one anytime soon.

Blessings,
Chris

Through the Window

My dearest, most patient Jane,
You have truly been a paragon of long suffering while waiting for me to complete you. The other night I was sitting here at the computer listening to lectures and doing some hand applique on a BTCT block and happened to look up, and, there you were, hanging on the design wall, watching me from behind and from in front. I cannot get away from you.

I picked up my camera and tried to take your picture through the window. Thought I, what a wonderful photo that would make, if my camera would only work in the dim evening light. And lo and behold, it did! I had to look around to see what other stuff scattered around the room would show up. There is my granddaughter Ava. She loves to spend time here in the quilt room. Well, she spends more time on the computer now than on her antique toy sewing machine. Then there is  my Sweet Farmer Ken swinging a golf club. Funny. He golfs about once every 2-3 years, but the picture is framed and was a gift. Then there are my two blessed children. Dan at 3 1/2 and Melanie at 9 months. Dan now has 3 girls of his own, Ava, Elly and Devan.

OH!! And Melanie just had her own baby, Jonathan, after waiting 16 years. He is 5 weeks old today. He will meet his Grampa here in another 2 weeks. I can hardly wait to see him again. You, Jane, will get to see him also. That is the reason I have not completed you as I had hoped this past spring. I was there when Jonathan was born. Holding him. Helping settle him so mom could get a bit of sleep. He experienced his first hurricane last week and no power for 5 days. Not that he noticed since he is breast fed and it is warm.

And  now, only 16 more triangles and you will be complete and ready to quilt. Did I tell you? I tried a long arm quilting machine the other day. I actually hovered over it for 4 hours as it did its own thing quilting a simple swirly design on a quilt Melanie made when I visited her in the spring. I cannot show pictures of it yet. She made me promise not to post any pictures until after they give it as a wedding gift 3 weeks from today. Hey, if you can wait so patiently, then so can I. I am thinking I might take you over to that shop to get you quilted. Maybe. Just maybe.

blessings,
Chris

Fear of Machine Quilting

I think I am scared of making a mistake and messing up a beautiful large quilt with my level of machine quilting experience. Sounds kind of dumb, I know but that is partly what I have decided is holding me back from completing some of the many quilts I have on the go. The other thing is to put myself under too much pressure to get the thing done by a certain date and not leaving enough time, so I end up with a lot of back and shoulder pain. Like when I did this one in 10 days as an impulse wedding gift. I quilted it up in 2 days not realizing that I had 2 dislocated ribs. I do what I call scribbling - not real stippling, not real designs, sometimes flowers, or hearts or stars. Sometimes I will write the name of the recipient or a Bible verse.

I have a notebook where I have recorded every quilt start and completion. To date, I have completed half of the 70 full sized quilts or bigger. I hand quilted the first dozen. The last time was 12 years ago when I took a course to learn machine quilting in order to complete some of the UFOs back then. Many were tied. I think I have machine quilted about 12. Three of them were done as squares then connected with strips. I hated that particular technique. I have since found an easier way. That is how I will do GORF.

Initially I was taught to machine quilt with monofilament thread and thought that was the only proper way to  make the stitching disappear. I did not think my stitching was good enough yet to showcase with fancy threads. I had to stop and unstitch a lot of messiness and re do it. Not very encouraging to a beginner.
And I was in the middle of a nightmare para-menopause journey filled with mourning, anger and depression. This is the topic of one of the two books I am currently writing, slowly, very slowly. I find the hand work very therapeutic. I want to include the therapeutic value of handwork in my dissertation somehow.

I am totally intimidated by the long arm creations that I see. Having said that, I have rented time on a long arm for this Thurs to quilt up my daughter's latest disappearing nine patch creation for a wedding gift. I still have to preshrink the backing and cut the batting and it is 102 inches square. I will try to remember to take my camera and chronicle the experience. One of my concerns for this is that I am unable to stand on my feet for more than a few minutes at a time with my bad hip and spine. I hand quilted in the beginning but it hurts my hands too much now. Funny that hand applique does not hurt them.

Now I am done whining and making excuses. Last night I listened to 5 hours of lectures on Equipping Saints to Counsel for my doctorate and  the Prof talked about how we all make excuses and blame something or someone for our shortcomings. I have to listen to the lectures and answer a 100 question multiple choice test. I had made up a few extra bias strips for BTCT and, since it was easy and I had all the background squares ready, I prepped another 2 blocks that are not on my July Goals list. It took only a few minutes. Anyway, I hand appliqued for 5 hours while doing homework and another hour today. So, I still have 6 hours of this real hard homework to do. 

Blessings,
Chris

GORF

Completing the GO Real Fast Quilt is on my July Goals list. I had completed all the machine applique back in Feb and had cut and layered the backing and batting in preparation for machine quilting as I go and marked all the cross hatching lines in neat diagonal grids. I am using the walking foot but still have some ripples. Still not sure how to correct that. I outlined all the feathers then stitched the outside lines first.

Then decided to start beside each feather and stitch to the edge. This took  a bit longer but I like how it turned out. I pulled up the bobbin thread, stitched at 0 for 3-4 stitches then clipped the threads after stitching to the edge.

I am still wondering if I should close up the grid lines or leave them alone where they come to the feathers. I consider myself an insecure beginner at machine quilting even though I have been doing it off and on for about 10 years. Need practice, but have to complete some quilts to have something to practice on. Practicing on queen sized quilts is not as much fun as doing these smaller squares.

I sandwiched all the rest of the blocks using a scant bit of 505 spray adhesive on a large sheet of newsprint and still got glue on my table. I now have a very big box from my new printer that I will put them into next time. When I got to the end of the pile of backing/batting squares, I still had one top square and wondered how this could have happened. I am too left brained to have miss counted. I count the steps every time I go up or down them. I had moved the pile more then several times over the past few months and one had been left behind on a box in the closet. I had been looking for a red square but it was the batting that was face up and I kept missing it. 

Blessings,
Chris

BTCT # 17 and # 4

I got home from the East Coast Tues night and I had another plane to catch Thurs so that left me little time to get anything done except a massage and shopping for some new clothes and packing. So I prepared a few 1/4 inch bias strips before going away last week with my husband on a 5 day business trip to rainy Wisconsin. I decided to do this block because it looked very simple and I was able to take some freezer paper and extra fabric to make the leaves. Most hotels now have irons and ironing boards available. I was counting on this. However, I forgot to take the cheddar so had to wait until I got home to complete it. I did not mark the stitching lines this time, just cut a careful scant 1/4 inch around the freezer paper shape and pinned the leaves into position using the full layout sheet that I did remember to pack. I had drawn a single line down the middle of the stems and positioned the leaf ends to line up inside. I started it Sat night and had all the leaves stitched Sun afternoon sitting in the 8th floor hospitality room overlooking the Mighty Mississippi  where 3 rivers come together and empty into it at La Crosse Wisconsin. The water level raised over 12 inches due to the rain each day we were there.

I pinned the stems into place and pulled it out at the youth banquet that evening. The lighting was kind of poor, so we lined up several tea lights in front of me and I happily stitched down the stems. I only had to unstitch about an inch where I missed the placement over the bottom right stem. I managed to thread my #10 milliners needle several times until I dropped it, so it was game over with about 2 inches to go. I completed it the other night. I chose the Dear Jane 2 cheddar because it was preshrunk and sitting on the top of the project box.
 

 

BTCT # 17

Block 14 is one of the unique patterns that endeared this quilt to me. It is not the simplest to make. I had originally printed off the pattern at 120% for some strange reason, and could not figure out why it did not fit into the white background square. I did the same with block # 3 and have to start it over also. I had pinned the printed green bias strips onto the red print then decided to flip the fabric over for the green leaves and moved the bias strips onto the solid red. Now I think I will make some solid green bias strips and then some solid red for the top of the green leaves. I do have these bits all stitched down now but cannot take photos in the evening light so will now wait until it is complete. Again, I did not mark any lines onto the green leaves, just cut a careful scant 1/4 inch around the freezer paper pattern then needled turned the edges. I am getting to really like the needle turn applique . . . and  . . . the less prep work the better.

BTCT # 4

I picked up a used copy of Gwen Marston's book Classic Four-Block Applique Quilts at the Antique Warehouse the other day. She says that the major difference between 19th and 20th century borders is that 19th century borders were usually asymmetrical . . . and mitered borders were unheard of before 1970. Looking closely at some of the beautiful applique quilts, you often see a different pattern on each border and not perfectly placed all around. The quilt police will not be happy.

Blessings,
Chris

Quilting Goals for July

Today I went shopping then had lunch with a friend. I have been waiting for an opportunity to go to St. Jacob's about an hour from here to visit the Antique Warehouse near the famous St. Jacob's farmers market. The last time I was there, in the fall, I saw a book of antique quilts that I regretted not buying. It was not there today but I found a couple of other treasures. The Art of Quilts by Ruth Marler is one of them. As I was flipping through the pages to decide if I really wanted to invest the $10, I spotted this picture. Had to have it.

The first time I ever heard of the The Morrell Quilt was reading about Carole's completed one in Sept.                See the picture here     
I tracked down the pattern at Threadbare and ordered it in Nov, then had to wait a couple of months until they could print off a copy for me and paid the unheard of sum of $30 to have it shipped to me late Feb.

So, will I make this amazing sampler quilt? I sure hope so. I have the perfect background and 2 yards of a red French General sort of solid that I am using for BTCT. Will there be enough for both? Probably not, but I don't have to worry about that right now. I am determined to complete Dear Jane this month.

My old printer is dying a very noisy death and last night I got the brand new one installed and functioning properly after asking for help so I was able to print off the new BOM patterns.  Then I wrote a Quilt Goals for July list while I was watching Pride and Prejudice on my laptop and prepping blocks and then could not get to sleep.

• Top of the list is prep CCCQ #23.   Check.
• Prep BB #6 & #7.   Partly done. I have to remember that I am machine appliqueing these.
• More prep on BTCT # 4. Need more 1/4 inch bias strips. I turned the green print fabric over to use the back for some of the leaves and thought I would make bias strips out of the solid back.  
• Complete BTCT # 17 which I prepped and took with me last week. Should get it done tonight.
• I had booked time on a longarm for next week to quilt a disappearring 9 patch my daughter made for a wedding quilt for next month. Today I went looking for a suitable wide backing. Got really lucky to find the flannel wide backs 30% off so I bought the rest of the bolt of some plain white to use instead of batting and enough print for 2 queen quilt backs. Have to preshrink it first.
• Complete Dear Jane. 
• Complete GORF. The Red and Green GO Real Fast Quilt has been sitting patiently in a neat pile all layered and ready to complete the machine quilting in sections. I marked the cross hatch lines while babysitting back in the spring, then blitzed Dear Jane triangles. I have 3 girls all ready to go to do the weekend retreat as soon as we can all agree on a date. The plan is to prepare ALL the blocks and borders and get most of it machine appliqued in a weekend using my Go cutter gadgets. I do plan on making another one.  This one will not be in traditional colours.
• Get started on my son and daughter in law's Bali Wedding Star Quilt by Judy Neimeyer. I tracked down enough foundation patterns and fabrics for a king size last year and have not yet started it. Maybe I can get it done for their anniversary in Sept. Maybe.

Blessings,
Chris

Happy Canada Day

Today is Canada Day. We are celebrating the 147th birthday of this wonderful country I call home. I have been away from my home for nearly 4 weeks. I was with my daughter for the birth of her first baby.

Jonathan

Then I was  home  long enough to prep a couple of BTCT blocks and flew off to Wisconsin for 5 days with my husband on a business trip where it rained more than an inch every day.  Watched the mighty Mississippi River rise daily between eating and stitching and getting to know more Guernsey people.

This is BTCT block #2. The tops of 2 of those red leaves will touch the corners if I do all the blocks 16 inches. I cut the squares 18 1/2 inches and  might just leave them that size. Then I will have to adjust the length of the borders by a few inches. Hhmm. I will have to think about that for a while.

.

BTCT # 2

The July Ben Biggs pattern is out and so is the next CCCQ block and my old printer is not responding to commands, but talks to me in the middle of the night. I bought a new one a month ago and am just now home and trying to set it up. It was half price and is a copier/printer/scanner/fax. And,  it will print legal and extra large pages. Or, I could unpack and do laundry, or pull weeds, or prep a few more blocks, or get groceries, but it is Canada Day and everything is closed so I guess I will . . .