EQ6

I bought Electric Quilt 6 computer program last week. It's something I've been looking at and thinking about for years. Finally it seemed like it was time to take the plunge. I like designing quilts and feel like it's something I'd even do more of, if I didn't have to sit with pencil and graft paper and try to figure out all the math equations! I'm pretty good on the computer so hopefully this will be a great tool for designing quilts. Last night I loaded it and then decided I better go through the 10 lessons that come with the manual. Lesson 1 completed and I think I passed!

Katie's Quilt

My daughter has had a queen size bed with a twin size quilt on it for over 3 years! It's time to fix that. I quilted a quilt for an online quilt shop a couple weeks ago and instead of paying me in cash, the owner paid me in fabric. I like that. It was fun to browse through all her bolts (her entire basement walls are lined with shelves of fabric). Kate's room has one wall painted blue, one wall green and the other two white. She painted different size circle outlines on the white wall so when I saw the line called Oxygen (I believe by Moda) I knew it was perfect. The pattern is called BQ. It looks fun, easy and ideal for a 13 year old's bedroom.

Annual Tradition

Today I made a purse. I realized it's become an annual tradition. For the last 4 years in the month of my birthday (February) I have made a new purse. The idea just comes out of my head for the pattern and sometimes it works out well and other times, not so well. This year is definitely one of my favorites. I like the colors: tan, black and brown. My favorite part, though, is the gromits where the handles are. I bought them at a craft store a week ago and it inspired all sorts of purse idea. Of course the top was quilted on my longarm. It was fun, took only several hours and will be a great purse to carry in 2010.

Reproduction Fabric

Even though reproduction fabric has been around a long time, I still love it. I like the bright colors, the fun patterns and the nostalgic essence it brings to an old art -- quilting making. I have several of my own quilts that are done in reproduction fabric. Every spring I like to use them on my bed and to decorate with. Doing the quilt pictured for a customer was a treat. It is a beautiful quilt, especially with the black border that accents the quilt. I enjoyed quilting it. The center has an overall pattern that I designed and the borders have a new twist to the feathers. It was fun to try some new ideas and be please with the results.

New Quilt Designs

I received a quilt this month that is to hang in a hospital in the area. It's not very big but because of the attention and potential to be viewed by so many people, I wanted to put some extra work into quilting it. So this small quilt took about 6 hours to quilt! Way to much work to make much profit on it. I'm very happy though, with the results. I tried some new ideas with a focus on circles. Designing a quilt for a couple quilt shows this year is my motivation for trying new quilting ideas. Hopefully some if these ideas will appear on a quilt, that as of now, only exists in my head. I have not been into designing quilts very much. Probably this is because I'm more of a traditionalist when it comes to quilting. I can appreciate all the quilt art that is out there but I still prefer traditional blocks and traditional quilting.

January Quilts

I'm almost finished with January customer quilts. This last one I'm doing will hang somewhere at Meridian Park Hospital. I hope some day I see it, but not as a patient! I usually do approximately 2 quilts a week for customers. Sometimes that is 10 or more hours of work and sometimes it is less. I'm glad this is just a part-time business, there are so many other things to do. I love to work in my yard, crochet, read a book, read online blogs and other news information, cook and just be with my family and friends. Life is good and it's even better as a machine quilter!

One Thing Lead to Another

Most often when I start a quilt that's more of a custom job, I have only a few sketchy ideas on what I'm going to do. Usually as I roll down further into the quilt more and more ideas take shape or just seem a natural fit and the quilting all comes together by the end. I prefer it that way, though sometimes I can get really stumped over what to quilt. Not this quilt. I could see so much potential right from the beginning. It was just a matter of one thing leading to another and then another and finally it was done. I'm very happy with the result and think it is an exceptional quilt. If I can convince this customer, it should be put in a quilt show this year.

Leah's Quilt Being Published

I'm so excited! A couple weeks ago I sent photos of Leah's Spring quilt to a quilt magazine and today received an email saying they wanted to publish the photos with a short article on the quilt. It's so exciting. The best part is just being able to tell her story again! I miss that little one and each chance to share the blessing of her life is still a miracle. I don't know what issue it will be published in and they want new better resolution photos of the quilt, but when the article comes out I'll try to post a link or take a photo or something.

Being Creative and Having Fun

Just before the new year began, I bought a new planner. I have used a notebook for many years, but decided I didn't want to carry the notebook around anymore. There was way too much stuff in the notebook that wasn't used. So I went hunting for the perfect planner. I finally found one I really liked. It has a page where you can see the whole month at a glance with a space down the side for lists. Then it is divided into weekly sections, with the days of the week on one side and a 'to do' list on the other side. Each page has a sidebar with either menu or grocery list. That's pretty much exactly what I need in my planner. The inside was perfect, but the outside -- never had I seen a more unattractive cover. Even several of my daughters made a comment on it. There was also the need to have a cover that closed so whatever gets stuck inside remains there. So into my fabric stash I went and pulled out some coordinates from a Paris line. I made my own piping for the trim, quilted the cover on my longarm and then spent a couple hours trying to figure out how to get it to go together! That was a task that required several times of ripping out stitching. But in the end I'm very happy with the way my planner looks. The button is an antique and the pink loop adds a spash of color. Now I can plan away!

First Quilt of 2010

I think it will take awhile to get used to writing or typing 2010. For some reason my fingers just don't want to adjust to that pattern. It also seems like 2010 is a bigger jump in numbers than say going from 2008 to 2009. I still vividly remember it turning 1980 and feeling then like life was going by too fast.

So here it is, a new year and now my first quilt of 2010 is done. It was a fun one to do once I finally decided on the quilting pattern. The design was quite simple. I added a new twist to the feathered wreaths in each block by alternating each feather full size and then half size. I like the way it looks and will use it again. Many times when doing a feather block I put a different design in the center rather than the inside row of feathers. It's hard to make the inside row look perfect without using a template and that adds so much time on to the quilting that if I'm going for a less expensive way to do a customer's quilt (per their request to keep the cost down) I usually find another design to do inside the feather wreath. This design allowed me to only have one stop and start in each block. I followed the seam down to the center of the block with SID so it would be hidden. Start to finish this quilt only took about 4 hours.