Vacation, Quilting, and other things that are occupying my time

I finished my first quilt after a 3 week break.  It's good to have extended breaks in life.  I spent part of a week at my parent's home.  It was a really great time.  They are in their 80's and thinking of selling their home and moving to a senior living center.  We visited the place -- really nice.  They are excited about the prospect of living there.
I also spent part of a week with my sister visiting.  We had so much fun.  She is also a longarm quilter so there was lots of time discussing quilting, sewing together and visiting quilt shops.  We watched BBC movies, visited some cute shops, ate out, saw a friends beautiful yard and garden, went to a farmer's market and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
The last week off was consumed with two new little family members.  We got 2 new kittens.  In the last two years we lost two cats and our dog so now our house is once again filled with 'pet activity'.  Even as I type this, one is regularly stalking and pouncing on my keyboard (makes for lots of spelling errors).  Here's a couple pictures of these cuties.  We names the orange and white one Wolverine and the black and white one Tux.
By the way, my longarm is back in service.  It runs beautifully.  Feels like it's brand new.  It has made quilting a joy again.  I am booked into October and that means I only have 2 months of spots to fill before the Christmas season (I take December off).  They usually go very quickly so if you want something quilted before Christmas you better let me know soon.

Brown Quilt is Done

I feel like I have worked on this quilt forever. This fall it will be two years since I started piecing the quilt. The applique work took such a long time to complete. Appliquing leaf after leaf got tedious and I found myself constantly putting the quilt away only to take it out a month or so later and challenge myself -- do two leaves a day and in a month it will be done! What finally motivated me was the desire to start a Dresden Plate quilt in miniature (mostly applique work) and my son-in-law saying, "you can't start something new until you finish that other quilt"! He was right of course, so now it's done. There still is the machine quilting to do on it. I want to have a good chunk of time to do that so I may not get to it for a few weeks. Ideas are brewing in my head as to how it should be quilted. I'll post when it's being worked on. Sorry for the poor photos. My husband has the camera and is in Peru, so I had to take pics with my cell phone.

Basket Quilt is Quilted

I finished the quilting on the basket quilt. I'm pleased with how it turned out. The quilting doesn't show up like it would on plainer fabric but I still put some time and effort into quilting it artisitcally and with designs that I thought would add to the beauty of the quilt. I'm not sure if this will hang in the front entry hallway or our bedroom. The quilt was so long in the process of getting to this point that it deserves some place of prominence! Now just to get the binding done.

Done at last

I can take a big sigh of relief -- this quilt is finished. There was many hours that went into quilting this one, but it turned out beautifully. I'm happy with the designs that were quilted on it. I love the scalloped edge and the dresden plate in the center. This is a quilt I would like to make. Maybe someday. When a quilt is this heavily quilted and the back is a plain muslin, the back becomes a work of art too. I love it.

This Week's Work

It's still Thursday morning and I'm done with this week's customer quilts. Yeah! It's always nice to get work behind me before Friday so that I can have a 3 day weekend! There's a million projects to work on around here (well, okay, maybe not a million, but sometimes it feels like it). Kate informed me before she left for school this morning that this weekend would be a good time to make lots of pillows to go on her bed on top of her new quilt. I told her -- maybe... Here's some photos from the week's work. I especially loved the background quilting that went around the dahlia quilt. The Dresden Plate quilt was small so also fun to do. I have 3 Dresden Plate quilts in my studio to do right now. That's unusual. Is there a trend going on? Or maybe just a class? Well, whatever, it's made me want to make a Dresden Plate quilt. Oh dear, I feel another project coming on!

Swirls

Today's quilting was swirls. I did 4 quilts yesterday and today and all 4 were an all-over pattern of swirls. It's probably the most common pattern I put on a quilt. I could probably do them in my sleep! I'm a doodler, so swirls come naturally. They do look nice on most quilts and when someone wants to keep the cost of quilting down, that's probably what they will get -- swirls. (I also love the way they look on the back).

Tension Headaches - A Common Complaint?

If there's one complaint I've heard the most from customers about machine quilting it's the thread tension. I know many other machine quilters read this blog so I'll offer a few insights and hopefully some help. Tension is a headache! There, I've said it. I've had times when no matter what I try the tension seems off. Most often it's the bobbin tension that is the struggle. If you have a different color of thread in the bobbin from the top and the tension isn't right, it can be a nightmare. I recently had a customer drop off a quilt that she didn't take to her usual machine quilter because she said the tension on the bobbin thread is always too tight and she wants this quilt quilted with the backing fabric on top (so the bobbin thread will be what shows on the top). That set the bar pretty high to get that quilt's tension right.
So here's a few hints:
--find a type and brand of thread (or a couple of types) that run well on your machine and stick with those. I only venture into other kinds of thread when I really have the time to work with something different. My favorites are Perma-core by A & E and Aurifil.
--test out tension if it's a new thread or if there are other factors (batiks, thin battings, applique work, fabric content other than cotton, etc.) I keep a test piece close by and sometimes also test right at the edge of the quilt (not on the actual top).
--keep a bobbin case set for different kinds of thread. I use some bottom line thread and have a bobbin case just set for that thread. It's so fine that my bobbin needs to be different than for most other threads.
--don't be afraid to experiment with tension settings. Start with either bobbin or top and set it really loose and then tighten it up by moving the tension dials ever so slightly. Same with the bobbin, tighten the screw just a fraction. Keep testing it out on a scrap of fabric. I always use high contrast threads in top and bobbin so I can see what is happening when I'm adjusting tension.
--check to be sure everything is functioning properly. If you have mis-threaded somewhere that will most likely affect the tension. If your bobbin case has a burr or is just really worn it will affect your tension. (I struggled for months with tension and finally bought a new bobbin case and instantly the tension issue was solved).

Hopefully that will be helpful to someone and those tension headaches can be avoided.

Reproduction Quilt

I have always liked reproduction fabric. Maybe it's because I always secretly wished to be born in an earlier generation. I like old things so my nostalgia about reproduction fabric fits right in. This is a customer's quilt for a wedding. It needs to be in the mail by Friday. I struggled over what to do for awhile last night and finally just decided to start and go with my gut level instinct. Usually what I first see to put on a quilt in terms of design ends up being the best. When this quilt first arrived, there was a photo with it from the pattern and most of the quilt was cross-hatched. I do not like cross-hatching. Actually I like how it looks on a quilt, but the work and time it takes to do it causes me to dislike it a lot. Also, just cross-hatching the whole quilt wouldn't add much interest in the quilting design. Some straight line work, though, would add to the geometric look with the nine patches and sashing. So as you can see by the photos my designs are laid down for the whole quilt. Now I just need about a full day of quilting to complete this masterpiece.

A Week's Work

This quilt has been on my longarm for a week and it's finally done. It was a lot of work, but the main reason it ended up being on my longarm so long was because of the little circles in the pink and purple areas. I could only stand to do those for 15 to 20 minutes at a time before it drove me nuts! It's kind of mindless work, but hard on the hands and wrists. The quilt did turn out really nice but I'm mostly glad this week's work is done.

New York Beauty Quilt

I've had this customer quilt in my studio for awhile. I didn't want to start it until I was pretty sure what I would do and really had the time with no pressure to devote to quilting it. It's a beautiful batik quilt. This is a photo of the top part (just the beginning of quilting). I'll post more when it's done. I think it's going to turn out beautiful.

Challenge to Finish A Quilt

I have a quilt that I made almost 2 years ago for our bed. I love the way it has turned out. There is one problem, though, the applique still needs to be finished. I really like to do applique work, but this one seems like it's taking me forever. So I made myself a challenge: do 4 leaves every day for 24 days and then finish the flowers and in one month the quilt should be done and ready to be quilted. I know I probably can't work on it everyday but I have to get this done!! Last night I did 4 leaves and today, I've already done one. Three more to go before I can go to bed!

Pinwheel Quilt

Here's a customer quilt that I really like. I used this same line of fabric at Christmas for a quilt I made for a gift. It's a Moda line and the colors are just beautiful. The quilt turned out really nice even though it ended up being way more hours than I had anticipated when I gave the customer the quote. Oh well, better to have a quilt go out the door with extra work and even better than it came in then to do a less then expected job. I tend to use the design in the cream rectangles pretty frequently when I want to put a design in a sashing area. This quilt had a large pieced area in the center of the backing. There were a couple times that I could feel that the seams had come together on both top and back and made it almost too bulky for the needle to pass through. There was one time the needle refused to go, so that block pattern is slightly off. Fortunately it was in a very patterned area so would be hard even for me to find. This was number 1,010 quilt completed!

A Slice of Pie Anyone?

I just finished another customer quilt. Really cute. Every block is a different kind of slice of pie. It's very colorful but yet quite well coordinated. Some of the slices have bead work on them. That's always a challenge to quilt around but it worked out fine. I just had to do one anchor line of stitching through each slice of pie so that it didn't pop out of the quilt. Fun quilt, now I'm hungry for pie!

A really cute quilt

This is the most recent customer quilt. Really cute. I love the black, red and off white fabrics and the polka dots. It was fun to quilt.

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.

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.

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.

Starting a New Quilting Year

2010 has arrived. I have now done over 1,000 customer quilts. That's a milestone and quite an accomplishment. Now it's time to start a new year. I have a pile of quilts stacked up waiting their turn on the longarm. Tomorrow the first will be loaded and then it's off and running. I still need to do some annual maintenance on the longarm. The bobbin case and check spring need replacing. I'll also clean and oil it really well. My machine has run very well for almost 10 years. When I first got the machine I tried to think of a clever name for it, but nothing has really ever stuck, except maybe mac (short for machine). Mac has needed very little maintenance over the years and has only once been retimed. I'm impressed with the sturdiness and dependability of the Gammill machines. I don't think I'd trade for a different brand. I've thought of upgrading to more bells and whistles and that day may come, but right now I'm content with the way things are. My mac and I work as a team. I can hear when the bobbin is running low; I know when it needs oil or when the needle sounds a little dull. Familiarity is a good thing. So Mac and I are ready for 2010.