Sewing & Quilt Gallery

Please, Oh please...send me some easier quilts!

2012-02-10T11:58:00.001-08:00

My back aches. My left hand is throbbing from the excess of ruler work. My neck needs a brace (and about 18 uninterrupted hours in bed-ha!). You get the picture. I am 14 hours into the 2nd Stars for a New Day miniature in 2 weeks. The end is joyfully in sight, which is good. The deadline for entering this into MQX is looming at 5 days away, and the client really wants/needs to have it done. Her's just happened to be the 2nd one I quilted by the random nature of it being on the bottom on the hanger. I don't want her to miss her MQX experience and debut because I was having technical glitches.
By technical, I mean for some reason, this is the quilt that just about would not allow me to quilt it. I did the 1st of these rather seam-heavy, double-batted quilts without so much as a broken thread. It was completely smooth sailing. Then, between the two mini-monsters, I stitched a lap quilt (albeit a pantograph), and had no issues with th stitching. It looks great. Then as soon as I started this quilt, it was as though the voodoo curse of the quilt was in place. The thread broke about 15 times in my first hour of stitching. This is immensely annoying to have to pick out the stitches in order to knot and burry every break! I got to practice all kinds of vulgarities and obscenities though while the kids were at school. Fun being able to vent one's frustration without having to softly mutter nice things in a growly voice. I asked plenty of great quilters for advice on this problem, but all indicators were that it had come out of timing. I couldn't sew right to left OR bottom to top, whatsoever. Freaky. But, off on another quilt sandwich, it sewed like a dream in any direction. More Freaky.

OK, so it is something about this particular quilt that is causing the problems. Maybe the thickness is slightly different/more than the 1st quilt. Or maybe the white-on-white fabric is part of it (more problems on this). Either way, I have to do customs, and I have 2 king sized ones next in line. My guess is it is a combination of thickness and thickness. The quilting on the center of the feathered star broke 4 times. There is a LOT of bulk here.

You can see from the pictures that I am getting it quited. I have slowed my stitching down to a practical crawl speed to avoid the breaks. It's annoying...there are times on straight sections that you just want to zoom. I have not done those 3-hour stars (between the feathers),and I am really dreading them. I must formulate a good plan for how to do them without to much screaming. You may also notice that I have stitched the sections of this quilt differently than the first quilt. It's not been easy, because I like certain motifs. I have not been able to do the cross-hatching whatsoever on this quilt, which frustrates me. It is so lovely and versatile. Hopefully it will be equally as impressive as the other quilt. Nobody wants to think that they got the less desireable quilt. And hopefully I meet the Tuesday deadline!

Ignoring the boundaries of decent journalism

2012-02-06T12:34:00.001-08:00

This is page 1 of the April 2012 American Patchwork & Quilting. One of my most fabulous clients allerted me to this article over the weekend. This article is about her daughter, also a client of mine, and the 13 quilts she made in the 18 months leading up to her wedding. The quilts were part of her modern-day dowry, and they were beautifully displayed at her wedding reception. Maybe some of you caught this story as it unfolded several months ago. It is posted here.
So upon hearing of her story going in a magazine, I went right out on Satuday and found the magazine. The photos they showed are lovely. In fact, I quilted each of these shown in the magazine, and another seven of the thirteen. Want to see?...Ok, maybe not, but they are here anyways, and here, and here, and here, and here and here, and here, and here, and let's not forget the show quilt that earned a 3rd place. There are a few that obviously never made it into blog posts, but I have pictures of them on my computer. Just humor me, I need a little vent.

It has always been my understanding that journalists should be held to the utmost in standards. They shouln't be allowed to report half the story, because the readers might actually believe only the half they are saying. This lovely article makes absolutely NO mention to the person that actually made these lovely tops into quilts. Imagine my anger and horror. I am a professional that relies on referral of clients by what is published, or shown at quilt shows, or word of mouth. Quilt shows are not allowed to not make mention of the quilter. Otherwise they may as well be called Flimsy shows. I doubt that would catch on. I hate stirring up hornet nests, but I just had to send a message to the editor this morning. They manage to publish the quilter's name with every quilt pattern & photo that they include in their magazines. So why not here? If there was not a dedicated quilter behind the scenes, it may well have only been 12 quilts. One of these was quilted a week before the wedding, just hours before I left on vacation. I could have very easily said no, but I happily did not.

So, fellow quilters out there, let's unite. Tell the publications that this crap is unacceptable. I'm not looking for my 12 seconds in the limelight, just the appropriate credit for what has been done. The story is all her's. I just want small text beside the photo indicating that I quilted them. Simple.

Finished Stars for a New Day #1

2012-02-04T11:56:00.001-08:00

Yup, you read that right. #1. There's a number two coming up in a few days. I'm allowing my very sore left hand to rest in a wrist brace until at least Wednesday before I tackle the next one. Remember, this quilt is in miniature -- only 44" or so square, so accuracy is a must. I outline quilted nearly every shape - all in fact except the row of stars on point...what the client refers to as her "3-hour stars". There was just no way they were getting completely outlined. Let's be real-
I spent 17 hours quilting this mini-beast, after one of the borders was removed and flipped on account of it being accidentally inverted. Not bad on my 15 hour estimate I'd say, considering this is my first miniature. I love how it turned out. The texture is just delicious. It has a QD wool batt over Hobbs 80/20. As an aside, I dislike the QD wool as compared to the Hobbs Tuscany. It seems tougher, rougher. In the end, I'm not sure the difference is discernable though. Top threads are all coordinating Superior So Fine, with Bottomline bobbins. I'm not really sure if these are actually CW repros or not, but the fabrics just did not scream out for bolder colors or shiny threads. JMHO there.

The outer border is a departure for me. It's almost got an Aztek feel, but these axisymmetrical stars stumped my sense of design. I didn't want to just micro stipple around them. This next picture is about my favorite. The long sweeping feathers flank the more simply quilted 3-hour stars. Thise are about the best back-tracking feathers I think I have sewn. It's just a nice juxtaposition of simple straight cross-hatching with the graceful curves of the feathers. That is what quilt design is all about. Variety, simplicity, repetition. Move the eyes constantly, but allow them to settle for a second or two, here and there.

I still cannot believe that this feathered star is only 7" square. And it is totally outline stitched. Those little triangles are tinier than my fingernails. I actually had to rip out one corner of the curved cross-hatching because it had the wrong number of curves. Kinda maddening.

The front is subtle with matching threads for the most part. It's all about the immaculate piecing. The quilting is not for show, but rather to add a dimension. But from the back...

Here, it is all about the stitching designs. And it is fun. It moves, and is playful. It's all I hoped it would be.

Let's hope that number 2 goes faster, and with as few issues as this one had. I plan to use some different motifs so that these 2 friends have similar yet not identical miniature quilts.

Now, off to think about a couple simpler quilts before I dive into this insanity for 5 days.

Small

2012-01-31T15:00:00.000-08:00

As you can see from the 6" square, this is one very tiny feathered star. Despite the size, she probably kept more of the triangle tips than I would have on a full size star! It's practically unimaginable that such a small unit can be constructed, and have it look so amazing. Just doing the outline/ditch quilting is a challenge because the thickness of the thread can make the triangle look like the tip was pieced off! It keeps me on my toes because I don't want to be the reason it looks anything but perfect.
I am about 9-10 hours into the quilting on this (see last post to get the entire quilt's view). I have done most of the ivory stitching - just the last half of the outer border remains I think. I have some spaces to stitch with another color, and (sigh) some more outline quilting of all the minute, narrow borders. The client has given me the carte blanche to "get carried away" so I will probably add a good bit of detail to the star tomorrow~

I'll leave you with a peek at the quilt, as seen from laying on your back under the frame. Interesting, eh?

Custom Insanity

2012-01-29T07:45:00.000-08:00

And I mean that in only the best way. You all know that I adore custom work over a mundane pantograph any day. So I had 2 clients over on Friday to drop off not one, but two of these truly gorgeous quilts. This is the first of them - it is Sue Garman's "Stars for a New Day" pattern. I love custom work. I REALLY love it when the piecing is so completely and absolutely perfectly done. You have to hunt really hard to find a tipped triangle or anything out of square. I saw the back of the quilt as she was removing it from the hanger, noticing how perfect it was pressed. I just knew the front would be eye-popping. And wait just a moment, if you really want to drop your jaw, listen to this. The regular design for this quilt is for an 85" square quilt. This one is done in miniature - it's only 44" square!
Yea, I know...Holy Tasmanian devil, can she piece, or what?! I love this row of stars on point. They are only about 2-1/2" square, and she called them her "3-hour stars", since each took 3 hours to make. This was a project she and her friend (you'll see that quilt next week probably) stitched over the last year. They drove from New Hampshire so I could get to quilt them.

I started the quilt yesterday. Things on tiny scale make challenges for the quilting - like where do I put that "bang"? I have a couple places in mind for some feathering and curved cross-hatching, but the quilt will be a LOT of SID and micro quilting to make elements pop. The first thing I unfortunately encountered as I had it all loaded, and had the top border mostly quilted, was that the first long side of the outer border was reversed. UGH! It would have made the quilting in the 4 corners not symmetrical. Since it was an outer border, and since I had not stitched any on it yet, I offered to fix it (not at my cost mind you), and she agreed. Two hours later I was back loading it and quilting. This row of stars is a little odd to design for since they are offset every other star, but this is what I came up with. It was not my plan to SID all 76 of these stars, but I think this will look best in the end.

And if you don't really have a good grip as to the size of these pieces, look at this...The stars barely measure 2". I initially thought I might be able to feather the white around the geese, but after seeing this first hand, I realized immediately that was nuts.

This is my week's project. It is fun and doable. I'd be dying from the ruler work if it were any larger!

ITEMS FOR SALE

2012-01-25T11:16:00.000-08:00

It is Spring Cleaning time... I will accept Paypal. Shipping TBD. Email with questions or post comment , but be sure you are not blogger non-reply msolomo1@maine.rr.com

1. 90"x100" Vintage sheet, high thread count $10
2. African print, Shamash & Sons Patt#5013M, 3 yds $15 SOLD

3. Monet Countryside #8669 by Fabri-Quilt, 2-1/3 yd $12

4. Sole by Valori Wells, 4-3/4 yds. $26

5. 6 yellow FQ, $4

6. 7 lt blue-cream striped FQ, $4.50

7. Through the Seasons w/ Eleanor Burns for Benartex, peach, two 1-yd cuts, together $8

8. RJR Little Pretties, two pieces, 28" and 56", together $9

9. Through the Seasons w/ Eleanor Burns for Benartex, cream, 1yd $4

10. Hawaiian floral, 62" $8

11. RJR vintage trellis, two pieces: 42", 20", together $7

12. Michael Miller Whimsy Large, two 1/2yd pieces - they are different prints $4.50 each

13. Free Spirit Annabella - left - green/red, 60", $9; right - green swirls, 2 pieces 70" and 75", each $10

14. Free Spirit yellow/red Patt#CX3323, 58", $8

15. Joel Dewberry Chestnuts, 2 colorways: (a) brown with aqua nuts 2-1/2yds $14, (b) aqua with white nuts 3 yds $17

16. Brown/green fabric assortment, 4 yards total, 5 pieces $16

17. Heather Bailey stripe 29", $4

18. Carla Miller Rowan Rose Stencil, 2 colorways: (a) green/purple 54" $7.50, (b) pink/green 78" $11

19. Winsome by Nancy Halvorsen, teal-white check, 7-7/8 yd $35, wonderful backing!

20. SSI blue stripe 52", $7

21. Kaffe Fassett Blue Spot, 57" $9

22. Yellow SSI beach umbrellas, 40" $5

23. Henry Glass #7095 Aqua leaves/swirls, 128", $20 (Matches the quilt top I am listing too).

24. Westminster CANVAS, 1/2yd cuts, each $5, great for bags.

25. blue-black searsucker check (for garments) 200", $20, great for girl's dresses.

26. Wonderfil unopened 50 wt, 3000m, cotton thread, retails $24, asking $16 per cone. colors: khaki, loden, tan, aqua, plum. SOLD 27. YLI cotton threads, open but not used. Left to right: (a) Soft Tough gray tex18, 6000yd $10, (b) Fusions tex60, 1500yd "Morning Glory" variagated, $12, (c) Machine Quilting Thread tex40, 3000yd "Sunny Provence" variagated $12, (d) Machine Quilting Thread tex40, 3000yd "Danube Blues" variagated $12, (e) Machine Quilting Thread tex40, 3000yd "California Poppy" variagated $12 first one and last 3 are SOLD
28. 62" x62" quilt top. Piecing is accurate and neat. Ivory is a Kona. This matches listing #23 for a backing. Very sweet for a little girl. $45
closeup...

29. Made from 10" pieces of Phillip Jacobs florals (is approx 40"square) $5 Cut up or use as is.

30. Twin bed flimsy from Free Spirit fabrics. Approx 63"x84" $45

closeup...(sideways!)

Neutral Fusion awaits binding

2012-01-24T11:24:00.000-08:00

Reminder: I live in Maine. It is winter. And it is January. The thermometer guy from 6 days ago should be a reminder of how bone-chilling winter here is, usually. Then it was mearly 40F below freezing. Today it is more than 20F above freezing. Mother Nature is on a serious dose of something. It is projected to be in the 30s the rest of the week, which sounds warm for January. I took advantage of the nice day. Most of the snow was melted off the sidewalks. With the kids due home in an hour, I went out for a nice walk. Sounds like spring fever, but until the custom work I am getting Friday is here, I have little to do except hand-stitching, and I am getting sick of that!
I took this small quilt off the blocking boards today. It is part of MQX's Neutral Fusion exhibit. It's not judged or anything, and is not specifically secret, so I suspect there's no harm in showing these. The quilt is only 30"x36". They sent the people participating 8 fat quarters of all neutral fabrics (AKA "uglies"!). I added a few more of my own. They range from a white-ish batik to heavily painted beiges to tan modern prints. As I said, Uglies. Then, they were (the center of all quilts will be pieced the same) cut into pieces to make 6 9-patch blocks and 6 snowball blocks, to form the center of the quilt. We were allowed to do whatever for the 1" inner border. Pieced or not, colorful or not. Our choice. The 5-1/2" outer border piecing was our choice too, but it had to be from the neutrals. I do not know why I did what I did for either border. I'm not thrilled with my choices.

Then, we are instructed to quilt it however we want. All neutral fabrics must be quilted with coordinating thread though. Drat! Do you know how hard the painted fabrics are to see anything on?? Really hard. Blindingly hard.

Once again, I have questioned my logic for the quilting in the corners. Don't really know what I was thinking there. The thought of the pumpkin seeds on the diagonals sounded better before I densely quilted around them, turning them into obnoctious "x"s. Oh well. It's a learning experience every day. All of my quilting is obviously freehanded. No computers to smartly quilt even and symmetrically for me. I love the feathers and the rays - they are very much my style.

I had a little fiasco with the narrow pink inner border. In spritzing the blue marker out, I discovered that one of the darker pink fabrics ran. This quilt is so small that I did not plan to wash and block it. It would have been just fine for an exhibit. But runny pink on white looked rotten, so it went through the washer 2x with color catchers. I have learned in this project that I like Superior's Lava thread. I received a sample cone of a variagated rose. I had no idea how many yards were on it so I never used it on any quilt. I assumed that this border was small enough that I stood little chance of running out, and gave it a go. Lava is 30wt polyester. It will go on my must get list when I go to MQX. Another pretty obvious learning that I found the hard way: Feathering that 1" border was too much work!

The back is interesting. The rose bobbin shows, but the rest of the bobbin was cream. This is a busy (and kinda ugly) sage print. From a few feet away, it blends to a neutral. Hey, it's the back!

So I have no idea how many mini quilts will be a part of the Neutral Fusion exhibit. Hopefully many. Go to MQX to see.

Tune in later this week to hear about my Tales of Quilting with my DSM...another chapter in my "What not to do" book.

Little of This, Little of That

2012-01-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

Back to work and school as usual, although it is a relatively short week. The boys have a half day on Thursday and no school Friday. What happened to going to school 5 days a week?? This past weekend had little quilting. That seems to be the trend lately. My husband took the little princess to a ski hill for the first time. The boys wanted to go badly, but she was only going up and down the magic carpet. I don't think my husband ever put on his ski boots. If you are under age 6, this part of the mountain is free, so this winter is the time for her to learn. He seems to think I will accompany the kids soon (he'll take her, and I get the boys). I'm not sure I've had enough to drink to agree to this. Mind you, I do/did ski, but have not been on a mountain since my oldest was born/conceived. My ski pants were outgrown 2 kids ago.
While Miss S went skiing, I had to have a diversion for the boys. Staying home would only prove to drive us all crazy. I took them to the movie "We Bought a Zoo", which they actually liked. I did too, but am a little bummed that there is a scene in it that all but gives away the Easter Bunny. Mothers of young kids beware! They then got to go sledding/snowboarding at a local hill that they've been begging to go to since we got snow.

Standing around with cold feet on a steep hill isn't exactly fun, but capturing this awesome faceplant on film was worth it. Yea, my son can snowboard (snicker...). They had fun none the less, and I survived.

Mr. Picasso is growing. We've had him almost a month and he's so much bigger. Such a completely sweet kitten (he's snoozing on my lap as I type).

I finished a couple baby quilts for a new client. She's a self-proclaimed self-taught quilter, with a somewhat avant-gard style. Whatever. Her tastes are simple and easy to please. She loves the swirls, and asked for them twice.

Nothing too complicated or time-consuming here. Just happy babies.

I got the news today that this quilt has been juried into the AQS Lancaster show in March. I don't know how it will do, but getting in is a good first step. There are 200 quilts in the show, and if I remember, quite a lot of categories. Now I am busy trying to move up an appt to have 4 quilts appraised. I stitched a hole in the end of a finger last week with all the hand work (2 bindings and 2 sleeves) I had to do for the 2 quilts going to MQX. They are getting appraised as well. Here's a little avant-gard show of my own...just to keep you guessing :-)

Time for me to go get to work. I'll post pictures of something later this week. Happy sewing.

Hanging on By a Thread Translates to a SALE

2012-01-18T05:46:00.000-08:00

Note...I am having a SALE...read on for more details.

Many people suffer with seasonal depression. Short and cold days, less exercise, less money after the holidays, etc. Yes, yes and yes. I'm not saying I am depressed, but understimulated and overfrustrated for sure. And if this thermometer does not say freakin cold, what does (hint: the bottom right number is the outside temperature last weekend). We had a snow day last Thursday, then this bitter cold for 2 days. Translation: kids in the house TOO much of the time. Some days I wonder what was so darn alluring about having a baby, that I needed to do it 3 times. Seriously, they all turn into toddlers, which seem challenging at the time. Then they become these sassy, mouthy creatures with attitude that suck up money like water into a dry towel, leaving their parents sprawled in chairs each evening wondering "What have we gotten ourselves into?". And yet the little old ladies everywhere always tell you "Enjoy it, it will be gone so fast". Really?
This quilt was delivered last week to a local client. She made it from her father-in-law's shirts, for the widowed mother-in-law. It actually quilted up very nicely. The man had nice taste - his shirts were not thin whatsoever, and many had a pretty sheen to them.

This is "Groundcover" panto. I have only used it a time or 2 previously, but she requested leaves for the pattern.

I stitched it with a charcoal Glide thread, which also has a lovely sheen. I think she was pleased with the quilt.

Now that I forced you to read through my ramblings, I will mention a sale that I am having until Feb 5. All edge-to-edge (panto and freehand, and stippling) patterns are 20% off. Must mention this discount when you dropoff or mail your quilts. Discount will be taken from my regularly low prices that are given here www.MainelyQuiltsofLove.com. If interested, drop me an email msolomo1@maine.rr.com.

Happy Humpday~

You thought I was Crazy!

2012-01-13T11:52:00.000-08:00

I received quite a few "boy you are gutsy" comments after my last post where I talked about painting on my finished quilt. They all made me smile, and think, "yup", they get me completely. I'm if nothing else, gutsy. More appropriately, I may be crazy. Seriously, I spent however many hours (let's just guess 50) piecing the quilt. Then another 50-60 to quilt the quilt. And then this crazy woman comes at it with a paint brush and the knowledge that this will be permanent, like it or not. I had a vision. I tested the paints on a sample piece of purple, and I had my own self-faith that it would work.
OK, the verdict is in. I do like it. No, I love it! It is the effect I was going after. The purple stripe is too wide (5-6") o just stand alone and although the scrolly-vinework quilting is pretty in gold thread, it probably did not show up from more than 6 feet away. My sincere appologies on not showing the entire quilt. It is here unquilted if you'd like a look. I want to keep it under the cloak of secrecy until it travels to MQX in April.

In my absolute avoidance to work on a couple of client obligations, I have made good progress on both of my quilts this week, despite having all 3 wild things home from school yesterday on account of snow. On Tuesday, I had the reconcilliation that I really di not like the binding on this next quilt. Remember it?...it was tan. The tan Kona was too thick for a double fold binding, and looked bulky. It also showed ever little waver on the front and the back. I love the look of the binding matching the outer color of the quilt, but it just had to be different this time. I ripped the binding off completely (about 5 hours of work). In most places, it was stitched 2-3 times because to trying to get it right next to the piping. Yikes. On Wednesday morning, I went to Mardens and got a half yard of 3 options - med green, deep green and more tan (single fold ???). In the end, I did a binding on bias in the dark green. Why do I always forget how wonderful bias bindings are?? They are so soft to sew on, and it is way smoother than an on-grain binding. It's done and it looks much better than before. Plus, I think I like it better too. Win-win.

Many people hav emailed about the Judy Mathieson quilt I posted last month, and where to get the pattern. I have a book of her's from the library called Mariner's Compass Quilts, and it has the central medallion (Costa Rica Cartwheel) and several other stars as well. I would assume that the checkerboard design is in one of her other books (how to draft it that is). Happy hunting and sewing.

Past the point of no return

2012-01-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

Part of me is still very unsure what on Earth I have done. I thought I knew what I was doing. I thought I was certain that this section of vinework (in the purple) needed a punch. It needed emphasizing, somehow, some way. I tested out gold gel pens, gold pencils, and then gold paint. On my sample purple fabric, the paint looked just as I envisioned. It would be tedious, but the floral vines would stand out in gold as I want them to.
So, last weekend, while the quilt was still on the blocking boards (albeit fully dry), I started painting. I have never painted on a quilt, but I am wise enough to have done lots of research in recent months about how to do it in order to make it permanent. Yes, permanent. Now that it is started, part of me thinks it will be ok...thinks that I can eventually give these leaves and flowers enough subtle shading to look more natural. Oh really??? (that's my sane and usually wiser alter ego). It's bold, alright. I am not certain that the gold vines completely meld with the style of the quilt, but hey - all I can do now is make them look good and pretend that they were supposed to be there!!

If you are curious to laugh at my end result, this quilt will be at MQX in April.

Feline Neutral Fusion Gumbo

2012-01-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

No, that is not the ingredient list for the Gumbo. Just the order of this post. The new kitty has adjusted perfectly. It took under a week and he is now sleeping with our other cat, and both are happy. He's so sweet when he's asleep, it is hard not to wake him up to snuggle!
Before I get to the requested Gumbo recipe, I'll show some of the quilting I am doing on a smallish quilt - 30"x36". It is for the Neutral Fusion exhibit that will be at MQX in April. They way this quilt works is we were sent 8 fat quarters of these kind of hideous neutral fabrics. The same pattern will be done by all people - it's alternated snowball and 9-patch blocks, and then a colored 1" border of our choosing, and a 5" outer border of our choosing, but from the neutral fabrics. The neutrals are seriously hideous. Many have more paint than my walls and are SO hard to quilt because you cannot see anything. Oh yea...the thread has to be neutral and coordinating as well. I will be blind when I am finished. I have chosen to ignore the piecing and treat the smowballs and 9-patches as a single unit for the quilt's center. I think that this is looking ok, but I waffle on this each day. Just as I question why on earth I chose to make the narrow 1" border from many pieces of yes, pink, fabric! Seriously, my other 2 quilts going to MQX are much better! ...but this is a fun process anyways (even if this small quilt has already wasted 7 hours of quilting time!)

So, I was born in Maine, but never lived here until 15 years ago. I spent my formitive years in the South, and aside from the 3-toothed rednecks that are there, I relate to the culture well, even still. So my love of Gumbo, fried shrimp and other things like Jumbalaya all stem from having lived the Southern life for a long time.

Gumbo...

This is my 5 quart dutch oven, and it works perfectly. First make a roux...1 stick of butter, 1/4C olive oil and 1-1/4 C flour. You'll need to cook this, stirring constantly until it is brownish like this. It will take nearly 45 minutes.

In another pan, saute 1 chopped green pepper, 1 chopped sweet onion, 1C chopped celery, 2 cloves of garlic. Remove from the pan. Saute 2-3 chopped chicken breasts, 2-4 Andouille sausages (more will make the Gumbo more spicy). Drain off the sausage fat.

Chop a pound of fresh (preferably) okra. I have used the frozen bag variety too. It worked just fine.

Add 6-8 cups of chicken stock to the brown roux. Add 1t of crab boil, 1t cayenne, 2t of each parsley and thyme, 2 bay leaves, 2T tomato paste and however many shakes of hot sauce you like. Add the drained meat, cooked veggies, and 1 large can (or 2 if you like) of lump crabmeat. At 30 min from dinnertime, add the okra. Continue simmering . Five minutes before you want to eat, add a pound of shrimp (peeled), and turn off the heat.

Serve over white rice with chopped scallions on top and garlic bread. Yum! Ya'll enjoy, now, ya hear?!

Progress on the Little Things

2012-01-04T06:30:00.000-08:00

As you know, we got a new kitten a week ago (the orange blur). On account of his constant need for snuggling, I have hardly done any hand stitching in the evening. This is a regular play session (aka butt whopping) with our other cat Sally, who has adjusted to his presence nicely. I have, however, been a blocking fool. My first quilt (65" square) is done (the drying that is - took 5 days in the winter air), the binding and piping are machined on, and I have started the hand stitching for the binding. It will probably take close to a week to finish this. I have also ordered a bunch of crystals for this quilt. The dynamic carpenters star will look fantastic with a little sparkle. Not every quilt needs sparkles, but this onewill be awesome with it. It's heading to MQX in April for all of you that are curious.

Here's a peek of the backside of the above quilt, with our newest baby (recently named Picasso) in the background. That is one sweet kitty!

My second personal quilt had a little bit of last-minute finishing on the quilting a few days ago. I spent last week ripping out all the SID because I discovered that the tension was not so great. What a pain... I put it back in in about 2 hours time (8 hours to remove, 2 hours to restitch!). It's much better this time. Yesterday, I declared it DONE, cut off all the excess backing, and today it is soaking wet and on the blocking board. We are anxious to get the furniture in the bedroom back in order. Considering the fact that it is 7F outside today (and my bedroom is a brisk 59F), it will probably take a week to dry this quilt. At $80-90 per week to heat our house, It's not worth jacking up the bedroom heat just for a quilt that I don't need done for a while! The piping and binding for this one are all done too - just waiting for a dry quilt. I do, however, need to get to work making/designing some labels for all my quilts nearing completion that will likely be printed off by Spoonflower.

BTW...anybody like Gumbo?? It was our New Year's Day meal, and a favorite of mine. I'm considering a Gumbo post if anyone is interested. Have a warm week.

New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T09:12:00.000-08:00

While many people like to do a recap of all the quilts they made in the year, I will refrain. These posts are often entertaining, but in my case, I think an adequate number of pictures of all my own quilts have already been shown. And in cases where I have only showed snippets, you will have to wait until the quilt makes its debut at a show this spring.

Among my list of notable accomplishments, getting through this holiday season with a minimal amount of angst. It's always more hype than gratification, but Christmas morning was pleasant. The kids had argued significantly over who would get which stocking - they have no names on them, and all 5 are different colors (red, green, amber, marroon and purple). Inevitably, two people always want the same ones. Rather than listen to ANY more bickering, Santa brought their goods stuffed into huge stockings instead. Nobody, for once, objected!
For the past 2 days, my husband and I have had peace and quiet. Free time, and dine-out time. We even went to the mall, alone, yesterday. My mom has had the kids since Thursday morning. After dropping them off, we drove 3 hours to pick up this bundle of fluff. Kittens are SO hard to come by and I am sick and tired of shelters asking every single question as though we are applying for a home loan. We are paying them for the animal, for goodness sake. She was free to a good home. The only hitch was that she was not near to us. We were able to get the animal, and visit with a friend of my husband's for a couple hours, without listening to "are we there yet?"

The kitten is very sweet, and so obviously adorable. And SO not a girl cat! Did they not notice those fuzzy little things between his legs??! Our other cat is adjusting, and the kids are about to be picked up (and are very eager to meet him).

As for sewing...You'd think with 2 days free I'd have a ton to show for it. I wish!...I have gotten the large green border on this quilt, along with the pseudo prairie points. It's sort of a "what was I thinking?" moment because I do have to go blind stitch the entire edge around the points. I'll probably do it on machine with clear monofilament.

It is a lively addition to the Dresden quilt, a lot of trouble to construct, but I think it carries the design through to the border. This quilt will probably sit for a bit now, as I have 2 others that are getting bound very soon, and I have at least 4 client drop offs in the next week or 10 days. Back to work...

I have one show quilt almost ready to come off the blocking board. One more day to ensure it is really 100% dry. The 2nd quilt is ready to go back on the longarm to have some SID redone, and then it is off to blocking (then my bedroom can be rearranged back to where the furniture really belongs!). The bed gets moved right next to the door so I have a place for the 8'x8' insulation boards. This morning, I made up the corded piping and binding for both quilts though, so putting it on ought to be a snap!

Time to go get my kids, and get home before all the crazy New year's eve-goers are out. Have a fun one and see you in 2012!

Post-Christmas Slacking

2011-12-28T11:29:00.000-08:00

Now that Christmas is over, I can show a couple of the gifts that I managed to find time to make. Most years, I devote more effort to making more presents, but this year I think it all caught up to me, and I just felt like too often they are met with indifference. So to heck with it. This first one is a 55"x65" quilt for my niece, but it is rather "on the simple". I think (except for the binding), it took me all of an hour to put together and not too much more than that to quilt. The panel is really very pretty of the tigers, and it had an accompanying print that I used on the borders. My neice is the animal of the family so it is right up her alley. The panto is called Seaweed. This was the first time I used it (as well the first time for the bright lime green YLI thread). The panto is just right for a kid quilt - fast and easy, and it seemed appropriate for the grass.
A close up... And you can see the cheetah minkie fabric I put on the back. It was ver soft, despite being horrendously messy to work with.

I made my mother 12 Days of Christmas placemats. What a mistake!... Twelve placemats have as much binding as 2 king-sized bed quilts! I quickly learned how to do a machine binding that was acceptable. I located a panel (forgot who it is by, maybe Nancy Halvorson?) of the 12 Days of Christmas, and then cut each same-sized panel to use on individual placemats. I chose 3-4 different greens from my stash to frame the panel, and went from there.

Some of you may recognize the quilting as my "testing" the Glide thread before I quilted one of my quilts recently. The Glide thread is just fantastic to work with and has a wonderful sheen. Here's 2 Turtle Doves...

...and Seven Swans a swimming. This one is my favorite. There is something about snowglobes.

Whichever placemat was under my daughter's plate was promptly stained with beet from dinner. Hope that comes out!

I am off tomorrow with my husband to get a new addition - we have located a kitten to adopt. The shelters are very hard to get kittens at because of everyone looking there. We visited one yesterday, and the paperwork asked who our vet was. Much to my surprise they called the vet as we waited, and learned that our current cat is 4 months behind on her shots! No kitten yesterday! I was so peaved since we'd driven an hour. The kids were pretty upset. It's not like my cat ever goes outside. I spent a couple hours in the afternoon searching before finding one on Craig's list. It's a 2-1/2 hour drive from us, which can only happen tomorrow. My husband and I call it our "getting away", as the kids will go to Nana's. Not sure what we will call the long drive home with a confused meowing kitten!

The first of my quilts that was quilted this summer/fall is currently being blocked. I will bind it once I decide on the fabric (and once it is dry). It will be one of this April's MQX entries.

Progress on Rainbow Stars...

2011-12-21T13:32:00.000-08:00

These are oh-so colorful...maybe even too much color for me, but I have to finish it now. The HST's are made as of today - nearly 130 of them I think, in just about a zillion different batik pieces. The ivory half of the HSTs is also scrappy so if you see a variation of color, it is intentional to match the center of the quilt. I am currently working on the 3rd intertwining border section, with 5 more to go. Unfortunately I have no pale orange batik left for one of them, and no local store that caries that approximate shade. I may also make up some more little dots to sprinkle on the quilt strategically. I have one more work day (aka school day) before the holidays...and a giant roll of my eyes at the prospect of having my kids home for 11 days straight. Thankfully, my husband will be home much of that too to front their busyness so I can play.

Bristol Stars

2011-12-18T09:36:00.000-08:00

I have been fortunate enough to get this marvelous quilt from a new client. It is Judy Mathieson's Bristol Stars pattern. I love to piece intricately, but even the degree of detail on this pattern seems daunting to me. Truth be told, I don't like paper piecing quite enough to even dare this masterpiece. My client has done a really nice job on the piecing. I generally worry a lot when something with an abundance of curves is coming my way fr fear it will probably not lay flat or be remotely square. But this quilt is mostly flat and square. As you can soon tell, she wanted it custom quilted - my favorite...no boring edge-to-edge patterns for me!
The flip side of course is that it requires about 30 hours to custom quilt this 93" quilt. She specifically requested feathers, so I feathered-a-plenty. I have used a Hobbs Heirloom wool over Hobbs 80/20 batting, and most threads are Glide or SoFine. With this much busyness and movement in the piecing, the quilting needs to be intricate, but not overly busy. It needs to unify the quilt, and accentuate the features of the piecing.

The center of the quilt (below) turned out amazing. She asked for feathers, and definitely got them. The black around the flying geese is micro-stippled, and those curved geese pop out really well. The decision to micro-quilt between ever other radiating ray was made yesterday by the client (after I showed her pictures of one of my quilts before and after filling these spaces). It was a good bit offill work, but it makes the rays so vividly evident. To me, this is one of the defining features of the piecing, and it is better because of the quilting.

One of the things I found challenging to deal with were the way that each circle star unit is finished. These are pieced, then fused down to the checkerboard background. Then, a black bias piping is stitched atop the raw edge. In all but one location, these pipings were appropriately attached, but the added thickness of the 3 extra layers of fabric made stitching near to the piping difficult. I wanted to ditch-stitch along the edge of the piping, but it was really hard since the hopping foot wanted to catch on the added thicknesses. This should merely be a lesson for the readers. If you do this technique, it will indeed look great. It is a clean finished edge. It does, however, make it way harder for the longarmer. Originally, we discussed a plan to quilt flying geese into the black borders, but because it was too hard to get right next to the pipings, another plan was conceived.

The eight largest mariner's stars received simple detail quilting on top of the piecing. They have pebbled backgrounds, and are completely SID in monolon thread as well. Each of the eight stars is detail stitched in a coordinating color thread - yes, eight different colors. I did a small-ish feathered wreath in the center, and a squiggly sun look up the spokes of the star.

The serpentine black borders that are around the stars are pieced from several different black solid and print fabrics. To unify them, I did a peacock-type filler (rather than the serpentine geese) in a charcoal gray Glide thread. Using black would have been too hard to see well, and the gray makes all the areas appear as the same fabric.

One last peek at the front of this quilt (I know, it's hard to get enough...it is amazing)...

Before I show you the gem of the quilt (aka, the back), let me share something that the owner shared with me. When she made this quilt a year ago, her husband had just been laid off from his job. She, an oncology nurse, needed a quilt project that would really challenge her and take her mind off of their troubles. But because of the money hardships, she had to make this from only fabrics that she had in her stash. If you look closely, you will see some wonderful gold-colored satin fabrics that are snuck into the piecing. They are my favorites, and really help to give the quilt depth and personality. At some point in the winter last year, she was forced to sell or all things her sewing machine in order to make the house payment. This was a sad necessity, but forced her to not be able to continue working on the piecing. Imagine working all day with cancer patients only to come home to the challenges that were at home. Some months later, her husband did get a job, and he at some point after that surprised her by brining her home a new sewing machine. She was able to complete the quilt afterall. Life is better now for them, and I am blessed to bethe one chosen to custom quilt this gem for her.

Now, want a look at the back??? It is a mottle fabric, which is more caramel colored than the pictures show. I think it may be a Cherryood hand-dye, but I am not certain of that. Because it is not printed, the quilting shows wonderfully on the back.

There is a gold, black, charcoal, brown and 8 star colors for threads (if you look closely!).

The radiating rays are very evident from the back.

Here is the center...the Costa Rican Cartwheel

I think I love the back more than the front :-)

Time to go wrap some presents now!

Making Kitchen Messes

2011-12-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

It's hard to keep enough cookies in the kitchen for Santa with 3 kids (and a husband) around. I made 2 kinds last week (peanut butter w/ Hershey kiss and chocolate shortbread) and my husband made these really good spiced coins, but the stock has gotten low so we had a few more to make up. I got lazy of these and just got the slice-n-cook sugar cookie dough. They really prefer the decorating to the mixing, and they are WAY less messy if you don't have to make them!
Looks like it's time to replenish the Christmas colored sprinkles, as the cookes more look like Easter eggs.

This arrived last week...It's got to be a pound and a half or so. Its awesome to be on Handi Quilter's mailing list I tell ya! But personally, I am a dark chocolate gal (not to fear, the kids will most definitely help with this gigantic bar!), so I am using this for some cookies.

I saw these Rudolph cookies on some website this. They were supposed to be made with nutter butter cookies, but Hannaford didn't have them. We improvised...

Most of them got the eyes where they were intended...

And in a generous moment (no I hate cooking nearly as much as I hate cleaning up after cooking), I told Miss S we'd look for one more fun holiday cookie to make - something we hadn't made before.

Snowflakes!! and a few snow balls when only because the piping bag was getting slippery from overflow. Maybe not the tastiest, but the kids thought they looked good. I should add that I have also made a banana bread today, and mixed up the dough for gingerbread men, to be cut and decorated on the weekend. And we'll still probably have another type of cookie to do mid-week!

Progressing right along

2011-12-13T12:04:00.000-08:00

I am working on this quilt...

It is a bohemoth 93" square, with I don't know how many hundred/thousand pieces. And the client (of course!) wants a custom. It's largely paper pieced, and is really well done. It lays flat, is mostly square, etc...all the things a longarmer would want to see. I just wish it was July and not 12 days before Christmas. I have SO many other things I need to be doing too.
I am using a gold Glide thread for much of the quilt. So far, I have somewhere near 18 hours invested, and I have gone through the entire quilt top to bottom, doing the gold stitching. There will also be black which I have started, but only on the center portion of the quilt, called the Costa Rican Cartwheel. The client loves and requested an abundance of feathers. So this is precisely what she will receive. I, personally, might do a little more curved cross-hatching or geometric stitching, but this will be pretty with feathers too. Plus they stitch reasonably fast (faster than the silly micro-filling!)

I have 2 more work days this week, so I hope to be nearly finished by the weekend. I am in need of a mental break from quilting.

Thanks for the nice "destressing" comments after my last post. I have had a couple of good days. Made 2 batches of cookies with my daughter yesterday, and watched a holiday movie with all 3 last night (while the hubby was off at a tech mtg). It's comforting when all kids can get along nicely. Makes me not fear the alone time with them quite so much!

The preparations

2011-12-11T15:23:00.000-08:00

Typically, this is a time of year that I can mostly just do without. It is all overly commercialized. Every possible store is busy, or beyond busy. I am not a religious person, so the very nature of the holidays often conjures up more questions than answers. And with 3 kids, the attitudes and emotions seem to be in overdrive too much of the time. Despite all of this, we went out and did our usual tree cutting at a local farm yesterday. I like and for some odd reason "need" to go through the motions, even if they are kind of a pain in the rump. Why does one child always need to be ingracious? Did he need to trip his brother?? And another is rude to his absolutely fabulous kindergarten teacher (whom we saw at the farm)? The notion of "You better not pout, You better not cry..." has fallen on deaf ears. December is a month of mis-behaven kids and sass. And I need a week alone somewhere deep in the woods (with a quilting machine of course!). They all come back into normal form on the 25th, but it just becomes too much for me.
We also went to see Santa this morning. On Friday while at the mall, they were oddly enthralled with Santa and the fact that we were missing seeing the reindeer parade at 4pm. Six eyes were scouring the roof of the mall in search of reindeer and a sleigh. It is the first year that Sophie has wanted to be anywhere near Santa, and without tears. Middle man went with a complete list for the bearded man that surprisingly did not include his "two front teeth", even though the loss of them is making eating harder! I just loved (LOVED) that Santa did have a talk with the boys about needing to listen to their parents and be really good...as if we had coached Santa on what really needed to be said!
I did not sew this afternoon as I would have liked. I took one shopping and then we had to put up the tree. For a few fleeting moments, the process was actually fun ...not an entire afternoon of "no, don't step on those lights" or "wait and let me do that ornament (with the sound effect of breaking glass next)". I have a hard time simplifying things tremendously this time of year. I should have been part bear because I'd be better off just hibernating from December 1 until March! I opted not to send out any holiday cards. I always like getting them, but this year it's just easier. We are not having a family picture since kid #1 decided to scalp the front of his bangs 3 days ago. He's on the hook to pay for his next haircut (assuming the weed-eater is not a sufficient tool). I love cookies, but I have managed to whittle my list down to 4-5 types. Maybe this week. The wrapping is started, the shopping is finished (if you don't count that my dad had me on his service this week too).

I know I read about how much everybody LOVES Christmas and all the hype leading up to it. I so wish I was like you guys. I want to love it, really I do, but I find it just too stressful and frustrating. Too much trouble, too much money, not enough inner satisfaction. But seriously, on that last point...I did listen in on the absolute best (BEST) concert last night since there was nothing on TV - PBS's membership campaign with Andrea Boccelli's Christmas concert. Seriously, if I make it into the pearly gates, he'll be in my heaven. Listening to his voice just melts the cares away~

Have a nice week all.

Wordless Wednesday - my vision in sight

2011-12-07T15:58:00.000-08:00

Hidden Surprises

2011-12-05T15:08:00.000-08:00

Another customer quilt is off the frame today. It is back to regular programming here (ie., my quilt is off and time for business!). It's a small-ish 43"x55" quilt for her expectant baby boy, due in 2 months. She requested something above a panto, with different quilting in the 2 colors. The afternoon light is a little harsh, making the colors a bit washed out. I quilted it with an icy-aqua Glide thread. The contrast of the shimmery soft blue on the flat charcoal is nice. I chose a dental-style feather with swirls (to fill into the steep points). This type feathers are almost more leaf-like, and don't appear feminine like a traditional feather does.

I have no idea what fabrics these are (maybe a Tula?), but the more I quilted it, the more I kept finding small hidden surprises in the fabrics. Here's some little anchors, perfectly suited for a little boy.

...and if you look closely there is a swimming seal (I think in the aqua fabric). While quilting, I saw a turtle, but I couldn't find it afterwards!

The back is a completely whimsical frog-ish print. It is fantastic fabric!

This was a wonderful afternoon project. I always like ones that I can start in the morning and then finish when Sophie goes to school. Not like the king-sized custom that I will start tomorrow...and it has prework to be done (prepping the top and backing properly) before I can even load it. Sigh... It's a gorgeous quilt, I just have not had an adequate break from finishing my last full custom. I need a few days to play with piecing, clean the studio, finish Christmas things, etc - things to help cleanse my psyche. No such luck! A custom awaits, and there is another stinking 1/2 day for my kids this Friday. Too many days off for them just translates to not enough work days for me!

Inconceivable

2011-12-03T05:07:00.000-08:00

We all make quilts. We understand all too well how much love, devotion and time go into the process. And undoubtedly, we are very much attached to the end creation when we are finished. If we put a price on the number of hours alone, they go into the thousands of dollars, easily, and that does not include any value for the emotional attachment.

Yesterday, while still on that euphoric high of getting my next show quilt off of my frame, I was sent a link to a Missing Quilts website. When quilts go missing, they can be posted here. Some have been lost in the mailing process, some are taken from people's homes, and others never return from of all places - quilt shows. This website is horrifying, almost like perusing the obituary section of a newspaper of a small town in which you have lived all of your life. Though nothing of mine is in it, you cannot help but feel attached to the feelings of loss.

When I first went to the Missing Quilts website, I expected to find domestic-type quilts, like the ones we all have on our beds and around our homes. It was shocking to see this as the newest missing quilt.
This quilt went missing from the IQF at Houston of all places. Like driving past a horrible car accident, I couldn't help myself. I had to scroll through more pages of this website. What other masterpieces have sadly been taken from their owners? Hoping not to find any more, I was again disappointed when this quilt showed up a few pages in.
Kaaterskill went missing in the mail. Some of you may remember it because it was on the cover of Quilter's Newsletter this past summer. It is all hand quilted.

As a quilter that frequently sends quilts back to clients, I hate to read about quilts that go missing in the US mail or any other mailing service. It would devistate me to hear that a quilt I touched and quilted would never be returned home. Furthermore, I send off my own creations to quilt shows several times a year. I know better than anybody the number of hours involved in making each one. I don't think I will ever be so casual about sending my quilts off again. I am rather nervous now, in fact. Having an appraisal only guarantees you a cash settlement if one goes missing. It cannot replace the artwork.

So when you go to a quilt show, keep your eyes on things and report any suspicious activity. Mail your quilts properly labeled in case the box gets opened enroute. Never declare the box as a "quilt". Call it "Bedding" instead. Nobody would consider taking a comforter. I may even go to the extent of using several different local post offices rather than always using the same one where people know what I do. Insure your packages, and always have a delivery confirmation number. You should also send it signature required. These things all increase the cost of sending the quilt, but make recovering it or some of its value better.

I must admit, I have had one thing go missing from the mail. I made it for a holiday swap I hosted 2 years ago. It was mailed to Europe, and never made it to its destination. Because the mailing was international, there was no reasonably priced tracking available. This makes me wonder what international quilt makers do that send things to the US. Though this runner has a small value, it was more the time involved and thefact that I had to remake it. I designed this, bought the fabrics, hand appliqued the trees, and then watched daily as it did not arrive. So in conclusion, there is not much more to say. Be vigilint when mailing quilts. Be sure that you are sending quilts or taking quilts to shows that you are confident will have sufficient security. Get your show quilts appraised, and keep them insured.

Perhaps tomorrow, when the shock of this wears off a bit, I will show some pictures of my quilt. Today, I am happier knowing it is safely hidden away in my basement.

What can you do? Please, please post a link and post about the missing quilts. Perhaps somebody out there has seen or has knowledge of the whereabouts of these missing quilts. The website is www.lostquilt.com.

My Sarcastic Daily Rant

2011-11-29T17:00:00.000-08:00

OK, so I am contemplating entering a quilt in the Paducah quilt show (or at least sending the application of intention - the rest is up to the jury selction committee). My quilt is 63"x78". There are two categories for those that are first-time Paducah showers. This seems like an appropriate place for me, right? There's the "Large" category, for widths 60"-110" and length 80" or more, and there is the "Small" category, for widths 40"-60" and length over 40".

If you are not rolling your eyes and choking on your tongue, then you should be. I might not have ever caught the issue, except that my average-ish sized quilt does not fit into either of these categories. Hypothetically then, I can put a quilt that is 59.5"x110" in the Small category (doing math...that is 6545 sq.in.) and another which is 60"x80" in the Large category (4800 sq.in.). Remind me again which is the Large quilt...

So I emailed somebody about this at AQS, and their reply is for me to just enter the quilt in the regular Large quilt category, widths 60-110" and length over 40". This is where anybody that has showed at Paducah before would have their quilts. Doesn't this sound like harder competition?? Hello...??... Or is the length for the First-time Paducah entry of 80" really a typo, since there is a regular Small quilt category too, with widths 40-60" and length over 40"??

Tell me I am not crazy.

Stars & Cables

2011-11-27T05:21:00.000-08:00

First off, because our second favorite thing to read about on a quilt blog is food, here's the well-asked for recipe for the chocolate bourbon pecan pie I made for Turkey Day. Trust me, it's not for those of you counting calories, but it is so yummy.

I finished this quilt up earlier last week for a client. It's rather small, 43"x55". Bette accuracy would have come from paper piecing the stars, but she chose not to. From afar, the accuracy is somewhat of a mute point, as it is not really evident. But, she gave me a picture of how someone else had quilted it with large sweeping curves, and I found thisextremely difficult to implement neatly when star points were not always where they should have been.
Never the less, she was very happy with the end result. It is being made for her son, who is chairing a PTA raffle for a school out in Kansas. I used a second layer of a poly batt to give additional poof. I must stop buying these from Joann, however, because this Mountain Mist batting is just abismal. For all you quilters that love things on your quilts to "pop", invest in wool or use Hobbs polydown. The suff at Joann's is just plain disappointing. Cheap, yes. Not great though.

As the closeup show, the stars didn't puff nearly as much as I wanted. I used a cotton batting that the client brought as the bottom layer (and Warm & Natural is just too thin for my taste too). I quilted 2 different fillers in the sky background, and randomly chose a dozen or so stars to do microquilting on to highlight them (using the gold Glide thread). The effect of the gold was very evident on the back...

(and you can see the second filler that I used too) - line that follow the curves through the stars. Now, as a batting comparison, here's a picture of where I am on my quilt, which has a layer of Hobbs 80/20 and a layer of Legacy wool. Notice how the cable motifs pop. There's no saggy look there. Use of good batting most definitely does make a difference. Don't sacrifice here because you think it is on the inside of the quilt and won't matter. It most certainly does.
My cables are free-handed, and hence some of the longer lines are not as straight as I'd hoped for. I'll decide after this is off the machine if I need to pick out and straighten some of them. It's got pretty nice texture though :-)

Progress on the Center

2011-11-22T12:24:00.000-08:00

This is not finished, but is definitely taking shape. Looks like kids will be home the next 5 days so quilting time will be limited, mostly in the predawn hours. Gotta make a chocolate bourbon pecan pie tomorrow to get ready for Turkey day.

Progress

2011-11-20T12:49:00.000-08:00

If you have not heard me previously, I LOVE GLIDE THREAD!!! Oh my goodness, this thread sews like a hot knife through butter. I have used other trilobal poly threads, and had issues with shredding or little pokies on the topside. Not with this thread. I love it so much, I ordered 5 cones last night. Fot those of you that like a good deal, 5000m of this thread costs only $7.20! A bargain on top of it being great thread. I foresee using this gold thread so much I got another cone. It's like all the bene's of a gold metallic, without the hassles.I have spent 12 hours so far (I like to get up super early), and have SID'd the entire quilt, as well as worked on several sections. I am pleased with this very-showy floral vinework on the purple. I will backfill around the pattern with a blendable plum thread.The feather through the greens looks nice, but I haven't decied if it is "fancy enough" for this quilt. It looks good, mind you, but it almost seems run of the mill. I am aiming for a little bit more outside the box .

I have done 3 of the 4 of these squares, and I like how they are turning out.

I spent a while this morning designing these triangles. There are 16 of them andthey need to have a good impact. After doing one, I stopped, thinking that this will get picked out. The poppy seems hard to disinguish. Got any better thoughts??
Oh, how I love to quilt my own quilts (and I seem to be being a better than usual customer too!)~

Ready, Set, Go

2011-11-17T11:50:00.001-08:00

Ready.
The top is done. Backing was sectioned a month or more ago -- a daring red surprise that will show all gold bobbin threads. I should be running to the hills in fear. I sat on the floor and hand stitched 2 large pieces of wool batting together that I had from last year's projects. I have mojo to spare today. I cleared the customer quilts that are due so I can devote 2 weeks to this project. OK, maybe 3 if it comes to that.
Set.
Judy Woodworth gave me a cone of Glide military gold thread at MQX for being a good class helper. I LOVE this thread, and I have been hoarding it to use on the above quilt. It looks like metallic, without the issues. I did a good sized testrun with the gold thread yesterday, on a completely different color fabric just so I can really see how it stitches. It gave me a few pokes now and then, but no more than Bottomline or Invisfil would. The most grief I am getting is from my high-maintenance bobbin winder that often does not like to wind the Bottomline bobbins unless I stand there and hold the thread as it exits the cone. What a baby, I tell ya. I will probably still use some Invisifil for areas of dense stitching, but there will be much gold on this one.

GO!
Two and a half hours later, the newest babe is loaded with double batts. I discovered a bit of marking that had not been finished so I did that too. I hope my plan comes out as I envision it because it will be beastly if not impossible to remove. I smell sunflowers...

Tuesday is Just For Me

2011-11-15T12:17:00.001-08:00

Here is where this was a couple weeks ago...Four stars, painfully pieced. Four corners, even more painfully paper pieced. I hear about people that just love paper piecing, but I gotta say, it is my nemesis. I hate how wasteful it is, so I tru not to waste so much, but then I just end up picking out these teeny-tiny stitches and cursing profusely & in more color that this quilt has. I am most happy that thepaper piecing is done, and it is onto the hand applique.
As of today, two of the art nouveau-esc panels are done. The other two are started, but not put onto the background yet. I will probably add a swirling and colorful appliqued border to the quilt to help tie the vastly different styles together.

My other complete accomplishemt is the completion of my daughter's holiday dress. Albeit, it has been done for more than a week, just awaiting buttons. But now it has buttons and is finito. I guess colorful is an increasing trend in my sewing.

No annoying collars for 5-year olds to just stain. I love the simple red ruffle instead.

It is fancy enough for her, and for the holidays, without being covered with snowflakes or santas so that she won't wear it past January.

Rather than putting a tie in the back, which can be uncomfortable for sitting, we did 2 pretty flower buttons. I did this on dresses 2 years ago and it was a hit with the girls.

It is made to look like a pinafore and jumper, but it is all one dress, and it is edged with tea-dyed eyelet trim. Somehow, the eyelets I like best come in white, and cream is always prettier.

The rest of my week is all about catch up...getting some wool batting pieced in preparation to quilt one of my own pieces, and finishing something that is currently loaded. I have kids home too many days next week so the progress must come this week.

A Lottsa White!

2011-11-13T13:55:00.000-08:00

This quilt is made by a client for whom I have quilted several quilts in the last year or so. She is making it for her mom in Florida. It has 64 of the hexagon blocks, and bohemoth white borders - nearly 10 inches on two sides, and 16" on the other two! The mere thought of single borders of this width scares me, but when they are white it is like culture shock.
The end client "Mom", is completely into the modern look. Though she did not really know what she wanted, she did comment that she didn't want the feathers or pebbles. Ahh...sigh...two great quilting standby's out of the picture. She selected the Razorgrass panto, and initially suggested it for the entire quilt. Having the massive borders with a single and very edgy pattern did not seem like it had enough interest, so I dared to try to suggest other options (knowing that the things I love to quilt and think would look fantastic were not designs she wanted!).

I sketched up the border above. It's graphic and combined the two elements she liked - the watery look and the Razorgrass pattern. The zig-zaggy boxes will drape down the sides of the bed and help to break up the other 2 designs. The client loved the design and so we went with it.

Razorgrass gives an abundance of texture. It will look fantastic when the quilt is washed (which it would be a zillion times if a white quilt were in my house!).

The back is largely white as well. I think that this is a sheet, rather than the Kona or Bella solid that is on the front of the quilt. The back has scraps pieced into it , but is mostly white, showing off the patterns well. Regarding the sheet...I have used sheets before without any trouble whatsoever. I caution people that if you use a sheet, select one that is NOT a close weave. This was rather tightly woven, appearing like a batik fabric. Though I personally use batiks on the backs of quilts, I would not suggest a backing that is part regular quilting cottons and part tightly woven fabric.

All in all, this job is great. It allows me to do what I love to do almost any day. And it forces me outside of my comfort box now and then to try things I might not personally choose as well.

Pre-Christmas Quilting

2011-11-10T13:02:00.000-08:00

I must admit, I gasp when I see posts of people who have ALREADY put up their Christmas trees. Somebody really needs to remind them that it is early November. There used to be a protocol to holiday timing, but nowadays it seems that Halloween candies appear on the shelves in August. Our tree is usually lucky to be up by December 10-15! This is not my piece, but the owner will have it all bound and ready to hang by the holiday season.
It's a fun little wall-hanging. I actually saw it in a magazine a few days ago. The pictures have a hard time doing it justice, but I felt like all that green space, though seasonal in color, needed a little livening up. In a variegated greens Rainbow thread, I quilted a tree. The stitching does show above the many deeper greens, but it is subtle, as I wanted. In the tree, for a touch of interest, are a pear and a partridge.

Originally, the owner sent me a picture of a stars and loops pattern and wanted this all over the quilt. She's a beginner quilter who just needed a little guiding along. Though this edge-to-edge is nice for some quilts, this one seemed to be calling for more personalization. I chose to do the loops and stars in a deep green blending thread in the background around the tree. A perfect compromise.

Close up of the bird...

The top of the quilt is fused applique stitched with clear thread. I simply outlined the shapes, added a few veins to the holly (she is adding red buttons). I put in a ghost star in the sky and connected the stars with a ribbon. If it were my quilt, I'd probably put some sparkly crystals in the ribbon to showit off.

Have a fantastic long weekend!

A Quilters' Gathering Show

2011-11-06T03:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I drove to Nashua, NH for A Quilters' Gathering. It's smaller, juried only, quilt show of mostly regional quilts. I say mostly because there were a few from well known quilters that are not from anywhere near here too. In August, I signed up for an invisible machine applique class from Harriet Hargrave. The only invisible machine applique I had done ("dabbled in") was for attaching the pieces of sea glass in my quilt shown below, and despite thinking this method yielded ok results, I felt I needed more education. At the time, the quilt had not yet gone to any shows and I did not have any judges feedback about how the appliques looked. I thought the stitches were darn near invisible though! The quilt went to MQX and back without so much as a comment about the applique.
My quilt was fortunate enough to receive one of the ribbons - 3rd in machine quilting excellence. It's pretty hard to do better when this was the quilt that received 2nd! There were some nice quilts at this show. The show had particularly bad lighting though. I like the many different farmers-wifeish blocks and their setting on this quilt.

This is a nice landscape.

Elements of this quilt are nice. I think it received one of the color compatibility ribbons for its soothing look.

The machine quilting of the 9-patches is particularly interesting. My guess is it is computerized, but it's cohesive with the theme of the quilt. I'll add it to my bag of interesting tricks to try sometime.

And the center block is something I'd like to applique.

Speaking of applique...the class was about 5-8 too large so the overall pace of it was not really to my liking. Lousy liting in the room too. But nobody can deny that Harriet is a pioneer in our industry. She's taken tomatoes and eggs in the face so that we might now succeed in our craft. She noted that in 1983 she was in Houston at Market and brought a machine quilted quilt for the 1st time. The thought of this gentile quilting society and their reaction of her when the machine quilting storm started is just unimaginable. I guess it is the same thought as this. What if someone sent a quilt to a show today that was only constructed with glue. Fast forward 30 years and they are all made with glue. She's honed techniques for machine makers to make our lives easier, and faster. She's also a steadfast believer in the fact that anything polyester will ruin the world so never mention that you longarm with poly thread. You go to her black list almost immediately. Kind of an inside joke here, but only kind of since I couldn't find her beloved cotton thread in a store Friday and showed up with something not cotton (gasp!!). Even if the class more of less reiterated things I have read elsewhere, I think it is always educational to have someone with as much weathering in this business talk to you for 6 hours. You cannot help but learn something. Even if it is largely just respect and gratitude. Expect to see more applique work from me. I have honed in on my skills and can do it better and faster now.

Back to the show... I always like interesting geometries, even if this style of quilt seems overmade of recent years. The black and white color scheme was appealing and different. The Delft blue color scheme was lovely, as were all the pieced stars which I know first-hand are a PIA to piece. This person won a couple ribbons for her nice quilts.

There is an appealing simplicity here. Guess the judges saw it too.

The quilting has areas which I like - She's obviously tried the dual-curve cross-hatching ruler from Ronda Beyer (which I have and am awaiting the perfect spot to use!).

Lori-Lyn King had 3 small quilts in the show. I have seen this somewhere this year. It's trapuntoed to brilliance. The colorations are from placing a pieced (or moreoften a single) and immensely bold color underneath the top trapunto layer. And then apply kick-ass quilting.

Some color gradations are subtle, but look closely. I learned in my trupunto class at MQX to respect those that do this technique. It is hard, especially when there is another color to show through.

Another ribbon winner, and a very large hand quilted Jacobian applique piece...

It's pretty, but the center almost seems like it needs more of something. The quilting was in colored thread. Lots (LOTS) of radiating lines.

And the grandma of them all...again! Linda Roy. Master hand quilter. How on earth does she find time to make all of these very detailed and hand quilted pieces?? Does she have a secret machine that makes if look hand quilted?? Nice thought. Seeing this has made me add a quilt to my "Must make before I die" list. The solid color is amazingly dramatic. I'd avoid white like the plague, but I love the concept of allowing the white trapunto and applique to show the details.

Just look at the sashings...That is a modified cathedral window technique. Way cool. Linda's quilts rarely dissapoint. As a former hand quilter, I still love the notion that they are still made, and there are some out there that beat the pants off of a machine quilted quilt too!

Breaking all My Rules

2011-11-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

I have been back on this quilt the last couple of days. I am moving kind of slow on account of a cold, but I figure it is better to futz up my own work in that state than someone else's. I have most of the Dresdens hand appliqued. There are 4 left which go in the corners of the tan. It's easily as bright and bold as I envisioned. The 4 borders are taking forever to get on. So far, 3 of the 4 sides have 3 borders. The miters will be done once the last border is attatched. But after getting 3 done, I just felt like it was more grounded, almost to the point of being boring. And I don't do boring.
So, I contemplated how I might infuse some of the bright fuscia into the outer borders. Maybe a piping... Maybe a bias-bar design of some sort. And then I realized that I had left a couple of the extra Dresden plates beside the not-yet-attached green border, so that the points stuck out like prairie points. Hmmm...Interesting! Now I really do despise prairie points and I think that they just look too prairie-like and hum-drum. OK, the word I am searching for is really "Ugly!". I hate them, so I have been pondering for a few hours between nose blows how to incorporate the idea of pointy bright fabrics in my design, without actually using those overly-folded things that make quilting the quilt challenging. You can see that I tried a number of thoughts (in different fabrics)...

Initially I wanted to micro-pipe the edges of the points in the fuscia fabric. That was way too hard to make look good. Then I thought maybe I would paper piece them and just stitch the narrow fuscia border. But I loathe paper piecing when not truly necessary. I tested different sizes. Then I tested just stitching a machine embroidered design on the edge of them in a fuscia thread. That actually worked, and didn't surpass my required levels of frustration. It is simple, yet it brings the punch of color that I am after. I may also test embroidering every other one and alternating them with darker points. These will probably also be blind stitched down so that they cannot flap. But basically, I am happy with the look, and I will save the fuscia fabric to micro-pipe by the binding.

Then I spent an hour cutting 2-1/4" x 4-1/2" pieces of all my various greens for the points...

Tula Pink (I think) & Pinkalicious

2011-11-03T05:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a client's quilt. It's a 92" square large quilt with a rather lot of piecing. She wanted more than a typical pantograph so I devised this pattern to create simple secondary designs. With the very heavily patterned fabrics, it is nearly impossible to quilt it to show a detailed design, but the infinity quilting shows nicely on the simpler aqua squares, and the secondary designs are evident amidst all of the color and patterns.

It's all freehanded; no rulers, computers or gizmos. It's a modern-ish quilt so I opted to not use straight lines (plus there was not adequate backing on the edges to do so), but rather I did squiggly lines to add texture. The client chose a wonderful Hobbs Tuscany wool batting, so the quilting appears lighter and airier. Believe it or not, I think that wool batted quilts are much more comfortable year round. They are lighter than the cotton ones. We use our's with wool batting in the summer (in a bedroom that is airconditioned only some of the time). The wool will show the details of the quilting so much better than a cotton ever will.

The quilt is stitched with Superior's Bottomline bobbin and an aqua So Fine thread on the top. The matching threads help to make the quilting only show up as texture. With so much patterning and fabric colors, it's hard to select a thread that will actually show, so this is a fine choice.

The back of the quilt, though pieced, is simpler and really shows the patterns of the quilting.

This week, we have also had the excitement of Halloween. My 3 ghouls (Pinkalicious, JailBird Zombie and some Transformer dude) seemed to brave the late October cold without incident to bring home pumpkins full of candy. Only poor mom got to freeze.

Ya see, the day before, we somehow managed to get 8" of snow dumped on us! Look, the grass is still green (it needed mowing!), and there are still green leaves on the trees! It's insane, I tell ya!

Snow Flakes

2011-10-31T11:44:00.000-07:00

Despite today being only Halloween, Mother Nature gave us a good helping of whoop-ass on Saturday night. I have lived in Maine (albeit, Southern Maine too) over 15 years, and I have only seen a few flakes of snow in October. We got socked with 6-8" of very wet snow. The leaves are not yet off of the bushes. They were all laying on the ground on Sunday morning. The remnants of my flowers were burried. And tonight I get to drag by kids (ok, they get to drag Mom) to the houses trick-or-treating in snow clothes. The temps hit the 50's today, but it barely made a dent on the snow on the yards. Sidewalks are guaranteed to be a little slickery tonight for the ghouls and gobblins.
The melting snow turned out to be a not-so-good place for a picture of my star blocks (& block pieces). The batiks started to absorb the water as soon as I layed them down. So much for neatly starched blocks...

There is still much planned that is not evident here, but the bits and pieces are beginning to come together.

To all of the readers that left kind words from the last post (Bloggers Quilt Festival), thank you dearly. It means more than you know. Have a great Halloween with plenty of chocolate :-))

Bloggers Quilt Festival

2011-10-28T08:39:00.001-07:00

I am sure you are aware that the Blogger's Quilt Festival is this week. It is brought to us by Amy, who has done this for a few years now. I hope you have the time to look at the many quilts that will be posted at the Festival's link this week!

My entry for this fall's festival is a small-ish wall quilt named "Intertwined". Despite it being only 40" square, it is paked with details, and is made of my all-time favorite fabrics - Hoffman 1895 hand-dye batiks. It is shown below with me and my usually eager to be in a picture daughter (not so much this time!) at the Maine Quilt Show this past summer. Happily, it was one of 4 quilts to receive a 1st place ribbon!

The 14" center block was started a year before in a Karen Kay Buckley hand applique class. I should note that I am comletely addicted to hand applique, so if you have never tried, you might really enjoy it. Karen's applique pieces were challenging at first, being that they have a ton of inner points, and because they are small (grapes are under 1/2" diameter), but it is a relaxing form of stitching, and I like that I was able to drag it along with me to dance and soccer, etc. One other thing to say is that the batik fabrics are a tigher weave than most cottons, and the behave so much better for this type applique in that they are not prone to reveling when the turned under seam allowance is slightly under 1/4".

So, thanks Karen, for a wonderful inspiration for my quilt. I did design the remainder of the quilt myself to compliment the center block. The 4 cathedral windows were paper-pieced, and were intended to bring a little variety to the applique. I hand appliqued the two-tone ribbon on the twice before I was satisfied with how it looked. And then I decided that it just needed a punch of something different. That's when I pulled out my lime green batik and the orange & gold fabrics and made the intertwining vines of nasturtium (and hence the name for the quilt). I designed them to be like morning glories in shape, but somehow because they were orange, then needed to be a different flower!

I must confess, I am a longarm quiter, and I am most definitely my all-time worst client iterms of pickyness. I spent over 20 hours on this rather small quilt. The quilting features some ghost flowers in the background, and sections of feathers and other fills. Though I love doing the applique, I am a quilter at heart, and need for the quilting to take a "top" to another level. The quilting designs are as important as the piecing & applique.

The quilt received some Swarovski crystals when it was finished - white ones for the centers of the flowers and several hundred others on the quilt (even though they are not visible in the pictures whatsoever). Under show lights, the quilt twinkles beautifully. I also bound the quilt with a piped binding, which is a great finishing touch.

I hope you have enjoyed these pictures, and others you will see at the Bloggers Festival. If you find yourself ever in the need of a longarm quiter, please feel free to contact me. My business website is here.
(one last picture of "Intertwined"'s back!)

Tuesdays are Just For Me

2011-10-25T12:51:00.001-07:00

Or they should be!

I thought I'd show this since I am slightly more than just a quilter (only slightly!). I on occasion make heirloom dresses too!

I was able to get more time this past weekend to work on a customer quilt, so I finished it a day earlier than scheduled. This allowed me time to get onto another "chore"...finishing (ahem, starting) my daughter's holiday dress. I completed the simple smocking last night, and how have parts of the outer dress assembled. It has a ruffled underskirt (lining) which hangs below this dress. The ruffles will waste (require) much time assembling! It also has sleeves since it's nearing winter, and this adds some complexity. It's a sweet modern spring-ish print, not so Christmassy. But who wants to wear red & green or Santas in February anyhow.
The smocking may eventually get some bullion knots or roses or beading eventually, but I really just needed to get moving so I did it simply. One thing I used for the 1st time is rayon thread. It has a lovely silky shine, but the threads were more of a nuisance to smock with, and I doubt I'll opt for them again. They give the bodice a shimmery, more formal look though.
I will waste plenty of time this week marking my next personal quilt (only after I go get a couple more blue marking pens). I have some designs that are easier to mark before loading the quilt, plus it is forcing me to think about how to fill the spaces. I am seriously contemplating about quilting it in gold thread. It's a gutsy move for me, considering I am most comfortable quilting in matching thread (to more easily disguize my goofs). But I have this most awesome cone of military gold Glide thread that I am dying to use on a quilt... Not metallic, but nearly as good as that.

As the week ends

2011-10-21T11:51:00.001-07:00

As the week comes to an end, I myself can look back and be rather pleased with my level of productivity. It was worlds better than the past 3-4 weeks. I like the feeling of accomplishment. Heck, I even did a couple loads of laundry this week, entertained the renovation contractor while he was here yesterday (he was, mind you, taking care of a few lingering issues!), and I plan to actually roast a whole chicken in a little bit. I love to sew and quilt on most any day, but all that domestic crap needs the stars in alignment to get done!

So while my last couple quilts are whirling enroute to one final show for the year, the 3rd of 4 for the month, I have put my next show quilt back onto the frame to work on a few of the things I left undone. I'd hoped it would be off yesterday, but I have opted for another day to do one last thing. Most of my finishing work is to my liking. My micro-quilting to make those small green diamonds pop, however, leaves me high up on that fence still. I may leave it. I may do some bobbin work to outline them. I'm digging deep for an alternative to taking out Invisifil stitched densely at 16 stitches per inch! It would take a very long time.
I also micro filled the curved cross-hatching with my favorite silk thread. It looks basically just like the Invisifil, and is nearly as fine, but I knew that the silk would not shred. Turns out, the Invisifil only shredded once on all the other work. Who'd have known. Planets must have aligned today as well. I have wanted to "checker board" the CC before but never got the guts to do it - it's kind of a point of no return once you do it. Nothing short of a torch gets those little stitches out. It is just the effect I was after, thankfully. I have said before how I really don't love the tan (OK, I kinda loathe this taupe background, which I think is a Kona or Bella solid - don't know, as it was in my stash and I opted not to buy any fabric for this quilt). It needed to have whimsical quilting to draw one's attention from the blandness of it. I think I am getting there.

I also dug out a nice green Rainbows thread for feathering the green borders. I sort of have a love-hate relationship with Rainbows. Some days is stitches amazingly; others, it shreds and gives me grief. I always love how it looks, with a pretty sheen and very subtle variagation. I decided to give it a go today, not wanting everything on this quilt to blend into the fabrics. Despite the picture, the feathering shows vividly in the Rainbows. My cave lighting keeps you from seeing that though. I turn off all the lights except for a spotlight so that the texture is more evident!

And lastly, and what is probably one of my all-time favorite quilt additions...the butterflies got their antennae! The quilt was almost completed when I chose to applique 8 butterflies onto it. They are so integral to the finished whimsical look of the quilt that I can hardly believe I nearly didn't do it. The top part of the flowers will get "flattened" tomorrow, and I will ponder a couple more things. But for one week, all is good!

Into my groove

2011-10-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

The debaucles of last week with my feathered star measurements are behind me. I have 4 of them done. Not trimmed yet to confirm how close to the desired size I came, but laying flat, with 40 crisp points each, no enormous blaring errors. I am happy. Now onto the layout and the more eclectic applique that will accompany these. I love a traditional quilt, but this is looking too generic. It needs to be infused with some creativity!
I have recently come across a more than biased article, whose source will remain nameless. This article has a highly opinionated view of machine quilting - the author would likely drown on a rainy day like today because her nose is pretty high up there. Simply put, the writer cannot stand machine quilting whatsoever. She cannot find merit in a bit of it. It's a little hard to swallow, given what I do each day, but I know that the biases towards one type of quilting or another can be very strong, as I have been there too once.

I remember 15 years ago going to the Maine Quilt Show with my mom. I was home visiting on vacation. At that point I was an avid sewer, but had only made a handful of quilts, all hand quilted. My great-grandmothers crafted things with their hands like crocheted and embroidered items, and I took great pride being able to follow in their footsteps at a time when none of my other friends did such things. I have always been a bit old fashioned at heart. I remember seeing the many quilts that day and just scowling at the machine quilted ones. I found it hard to even appreciate the piecing for how much I truly hated to see the machine quilting. Now keep in mind that machine quilting has moved forward with leaps & bounds in the last 10 years. Gone is the era of "mattress pad" quilting, and even the number of purely stippled quilts at shows is all but at a minimum. If this is all anybody had ever seen for machine quilting, then a hatred of it is well deserved. But that is not the case.

I don't really know at what point I started really having an interest in it -- probably 4 or so years go. The advent of blogging has made pictures of nearly anything easily accessible. The patterns of stitching were becoming more decorative, and pretty, actually enhancing the piecing, rather than just covering it. Early machine quilting was boring, but it has definitely become a much more artistic medium. I spent a couple years trying hard to machine quilt smaller quilts on my domestic machine. It was frustrating, pulling quilts through such a small space. I also continued to hand quilt at least 5 more quilts in that period. At some point I rationalized that I really did like the machine quilting, and that I wanted to get a longarm. I have hardly looked back since. I remember seeing the work of Ronda Beyer that year (2009) at the quilt show, and thinking how very far machine quilting has become. It was creative, artistic, and lovely. We shouldn't necessarily compare the number of hours it takes to hand quilt versus machine quilting. We all know that machine pieced quilts are infinitely faster than their hand pieced cousins, so the same should be true for the quilting. The value of a quilt is not won or lost on the number of hours spent on the quilting. I spent 75 hours on one of my show quilts. Did it not win because there were others that required 76 hours??

Enough of my closedmindedness daily ranting. It could go on for another 5 pages. My point is that we should all be more open to changes. Embrace different things because it is entirely possible that we don't really have all the facts. I have hand quilted and I have longarmed. Longarm quilting is harder, and requires a significantly greater amount of creativity in the design of the quilting. Taking out mistakes is more time-consuming. Stitch-in-the-ditch is necessary to outline the features of the quilt so that they DO show. I don't like to put these 2 forms of quilting up for a side-by-side comparison as they really are quite different. I like and appreciate each for it's own merits. You should consider this too.

I will leave you with the veining and flowering that I am doing for a couple days as I work out designs for a couple of client quilts that are next up for quilting. The majority of the quilting on this quilt is complete. My primary goal is to add veins on 100 leaves, and do the detail work on the 20 flowers.

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edited...I just got the call from the Georgia Quilt Show!!! My Postcards from Venice quilt won 2nd place in the large wall-hanging division. She then told me my other quilt (Intertwined) was very lovely too. About 2 minutes later, she called back to tell me she'd not done her homework closely, and Intertwined won a 3rd place in small-wall hanging division!~ I am SOOO tickled. This is great news, and they both have $$$$ too :-))

Rainbow Stars

2011-10-18T07:36:00.001-07:00

One down, three to go. These are 20", and are taking me a ridulously long time to piece. For the most part, I am able to not tip off my triangle points. The Y-seams are getting old though. I have waffled horribly on whether to piece this quilt or to applique this one. A great comment was that the two designs should marry (or at least date!). I pondered way too long on how to infuse the seemingly Southwestern feathered stars with the more eclectic and art nouveau applique. My other desire was to use background and colored fabrics that I already have. I do have a plan
to infuse this with interesting and unique applique, but the first step is to get these 2 blocks wrapped up. Putting them aside will only make it harder to finish without errors (and trust me, I've made enough!). I cut out the HSTs an inch larger than they were supposed to be, but didn't discover it until I had 128 of them stitched into rows ready to put onto the star pieces. Woops! Pick out, trim down, restitch, repeat.

Here's my ponder for you this week...Have you seen a feathered star design that did NOT have a distinct southwestern feel? I need to see some because I really do not want the quilt to look that way. Send me a link if you do!

Interesting Stories

2011-10-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

I have been in the "news" lately. Here are two recent posts semi-featuring my quilting.

The Maine House is an absolutely beautiful blog that features lovely photos of my state, delicious food, and other pretty houseware things (ie. quilts). It's written by a woman who coincidently lives near me also. She shows one of my first longarmed quilts - the one that I won Rookie of the Year at MQX last year with.

A few weeks ago, the sister to a client of mine sent one of her stories about her daughter, a new quilter, to Quilt Story. It's a wonderful story about a relatively new quilter that wanted to make 13 quilts for her wedding, which was fortunately more than a year away (at least it was when I first started quilting for her!). Over the summer I was fortunate enough to quilt at least half a dozen of her quilts, as well as the "Beth" quilt that is shown on that post, which her mother Sandy won a 3rd place ribbon for at the Lowell Quilt Festival. I have previously shown pictures of this lovely quilt, but Sandy was most humble about posting her win until just recently. So check this out...it's a heart-warming story.

Sea Glass wins 2nd at MQX West!

2011-10-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

I happily got the word this morning from some of my viewers in Oregon that my Sea Glass quilt has earned a 2nd place ribbon and a Teacher's ribbon! I know I may have shown a few of these pictures in the past posts, but heck, who cares. I will be able to take a better full quilt shot in a few weeks when I see it at another show. This one is bad, I know, because it is suspended from my balcony, and has horrible backwash light.
Some of my closer up pictures do, however show the quilting details. This one was before the bindig escapades.

I did add somewhere around 2500 crystals to the quilt. I bet it just twinkles...

For those interested, it is 63"x78", all batiks or hand-dyes top and back. I used Hobbs 80/20 with Tuscany wool on the top of that. The thread is Bottomline, a little So Fine and some Rainbows on the waves.

The binding looks nice (maybe not the best first attempt at a scallop border, but hey). The color changes of the binding match those of the outer border. And I added a tawny batik piping, which helps it lay nice and smooth. Added pain & suffering, yes, but it is worth it in the end.

I love my juxtiposed semi-traditional border of curved cross-hatching with the very free-form quilting of the interior of the quilt. A first for me to be so unstructured...

If you want to see more pictures, look here, and here , and here, and here. Or get yourself to Portland, OR this weekend to see it at MQX!~

Frustrations

2011-10-12T11:25:00.001-07:00

FRUSTRATIONS with a capital "F". Everywhere I turn this week, I find nothing is quite as I want it to be. I took this quilt off the machine this morning. It was like quilting blind. The quilt is lovely blue fabrics. Not my taste, but tasteful. At the dropoff, I discussed the merits of using a non blue thread with the client, but in the end she chose blue. It does not show at all.

Fortunately, now that it is off the machine, there is a little texture to see. I was worried there too, since she gave me a very thin batting. She asked for a "happy" edge-to-edge. Hope I came somewhat close. It's not like I have a drawer of "dismally sad" options.

I showed an applique design I was playing with last time -- something to use up my bright batiks. For some reason, I am having a hard time commiting. I used to be able to just cut and sew without barely a thought. I spent time yesterday playing with a fun pieced design for the same fabrics. I like it a lot. Just wonder what to do to make it "mine", and not just another feathered star quilt. That is one good thing with my applique concept.
Then logic got the better of me. In my hunt for more batik fabrics, I came across the beginnings of this quilt. It is actually a trilogy of small quilts, made from the same fabrics, but in different patterns, intended one day to be a gift for each of my 3 kids. So there is the sentimental thing there which is getting in the way of me just kicking that bag of batiks out to pasture. Anyhow, I decided it would be way better to at the very least, get the pile of storm at sea blocks assembled into a top. This did require making the 2-1/2" squares, but not too many of them. Seems doable for a couple afternoons. Optimistically, I set out in this seemingly simple adventure...

I had 4 pieces that were initially pieced in black, that needed to be yellow. Couldn't find the yellow I used, so I had to remove all 8 and redo them. This wasted an hour because I redid each at least 3 times! When, I ask, did I become such a slob of a piecer?? I put 2 rows of the storm at sea blocks together, and am mortified at how sloppy the piecing is. Mortified. The points of the diamonds don't meet up properly. The yellow triangles go too far.

There shouldn't be black at the ends of the colored diamonds. It's the work of part-time, half-blind quilter-wanna-be. I hate to give up, but seriously, if this project is to come to fruition, it's going to mean I come of another piecing scheme and start over. It's considered "out to pasture at the moment. Ther's no way I will leave my children sloppy quilts to remember their mother "the quilter" by.

A long weekend and a few finishes

2011-10-11T04:33:00.000-07:00

The kids were home 4 days this past Columbus Day weekend. Just about all sewing came to a screaching halt, except that which I can do between 5:30 and 7am, and after bedtime. It does pay to be an early bird in my house! We spent Saturday doing the soccer and dance shuttles all morning, and a fair bit of puttering in the afternoon. The weather hit 80 or above all three days which is not common for Maine. I was able to get a good bit of my back garden replanted. It was pulled out completely this time last year in preparation for the house addition. Fortunately I was able to keep much of the plants in a holding bed that I have grown veggies in in past years.
On Sunday we made our annual trek out to the Lobster Shack. It's a local and kind of low end restaurant on the coast. You pay for the location not the fried seafood and burgers. It was a hot and gorgeous day. The kids usually cooperate for a few pictures that often go on the Christmas card, then we walk along the rocks. A nice outting. It's the kind of place that makes forgetting any issues and a strong desire to really want to sew easy.

Last weekend was the Quilting with Machines show in Ohio. I sent my Postcards from Venice to the show. Despite some reports that the show seemed small, the competition of quilts was of a high quality, as seen here. I am lucky to have received an honorable mention as well as a teachers ribbon. I'll find out when it arrives home which teacher gave it. This quilt is making its way to the Georgia Quilt Show now, with high hopes of doing well there in 2 weeks.

What else haveI been up to??? Still designing, still dreaming of a creative way to use red and orange hand-dyes. I actually like the design I am developing now. It's kind of art nouveou, but not really in those colors. Maybe I should just give up and go for the purples and make the design process simpler on my brain!

I finished a client's 2nd table runner in the wee hours of this weekend. The little red flower centers are not appliqued on. I prepared the circles for the client to enhance the look of the flowers.

...and a closeup look

And lastly, I have shirred some fabric that will become my daughter's newest dress. We picked it out for Christmas, despite it not being red or green. Those seem so cliched and not worn but a few times around the holidays. I just want to make her a pretty heirloom dress that can be worn year-round. I need to go buy yellow floss before I can go much further. It is a shade of green, and there is some red (only the piping details will be red), but it will have a yellow ruffled underskirt and sleeves to make it springlike. I should have bought the eyelet laces this weekend at Joann's on their sale...oh well!

Runner Fun

2011-10-06T06:07:00.000-07:00

My Quilt is off of the frame for the first of wht will likely be several quilting sessions. I've shown a few sneak peek, but you'll have to wait until another time for a grand reveal. In the meantime, it is back to quilting as usual...customers and catch up. Here's the first of 2 table runners that this customer brought to me. All she requested was it to be fancy. That means: quilt the tan pretty, as this is the area that will show most.
I bit the bullet and used a sandy Rainbows thread. Generally speaking, I love this thread and the shimmery effect it has. It is espeially gorgeous on batik fabrics, but it can be a little bit persnicketty for me to work with. Sometimes I have more trouble with tension and with it creting small pokies on the topside. I decided since this was small, I'd venture into the potential trouble zone. Much to my surprise, it tensioned up very well, so I decided to use it on the entire quilt and not just the tan regions. What you cannot see from the pictures is that this thread has soft and subtle variations in color from ivory to caramel, and it has a gorgeos sheen. It creates a very formal look.

I suspect she will be happy. Her 2nd runner will have to wait until the weekend, as I have another deadline that I currently on the frame. Feathers, yummy and luscious feathers....

My Memories Giveaway

2011-10-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

I swear, if my head were not attached, it would roll away! I know I said I'd do this on October 1. Sorry, I am a few days late. And to makeit worse, I cannot for the life of me get the widget from random number geneator to give me the result to display!

Anyways, the winner is #3, Sue: "I would love a chance to win this software ! There are so many ways I could use this ! I would love to make calendars & quilt labels and ......". I'll be contacting you soon with download information.

Thanks to all that played.

Friday Fun

2011-09-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

Or something like that, maybe. Hard to believe that tomorrow is October. Three more months of 2011. Doesn't seem possible. This is just about the best sight I can imagine right about now...I know, "what is it?", you are wondering. It's the END. The BOTTOM. Finito! Well, not quite finito, but at least finito is in sight! I'm aiming for early next week to have this off. Not done, but off.
Here's another peek-aroo...nice texture. An absolute ton of grueling, closely-stitched ruler work, but it is pleasing me thus far.

As usual, I am dittling with EQ designs. I do several a week, ditch many for one reason or another. I guess I just have an itch to start a new project. My Dresden plate quilt, which is all hand appliqued, is requiring a little bit of re-stitching (aka I F-ed something up and need to fix it). I want to keep working on this, but re-work can be so harmful to my productivity. Anyhow, 2 years ago I received a FQ bundle of 24 hand-dyes, and have used much of the blues and purples and greens, and have been seeking a project for the red, yellow and oranges. The problem, my brain does not really think in these colors, so invariably if I start out designing for them, they end up being just highlight colors. This design is intriguing because it is 36 of the exact same 8-pointed star blocks, just in different colors. Kind of reminds me of a southwest sunset.

Of course, I managed to sneek in the green. And the same design, without the sashings. Rather a different look. I just dont like the way all the seams will be thick where the blocks come together. Keep designing...

If I hadn't been so doggone busy this week with one thing and another, I probably would have done a dedicated post because I encountered someone's post that was essentially a hot-headed rant that was all but screaming the reasons NOT to have a longarm quilter if you are a domestic machine quilter. The person who I will not name is a very skilled domestic quilter, and in her defense, she was trying to justify her position for how she quilts and why she doesn't need to have a longarm, but damn, it bugs me when non-LA-ers try to tell the world that they know about longarm quilting when they clearly have no experience! Yes, they are large. Yes, they are expensive -- over $10k before you buy any templates and gizmos. Yes, they are heavy, but for Pete's sake, if your's is good, you are not pushing 40lb around because the dang thing is on wheels. That quilt you are tugging into the neck of the domestic machine is heavy too - I know this because I have actually domestic machine quilted too. A properly balanced table and carriage allows very smooth movement of the beasty machine. And again, yes, it is an adjustment learning to quilt with a LA over a domestic. It is so freaking difficult that it took me an entire month before I dared to take a customer's quilt. That was 2 years ago, and close to 2000 hours of quilting later. I do quilt for ME, and I quilt for others. It's the funnest and most creative job I have ever had. I have regretted spending that much on a car, but not on that sewing machine. And if I want, I start quilting at the center, or the top left, or the bottom right -- there is no rule. Now all you domestic quilters just keep doing what you are doing because your work is lovely, rewarding, and perfectly complete the way it is. You are a quilter just as much as I am. I just needed to get my "Why the LA is a great thing" rant off of my chest. It's been itching at me all week. If you want an LA, get one because you won't regret the decision. Achieving proper tension was 500 times easier on the LA than on the domestic.

Have yourself a nice weekend~

Progress on Carpenter Star

2011-09-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

I have been puttering away at this quilt for the last 7 days, 2-3 hours a day. More customer quilts have come in this week, making me stress over how slow the progress is. At this point, I have to just stop fixating on the minute details and small fillers, and get the silly thing stabilized enough that it can come off the frame in 1 week or less. That should be doable since I am nearly sitting on the middle right now.
I had fun with the tan filler (above), although this is the last quilt I will make where I mix a solid fabric with other prints. The weaves are different and I am not thrilled how the dense quilting looks on the tan. It will be just fine when done. This is just a case of "ole picky me". The butterflies, which were nearly an afterthought on the quilt, are quickly becoming my favorite part!

Each of the diamonds of the wheel are densely quilted with different patterns. My hope is that it will appear as bands of texture going around the carmenter star when it is done. I'm using a wool batt over 80/20 so this (with all the piecing seams) is a thick quilt. Will be super heavy if mailed anywhere! So far, threads are Bottomline in bobbin and Invisifil on the top. Because the fabrics have so much pattern, it is hard to see the stitching. I so hope that the texture and time-consuming patterning does in fact show in the end. This seems to be a constant worry. What else am I to do, though, unless I want a bold or thick contrasting color thread?? Still going on faith at this point that my plans will work out.

I haven't settled on what will go in the tan (above the yellow applique) below, but it's stable for the time being. I do like the filled radial stripes, and I know that they will have a great look.
Here's the long awaited center (...long awaited for me, anyways, because it marks where the first half ends and the next half starts!). With a light held at angle, the quilting is visible. I have feathered along the outline of a star, and then done 1/8" radial lines to help mash down the fabric to enhance the feathers. The thread is a sage green, and it unfortunately matches way too well, almost to the point of disappearing... It is nice to be freehand quilting, rather than using the templates (which can be rather slow).

But, again, I ask, what should I have done differently? I'm not about to quilt in pink just to see it!

The grand reveal on this quilt should be interesting. I'm going half-blind trying to see the stitching for the printed fabric :-)

My Memories Giveaway

2011-09-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

I was approached recently about testing the My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software. I jumped at the chance. In past years I have created many digital photo pages, and had them printed into my kids's photobooks. Though I have been lax the last couple years about keeping up, maybe this is the push I need to make those fun pages for the family's history.

The software is www.mymemories.com. And before I tell you more, I'll say that I will be giving away a copy of the software to one reader (name drawn at random on Oct 1). More on the drawing in a moment. I have used a different scrapbooking software previously so it was fun to Beta test a competitor's product. I made the rather simple page shown above (you know...gotta always push that business!!). There are many scrapbook pages to choose from, even ones that look like quilt patterns! There's lots of pre-arranged pages to use, or you can create your own. Borders, text, clipart, etc...lots of fun for all!

So how can one of you get your copy of this software??? Simple. Go to the site given above, have a look and leave me a comment with a valid email addy telling me why you'd love to win this software. I'll randomly select a person on October 1st.

If you happen not to win, and still want to purchase the software, tell them promo code "MSV210D" to get $10 off.

Thursday Thoughts

2011-09-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

Almost another week is gone, bringing a weekend of what may include yard work (seeding to be exact) - ew! I try to be productive, but gosh, I seem to putter best of all lately. I have a bunch of hand-dyes in a variety of colors that I have been most ficklely waffling on what to make with. There have to have been 10 different designs, and yet another one on the drawing board today. I did get to start stitching on my applique quilt. I actually started yesterday, but I think the hour or so I worked was more or less a stitch, curse, pick-out, curse some more, repeat session. I couldn't get the dang Monolon thread tensioned properly, and finally gave up and decided to outline the appliques with beige Invisifil. Nearly invisible, just not quite!
I am stitching the entire top with the Invisifil thread (Bottomline in the bobbin). So far, not so much as a problem. Just what I like. Much is obviously not yet stitched (aka, the leaves, flowers, background, etc), but it is begun, and I do have a plan for most of the top.

I'm looking for suggestions from the readers as to what I ought to do with the creamy diamonds that are currently left unstitched. I'm at a loss. I designed them with curved stitching, but I have a hard time doing this on diamonds repeatably well. Ideas include do nothing, and outline with another row of straight stitching. Other thoughts??

Postcards to the Press

2011-09-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

I grabbed a magazine at the grocery store yesterday...
I knew this edition had an article on the quilts of MQX West, but never figured to be featured since there were so many other ribbon winners. Much to my surprise, look what I found! The article is 4 pages, and shows about 15 of the lesser known quilts. These are truly some of my favorites from the show, and for the most part, they did not receive ribbons. It's nice to see all quilters rewarded, regardless of how their quilt places.

...and a closer look,

I just mailed this quilt off to the Quilting with Machines show in Ohio. If you are in the area, you can see it there in a few weeks.

Bitten by the Silk Worm

2011-09-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

My husband took all 3 kids and went somewhere nearly an hour away this afternoon. Translation: they will all be gone at least 4 hours. I no longer care that I have a headache. The house is quiet, and I have had the fun time of playing with fillers on my silk wholecloth quilt. It's small enough and stabilized so I can take it off and on the machine whenever I want/need. I received a box of Superior Bottomline thread this afternoon. It's mostly prewound bobbins in a variety of colors that I will use on a couple of upcoming quilts. One just happened to be the color I needed to get back on this quilt. Initially, I thought I might do the backgrounds in colors so that they show up more, but I had so much trouble with the Bottomline thread pulling now and then as I stitched the feathers, I decided I'd take a different approach. I'm awaiting several cones of Invisifil that I was going to use, but there was still polyester doubt. I have one 1000m cone of taupe silk-100 thread that I had yet to try, and I figured when better to do so than on the silk quilt?

Holy Shazam! I absolutely love this thread. It is smooth. It never pulled or nested on me. Never shreaded like the poly does sometimes. Many times. If only it weren't so freaking expensive. Like 6-1/2 times the cost of thin poly thread. Yikes! But it sews sooooo nicely (you can see where this logical argument will be going, right??). I just may have to get more of the taupe for quilting the background of the quilt I showed yesterday.

Anybody have a supplier of YLI-100 thread (1000m cones only) to recommend? Even better if they will sell to me wholesale...

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supplier update...

1. www.brewersewing.com has YLI 1000m at retail $18. Don't know about wholesale yet

2. Superior's www.superiorthreads.com has them wholesale for $9, and $12.99 retail, but I have not tried their silk.

3. The best prices I found are at Linda's Electric Quilters www.longarmsupplies.net at $9 for the 1000m YLI silk - retail price.

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Inquiring minds want to know...Why does a silk 100 never shread at the needle and the 60wt and 100wt polyesters do???

Got Butterflies?

2011-09-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

I have been finishing up a quilt this week that I just LOVE. But this quilt has just been screaming for a little something to break up a large-ish area of blah tan fabric. ...As an aside, I chose to make this quilt exclusively from my stash fabrics, so the background may not be entirely what I'd have chosen had I wanted to spend $$. Now these tan areas didn't need anything large, just some kind of "distraction" to help the eyes to wander. So, I found the perfect solution in Butterflies. They are about 1-1/2 inches large, and have been slightly colored with permanent pens to be less blue. I know, I know, you are thinking that I am a master butterfly appliquer, but you couldn't be further from the truth!
Several years ago, I bought this great piece of fabric in a clearance bin for $5. I have always loved the green tones and patterning, so I looked beyond the butterflies, fully expecting to probably cut around them whenever it was finally used. Guess the laugh's on me. I chose 2 of the larger butterflies, and carefully appliqued them onto the quilt. Two for each corner. I have done basic embroidery for the butterfly bodies and will add antennae with dark thread while quilting.

I think that this is ready to be quilted. I have to go underneath and cut away some of the backing fabric & bulk that are under the appliques, but the hard work is finished. Phew!...I even got out my wool scraps this morning and hand stitched enough together for a batting (yes, my thriftyness has no bounds). I have designed the quilting more or less, and it's full bore ahead. As for the butterflies, I love them. They are delicately flying around, and help to reinforce the garden look of the quilt.

The Art of Quilt Labeling

2011-09-14T05:50:00.000-07:00

Now I am by no means an expert at making quilt labels, and I frequently opt for the easy-out approach to labels. For years, I gave quilts and didn't bother with a label. I was like Wendy, barely finishing the bindings before the quilt needed to be gifted and wrapped. A label seemed out of the question, or at the least unnecessary. It has only been since I have been making a ton of quilts and making quilts for shows that I want to label them, if only to document what year they were made. But labeling does so much more.

A label on a quilt is kind of like a head stone in a cemetary. It gives credit to who made the quilt for future generations. Sure, you are not likely to forget that you made the quilt, but will your daughter's daughter always remember? Being a lover of all things old and cherished, I hate that my daughter may not remember who made her crocheted & embroidered dresser scarves. She never knew her great-great grandmother. Heck, I barely did. These items were on my mother's dresser when she was young, and to me, that is really neat.

Anyhow, off track as usual...sorry. The point is the same though. As creaters of art (yes, quilts are art!), we should all try to label each quilt, and include at the very least a few basic pieces of the quilt's history. I include the following...a name for the quilt (not critical, but for shows it is required), my name (and if a different person did the quilting, include their's), where I am from, and the date when the quilt was finished. Beyond that, much is up to the individual.

One quilt I included a saying and a photo. The photo is special to me because it is my daughter, who the quilt was made for, at age 2-1/2, wearing a dress I started kindergarten in.
Another example of a quilt label is here. I actually (gasp) put it at the center of the quilt's back because I had had a little bit of thread tension issues there, and really wanted it covered up. I designed the label to blend into the style of the quilt front, even adding a few crystals to the points of the star. It is printed on my computer, and hand appliqued from the batiks used on the quilt.
In retrospect, it looks kile it belongs there, and was not a band-aid treatment!

For a recent quilt I completed, I chose to create a label with a scrapbook software, and have it printed onto a fat quarter of fabric at Spoonflower. This is an economical way to create several labels (as many as you could fit on a FQ, for a mere $11. The printing is good quality. This particulare label is a little simple, but more because I printed the label before I knew what the backing fabric for the quilt would be. I didn't want to use purples and have them clash. It gives only the pertinent information about the quilt and it's maker.

My Seaglass quilt (below) is off to a show next month and it received its label just a few days ago.

This is one of those quilts that adding the label proved more of a chore than a creative burst of wonderfulness. I was out of time to have a label printed. I have tried, however, to keep the label in the same design feeling as the quilt. I have hand written on a piece of aqua batik the quilt's labeling information. I actually traced something I printed off the computer so that the text was mostly legible. And then cut it out in the shape of an oval -- a pseudo piece of sea glass. It's not great, compared to other labeling efforts, but it relates to the quilt top.

The last label I will show is probably my favorite. It is from my Postcards from Venice quilt. For this label, I used the scrapbook software to design a postcard. I used an actual photo that I took in Venice 10 years ago, and labeled the top of the postcard with the English translation "Postcards from Venice". The overlay is what would be the part of the postcard that you'd handwrite. I have transcribed a postcard that my then fiance sent home to me (even though we were in Venice together) to receive in the mail. The Italian "Cartoline da Venezia" and my name and place are in the address, while the stamp over the postage contains the completion date of April 2011. Pretty clever if I do say so myself. I had this printed at Spoonflower. To date, it's been covered up at every show :-((

So, even though that gorgeous and creative quilt label you make for your show quilt will be covered up so that nobody can admire your craftyness, put it on anyways. Someday, someone will be curious enough to wonder "Who made this quilt and when?"

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Emma has given her approach recently on quilt labeling too if you are looking for another quilter's perspective. Unfortunately, living in theUS, I don't have access to the Australian magazine!

Mixed E2E and Custom Blocks

2011-09-12T05:19:00.000-07:00

A customer brought me this quilt recently. She thought she wanted a simple pattern on all of it. She was not interested in custom quilting (and it's cost). Rather than stitching a paper pantograph pattern on all of the quilt, which would have left the pieced blocks looking underwhelmed, I chose to do a front-side all over free-hand design on all areas but the pieced blocks, and something more custom for the pieced blocks.
This technique is fairly commonplace amongst many quilters, but only works if you are truly comfortable free-hand quilting. I think the end result is very attractive. It's a design of swirls, loops and simple feathers.

This quilt is stitched with a pale yellow So Fine thread. Turns out, it blends fairly well with every fabric she used, even the white block backgrounds.

Her backing fabric is a royal blue broadcloth. This is not my favorite choice for backing fabric, as the weave of broadcloth tends to be more open than most quilting fabrics, and the batting does occasionally tend to "pokey" through. On the bright side, it really shows off the quilting, in that it is a solid!

More Time translates to Less Progress

2011-09-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

Why does that saying always seem to be true? When I only had 2 hours a day to quilt, I was the master of productive. I was focused and on-task. Now that all 3 kids are at school for 3 straight hours every afternoon, I am a mush of anti-productivity. I find more things to do that just dont need doing. I waste more time on the computer doing Lord knows what. It's enough to just drive me nuts! Things need to change next week.

My silk wholecloth is off of the frame now. I tell myself: "It's off so I can plan what to do in the backgrounds and order thread". Reality: "Customer quilts really need doing so my indecision has to wait!" I have some ideas, and am contemplating using colored threads for the fills, but may chicken out on that. We'll see when the next order of Invisifil thread arrives. Thank you MQS!~
The back is this nice olive, which shows every painful stitch (and mis-stitch). I don't know what came over me when I chose the backing that dark, knowing that the thread/bobbin would match the top.

This week, I will lose 3 of my quilts. The babes are all being sent off to different shows. The shows seem to be rather late getting their acceptance notices out, giving us barely a week to ready the quilts before they must be sent. Sea Glass is very close, but still needs a little attention to some stray threads, and a 4" section of the binding. As I mentioned earler - procrastination! Fortunately, I did get the crystals put on this week. There's an insane number on this quilt. I only wish I could see it hanging in a show. Someday... As usual, I am busy designing another applique project. Like I really need another one?! But one of them is wrapping up, and what's another hand sewing project for the evening???

Have a good Sunday~

The Fruits of my Labor

2011-09-05T12:39:00.001-07:00

Today marks the end of the 4-day weekend. Kiddos go back to school tomorrow and hopefully they will slip into a normal routine without too many days off. I have had a little time this weekend to play on the wholecloth quilt I have loaded. This is my first attempt, so it is completely marked with blue pen (which is still there). Perhaps someone can tell me if I can remove the pen from the silk (silk Radiance 50% cotton) before I do the background fillers, or will it leave water spots?
It's not large - only about 38". I have not decided what fillers I am using. In fact, when the last of the feathering and echoing is done, it will probably come off the frame so I can qiult some customer's quilts. I have some Invisifil coming for the background fillers in colors other than the champagne.

I had to lay on the floor to take this picture from the back side. It is really a deep olive green (and not the brown that my monitor is showing). It is clear that I have some areas that don't have exact/ideal symmetry, and these will possibly be "fixed" at some point. I am still having trouble with looping of the Bottomline thread (but on the topside of the quilt!), but sinceI changed bobbins, I have had less issues. Nevertheless, I have at least 2 places on each of the feathers stitched so far that have to be taken out and fixed (sigh!). Not sure that this will ever be "show worthy", but it is a learning process I wanted to take. It's more like going to the mall in your satin underwear...every last mis-stitch, wobble and roll of fat shows!

Goings On for the week

2011-09-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

The week is over. I have had some good work time this week, with school starting. Despite it being a short week (Tues-Thurs), I still had calm, productive quilting time. I have done one customer quilt, and taken in a couple more to get done in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I am frantically trying to get all the last details of the Seaglass quilt finished up. This week was for binding and the sleeve (which is approaching done).
I have the last of the crystals that are being put on this quilt due to arrive next week. The binding was time-consuming, but is so worth it in the end. The micro-piping coordinates with the backing and tones in the sand fabrics. It also stiffens the edge to help hold the edges from ruffling while hanging. I also went to the pain-staking trouble to align all of the changes in binding fabric with where the border fabrics change. It's a nice effect, but took lots of tweaking.

Before we left on vacation 2 weeks ago, I was working on my so called "fast pieced quilt". It was supposed to be designed with minimal piecing so it could be more of a quilting project than a piecing project. Oh, was I so wrong. I have learned I am incapable of doing easy and simple and fast piecing. My mind thrives on the complicated and intricate patterns, and even better when they intertwine. This is lacking a couple more borders still, but you get the idea.

These are some of Northcott's stonehenge fabrics from the Amazon and Maui (I think) lines. They are so gorgeous; I just love them, even more than the Stonehenge ones I used on my Postcards quilt. My heart beats to purple and green. Just a simple fact. A few of the materials have gold leafing on them too.

One more looksee...

I have been helping my 9 year old design and sew a placemat. And my 5 year old is attempting to hand quilt a doll blankie that I pieced on machine. They are having fun, but it's eating into my time!

And lastly, I loaded the silk wholecloth this afternoon. It is only 36" square so in theory, it ought not take that long (famous last words, I know). I have only done this much, and I have things to rip out and redo. The Bottomline thread is giving me frequent fits on this job, making little nests, and bunching out when it should not. From a few feet away, it may look OK. My eye is too trained to want the feathers more uniform and areas of symmetry to be actually symmetrical. I may leave it and opt to fix things when the rest is stitched. On the bright side, the silk is not hard to stitch on, just a bit nervewracking.

Pantograph Review

2011-08-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

I have done a few different and new patterns to me. Actually, they were all acquired earlier in the winter, but I just recently had a client that either chose them, or received a quilt I felt that they were well suited for.

In the last few hours before I left on vacation to the Cape, I received Andrea's last wedding quilt. It was actually pieced by her mom, sent to me for the 2 day turn-around quilting, and then back to Andrea for binding before the big event this coming weekend. This is stitched with a neutral tan SoFine thread, Bottomline bobbin. The pattern is Feather Meander by Linda Taylor. I had actually been avoiding using it, as I thought it might be dense and time consuming, but I so totally love it. It reminds me of a front-side freehand E2E that I do, but I just wanted to give the pattern a try. It will be used often. It is a wide pattern too - 14" I think.
And a better look from the flannely backside...

Here's yet another batik quilt in gorgeous greens and purples. I have used this pattern a time or two this year, but it's a nice one for this quilt. It is Woodlands, and is a rather dense leafy design. I used once again a SoFine thread in the top and bobbin, in a fuscia color (like the inner border).

The thread does not appear to show because the lighting for the picture was miserable, but it does show as pink against the plum backing. It is dense - many bobbins used.

The last pattern, again for one of the wedding quilts, is called Angel Wings. I chose a bright orange thread, again SoFine. Although it is being given at her wedding, it is actually a baby's quilt, with the gender unknown. The orange is a bold choice, but definitely relatively gender-neutral, and it does show up nicely without being bright red hearts all over the quilt.

This is a loose pattern and does quilt up relatively fast. I prefer the patterns to "interlock" more so that there is not the obvious look of hearts all in a row (aka - more like the Feather Meander I showed first), but that is life. It's delicate, without making a stiff quilt.

So I am now back from vacation, a week on the Cape, visiting what are really quite nice beaches daily even by my more Caribbean standards. All 3 kids are in school - even my youngest goes for the afternoon. My machine is home from its annual servicing, and I am easing into the notion of having 3 uninterrupted hours of sewing every afternoon without question. I have some client committments, as well as things of my own to finish up. My quilt going to MQX West is nearing completion (should be since the show is a month away). I also have no less than 4 others in the works. First up....a 40" wholecloth, all marked and ready. Just one semi-custom ahead of it. Oh, did I mention that the wholecloth is silk? Yikes. That is where the nerves kick in, and the ever-present quandry of what color thread to use. I started teaching my oldest how to sew a couple weeks ago and he is chomping at the bit to do more. That is on Saturday's agenda. So much fun, so little time! Visit back in a day or so and I will show a few more snippets of what I have been up to.

Thread Review

2011-08-27T12:58:00.001-07:00

Earlier this month before I left on vacation, I quilted several quilts. In this time, I was able to test out a couple of threads that are new to my repetoire. Typically, I sew most of the time with Superior's So Fine thread on the top and their Bottomline or SoFine in the bobbin. This combination works without breaks and issues. At MQX in April, I received a cone of Superior's Omni 40wt poly thread. I finally had a quilt that seemed perfect to try it out on.
This is one of Andrea's wedding quilts, one of 13 that are being given to her attendents next weekend. Thank goodness for her it is next weekend, as we are all awaiting the arrival of Irene tomorrow! The thread is strong, very suitable for pantographs and all-over quilting designs. In my opinion, it is too heavy for detail work, but good for many other places. I have a cone of tan, so the color was right here too. The thread has little sheen, like some other poly threads, but looks good, and ran without so much as a break. It required an 18 needle, so I did stock up on these at the World Quilt Show 2 weeks ago, and plan to order a few cones of the Omni with my next Superior order. It's run with Bottomline in the bobbin. Oh, and the best part is that it comes in 6000yd cones, 172 colors and has a price of $7.70 for the business owner ($12 for everyone else).

The other thread I stitched with for the first time is Wonderfil's Tutti, 50wt cotton thread. I got a cone of green last month with my MQS gift certificate, and figured I'd just test it out, along with several other threads to see what I want to buy with the remaining $700 of the award. Seriously...how much thread can one person buy?>?! I ran this thread with a matching So Fine in the bobbin. I seldomly quilt with cotton thread because it generates so much lint, but this was relatively low lint as cottons go. It is a fairly fine thread too, and looks nice as a panto.

I think I stitched with an 18 needle as well. I did have 5-6 thread breaks, which are annoying and slightly disruptive, but I'd be inclined to get a few cones of this thread too for E2E work. It runs $28 for 3000m - more expensive than most other comparative cotton threads, but since mine will be essentially "free", I will likely get some.

(above...another of Andrea's wedding quilts. Look at all those geese!)

World Quilt Show - Half the Recap

2011-08-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read that correctly. Half. HALF! Am I not the world's largest blooming idiot? I drove 2 hours each way to go to this show today, only to get back home and discover that half of the quilts were off in another hall...yes, the top show winners to boot. I am so freaking livid at myself for not looking at the program while I was there. I thought I was doing fine just looking at the quilts, but I suppose I am the fool for thinking so. Looks like Handi Quilter and the truck were there too. One more thing missed!

So, sadly, I cannot show you pictures of the top winners (smirk), but I have a few pictures of some others that struck my fancy. The quilt name labels were not right beside the quilts so I have done a miserable job of recording who did what. Appologies-
Below, is Marilyn Bedford's, which did win something.

This next ocean sceen was very neat to look at how it was constructed. Didn't photograph so interestingly.

This quilt has words and phrases quilted into the background about aging.

Just plain colorful and cool.

More abstract color.

This had an abundance or nicely placed micro-pipings on the top, and very nice quilting around the trapunto butterflies.

I believe this was Germany's top entrant. The eagle/bird is done with just quilting.

There were lots of "artsy" type quilts. Here's one. Some type of thistle.

...and a close up of the thistle - very neat.

I've seen this on the web many times from other shows. It's really nicely done, and a good quilt to see in person. It may even be high enough resolution to double click and see more detail...

Bold.

Love the simple elegance of this trilogy.

Though I'd have quilted this more, it is probably one of my favorites of the day. So sweet and innocent.
RaNae Merrill's quilt - too many teeny tiny pieces here!

...and a close up

Nice movement.

This was a display quilt I like.

So I missed all the Japanese and Israeli quilts and the top winners. Dumbo! The Japanese usually make very intricate quilts too. I left the show thinking it was vendor-heavy, lacking more of the quilts I like to see. There were way too many artsy-fartsy quilts. You know the kind, put together with pounds of fusible, then there's string couched on top, then some tulle, and enough embellishment to gag a herd of animals. They can be attractive, but I like to think that quilts are still made with sewing machines and not irons. My opinions aside, there were LOTS of these type quilts. I kind of figured I'd not ever submit a quilt to this show just because my point of view is so vastly different from what I saw today. I have since seen the winners and some other quilts and realized I am just the idiot for missing half the show! In fact the person that won the traditional category was somebody that had the very same quilt at the Maine Quilt Show 2 weeks ago. Maybe I will reconsider sending something here in another year.

Enjoy!

Lowell Quilt Show, Part 2

2011-08-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

This is the post where I will show pictures of the top winners from the Lowell Quilt Show. But first, I got a kick out of this. It was parked in front of the auditorium where the show was. Wonder if they make them fora mini-van??...
We'll just get to the top winner. This is Linda Roy's Vintage Button Bouquet, and it is more than fitting for the Best in Show. It's amazing, hand quilted, hand rouched, tons of circles, micro quilted and then some. Can't even fathom doing all that hand quilting.

And I do come from a hand quilting background, but this is insane. That cross-hatching may be at most 1/2" apart.

This is Linda Laine Banner's William Morris Autumn, and it received the Exemplary Applique Award. If I am not mistaken, it said that she made this for the Joann contest. I remember reading about who won this some months ago, and it was not this quilt...hard to believe since this is lovely! And made from Joann fabrics!

and a closeup

Here's Armelia Spinello's Splendiferous, and it is. It's made with all silks, and just shimmers under the show lights. Just Beautiful.

And lastly, the Best Use of Color and Pictorial Winner is Medea Escaping by Marilyn Bedford. How do these people eved dream these things up?? They are so amazing. And this is large too, so it creates a very ominous feeling looking at it.

As I said before, the quilts at this show were great to see. Many familiar names, and many new ones. It was awesome to see some of the works of well known award-winning quilters up close. Yes, there were many more that I did not show; sorry...only so much time for filtering through pictures this week. I am off to the New England World Quilt Show on Thursday too. Phew! Overload!

Lowell Quilt Show, Part 1

2011-08-12T14:24:00.001-07:00

Today I had the distinct pleasure of going to the Lowell Quilt Festival in Lowell, MA. Kids stayed home with Daddy. I didn't send a quilt here. In fact, I didn't really think much of it until a client asked me to quilt a top for her in May, and she was sending it to the show. After looking into the show a little bit, I quickly realized it attracted the works of good quilters. After attending the show, I am here to tell you that this may be a small show, but it was an awesome display of talent. I took a number of pictures, but will start with the quilt that I quilted for Sandy...It's around 83" square, and took (applause!!!) 3rd place in the bed quilt division! This is not based on a judges score, but rather is 3rd best in the category. Kudos to her. She's a mechanical piecer, very neat and precise. Quilts I do for her are reliably flat, square and always fun to stitch. This was no exception. I got to "go to town" here, and she has a lovely yellow ribbon to remember this 1st show experience. More pictures...
The picture is fuzzy. Despite this auditorium being lovely for the quilts, the lighting is horrendous. The quilt's name is "Beth I hear you calling". She's used the heavily printed fabrics brilliantly, with black as a cohesive accent. I was able to create secondary quilting designs amidst her stars and piecing. I really love the square bands of pebbles.

There are plenty of feathers to keep with the very romantic feel of the fabrics. But I also like to throw in the juxtiposition of straight-line beadboarding and curved cross-hatching to break up the flowy feathers. The inner red border took the proverbial forever, with the pebbles outlining the egg-dart motifs. Simple and classic, with a twist. The end result was a lovely quilt. Did I say how proud I am of her? Wow. For the curious ones...this is all Superior So Fine thread and memory has failed me as to whether it has an additional poly batt on top of the usual 80/20 Hobbs. Gosh, my memory is goig, but I do think I did add the additional batting to show off the quilting.

Want a few more pictures...

This is Janet-Lee Santeusanio's Rosebud quilt. It's simple, classic piecing, and typically Janet-Lee lovely quilting. For those of you that don't know, she is the longarming coordinator of MQX. How does she have the time to quilt?? Her quilt took Honorable mention, after Sandy's.

This Lion quilt is incredible. Up close, it's hard to see the design. From 10 feet away, it's awesome. "El Jefe" by Grace Errea.

"Moonlit Sky" by Jenny Boucher is adorned with an absolute ton of crystals. I needed sun glasses to look at it it twinkled so much. The quilting looked oddly familiar when I first saw it. Then I realized it was done by Judi Madsen (aka Green Fairy). I love seeing her quilting, but she hasn't been showing much of it lately on account of other projects.

I've not photographed the quilt number of the next one. It's a gorgeous combination of blues you might not instinctively use together, but yet go together wonderfully.

And a closeup of the block that she did a simple kaleidoscope block of (also the border fabric).

This next one is all hand quilted and has amazing color gradations. "A Peruvian Tapestry: Women of the Andes" is by Betty Taylor.

No show would be complete without a Baltimore album quilt. This is massive applique with lots of hand quilting "And DAR Visits Rhode Island" by Brenda Devine, earning a 3rd place ribbon. Hard to believe.

Oops, no quilt credits...sorry. It's lovely!

This is by Louisa Smith (of Strips-n-Curves). The colors are lovely...lots of pieces. "Painted Leaves"

This is only a small part of this quilt, and it was hand quilted!

"The Tsar's Decree" by Megan Farcas. It has lovely movement and twinkled.

That's all for now. In the next few days, there will be lots of pictures of the winner's circle quilts and the ones I have not shown yet. Top winners were Amazing, and make me drool.

Intertwined - detail pics

2011-08-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

I showed this quilt 10 days ago after the show, but didn't realize I hadn't really shown too many of the detail pictures.

Turns out, I really love this quilt. I love the batiks, and the purples and greens. They are 100% me and then some. I started this center block last August in a Karen Kay Buckley class on hand applique. Her class was fantastic. I can't say enough about her patterns (but they are hard and time consuming). If you follow through with the applique of one of her's, you'll definitely see the improvement in your technique by the end of it. She has patterns for a quilt with 6-9 leafy wreaths with different flowers and an absolute TON of grapes. I knew after doing the center that I wanted to do more, but I wanted to make it my own design. The vines are needle-turn appliqued from 3/8" bias cut strips, and then are stuffed with a piece of yarn. Can you say, "Very narrow!".

So I added the appliqued ribbon and cathedral window. And more grape vining with the orange flowers that intertwine, hence the origin of the quilt's name. The quilting is traditional and symmetrical, whimsical and fun. I put hidden quilted flowers in the border and no shortage of feathers. I wanted texture, everywhere. There is curved cross-hatching -- something I have grown to love. I made it look more basket-woven this time. Did I mention that there are nearly 150 appliqued circles that are all under half inch in diameter??

For those of you that longarm, this quilt has a layer of Hobbs 80/20 with a layer of Hobbs wool atop that. The thread is Superior SoFine on the top and Bottomline in the bobbin. The filler for the rays in the quilt's center is done with the Bottomline as well. The cathedral windows are stitched with a plum-rose variagated Rainbows thread. Although the pictures don't show the subtleness of the thread colors, the feathers in the center are stitched in lavender thread so that they'd show a bit more. The rest of the threads match the fabrics - mostly Hoffman 1895 batiks.

Though you probably can't tell, the quilt is also adorned with nearly 1000 Swarovski crystals. It glistens under the show lights. I tried really hard to give the quilt a great backing as well. I was tremendously bummed to find that I had missed centering the diamond by about 3/4". It's fortunately not really obvious! When this happened, I kind of suspected it would have a short show-quilt life. But receiving a blue ribbon has made me rethink that. It will be visiting the Georgia Quilt Show in October next, for those of you in that area.

It's 42" square. Could be a perfect size to hang in my dining room. If only...

HE doesn't love it here (like the new dining room was designed for anything else in this spot??!). Thinks it is too large. I think he's crazy. Real Crazy. Even crazier than the fabric-crazy, quilting obsessed wife he has. The wholecoth quilt I have been marking this week may go in this spot instead. Time will tell. It may well be on the show path for a while anyways :-)

Projects and more Projects

2011-08-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

In the spring, I took an online wholecloth class at www.MQResource.com. I have mixed feelings about the class, but there were definitely some things learned. Several months later, I am starting my own wholecloth quilt. I worked on the design during the class, had it enlarged a month ago, and even bought the silk Radiance fabric a month or more ago. Once it arrived, I was too timid to touch it. It's silky, sheer, and will not tollerate pick-out so I have to stitch it correctly the first time. Now, that is daunting!
So naturally, with at least 3 other projects started, I decided to lay this out and start marking. It's not my nature to actually mark all those feathers. I thought long and hard about just going at it free-hand, as that is my nature. But I figured I'd follow the suggestions of the class just this one first time. As it turns out, this champagne colored silk is sheer enough that I don't need a light box. I can pin the fabric to my 36" pattern and trace away!

Now, off to pick out a binding and redo it with a piping. Yikes, that sounds like a TON of work!

Detailed Pictures, as Promised

2011-08-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

As promised several days ago, I have additional pictures of the 2 quilts I quilted for clients that were shown at the Maine Quilt Show. This first one is by Kathleen Currier and was a display quilt. It's a wildly bold and modern design, and despite absolutely loving the color lime green, I found the design very difficult to do. We wanted to quilt more than a pantograph since it was going in the show, but when the top does not have a definite focal point, it makes stitching a custom more challenging. Additionally, the fabrics are all mostly quite busy, and seeing the thread was hard.
Lucky for me, she is a fantastic piecer. Even with all the curves, it layed perfectly flat. What I chose to do was a little unorthodox. I cut circles out of a poly batt to place under the appliqued circles to give them added poof. I then stitched a row of pebbles around the perimeter of the circle to hold them in place, and amplify the poofy-ness.

Along each waving strip, I stitched a variety of different fillers ranging from classic feathers to swirly feathers, pebbles, flames, waves, etc. I also used different color thread - green, black, white and charcoal. Originally, she had a patterned background, but I convinced her early on to go with a solid color to show off the quilting. Hanging at the show, you'd never know how much quilting there really was. The poor white glove gals practically stood by this one much of the day I was there, holding up one corner so people could see the back!

...which was really quite unexpected.

It's wild like the front, and shows off a real avant gard style of quilting.

Here is Jaki's quilt, which won a red ribbon. It's a smallish wall hanging, with impeccable applique. The background is all filled in a McTavish-esque style. It was hard to do anything but an "all-over" filler because the applique designs are not separated much. The dense fill did enhance the puff of the appliques. Since it was a judged show quilt, I did use a polydown batt over a cotton batt also.

The backing was perfect to hide the stitching, but show the patterns.

All appliques are outlined with a mono-poly thread.

I wanted to show a nice variety of fillers - background fill, a few feathers, some striping of the outer border and a little ruler work. I knew her applique work was good enough to get her a ribbon...didn't want her to miss out because the quilting was not up to the same standard.

Have a great weekend! I've spent the entire day laying a patio, concrete paver by paver. My quilting wrist is out of commission for a day now. Luckily, I have 3 quilts I need to have done by this week all set to go. This coming weekend I am heading to the Lowell Quilt Show, and the following week I am off to World Quilt in Manchester. Lots of great inspiration to see!

Playing

2011-08-05T05:20:00.000-07:00

I always seem to get "idle" when I am mid-project. I am in the process of finishing this project.
Truth be told, I spent 6 hours just sewing the binding onto the quilt (it has a wierdly scalloped edge), and another 2 hours doing half of the hand stitching, and I think I may take it off and redo it! What a mood buster. This project is started, but since this one is still being worked on, and I can only hand applique one job at a time, things are moving a tad slow. I seem to only hand stitch an hour in the evening, which translates to just 2-3 leaves. My psyche needs to finish something. I am mentally taxed this summer dealing with too much fighting, whining and general bad behavior. I need kids to go back to school and give me time to think. No, make that time to complete things!

Yesterday was one of those rare days that gave my mind a rest. I had just the boys in the morning, and they were pretty nice to eachother, finally. In the late afternoon, I sat down with my new box of 120 crayons to color something I have been sketching on all week (yes, there was a little envy from 6 sad eyes over Mom getting this ginormous box of crayons...even if they have a box of 300 between them!). This was Tuesday's rendition...
And by Thursday, it had morphed into this. I envision intertwining ribbons in blues and greens and purples. I wish my drawing skills were better. More than that, I have no idea how this could ever be implimented with fabric. This is about the 3rd design idea in 2 weeks that I have worked on...a sure sign that I need to finish something else I have in the works, before I end up with another UFO.
Good afternoons have been a rare thing this summer. With 3 kids, there is always one that is pushing someone's buttons, usually mind. All three decided they'd make "their quilt design". My oldest thinks he wants to learn to sew. He heard what the MQX kid's prizes were, and wants in on a piece of the action! His quilt design is predictable for him, and maybe not the most simple for a 9-year old (despite urges to use the graph paper squares to design it!).

My nearly 5 year old likes to use lots of color. Must be the influences of the quilts in her room!

And middle-man does actually have quite an attention to detail when he sits down and actually does something. He spent 2 hours yesterday and only sketched his. Very symmetrical. Very stitchable. Yikes, do I see another project or 3 coming?

ME Quilt Show Pictures & Afterthoughts

2011-08-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

I have received my judges comments from the weekend's quilt show. You'd think I just wouldn't care. I took home two blue ribbons, and then some. But I always like the critique, looking for one thing after each show that I might be able to improve upon with my next project. Every judge sees and comments about different things, even if they happen to judge the same quilt more than once. Two years ago, it was the words "binding should be filled". Never again did I have a flat area in my bindings. Last year I had critiques of my applique stitches showing. I'm pretty sure that they don't show on this year's "Intertwined". Small needle, finer thread, and tinier stitches took care of that. One judge said last year that a quilt was not square (but I quickly confirmed her eye was crooked, not the quilt's corner). I like to study the judging categories that I don't get maximum points, to see where I might gain something. This year I chose piped bindings, and received an additional point per quilt over last year. There is always something to be gleaned, or so I think. That is one reason I personally prefer that the judges comments are not all about what you did correctly. Criticism is a helpful part of the process.

So anyhow, my comments are here in the mail today. There's nothing too catchy in the review for my Best in Show quilt. Clearly they liked it. They failed to see small areas of mis-tensioning, or that the many borders don't all align perfectly vertically (or perhaps since it's first show they have relaxed and aligned!!). I knew they'd catch the mis-matched curve piecing on the center rosette. It's hard to hide! Let's face it - that rosette center was a curved-piece nightmare that resulted in a major C-cup before it was quilted!! I have similar thoughts about the review of my other quilt, "Intertwined". Generally, it was liked, but I think when you give them less to look at (compare this quilt to the BOS quilt...), they are able to find more. That mere thought makes me think seriously about making overly simple quilts with really nice quilting. More always makes the eyes wander and not catch the obvious. The wetting/blocking process made the batik fabric in my ribbons pucker a little. Found that. Seriously, was I supposed to iron it?? One judge didn't like the peachy flowers. Oh well. Same judge had great comments about the complimentary colors used, and my general use of color, but then she managed to only score 8 out of 10 points in the color section. Go figure??! Guess she likes use of purple and orange, but just doesn't like orange!

What seriously chaps me in the judging process, though, is when one judge is grossly different (aka lower) than the other two. I'm sure she/he is consistently lower with all quilts, but it still affects the average score, and final placement. Now this is a hypothetical rant since the scoring still gave me a blue ribbon, but it is the principle of it. How close should scores be between the 3 judges? Is it reasonable to think that they'd be within 10%? I think that when one judge is bringing down the average of the other two judges by 3 points, it is a hair out of whack. Two judges think a quilt is worthy of the top of a blue ribbon scoring, while the third places it in the middle of a red ribbon?? I come from a competitive gymnastics background and if one judge was scoring differently, either high or low, then some agreement had to be reached as to what this judge was seeing. If not, then judges ought to leave additional feedback about what they took points away for. Seems reasonable. ...or maybe I'm just ranting again.

So, on to some pictures from the show. This was a display quilt, but it has lovely color. The patches just "bloom", and the simple curve-crosshatching allover gives it a nice old-fashioned feeling.
Photographs don't do this justice. Another display quilt, it was very pretty in person.

A lovely small wall-hanging... might be hand-dyed silk. The purple swirl was done with stitching.

"Black Magic" by Ann Freeman - nice machine quilting on a black background, and a rather whimsical rooster.

"Aurora Diamond Quilt" by Jan Krentz (teacher). The back had a hidden surprise of a circle of swimming whales. Very sweet. It appears from a distance to have a jagged bottom, but it is really black quilted fabric, cut like mountains. Nice illusion.

A nice landscape of the Maine coast by Brenda Ware (I think).

"Blossoming" by Beatrice Gilbert. I love this one. It's done with silks.

"Starburst Galaxy" by Carol Perkins. Very nice machine quilting. Both she and her husband had quilts in the show.

"To Everything there is a Season" by Pat Delaney. This is done on a domestic, and is really colorful and pretty. Judges agreed!

Betty Sypniewski's "Fairy Dust" has ultra-sweet colors.

And who doesn't love a NYB quilt??!! failed to get it's name or the maker.

The last 2 are ones that I quilted for clients. I'll show details tomorrow or later this week. This was ("Pauli's Garden by Jacqueline Soper) a 24"x30" wallhanging in the judged category. Her applique was nicely done.

This ("It's About Time" by Kathleen Currier) was SO hard to quilt, but was only for display. The back is black. Come back tomorrow to see what I did.

Will the Wonders Never Cease??

2011-07-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

Today was mom's day away to go to the Maine Quilt Show, and let the kids have a day with Nana. I hoped that my two quilts would show well. I kind of knew from the shows earlier this year that Postcards from Venice would probably do well, as long as judges were not too picky about a few misaligned points on the curved-pieced rosette. It's not the flashiest quilt, and it's probably not what every Mainer thinks is the most interesting to stare at, but who's looking at the quilt when it has all those awesome colorful ribbons to gawk at??!

Holy smokes (OK, that is NOT the word I mumbled as I walked into the Civic Center, and right off the bat, saw this). I could hardly believe it. No, I practically peed my britches with glee and shock. Yes, this is 75 hours of quilting vindicated in ribbons. I am so happy. No, make that still on cloud 19. Higher than the air. Four quilt shows since April; seven ribbons. Happy grin.
I know you have all seen the quilt months ago, buthere's a closeup at the new quilt "bling". I'm sure my daughter will think that the purple ribbon ought to be in her room. We may have to have a small (ok, huge) negotiation.

I did enter another quilt. Smaller, brighter, flashier. It received a ton of fantastic comments (yes, I am always listening to the viewers...I know that they may not love dull colors and dense quilting, but judges do...). "Intertwined", as I named this 42" applique quilt also brought home a blue ribbon (one of I believe 5 given at the show). More happy smiles.

I actually had quilted 2 other quilts that were at the show (client). One was judged, and it took a 2nd place ribbon (one of only a few of those!).

All in all, a very successful, surprising, shocking and smile-filled day.

Dresden Plates (the pattern & the plans)

2011-07-27T05:21:00.000-07:00

The Dresden plate pattern has been around for ages. It is a classic & traditional design that has been found in quilts for nearly 200 years. There are many variations of this pattern...ones with petals, ones with pointy "blades", ones with small center circles, ones with larger ones, and they can be found with any number of petals or blades too, giving them a much varied look. I am making a simple Dresden plate quilt, intended to showcase large-scale modern-ish prints so I do not want my pieces to be too small. I understand that Accuquilt has a die for cutting a Dresden plate which results in either 20 or 22 petals/blades. I don't have Accuquilt however, so I went to EQ7, where I can design whatever my heart desires. Sadly after I did this, my printer would absolutely not print without buying over $50 in ink cartridges, so I went to the old-fashioned route. This is, afterall, an old-fashioned block, so why not?!

I got a piece or wrapping paper. It's the largest paper I own, and my blocks are 15", which is larger than standard paper. I traced a 12" diameter quilting circle template, and cut it out. I will make my blade template from this. You could make it any size you want. I left a good bit around the Dresden to allow for quilting designs. If you don't have such template, a compass or large dinner plate will work too.
With your circle, fold it in half and then in half again, to mark 4 90-degree quadrants. If you are anal like me, take a protractor and confirm that they are in fact 90 degrees. I hae chosen a bladed Dresden with only 12 blades. Take one of the quadrants and your protractor, and mark 3 30-degree sections. I then square off the rounded end of the section and also shorten the piece where it approaches the center of the circle. We are almost finished. The last thing you need to do is add the 1/4" seam allowance to the sides (and end if you want). Cut this out and trace onto a more substantial piece of cardstock or plastic. Viola, here is your blade pattern.

Sorry, blurry, but you get the idea. Now it is a little tedious from here, but trust me, the sewing part is much faster. Trace and cut out how ever many pieces you need. I do this with 4-5 layers of fabric stacked, using a rotary cutter.

On your sewing machine, fold the piece in half lengthwise, and stitch with 1/4" seam across the end. I do backstitch at the folded end.

Now trim the seam to a scant 1/8". You don't want the bulk within the point.

Turn the piece right side out and press gently with scissors to get it pointy. Press.

Next, choose the arrangement of your 12 blades, and stitch together. I backstitch ~0.5" at the top of the seam so I don't have to worry with loose threads or a seam pulling loose. I then press the seams to one direction (because I will be ditch quilting each blade and this can not be accomplished if pressed open). Then I starch the top. There are many bias edges. The starch helps the plate to hold its shape until it is added to a background fabric.

Missing something?? Yup, the center. This is typically a circle, but since I found this perfect 12-petaled Michael Miller fabric, I couldn't resist. Applique away! I have used a 5-6" center.

I have 5 of my needed 20 plates ready for their background fabric. Please note that after I sew the plates to the background, I highly suggest going back and trimming that "triangle" of excess fabric from each blade point. It has a seam in it and will be very prone to showing through to the top of the Dresden plate when it is quilted. I hate this look :-((

This is my "Walk on the Wild-Side" Dresdens. They are bold and bright, and look so fantastic with the flower centers. Thanks to all for your comments on my quilt layouts. I kind of figured I'd go with this layout all along, but I just needed confirmation that it would be great (rather than going the more traditional route).
Coincidently, this morning I came across another person's blog post about Dresdens. You may find it informational. It is here...

And dont forget about the Quilting Sale...

Have a good Wednesday~

Quilting Sale!

2011-07-26T06:15:00.000-07:00

To ring in the month of August, I am running a quilting sale! All pantographs and free-handed edge-to-edge patterns are priced at 1.25 cents per square inch. I am also pricing stippling at a penny per square inch! This is cheaper than just about anywhere, and is ideal for your heavily used utility quilts. I have many patterns to select from. They are shown here ... http://www.mainelyquiltsoflove.com/. I stock a great weight Hobbs 80/20 batting in all widths, and a large selection of thread colors. So get out those quilt tops that have been awaiting quilting and get them done! This is also a great opportunity to get your Christmas and holiday presents finished too.

Iwill accept quilts at this price until further notice (sometime in August).

The sale price is for quilting only, and does not include the typical charges for thread and batting (0.22 cents per square inch). It also applies only for pantographs regularly priced less than 1.7 cents per sq in.

Contact me directly if you have any questions at msolomo1@maine.rr.com
For those of you less familiar with my quilting, I am a longarm quilter with several show awards for the high quality of my work. I assure you that the quilt you receive back will more than meet your expectations.

A hot weekend away

2011-07-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

As the thermometer read this last Friday (the bottom number is the outside temp at 6:02pm!), we were preparing to getaway to here.
I'd gotten passes from the lirary to go to the Coastal Botanical gardens, which was very pleasant. Oddly my kids do enjoy places like this, and this particular garden has lots of rocks to climb on and water features (sprays, fountains, etc) in which to cool one's fingers (or more!) on a hot day. The hydrandea's were amazing, as were many other varieties of flowers. They have apparently received more rain than we have. My grass and gardens are starving for rain.

Boothbay Harbor is a quaint sea-village with cute shops, boats to take on whale-watching trips, and just a picturesque piece of Maine. The cheapo motel I booked last minute on Friday managed to lose our reservation, and put us up at their cost down the street at a slightly better place. Kids got to swim in the pool, but most of all it was great because it was FREE!

Yesterday, rather than hitting those places that are really just for kids, we decided to do a day trip to Monhegan Island. It's a 90min boat ride on what was a just fantastic day. Monhegan is a year round small community, but has no paved roads and is predominantly occupied by real granola-ish artsy-fartsy types. The ocean-side of the island has treacherously steep cliffs of rock. There are many hiking trails around this 1.5sq mile island. The kids liked a dip in the water at a small beach, and my middle kid thought he'd hit the jackpot for all seaglass finds (there have obviously been many lobster & clam bakes there with a plentiful supply of beer!).

Monhegan is like a step back in time. I think there are a couple trucks on the island. Nowhere takes credit cards, and there is no police or medical services so don't get hurt or sick. It was a lovely and calm day, mostly away from the hustle and bustle of an otherwise touristy area.

Now, back to work!

Baskets, Baskets and more baskets

2011-07-22T02:36:00.000-07:00

Somewhere near 80 baskets I think.

This is already home with it's owneer, but posting it slipped through the cracks with all of the chaos of our home renovation. The fabrics all came from the owner's many visits to Hawaii.
The backgrounds were a little bit hard to see anything on while I was quilting. They are just small prints in tiny dots or toile. The ivory thread just disappeared from my eyes half of the time.

Everything is ditch quilted, but what to actually quilt on the baskets themselves was a challenge at times. I did tropical-ish looking flowers, leaves and a variety of swags.

Some of the larger baskets have feathers and ferns or flowers coming out of them. To keep with the tropical look, I did a pseudo pineapple leaf border in the red. I would have probably done a beadboard or something with rulers since the freehanded visibility is kind of a nightmare.

And a few looks at the back... The majority of the backing is what I consider a quilter's nightmare: pure white. It shows the quilting very well, but doesn't hide anything (assuming I might want to hide a few stops/starts or ill-placed stitches!). It is fun for showing the many (maybe 6-7) different colors of bright threads used on the baskets though.
All of the basket outlines are much more visible from the back too.

Kind of fin...

It's like a tropical sauna here - high 80's and grossly humid already (barely 9am). Hope you can find a cool place to chill today ;-)

Up to me chin in Dresdens

2011-07-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I dared to venture out with 3 kids to look at green fabrics. One of my favorite fabric haunts will cut as small as 1/8", and carries name-brand materials for as low as $3.99 to $4.50 per yard for most everything. I am working on my modern Dresden quilt and thought it needed a little more variety. Maybe I was just feeling restless or even a tad insane. I went to Mardens anyhow. The boys were actually good, first time all week I can say that I was not cringing and appologizing for their rudeness in public. I sent them off to fetch me a couple more greens. At fifty cents, I could hardly go wrong if they brought me ugly #1 and ugly #2. Then I sent them to count the greens, and the yellows and even the holiday prints (about 900 bolts in all). All done without bickering and fighting while the gal cut a dozen bolts for me. Shocking!
So, I now have 20 whole Dresdens, 8 half Dresdens and 4 quarters. Turns out I think I mis- counted and really didn't need quite so many. It's no big deal, they sew up SO fast. I make 5-6 in an hour each morning before the chaos starts each day.

I only have one of the centers actually appliqued on though. This is where the slow work starts. The center took aboiut an hour to do because of all the scallops.

I got some background fabric in the mail (above). It's another case of something not looking exactly the same on the internet as it does in person. The one on the bottom right was mixed into the many tans (this is Michael Miller's Krystal line), and is actually much too peach in person for my taste. I've been playing with layouts to try to minimize the peachy-ness, but all of them appear to need more of the tan. Drat. As an aside...this fabric comes in loads of colors, and looks kind of like a batik, except that it is not a tight weave. I suspect it will ravel, and I would have liked a nicer sheen on the fabric, but that's just my take on it. With lots of quilting, it will probably be just fine.
That one above is one of the original concepts, but I don't really love the thought of doing all the borders and sashings and attempting to keep them straight and square. The next one is better, but is it boring??
Number 3 is where my current designs are migrating towards. I like the use of the criss-crossing and the bunches of 4 hearts that it makes. Not sure if I want the peach in there (or else I need more tan...).
Or, here's another concept, but it too needs more tan fabric. It certainly leaves plenty of dauntingly plain background fabric to fill with quilting.
So what are your thoughts?...Please give feedback on how you'd set the Dresdens.

Are you Identifiable?

2011-07-18T04:12:00.000-07:00

As a quilter, is your style something that someone could walk into a show (or a blind room), and say, "I know exactly who made that". Or are your styles so varied that even you wonder how a particular quilt came out of your sewing room? These are interesting thoughts, perhaps more so if you make quilts for shows.

I am probing about this today because of something my husband said this weekend. We had a couple of his highschool friends over Friday evening to see the new house addition, and one of them wanted to see "The Quilter" - aka my longarm. He'd only heard of this type sewing machine, but couldn't envision how such a machine could take up an entire room. I was off with the kids, even unaware that the studio tour was going on. I had a quilt loaded at the time, but only a small part of a quilt is visible. Saturday he told me that he didn't know if it was a customer quilt or one of mine. He thought it might be mine since there was a lot of quilting on it, but it was not like anything I have done so he was not sure. I pondered about these words for a good while. Very interesting thoughts.

If you make quilts for show, or even if all you do is enjoy quilts at a show, do you like to walk into a show and know who made something before you even see the tag? More simply than that, are you able to identify a quilt's maker simply by the style, whether it be the piecing or the quilting? At one time, I may have thought no, but not anymore. Some quilters are very identifiable. I wonder if I will become one of someday, or even if I want to be identifiable.

This is one by Janet Stone. She's a lovely quilter (as verified by that very large ribbon!), and all of her works (that I have seen in recent years) have alphabet letters worked into the quilt. In some instances, you have to hunt a bit for them, but they are there. I have no idea what the rationale is, but that's not really the point. She's a good, award-winning quilter, and she has an identifiable theme to many of her quilts. What do you suppose judges think? If you were a judge and saw a quilt with letters, would this bias you in any way? Would you automatically think it is a Janet Stone quilt? Probing thoughts. (This post is merely for thought, not to cast opinions on how people choose to make their quilts. The ones I have shown here are fantastic works of art)

Another quilt...We all know the many works of Ronda Beyer. She, too, has a very identifiable style. When I think of her I think of bold colors, hand-dyes, lots of white background for showy quilting, lovely and whimsical applique. And of course the quilting is always over the top with an abundance of curved cross-hatching, feathering and fabulous fillers. Unique? Definitely. Creative and award-winning? Certainly. Identifiable? In my opinion, yes. Are other quilters at a disadvantage when good quilters are identifiable? Hmmm...More things to ponder.

The quilt that was on my frame when my husband did the sewing room tour was in fact mine. It's my Seaglass quilt that is nearing completion. I hope to have it ready for a show this fall. I had it on for a couple days to finish up a few open areas. When my husband said he thought the quilt may not be mine simply by the style, it made me think back to other recent quilts I have done. It made me wonder about the identifiability of one's works. I never really thought I was "Identifiable", but I definitely gravitate to certain types of fabric, and colors, and maybe some aspects of my quilting are if not identifiable, then at least kind of predictable. I don't want to be predictable (that is somewhat synonymous with boring!) The quilt below, the first of my own to longarm, is definitely me in the sense that it is symmetrically pieced. It has a bold center element. It has about a kazillion pieces - I have never shied away from intricate piecing, even as a longarmer where detailed piecing is not judged to receive as many points. I'm honestly not so sure what possessed me to use the sandy tones, but the quilting and piecing are somewhat traditional and symmetrical.

After that, I did this quilt, Primavera. It's in many ways, ALL Me. It's the jewel-toned hand-dye batiks. I was getting into the needle-turn applique, and loving it. Motifs are completely symmetrical, yet somewhat whimsical. It hangs on the wall across from my desk for me to see while I type, and I just love it. Ever have some colors that just make your heart sing? These are the ones. As I type on, too, I'll point out areas of the quilting that I think are becoming repeatable (or identifiable??) in my style. I like pebbles, and feathers and the way a viewer's eye focuses on the center because the radiating rays dray your eye there.

This quilt (Postcards from Venice) was admittedly a complete departure for me in terms of fabric choices. I do not do brown, but I loved the idea of making an inlaid floor, and the Stonehenge fabrics were perfect for it. It has more than a kazillion pieces, so again, nothing simple in terms of piecing and praying for a square quilt. It has curved piecing, paper piecing, and old-fashioned, sew, sew, sew, sew. It's quilted to the moon and back since it is a show quilt (4 ribbons so far and 2 more shows coming up). There are no shortage of feathers and other minute fills, and again, I chose rays out from the center. With such a prominent center medallion, did this quilt really need the rays? Or is this a predictable/identifiable style? That's for me to consider as quilting for future quilts is designed.

One last quilt (Intertwined), that is headed to it's first show next weekend. I'll show the quilt in 2 weeks, but here's the center. See anything familiar out of the gate?? Hand-dye batiks, jewel tones, lots of applique (and there is a ton of detail on the rest of it). The quilting is what I favor and love most - monochromatic texture using feathers, pebbles, and the becoming-popular rays from the center. This time, I added some fillers on every-other ray for more texture. The fact that the quilting that I gravitate towards is often similar, makes me really want to think hard when I am designing future show quilts (and there are a couple in the works right now). Or should I take the approach "If it works now, why change?"??? Is it better to stick with a style that may become Identifiable, or stray to different styles of piecing, applique & quilting just to mix it up a bit? I'm seriously pondering this.

So the quilt that was on the machine, which was not identifiable as having been made by me is this one...Back in the winter, I started this quilt. I have been dreaming of making a Sea Glass quilt for some time. I just love the many colors sea glass comes in. I have taken my kids looking for sea glass this summer 2-3 times at the beach, and they love it. Anyways, when I conceived this quilt, I really intended it to be a colorwash or watercolor style background (the waves I added were done after the fact). It is all batiks, some hand-dyes and some prints to add texture. It's the kaleidoscope block, which is not hard, but gives an interesting faceted appearance to the background. Maybe it does not have the detail of some of my other quilts, and it did not take 6 months to piece it. But appliqueing on 120 pieces of seaglass was not fast effort, even if they are machine appliqued (another departure for me on this quilt). Being traditional-minded, I almost never machine applique. Non-symmetrical, machine appliqued, and blue? Yes, I really do not like blue. My house has no blue in it, so this won't ever hang here. Someday one of my kids can have it though.I envisioned it having very asymmetrical, textural quilting, which it does. My pictures could be better. I suspect that I had to take them in a different than usual place because of my house's construction. The waves are appliqued from several different batiks, going darker to lighter at the peaks. They are quilted with a shimmery variegated blue thread in a wave-like feather motif. Different, yet still familiar for me.

Another peek at the texture I tried to create. It's random, yet follows the design somewhat. In my opinion, this may seem like easy quilting, but it is not. It is difficult to make a filler convey a message. You want it to scream "I am a flowing wave", but does it??

This is basically an art-quilt, so to speak, with 7" borders. I found it hard not to fall back into my old ways of semi-traditional & structured quilting for the borders. The feathers are a little different - an attempt to make them more wave-like. I love how the borders came out and can't wait to use this design on another quilt (a more traditional one!). And that is probably how designs quilts identifiable to the quilter :-)

The thing I did do, however, to make this quilt's borders a little different, and more whimsical is I made the borders asymmetrical. Two corners of the quilt have the quilting above for their borders, and the remaining borders are like what is below. I will bind 2 corners with scalloped binding for a real twist.

In closing, I hope I have left you with things to think about. Is your style in quilts and quilting predictable or identifiable? If you were making quilts for shows, would you want it to be? Of should we each be striving to reach outside of our comfort-zone box? The creative person in me feels the need to branch out to different realms often, but I definitely fall back to a comfort zone when I am not thinking about it. I never want to make quilts for show that might be viewed as boring, but identifiable might be OK, someday.