It’s official!!
I have been been awarded an official Boise State University crafter's license to use Boise State University themes in making and selling quilts to the public at large.
So, in addition to offering long arm quilting services and making custom quilts, I will also be creating BSU themed quilts!
Sample Bronco quilts are in progress, so stay tuned!
The reason I haven’t posted for the last two weeks is that I’ve been extremely focused on tax reports and sewing …more so on sewing!
I finally finished my American Hero Quilt that I started quilting last August, but it still needs the binding. I don’t have a picture of the full quilt right now because I also pulled out a UFO that is made of of LOTS of half square triangles, and they are taking up the majority of space on my design wall where I normally take my pictures.
On Sunday, my fabulous friend, Verna, came over to motivate me and lend a hand with getting the canvas properly cut for my new zippered leaders. I’ve been avoiding it due to the fact that this has to be pretty precise and dealing with the 4 yard length of fabric presents its own set of challenges.
It took a couple of hours to get the fabric cut out properly, and I realized that I’ll need another 4 yards of fabric to make the 3rd set of leaders that I want, but I’ll have two of them for now, which is great!
It is, however, taking an inordinately long amount of time to get this project finished!! Sunday night I was up past midnight because I was serging the edges of the canvas. I remembered someone saying they had color coded theirs, which I think is a great idea (I had red thread in the machine already and loved my test run!)
So, I serged red, then blue and then decided I was going to go for just plain cream/white on the pickup roller. Changed thread and the tension was a mess!! So, I dutifully tried to adjust it (I have a wonderful Pfaff 4785 electronic serger that I NEVER have to adjust the tension on!)...and I spent over an hour messing with it (DUMB, DUMB, DUMB!!) with no satisfactory results...and yes, I turned the machine on and off several times to get it to go back to its default settings.
FINALLY, I decided that hey, the tension on the other colors looked great, just change the thread again. And, voila! the tension went back to being beautiful! Well, mostly...I used the 3 matching dark colors I had left and 1 light color in one of the needle positions, and the light color kept skipping a few stitches, then would catch again, then skip later so that it left large stretches of thread on top of the fabric. So, I put in a contrasting dark color and it worked just fine.
So, why would light colored thread suddenly become my evil nemesis??
Less confident that I would actually finish, I again took up the task again last night. I added another straight line guide down the middle of where I will be attaching the quilt to the leader, then ironed down the edges. That went very well! I went to sew it down with a straight stitch and half way through this long 128" trip, the thread broke but I didn't know it. So I fixed that, not especially happy with the way it's looking, but OK fine, will address that later.
Then I couldn't remember what my zipper foot looked like so I had to look it up in the manual (it's not the usual "half-foot" for the Pfaff) and then had to find in the manual how to move the needle over left and right so I get a tight seam.
Then it was time for bed, and I actually went! No more staying up until midnight, I’m exhausted! So, they are STILL not done! And this is for the FIRST SET! AARRGGHH!
Now to get the binding completed by Thursday night (guild night), finish the leaders so I can get this other American Hero quilt mounted, and finish my tax reports for the accountant.
That's what one calls blessings, huh?
I actually played this weekend! Not only did I go golfing with my DH and another couple, I actually played with that big box of scraps!
I am really proud of what I accomplished: additional blocks to get a UFO (UnFinished Object) on its way to being finished, and two crazy patches!
I have always wanted to do this block but this box of scraps really provided the opportunity….and I love the result!
Given that I already have several projects in progress, not to mention the list of UFO’s, I decided that, for now, I will limit myself to making 9 blocks to make a wall hanging. I think I will even do some hand stitched embellishments!
I am overwhelmed…both by generosity and volume!
A nearby quilter is moving and asked if I wanted a box or two of her scraps....she warned me that there was a lot, and I'd be sorry....but I said, yes, I want them! Of course, I want them!
She called me yesterday to pick up the box of scraps. The box is from Quilter's Dream, the size that you can get the baby quilt sampler batting packs in. Once I opened the box and started pawing through it, the contents started to expand and take on a life of its own!
My goal is to sort them by lights and darks. Medium is not a goal right now. If there are strips, they will be moved to my newly purchased "strip" bins. 
I worked for over a half an hour and I only got as far as about an inch in a 20 gallon Rubbermaid tub.
And there's another box coming next week!
Hey…I just ordered zippers to attach to my longarm leaders from Zipperstop.com and they should be here Tuesday or Wednesday.
I have been waffling back and forth about using Velcro or zippers, had definitely decided on Velcro and then, after a conversation with one of my online quilt buddies, bam, went with zippers. I’ve never been fully confident that I will be able to attach the leaders straight if I use Velcro, I keep thinking there is going to be a little wiggle that I won’t be able to get out.
I hope I got the right sizes! Since my leaders are 139” long, I’m getting 3 sets of zippers at 128” to attach to the take-up rollers, and the other half will go onto a canvas leader that is about 6” or so wide. I’m also going with 90” and 60” lengths for the smaller quilts, based on standard batting sizes.
Oh, and coming from the west coast, it was so fun to hear a real for-real New York accent on the telephone!
Today I literally spent the entire day on the computer. For some people that might not be too amazing but since I do computer support all week, I tend to avoid the computer in my free time as much as possible. However, I just got “in the zone” and ended up knocking off a couple of items from my To Do List. Not only did I try out new shopping cart software for my site, I also needed to update my husband's website with a photo gallery.
Let me tell you, if you use Joomla for your website and need a a photo gallery component, you've got to try JoomGallery! I was astounded at how extremely easy it was to install and how many configuration options were available. It offered the integrated, full featured, photo gallery I was looking for.
Some configurations took more time to figure out what they affected than others, and, being completely new to the software, it seemed to me that a couple of settings had to be changed in two places and I wasn't sure why, although they were not hard to find.
One item that was not obvious, and undocumented, was how to change the display name of the Gallery page, which needs to be edited in the global Joomla language file. That information was gleaned from the forum pages, and is new with the introduction of Joomla 1.5.
I'm ecstatic about this component, and highly recommend it!
I’ll reserve my judgment on the shopping cart software until I’ve had time to populate it with data and test it. So, more to come…
I have been very busy this weekend, working on trying to get some Bronco quilts made…and it is taking forever! I sewed, with a little bit of cutting, on Saturday for about 6 hours, and I only have 28 Nine Patches made…and I need at least 42 for one quilt! After those are made, then I need to make them “disappear”…into a Disappearing Nine Patch design. Here’s the prototype:
I may need to reconsider the size of the strips, or the construction method; I know I’m slow but, dang!
I expected to already have two made, working on a queen sized quilt, and fleshing out other designs….too bad it’s all in my mind!
