Family Vacation

My brother and his family lives on the East coast, my mom and I both live on the West coast.  Subsequently, we don't get together very often, but this year we made a special effort t get together for a family vacation, during the kids' Spring Break.

It was fun to get together and see the changes in the kids.  After all, it's been at least 3 years since I've seen them and they now range in age from 10 to almost 13.  Family dynamics can always prove interesting, especially when everyone has strong personalities and stronger opinions, but we managed to compromise and everyone got to do something they enjoyed. :-)

First on the list was a visit to the Liberty Bell.  I've wanted to see it since I was in 6th grade, during the bicentennial, and it brought me to tears.

We were able to visit the Hershey

and Synder-of-Hanover factories, where industry of the nation was demonstrated, and where my engineer brother was able to better explain some of the technologies that impacts his daily life.

My mom has always wanted to visit Gettysburg, and we spent one afternoon at the museum, cylorama, and battlefield.

Since I'm the only quilter in the family, I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to visit any quilt shops; unthinkable for most quilters visiting Amish country!  So, when my sister-in-law suggested that I put together a list of places to visit so we could fit something in, I was delighted!

Fortunately, I'd met a quilter in the Denver airport, Carole, from Quilts By Carole. Since Carole is familiar with the area, she later texted me some suggestions for places to visit, and once again I wished I could have convinced my family to make this a quilting vacation!  I had a great time talking with her and and found out we had a lot in common. She offered me a bottle of water and shared that she is also an ABM Innova owner with her own quilting business, the same passion for technology and quilts, and even has the same cell phone! We simply didn't have more time to find out what else we had in common!


There were so many places I would have loved to go, but with only one day allotted for such activities, and lots of distance to cover, I was lucky that my mom agreed to one quilt shop stop, in addition to our Amish community stop. We went on an Amish buggy ride, visited an Amish dairy farm, and found Bird-In-Hand Bake Shop where we had the best caramel rolls I've had in the longest time; they reminded me of the ones my mom used to make when I was a kid.

We traveled about the Pennsylvania countryside and Mom got to see the farms and scenery along the back roads, always a favorite activity of hers. Eventually we found Burkholder's Fabrics in Denver, PA, which houses approximately 33,000 bolts of fabric....with only 40 minutes before closing time!

I met the owner who explained how the fabric was organized in each of the three rooms and started browsing.  Keeping in mind my objective to finish some works in progress, I purchased a fat quarter bundle in various shades of blue that was half off so I could increase the size of the blue rail fence quilt I'm making; if not the size, at least there will be greater variety!  I completed my transaction 1 minute before closing; it was probably a good thing I only had 40 minutes!

Getting together with family has definitely helped me get my mind off the stress of work, home chores, and unfinished quilts.  I'm eager to get back home, see my husband, "the quilt guardians" and to start quilting tomorrow, working on customer quilts, with periodic breaks moving loads of laundry from washer to dryer.

Have you ever traveled with a family of seven??

My Favorite Quilting Tool

Know what this is?

It started out as a pad trimmer for my dogs, but it runs on a battery and vibrates too much and they hated it.

Now, I rip out stitches with it, and it’s my favorite quilting tool.  Mostly I use it on long border or backing seams, strip pieced strips, or when I have boo boos to fix on blocks.

If something is on the quilt frame, though, I’m usually stuck with ripping out stitches with the point of my snips.  I got “lucky” this time because it was just the ditch work I put in place that I had to take out so it was a relatively easy process.

Why would I take out a bunch of ditch work?  Because I decided that I really needed to use a different batting to deal with this fullness in my customer’s quilt, to make it look the best it can.  That, and to save my sanity!

And it really will look awesome, once it’s finished!

This is not the only reason it’s been so long since I posted.  Work has been really busy and I’ve been putting in long hours.  I finished up the Foundational Quilting Skills quilting class that I taught via Community Ed in March so now I have a few more quilts in the queue, behind these other 2 large quilts.  And,  I also recently helped launch the new website for Boise Basin Quilters and there’s still cleanup work to do.

That’s not, as Paul Harvey used to say “the rest of the story” but that’s all for now.  Enjoy the rest of your week!

I’ve Been SEW busy!!

Too busy, in fact!!

I just completed a “go live” system conversion at work.

I’m implementing a “go live” conversion of the quilt guild website.

I’m teaching a volunteer quilting class through Community Education.

I have 4, count ‘em, four, customer quilts to complete, and the thread is breaking (cutting) every few inches now that I’ve changed to So Fine thread, and I’m thinking I need to re-time my long arm.  I’ve done it before, but it just takes time!

I need to celebrate my 15th wedding anniversary, work on taxes, work on my own quilts, clean up at least 3 more machines that have joined the sewing machine farm, and just take a breath.

So, here’s the latest one.  She’s so unusual!  I’m considering calling her “Belle” because this badged National and/or Eldredge is called Hackett’s Improved Beauty.  Get it?  Beauty and the Beast?  And yet, I’m just not sure…this one is so unusual, and I want something spectacular!

Playing Catch Up, Bindings and Bamboo

Well, I’ve been down with the flu this week, I hope everyone else out there is either avoiding others or has gotten their flu shot.  Me, I’m allergic to the preservative in the shot and I’m averse to live, even though attenuated, viruses going up my nose.  So, I’ve never gotten a vaccination, but I will next year.  I lost 3 days of work and I’m still fighting this bug.

Before I got sick, though, I’d been working on trying to finish up some samples to show customers how different battings will work up.  It seems that even though I’ve used Winline’s 100% bamboo batting in a lot of my projects, I don’t have anything to show anyone!  How can I explain why I like it so much if I don’t have any samples?  So, I started with a panel, some flannel, and some bamboo batting, then started experimenting with some quilt designs using Superior’s King Tut on the top and So Fine! in the bobbin, and voilá, a sample is born.

I think that’s my all time favorite quilting combination for variegated thread.  Aurifil is my all time favorite piecing thread, but I’ve used it for quilting, too, and it’s absolutely beautiful.  I only have one weight of it, so it’s not a fair comparison between King Tut, though.  For some reason I tend to “save” the Aurifil because I regard it as special.  There I go again, “saving” the special stuff!  But, I digress!

I also wanted to experiment with my left-homed Kenmore to see if I could use it as my go-to binding machine.  I really dislike binding quilts, I want to get back to the fun part!  So, I thought that if I can come up with a no-brainer method that will  make the process more fun, like using a vintage sewing machine, I would stop dreading that step.  No, I don’t hand sew my bindings unless it’s a very special quilt.

I tend to use 2 1/2” binding because it’s easy to cut.  I’ve recently read that skinny binding, being somewhat desirable, is cut at 2 1/4”, but then, the quilt police don’t live at my house.  The default setting on the Kenmore is a 3/8'” seam so I just sewed away.  You know, going for that no-brainer method.  It worked pretty well, too, hiding most of the seam on the back in the ditch, which is the best looking, or on the binding itself, but I don’t think I sewed my best seam (or something) because I got a lot of seam showing on the back.  I was probably rushing, and no, I didn’t do any pre-testing.  Hey, it’s binding, after all!

The quilt is now all washed and it’s very soft and cuddly!  And no one is really looking at the back of the binding, either.  That was also part of my experiment.  How much of it would disappear from sight once I stop inspecting it so closely?

I have another sample ready for binding, too, but it will have to wait until I have more time…March, maybe?

Sewing Machine Farm

A friend of mine recently asked me if I’m starting a sewing machine farm.  Umm…yeah!

I got this Necchi Supernova BU last week, including the cabinet…for $50!!  This is one of the smoothest, quietest machines I’ve ever used!  I’ve heard it said that using this machine is like driving a Ferrari, and I can see why.

Notice that throat plate?  It’s round and rotates in place so you can change according to your project; no need for separate plates!

The sewing machine folds down into the cabinet when not in use.  The cabinet has a mechanism that helps lift the machine up out of the lying position, making it almost effortless to lift the machine.

I’m still playing around with the tension, though, it’s not as perfect as I’d like.  It seems very touchy to any adjustment I make, which indicates to me that I probably have it threaded incorrectly or am missing some obvious, but vital, step.  I need to try a couple more adjustments before I’d take it to an experienced sewing machine repairman for service, but I think it will ultimately stitch to my satisfaction.

This is a high shank machine and uses cams for decorative stitching.  It came with the buttonhole cam, which, strangely, has the handle permanently attached.  I picked up some generic high shank feet on Saturday and now I’m on the lookout for additional decorative cams.

I’ve never seen a check spring shaped with room for two threads, but this one has it, probably to accommodate using a twin needle.

The eye of the needle faces left so it’s threaded from left to right.

At this point I’m literally out of places to put new machines…that come with cabinets, anyway!

Lynda’s Basket Quilt

This basket quilt is my latest customer quilt finish, and I’m really proud of how it turned out.

These baskets were made by Lynda's grandmother in the 1990's, if I remember correctly.  Her mom had been saying for years that she should do something with them.

So, Lynda and her daughter snuck them out of the house during a recent visit and surprised her mom by making them into a table topper quilt.

I’m pretty sure they aren’t going to serve dinner on this one!

It's quilted using a variety of free motion quilting designs with Superior's Omni thread, Warm and Natural 100% cotton batting.

I really wanted to make sure that the baskets were emphasized and Lynda didn’t want feathers so I used on overall leaf pattern in the light green areas.  The thread color matched so perfectly I had a hard time seeing where I had actually already sewn! 

I’m always amazed at how the back of the quilt shows off the designs!

My First Knitting Machine Hat

I’ve been trying to learn how to use the knitting machine that my cousin gave me.  Of course, I don’t want to learn on my “good” yarn!…does anyone else do that?  “Save” your “good” stuff for later?

Some of the problem has been that I just haven’t really known what to make, and I don’t know what stitches to try to make said unknown project.  It’s really a bit of a switch, changing my mindset from hand knitting, and even then I pretty much only make washcloths and scarves anyway!  I am a quilter, after all.

I’ve hand knit several long skinny scarves with the hairy novelty yarn, so I’ve been trying to use some of those in the knitting machine, too, and have had a hard time with them.  One of my internet group suggestions was to run some “regular” yarn through the machine to make sure it is working properly.

So, I went rummaging around my stash of yarn and found some Lion Brand Fun 100% acrylic yarn that I’d bought at a ridiculously cheap price a couple of years ago, when I thought I’d make a Bronco scarf or something and never got around to it.  This hat is the result, and I’m thrilled with it!

The light doesn’t do it justice, it’s really darling!  I had no idea how big it would actually turn out to be, because I was experimenting, and it’s much too small for my small adult sized head, so I’ll give it to the church charity hat drive when I finish sewing up the side seam.

One thing about making round objects on a flat knitting machine is that you have to seam most of them to complete them, and I’ve found that is my least favorite part.  But I learned a lot on this project and had a blast doing it.