Wandering Spiral Block

Last weekend was the Boise Basin Quilters annual quilt show.  I went on Saturday with a fellow Innova owner and long arm quilter, Linda V. and we had a great time.  I entered Odd Girl Out in the Exhibition Only category and had lots of compliments.  It was a super busy day and the quilts were great.  I even purchased a couple of tools I’d seen earlier this summer.  You’ll be hearing about those over the next few months as I get those projects started.

On Sunday I took the Wandering Spirals class from ReNae Merrill.  Of course, I had to get a photo in front of the class sample!  If you look closely you’ll see “shadow” blocks in the quilting.  That would be the outline of the quilt blocks on the other side.  Yep, it’s a reversible quilt!  Unfortunately I neglected to get a photo of the other side.

ReNae developed this block specifically for our guild and debuted the pattern at our show.  She specializes in a unique paper piecing technique.  I’ve done very little paper piecing but found it easy to follow and really enjoyed the class, learned a lot and made a new friend, Vicki.

Notice that in the photo my shoes don’t match.  That’s because I can’t sew with my shoe on so I was wearing the felted slipper that I made earlier this year.

Vicki and I didn’t finish our blocks during the class so we got together last night and worked on the block for about an hour.  After dinner I completed mine.

Nxt up: print the additional foundations and get them assembled (this block requires 4 foundation pieces), cut the fabric, and find time to piece the rest of the blocks!

It’s Been a Busy Two Weeks!

Customer quilt complete!

I finally finished my customer’s 112” x 112” Double Irish Chain quilt!

She provided a Hobb’s washable wool batting and I quilted an overall meander in the chains, a freehand boxy leaf pattern in the inner white border and a piano key on the outer border.  I used a continuous line stencil pattern for the design in each of the setting blocks, tracing it from a printout of the stencil using the laser light on the back of the machine.  It turned out great, and my customer really likes it!

Longarm machine update

Two weekends ago I spent a full day with tech support again and we adjusted the electronics on my machine.  It seems to be sewing a lot better, but I’m taking it slow because I don’t want to create yet another problem with the customer quilt I have on the frame.  Once I get the off of there, I can put on a test piece and quilt the way I usually do.  If it works, I’ll be back in business.  If it doesn’t, then ABM is going to see if they can route a technician through Boise to get this resolved once and for all.

What’s New

This past week my mom came to visit because we got tickets to go to the Gordon Lightfoot concert!  We had a great time and even though I couldn’t take any time off work I was able to work from home.  That was awesome!

The Boise Basin Quilters quilt show was this weekend, too.  Mom isn’t a quilter and wouldn’t have had as much fun as I do when I go, so instead we went to the Farmer’s Market before her flight back home.  After I dropped her off I went to the trunk show lecture that our featured artist, Marsha McCloskey, gave.

It was raining on Sunday and with all of the activity of the busy week, I didn't want to go out, even to the quilt show!   I went, though, because I'd ordered some batting from the Winline Textiles vendor.  I knew I'd enjoy myself after I got there, and I did.  It was a really good show and I got lots of photos so I could refer to the quilting later for some ideas.  I even got to talk to my friend, Julie, afterwards.  All in all, I enjoyed the day but I got absolutely nothing done this weekend.

I've come down with a sore throat, which started yesterday, so I'm working from home today with a colleague and trying to rest a bit, too.

Marian Drain Presenting at Boise Basin Quilters Guild!

I’ve been so excited about the presenter at our guild this coming Thursday evening that I forgot to post a blog entry about it!

I met Marian Drain at Innovations in 2010 and we’ve been fast friends ever since.  She’s an amazing longarm quilter and teacher who’s developed a style that brings home awards!

I’ve been privileged to host Marian this week and we’ve been having a great time together.  Marian's had me busy with learning some new techniques, working on a new collaboration, and I've taken her to a few of the local quilt shops.

Without further adieu, here’s the link for the meeting information:

https://www.boisebasinquilters.org/program-for-june-20th-2013/

Holiday Plans!

My holiday starts tonight!

I was given tickets to the BSU vs. Fresno State football game...of course, it's predicted rain and snow mix tonight!  But they are a good team and it will be a fun game.  My DH and I had season tickets for the past 5 years, until this year.  The prices kept going up and it just didn't make sense to keep spending that money right now.  Hopefully we'll be able to buy tickets again.

My mom is supposed to drive from Montana and arrive for the holiday on Tuesday, but with the predicted snowfall and bad weather, she probably won't make it.  So, while that will be disappointing, I’d rather have her safe and sound.  I will console myself by sewing and quilting all next week, as I have the week off, too!

I still plan to finish the quilt Mom commissioned for her U of M friend by Tuesday, so after running errands on Saturday I will get that one moving further along.  Unfortunately, when the fleece back that I ordered arrived on Monday, I found that it referenced only the sport of basketball.  Since this is a football quilt, that simply won’t do, so I am returning it and will have to find another suitable back.

After that, I have two other customer quilt tops to quilt, then start serious work on the orders for two Bronco quilts to be done before Christmas.

I also need to find time to post a couple of quilts for sale on Etsy, finish one of my Bronco flimsies, and 3 baby quilts that need borders and quilting.  Then I have 3 more quilts in the queue for American Hero Quilts, too, if I get a spare minute!

I’m ordering parts for a new computer this weekend, too, so I’ll need to put that together and get it setup.  I’m very excited about that prospect, though, as this is what I’ve been waiting on before installing my new Pre-Design Studio II software.

Last night’s guild meeting was fabulous!  If you haven’t seen quilts by Karen Schoepflin Hagen from Genesee, ID, you are really missing something!  She was fabulous, and what a depth and breadth of work!  Inspiring and intimidating all at the same time.  WOW!

I volunteered to do a demo and/or a make-and-take class at the upcoming BBQ quilt show in June.  So, now I need to come up with an easy sort of thing to make that doesn’t require a sewing machine.  Any suggestions, send them my way!

That’s all for now…

Starting out November Right

I seem to have misplaced the cord for my camera.  Of course, it has to be a special cord, it can’t be a generic USB cable.  That is one pet peeve of mine, having to have a bunch of different cords for everything!  I love my camera, but still!!

I have all sorts of gizmos and gadgets that I’ve kept around because “I might need them”, but they seem to be, shall we say, vintage?…and so, they are useless to me!

Oh, but finally, after over a week, a light bulb went on!  I finally remembered that I could plug my color inkjet printer into the computer itself and use the built in card reader!  You see, it’s set up using the network, and, well, I always seem to do things the hard way!…..DUH!  And I call myself a computer technician…sigh.

But enough of that.  This is what I wanted to show you…the BOM that I couldn’t resist buying at the guild meeting last week and that I finished tonight:

I know it doesn’t look like much now, but when it’s all tiled together, it’ll look like a ribbon, and the way I envision it is as in intertwining circle.  At least, that’s why I bought it.  And I hope I win all of the blocks back, so I can show you what I see!!

I’m definitely going to have to go through my scrap bag and boxes with my Bonnie Hunter 2010 Mystery instructions.  Yes, she’s hosting another one this year and I’d like to participate.  I am still dying to do the Double Delight, which I pulled all the fabrics for, and did start cutting a BUNCH of little triangles, but never got around to actually sewing.

Not that I deserve to…I won a ruler holder tray from the donated goodies basket last time.  I need another ruler holder, too!  Thank you to Nancy from www.MummQuilters.com

The blocks aren’t done yet, but here’s a photo of the quilt blocks in progress that I worked on last weekend.  It’s a comfort quilt for one of our group members whose throat cancer has returned.  She will be undergoing a new treatment and we are hoping for the best for her. She’s a great lady.  We’ll be getting together this Sunday to put the blocks together.

You can also see parts of the Grizzly quilt I’m putting together for my mom.  I got interrupted with yet another project when I had company two weekends ago and I was hostess to the 9 year old son of a friend of mine.  He designed a quilt top 0n my design board, and I am going to sew it together for him.  I can’t wait to see it finished, it’s really great!  Until I get it sewn together, though, I don’t have any place to put up the Grizzly quilt pieces!  So, I’d better get to it!

I’ve been tripping over a bag on the floor for awhile, which is part of what prompted me to start clearing out my workspace.  Here’s what was in the bag:

It’s a Pass The Bag project that I participated in last year but didn’t have time to put the blocks together.  Now, I have an idea of what I want to do to finish it.  I’ll keep you posted!

I’m doing pretty well in my class and I’ll be quilting on my customer’s quilt on Saturday.  Life is good!

Wedding Quilt – complete!

The binding is done and the quilt is ready to be shipped out!  I think the red binding adds a nice touch.

The back is a red flannel; it was supposed to be maroon, but it’s more like a candy apple red.  If you stare at it too long and then look away, everything looks like it’s in shades of green!

Thursday is the first quilt guild meeting of the season, show it off there, then it will go into the mail.

So, with all this focus on the wedding quilt, I haven’t completed my SwirlAbout quilt.  That’s the one I posted about on July 12th, and I was all excited about the new border fabric I bought for it.  I still am, it’s just that  I was getting some really bad waves and wrinkles in the black inner border, so I thought I’d save myself a bunch of grief and take it off and see what I could do to fix it; it certainly wasn’t going to get any better by adding another border!

The problem now is that I had intended to get that quilt entered into the Portland quilt show, but I think I missed the entry deadline already, so even if I busted my rump to get it done, it’s probably too late.  I’ll have to check, but I have a lot on my plate coming up.

So far I’ve finished 2 of the helmet liners, but they are still taking donations until September 1st.

It’s also canning season, and my DH and I made plum jam tonight; it’s the first time we’ve done any canning together!  It turned out really good, too, and we have enough plums to make another batch tomorrow night.  This weekend I’ll need to work on making some pickle relish and maybe getting some pickles canned, too.

School starts on August 23rd, and even though I’m only taking one class, Innovations is coming up and I have another trip in the works. 

Then there are the everyday, and not so everyday, chores that I have put off which are demanding my urgent attention.

I think I need to clone me!

Boise Basin Quilt Show

Well, I thought I had written about the upcoming Boise Basin Quilter’s quilt show…and, now that the event has come and gone this past weekend, I guess I can write a little something!

Not only was the show fun, I bought a ticket to hear the lecture by Marianne Fons, from Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting.  She was quite entertaining and I even got to get a picture taken with her beforehand.  I didn’t bring my own camera, as I didn’t realize there was going to be a Meet ‘n Greet, so someone else took the picture for me.  I’ll have to post it when I get it.

I had two quilts in the show and got some solid (+) Good ratings.  All constructive criticisms were in line with my own perceptions and expectations, which I think is a good thing because then I know I’m on the same track as the judges.  I am also very happy to be able to finally post a picture of the Happy Quilt!  Once I get a closeup of the quilting, I'll post a picture of that, too, as it turned out quite well and you can't see the variegated thread or the design in this photo.

One particularly nice comment that I just *have* to relay, though, was “outside edges impressively straight and square”.  Woo Hoo!

Now that the show is over I can concentrate on the lone star customer quilt that is still on the frame.  Almost done, but the free motion design in the star part is giving me a hard time, I can’t seem to get it right….and she wants it back!   Can’t say I blame her, I’ve had it quite awhile.

Not all has been procrastination, though.  My DH tore his rotator cuff in his left shoulder last week, I re-tweaked my back a bit over the weekend, and the dog went in for a cyst removal and major dental surgery.  So, it was a rough week.

Then the dog had to wake me up this morning at 2AM and I couldn’t get back to sleep.  So, I’ve been up since 2:30AM…and I’m going to bed now.

American Hero Quilt Finished!

I finished the first quilt top that American Hero Quilts has sent me with a pantograph called Star Spangled, from DesignsByVickie.com.  It was a bit more challenging than I anticipated, since it has a lot of points and changes in direction, but I think it came out OK for a first try.  I will definitely use it again!  I used  gold King Tut cotton thread on the top and  gold Sew Fine! on the back.   I’ll be sending them off as soon as I get a box and print a label.

I’ll be doing more quilting this weekend, to get ready for the BBQ Quilt Show coming up in June.  Submission forms are due May 20th, so I need to get busy!

Who’da thunk?

+ = Good
++ = Very Good
+++ = Excellent

I got my comment sheet back from the judges for the Boise Basin Quilters 2009 Quilt Show.

For the Design components, which include Use of Color & Fabric, Top Design, and Quilting Design, I got a “+”.

I got a “++” for Workmanship, which includes technique (precision, stitches, grain line, shadow-through).

My “+++” rating came from…drum roll, please…..Finishing! The judges comment was “wonderful binding”.

So, I guess it does pay off to hand stitch binding down, eh? Or was it the milliner’s needle I liked so well?

June 13th deadline - the rush is on!

So, with all of the changes we made to the studio on Memorial Day weekend, I just had to put my theory into practice....and get my quilt done in time for the quilt show that I already entered it into!

This is a Turning Twenty Again pattern, measuring 89" x 75"

I used a batik border and a batik back, and there is at least one batik in the piecing.  This is the first time I've quilted a project with batik...and it was a learning experience!

I loaded this quilt last Sunday and proceeded to mess around with trying to get my tension right.  You see, I can't use the same stitching scenario all the time!  The Innova handles all kinds of threads, and I want to experiment!  That's what gets me in trouble, I guess... ;-)

I used a new-to-me thread called PolyQuilter, from Superior Threads, which is a 19 wt spun polyester thread that feels like cotton.  It's really soft, and it is just gorgeous!  I didn't pay attention to the weight of the thread on the package, and it never occurred to me I would have to make adjustments, as you would with a decorative thread.  Well, maybe that's just me....

I only realized it was such a fat thread when I went to thread the needle.  It was much easier to use the size 18 needle just to get it through the eye, which worked out really well because of the batik back.  I like to test my tension on loops and swirls in order to test everything I might encounter during the actual quilting.  I've used an 18 before with no problems, but, for some reason, I ended up needing to re-time the machine this time because I was getting skipped stitches on my practice loops.  

This, of course, necessitated a call to ABM technical support, which is always great.  Michael was very patient with me as he walked me through several steps, making sure I was liking how the tension was set and how the thread laid on the back.  In order to not have the threads "lying on the top of the fabric" we ended up moving the needle bar height so that the hopping foot was about a dime's height above the quilt top, where I usually have it set to a nickel's height.   However, by the time that was all set, it was time to go to bed!

I used Willow Leaf Studio's Koko pantograph.  Although I've used a pantograph before, this is the first panto I've used on my machine.  Overall it was a pretty easy pattern to follow, although I found that I jerked on the edges of the little musical instrument too much and I have several points, rather than rounded edges.  That was probably me going too fast, as I have a tendency to be impatient.   Also, since I have the 26" machine, I wish I had more than one row on the pattern so I didn't have to roll so much.  Once I figured out the placement and rolling technique, I started to feel much more comfortable with the entire process.  I used about
1- 1/2 rows per bobbin, and I used about 8 bobbins.

I LOVE how the thread looks on the back!  It's actually more interesting than how it looks on the front.  This is part of that learning experience I was talking about...

So, this quilt has taken me a whole week to complete, except for the binding, which I am going to finish this weekend.

Animals in the Park

I've been so busy quilting and trying to keep up with the normal life events that I have hardly gotten the pictures off my camera.  I've been dying to get some time to post some of my progress!

This one was done at the end of  April.  It's another baby quilt for my guild.  The top was donated, it has a mitered corner border applied around the outside of the panel.

I just loved the print, it called out "pink" to me, so I quilted it with Superior's Rainbows thread, both top and bottom.  It's a variegated thread, and has a slight sheen to it, and I had to use one of the thread bras to keep the thread from puddling off the cone while I was quilting it.  But it really came out nice, and I didn't have any problems with the tension once I got it set.  I put a very bright pink flannel back on it, and even reduced my stash in the process!  That's what a stash is for, I guess!

Auction Block

I finished one of my auction blocks for the Boise Basin Quilters upcoming Boise Basin Quilter's 2009 quilt show on June 27th and 28th.

It is a Chinese Lantern pattern from Australian Patchwork & Quilting, although the coordinator doesn't know which issue it came from.  She had a quilt done with this block and it was gorgeous, and the pattern is amazingly easy to do!  I know I've seen the issue that contains the entire set of instructions, and I can't wait to get my hands on it so I can make one of these for myself!

I'm having a hard time deciding if I should use the same fabric to make the second one, which I've already cut out, or if I should use another oriental fabric.  Hmmm....I think a different one.  It will make for a more interesting quilt.

Thomas the Train

I finally finished one of the baby quilts I had signed up to quilt for the Boise Basin Quilters baby quilt project.  I am really pleased with how it turned out, especially since this is the first time I've done meandering on my longarm. 

 

 

 

The quilt measures 34 x 43 and I used a size 16 needle with a variegated red, blue, green and yellow cotton thread.

 

 

 

 

 

Polyester batting makes it nice and puffy.

 

 

 

 

 

Flannel Thomas the Train backing.