The Quiltin' Fool

Been a long time....

2010-06-21T17:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I won't say that I'm going to be back to blogging on a regular basis just yet, because I've got a bit more traveling to do before that will happen. I'm sorry to my readers that I fell off the map, but when Michael was killed in December, some part of me died too, and for whatever reason, I found it particularly hard to face a blank screen, to stare at the opening into the internet and put out my thoughts and musings on quilting at that time. For a time, everything in my life seemed so trivial and pointless and everytime I sat down to write about some quilting thing, all I could think of was him.
Here I am, six months later, and I am moving forward, albeit slowly, and while I manage my cheerful facade most days, the trouble with grief for me seems to be that it's sneaky, waiting for some seemingly innocent thing to remind me of the permanence of loss.
Many of you know, from my main website, www.ltquilts.com, that I have recently returned from a trip to Kenya with my mom and my husband. My mom and I have wanted to go on photo safari since I could utter the word cheetah, and we just never had. Michael's death made us decide that if you want to do something, and it really matters, sometimes you just do it, because life really is short, and you really never know how short until it's too late.
Kenya was magical and seeing such amazing creatures and such beauty was good for my soul. I could write for days and days about everything we saw and experienced, but I won't make anyone endure that.
So here are a few of my favorite pictures and a brief explanation of each.

These elephants were kind enough to stroll in front of the acacia trees and Kiliminjaro...More importantly, Kiliminjaro was showing her peak, a rare thing, apparently, and we got to see her both days when we were in Amboseli Park in southeast Kenya. We saw lots of beautiful creatures there, but the most memorable were the large herds of elephants.
This is another elephant from Amboseli. This was one of a very large herd that we happened upon around dusk on the road. They were all in good spirits and didn't mind us quietly sitting in our Landcruiser snapping photos...This female seemed to keep her eye on me, and she was "right-handed" though you can't see in the photo. Elephants have a dominant "hand" like humans, which you can tell because one tusk is almost always more worn than the other. They also curl their trunks that direction.
Hyenas get a bad rap, but I love them. This beauty just melted away into the grass at Amboseli, but she was kind enough to give me a couple good shots. Kenya has had horrible drought the past five years and last year they lost more than 85% of their livestock and vast numbers of wild animals as well. Many herds haven't recovered, and we were told that we were lucky to see as much as we did in Amboseli, one of the hardest hit areas. Predators suffered as much as grazers, so we saw very few hyenas, lions, and cheetahs, and we didn't see any leopards.

This is a pair of white rhino males fighting at our second camp, Lewa Downs. Lewa is a privately owned ranch that has almost single-handedly brought back both species of African rhino, the white and the black. It was my favorite camp. Our guide, Mungai (sp?!) was fantastic, the lodgings were wonderful, and the rest of the staff were great fun and so knowledgeable. The owners even eat meals with you! I will definitely be going back there someday! They have a marathon to raise money for their foundation (which in addition to conservation of wildlife, builds schools, clinics, and helps with all different resource management, including water). It's the only thing that has made me want to run another marathon. We saw tons of rhinos as they have excellent security and have been able to combat poaching more effectively that some of the national parks.
This is four of a group of six black rhinos we saw two days in a row at Lewa. Look at the horn on that mama! Black rhinos are aggressively anti-social and will charge just about anything (including cars and horses) and it is very, very rare to see them in any kind of group, so we saw something that the camp people said almost no one has ever seen. Lewa had horseback riding and our last morning, Erik and I went for a ride and came across the mother and calf on the right in the photo. They always either charge or run, and it looked as if she was going to charge, but if you hold your ground, often, they turn away, but if you run, they try to gore you. So, our guide on horseback, Romano, says to Erik, who is right behind him, "Don't let your horse run if she charges", to which Erik said, "This is my third time on a horse!" and started laughing. Luckily, she didn't charge.

These male cheetahs are Lewa's other claim to fame. My mom and I recently watched the discovery series "Life" (narrated by Oprah), and for those of you who watched it, you may recall the rare phenomenon of cheetahs hunting together and they had great footage of three male cheetahs bringing down and ostrich. These are two of the now quite famous "Three Brothers". Mungai tracked these guys ceaselessly because if I could only see one animal in Africa, I wanted to see a cheetah, and so he found me their famous boys. They were never nice enough to get all three together for one closeup, but I got some great shots of them (see below). One was hurt, but they said that in the past, the other two have always taken care of the injured one, allowing him to survive. Seeing these beauties was worth the whole trip.
Sleepy boy.

They just look like they're built for speed.
Looking for their next meal.
Our last day in Lewa, we were on our way to the air strip (a bit of flat land with a bit of gravel)
when we happened to see some very wary zebra. Wary zebra are usually a good reason to look around. So, upon close inspection and some creative driving by Mungai, we found a mama lion (not in the picture) catching her breath after taking down a warthog for her cubs. It was the best farewell (except for the warthog, too bad for him).
Finally, our last stop, the Maasai Mara. Our first morning on the Mara, our poor guide is driving us around, and he's new, only 2 years on the job, and we've seen a lot already, so there's less new stuff to tell us, and we're in grass that's thigh high and he gets a flat tire. No problem, one of the vehicles from one of the conservation groups comes along and helps because tourists are not allowed on foot in the parks primarily because with that grass, there can be a lion two feet away, and unless he wants you to know he's there, you don't. So, we continue on, and stumble upon a group of eighteen lions that we could see, feasting on a rather rotten dead hippo. Amongst those eighteen were the two beauties above, and believe it or not, there are two males behind them in the shrubs. Four big males. We're driving around to get a better look, and I feel a thump, lean out of the car and see yet another flat tire. My mom is ecstatic, because if we have to wait forty-five minutes for a car from our camp to bring us another tire (some vehicles are equipped with two spares, and now we know why) why not wait where we can look at lions. After quite a bit of chatter, she realizes that we are stranded amongst eighteen lions who can disappear at will, popping up somewhere else entirely, the soft breeze hiding their every movement. When the tire finally arrived, we had armed guards and a ring of other guide vehicles to protect our poor guide while he changed the tire. It's easy to forget, when you can drive right near wild, dangerous carnivores, that they are in fact killing machines. And lions are notorious for killing for fun. But we survived, hooray!
The coolest thing about our stay on the Mara was our camp, Olananna, is situated right on the Mara river. And I mean right on it. We had eight-strand, heart-attack voltage hot fence two feet off our tent's deck (yeah, our 'tent' had a deck, and a flush toilet--not quite roughing it) and we woke up to the grumpy harumphing of hippos as they got back in the water every morning. I love hippos! Here's one of the only shots I got of them out of the water as they are mostly nocturnal, coming on land to feed at night and staying in the water and resting and making noise all day.

Yeah, that is me feeding a baby elephant at an elephant orphanage in Nairobi on our last afternoon in Kenya. Go ahead, be jealous! They raise the survivors of poaching, and increasingly, babies that fall into wells and their mom's have to abandon them. They can guzzle a bottle in a few seconds, so it was hard to get a picture, but I got to play with them a little too, and one threw dirt at me with her trunk. One grabbed my hand with her trunk. It was really a phenomenal experience, and you can see that I am one happy camper.

And lastly, I can now die happy. I have been kissed, and thoroughly licked, by a giraffe. In Nairobi, there's a giraffe center that's for education, but also to breed the rare Rothschild giraffe and reintroduce them to the wild. This one, Laura, really likes pellets, and will eat out of your hand. They have tongues like boas--they are big, blue, muscular, rough, and always searching for food--I think our guide said their tongues can be up to 50lbs. Many a tourist seemed to find giraffe spit on their hand quite repulsive, but all the while, I was thinking to myself, "If I put a pellet between my lips, will she lick my face?" and sure enough, the guy working there sees my giraffe loving brain at work and says, "You want giraffe french kiss?" and sticks a pellet between his lips, getting a big ol' kiss. Needless to say, this is just one of about forty giraffe kisses I received, much to the horrified fascination of many other tourists, who might bravely turn their cheek for one. Interestingly, giraffe spit is anti-microbial because they eat so many sharp things--big gashes in their mouth can heal in fifteen minutes, so apparently, as dirty as I was, Laura was cleaning me up. Honestly, put this one on your bucket list.

So that is the brief overview of my trip. Hope you enjoyed, I might put up some more pictures as I go through all of them.
And as always, happy quilting!

Our puppy kindergarten graduate.

2010-01-05T13:46:00.001-08:00

Look at those ears, looks like she's prepping for takeoff. Find her a mouse friend and call her Dumbo. She's mastered sit and stay, hates down, but does lie down, will roll over with treat enticement, bows like it's her job, and is learning to army crawl. Next we will train her to flap her ears on command. She also clocked in at just under 60 pounds at 4 months of age.
Happy new year, happy quilting!

Many thanks...

2009-12-24T09:58:00.000-08:00

I wanted to thank everyone out there for all the sympathy and support in this very sad time in my life. I once again realize how fortunate I am to live in such a caring community, but also to be a part of the larger and nurturing quilting community. I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Thank you all again.

Sad news.

2009-12-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

Well, dear quilters and friends, I'm making this post primarily because I can't bear to give this news to so many people individually. My younger brother was stabbed to death outside his apartment last night at barely 22 years old. We don't know the details except that he's gone and it's not quite real to me yet.

Sorry for the absence.

2009-11-17T14:37:00.001-08:00

I've been battling with some sort of flu, though methinks not swine flu, on top of having a puppy, for the better part of four weeks. I thought I was finally getting back on the horse, but last night I had a pretty good cough fest and have the wretched tickles in my throat that have plagued me throughout.
Anyway, the long and short is that I haven't sewn anything more exciting than a dog coat (Nova is naked, for all intents and purposes. I have more hair on my body than she does, and I'm basically hairless), which, while cute, doesn't seem to warm her up quite as much as I'd hoped.
I have many projects planned, some even cut, and glorious dreams of finishing a few things prior to Xmas, but alas, reality has set in and I know that I'll be longarming practically every waking hour until Christmas eve and I'll be pretty stoked if I even eat a sit down meal in that period.
I will try to get back on some sort of blogging schedule, but between puppy, work, and illness, I've just been overrun.
Hope all of you are happily quilting!

Miss Nova!

2009-10-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here is our little darling, who is still having a little trouble with her leg (hence the wrap on her leg in some pictures). She's such a sweet girl and very smart (she already sits and will lay down with coaxing). The leash is her nemesis, but she's very good off leash. We've been to work a little, but I have some nasty, dry hacking cough accompanied by sore throat, so I'm mainly trying to avoid people so they don't come down with it.
She is quite the little lap dog, here she is, curled up in my lap our first morning together.

Kisses for me at grandma's house.
She is a bit of a mama's girl, and pretty relaxed with her favorite rope.
She gets her wrassle on with the rope.
We're in and out of the shop this week, but we'll be in next week unless I croak because of this wretched cough.
Happy quilting (and puppy playing!)!

Puppy day is at last at hand!

2009-10-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

Hello all, I finally found out that I get to pick my little pooch up tomorrow night, late, but better late than never! I'm about to jump out of my skin I'm so excited--it was starting to seem like it wouldn't really happen. In the meantime, here are some photos of my retreat projects. One of my latest quilting kicks is that since I don't decorate my house for any holidays (or have any company for that matter, but just in case), so I thought I would make a little throw for our upstairs couch (I also don't have a throw for my upstairs couch that's in my sewing room and is probably more properly called a scratching post as that's the reason we brought it from North Carolina--it was $30). Anyway, so I got the center (no borders) of my Valentine's Day (which I only made a quilt for because it had lime green) and my Fall/Halloween center done... Ultimately I will probably have separate Fall and Halloween quilts because Halloween is far and away my favorite holiday (it practically celebrates candy, how could it not be?).
Anywho, and the last one, the black one, is our current block of the month, but done in Lily's own personal colorway. I haven't done the border on that one either, it's a cool pieced number, so that may be a little while in coming.
Yeah, in case you can't tell, that is iridescent snake-skin fabric as setting triangles. This was done with a layer cake and used "Jelly Roll, Layer Cake, and Charm Quilts" a great book for those of us who are addicted to pre-cuts. This was also possibly one of the fast quilts I've ever done. I think it was like five hours start to finish simply because it's just huge blocks, but I dig the interlocking lime and red rings around the blocks.

Another easy fast one. This is from "Stop, Drop, and Roll", one of Anka's Treasures' latest books. Also a jelly roll. I like to work on semi-mindless projects at retreat so I can BS more effectively.
And last but not least, the not-so-mindless project. I love how this turned out and I'm so excited to get the border pieced and on so I can figure out how to quilt this bad boy.
You can look forward to some puppy pics, probably more puppy pics than you were ever interested in seeing, so I'm giving you fair warning.
Happy quilting!

Long time no blog.

2009-10-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry for my long absence. Between puppy distraction and retreat and working by myself most of the previous three weeks, I just didn't have anything to write about. I still have nothing to say, and while I got lots of stuff done at retreat I haven't taken any pictures yet. In sad news, poor Nova is sick, so she couldn't fly today, so we're hoping she is better by Monday, but I won't really know when she's coming until Sunday. I am one depressed puppy-mama. Anyway, I just hope she's feeling better and ready to come to her new home on Monday.
Anyway, hopefully I can get something done this weekend and post some pics on Tuesday (hopefully including puppy pics).
Happy quilting!

Exploding brains and disks.

2009-09-29T15:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from South Dakota, and stuffed full of new ideas, inspiration and of course, not nearly enough time to implement and practice all these things. I always wish when I take a class bursting with information that I could go to class, pause life, quilt for a couple hours, go back to class, pause, etc... Well, wish in one hand, as they say.

It was a very different experience to take classes with a group (there were 6-7 of us, depending on the day, 2 machines) versus my one on one lessons. I'm hoping between Myrna Ficken (teacher of my classes this weekend) and Karen Parker(the gal I took lessons from) and I can get a cycle of longarm classes going here at the shop for those of you who rent my machine or own one of your own. They have different styles and teaching flavors and they're both so much fun, I'd love to have both of them come to teach, so I'm getting that in the works.

Unfortunately, driving for 7+ hours twice in one weekend wreaked some serious havoc on my back. I have a slipped disk and sitting for that long just irritates the crap out of it. By Saturday evening I was finally feeling a little better, but then I got to get back in my car Sunday afternoon, and now I'm in agony again. Ibuprofen and I are becoming very good, frequent friends.

Meanwhile, I've been reading copious amounts of dog training literature, though I did drag my sewing machine along to SD and did quite a bit of sewing while watching HGTV, to which I'm now addicted, but fortunately do not have cable or satellite, or I would quickly atrophy into a Jabba-the-Hut-like-blob.

I did find out that I'll actually get my new pooch on October 16th. She's growing like a weed and in my latest pictures looks about twice the size of the one I posted last week. I confess that I can barely stand the wait and my every thought is consumed by puppiness. My mom keeps asking me what I'm going to do when I get pregnant since three weeks is a significantly shorter wait than the 9 months of anticipation I'll have to endure then. Maybe people who thrive on instant gratification shouldn't have babies. I don't know, I guess maybe someday I'll find out. But for right now I'm just trying to distract myself for three weeks of puppy countdown. Great Dane proofing the house is going to be an ongoing process as she will be much more capable of getting into trouble than a smaller pooch.
She's already bigger than my brother's full grown beagle.

I do have my fall quilt retreat coming up (YAY!) next weekend, so that will keep me occupied most of next week, and then only one week after that. Quilting seems like a distant thing that I might be able to do someday if things in the shop ever calm down and I stop running around all the time. It seems like I'm home so infrequently I can't even find my way around the house and my husband and I need pictures just to remember what the other one looks like.

Someday, hopefully, I will go back to happy quilting!

Who's a quilter?

2009-09-22T10:10:00.000-07:00

Not this girl. All I've managed is binding, but I have, in my defense, bound three quilts in the last week. I'm getting ready to go to three days of long-arm lessons in Hill City, South Dakota this weekend and things have been pretty hectic as one of my employees is also gone for three weeks. Tonight is also the convening of the first meeting of Big Timber's newly formed quilt club and we're meeting at the shop.
The other bit of excitement is that my hubby and I are preparing for a new arrival at our house! But not a baby! Gotcha! We're getting a puppy!
Poor miss Elli, our "borrowed" black lab (my mom's dog) is just not adjusting to her shop-dog lifestyle despite us trying for over a year. For whatever reason, she has been unable to conquer her fears in the shop (she's started barking at random people, with no discernible pattern or reason and has even growled at a few) and she destroys stuff if we leave her home alone. So she's going back to my mom's house where she has a huge fenced in yard and two other doggies to play with. The upside is that I still get to see her and play with her and she'll still be joining me for some of our old routine.

Our little girl should get here mid to late October and I will be taking a week of "maternity" puppy leave. She's a Great Dane from Illinois and this is her latest photo:
She's exactly a month old today and we get her at 8 weeks, so we're pretty excited but also trying to get the house ready for a puppy that might weigh more than me by the time she's full grown.
For Friday I'm off to South Dakota, but I'll be back next week with details.
Happy quilting (eventually!)!

Just kidding!

2009-09-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

Ha, you thought that I might actually quilt something? Well, you were wrong. I've been trying to get our house in some sort of liveable condition and our yard and extensive landscaping that had gone to ruin before we moved here is badly in need of attention so I've been trying to get that under control before the snow flies. It just seems as though the months are flying by waaaay to fast. As a wise magnet on my mom's fridge says: "Life isn't passing me by, it's running me over."
Happy quilting!

#&@^%

2009-09-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's what I spent my afternoon yesterday doing. I got new wheels for my longarm that are supposed to much smoother and easier to roll. Well, that they may be, but that's about the only thing about them that's easy. I spent three or four hours yesterday and three this morning trying to get the damn things on and while I finally did manage, I was near madness, my back was a throbbing nest of slipped disk pain, and really just pissed off.
Enough about that though, just wanted to apologize for the lack of bloggery yesterday. I'm hoping to quilt at least a table runner or something for instructional purposes before Friday, but life has been quite chaotic.
Happy quilting!

The crappiest blogger.

2009-09-11T12:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I won't pretend I have a good excuse for not blogging on Tuesday, because I just forgot due to Labor Day "what-day-of-the-week-is-it?" confusion. Husband and I are still running up to Bozeman on Tuesdays to enjoy the last few blissful days of warm enough to play soccer weather and then I had a meeting on Wednesday night that was longer than I'd planned. All in all, I just had one of those weeks where I didn't get anything done in the evenings.
I've also been on a binding tear--yes, yes, screech in confusion, gasp with disbelief, I know I do. With the help of my wonderful staff, I've been making a couple "magical binding trees"--which are actually just empty fabric bolts which we wrap the binding for my quilts around. This is helpful for two reasons: the first is that having them piece and iron my binding means that I can spend more time quilting and piecing in the evenings to keep my shop bedecked in lovely quilts and I can continue doing the work thing at work and it makes a great thing for them to do while it's slow. The second reason is that piped binding (sew all by machine) which I like to put on my quilts, never seems to happen for me if it isn't made prior to quilt finishing. The piecing and ironing is a very minor step as you have to put in the piping and then attach the piping to main binding. So, with my magic binding tree in hand, I've been working to create the piped binding so that it's rarin' and ready to go when the quilt is quilted.
I'm finding that if the binding is ready to go, I'm not only WAY more likely to finish my top, but I also don't hate it, which is a big step for me.
Anyway, someday I'll get back to pictures, lessons, etc...but right now I'm in all sorts of frenzies. We've had soooo much new fabric coming in it seems like I can't even keep up putting it online. The binding is also a frenzy. Then there is the "I-only-have-free-use-of-my-longarm-for-a-little-while" frenzy. That one is probably more along the "panic" lines as I so desperately want to be caught up and free of an endless stream of unfinished tops. The goal is noble, though not to be achieved, if I could even put a good healthy dent in my numbers, that would greatly improve my stress level.
Happy quilting!

Thread, glorious thread!

2009-09-04T14:37:00.001-07:00

You've got your top. You've got batting. You've got backing. You have one last product to choose to continue your quilting journey: thread! Now, many people just use some boring neutral cotton to quilt so it either blends away or stands out in all its blandness, but this quilter, she is a THREAD JUNKY! Most people make a quilt just for a fabric or a pattern--I make a quilt just for the thread. I have an enormous stash of thread which probably will be passed down to my great grandchildren because even if I quilt every day for the rest of my life and never buy another cone or spool, I'll still have leftovers. I should have insurance for my thread collection.
So, now that you know who's talking to you, you will probably understand my passionate pleas for consideration of thread type, color, weight, etc...The first thing I will say is this: you have spent a lot of money already on fabric, pattern, sewing machine, batting, backing, etc...Do not cheat yourself with cheap quilting thread. It will be linty, ugly, break more often, and look, well, cheap. For light quilting, you'll rarely use more than one spool. One good spool costs in the range of $8, one cheap costs in the range of $3. You're saving yourself $5 and making your life miserable.
Okay, onward. The main factors to consider with thread are: material, weight, color, and any processing that the thread has undergone.

Let's start with material. Cotton is the most common material used for thread, but there is also polyester, nylon, rayon, silk, and blends thereof. I will say that in general, threads that are a blend of materials are blended to be cheap, not to create any quality. I'll start by addressing the qualities of each material, pros and cons, etc...

Cotton will be duller in sheen than say, poly, rayon, or nylon, and because it's spun cotton fibers, will necessarily have lint. The amount of sheen and lint will be related to the quality of cotton. Extra long staple is the best type of cotton--don't be fooled by labels like "Egyptian" or a lack of staple length. If it's ELS, it will say so, if it isn't, it will not say anything. Extra long staples mean that the thread will be stronger, smoother (lumps on thread are called "slubs"), and less linty. Other terms you will see on cotton thread are "gassed", "mercerised", "waxed", "double-gassed", or "lint-free". Gassing and mercerising are both standard procedures for almost all cotton, not just thread. Gassing is the process of passing thread over flames to burn off stray fibers and make the thread look smoother. Almost all cotton threads undergo this process and it's nothing to brag about. Mercerising is a chemical treatment that causes cotton fibers to swell, be more receptive to dye, and unfortunately to be a little lintier. It also prevents decay in the fibers. Again, standard for cotton, nothing to brag about on your label. Double gassed just means their thread was so fuzzy and lumpy they had to burn off stray fibers twice, again, really not a bragging point. Waxed or lint-free should both be huge red flags to the machine quilter. Lint-free cotton is an impossibility without coating it with something, and if you coat it with something and put it through your machine, it will leave residue in your machine, and your machine will be sad. Do not use any COTTON labeled "lint-free", "waxed", or "glazed" through your sewing machine. These threads are designed for HAND quilting. Glazing (or waxing) makes thread stronger and slicker to hold up and be easier for pulling through the quilt over and over as you do with hand-quilting. Therefore, you should also never put anything labeled "hand-quilting thread" through your machine, it is undoubtedly covered in something.

Cotton is grabby so it will sink into your quilt a little more than some threads and create nice texture, the dull nature of the fibers also gives a more subtle, sometimes old-fashioned look. A variegated (ie changing colors at regular intervals) cotton that matches your quilt top can virtually disappear. Cotton is very soft and supple and fairly easy to machine or hand quilt with, the downside is the lint that it produces and that it can be weak, depending on the brand. Overall though, cotton is a great choice, two of my favorite cottons are Superior's King Tut, and Sulky's blendables. Sulky's tend to be a little weaker and harder to work with, but they have alternating lengths of color rather than regular intervals. Cottons tend to be the #1 choice of hand quilters because they don't fray.

Polyester is my other favorite quilting fiber--but let me be clear: you should only quilt with HIGH quality polyester thread. If you get bargain bin poly, it's fit to garrote someone with and nothing more. Using a cheap poly that wasn't designed for quilting is liable to tear your quilt. High quality polyester isn't going to tear your quilt. Polyester comes in two main forms: spun poly, which is designed to look like cotton but be stronger and lint free, or extruded poly, where the fibers are long polyester fibers spun together, which has a high sheen and no lint. Extruded poly is often referred to as "trilobal" because the strands are triangular in shape, giving them the lovely sheen they exhibit. If you want a little shine without going to metallic (which are also poly), a trilobal is very nice. So Fine! the thread I like to piece with is also a poly, but a spun poly and it's fantastic for the bobbin when quilting because it just blends away and you can fit a ton on the bobbin. A very fine poly will also be stronger than a very fine cotton, and is perfect for getting a hand-quilted look on your machine. My favorite polys are: Superior's So Fine!, Rainbows, Lava, and Brytes, Mettler's Poly Sheen, and Signature's Pixelles. The advantage is the sheen, they tend to break less than cotton, and they have no lint. The cons are the sheen (if you don't want sheen) and that they will melt if exposed to an extremely hot iron. They also fray easily when over handled so they are not necessarily the best choice for hand-quilting, but they are very slick.

Rayon and nylon are not suitable for quilting, even if they are pretty. Some invisible threads (clear monofilaments) are nylon, but they do not age well and you're better off getting a poly monofilament. Rayon is very soft and shiny, but very very weak and designed for machine embroidery. I've quilted with rayon in the past and it breaks often and my quilting didn't hold up well.

Silk, while more expensive, is available in finer weights than other thread because of how strong silk fibers are. 100 weight silk is common and very strong. Silk has a beautiful lustre, but can also melt away into a quilt. 100 weight silk is extremely fine and perfect for doing extremely dense background quilting. Silk has no lint either and is very strong. If you want your stitching to really show, you should use something heavier as most silk is very fine.

This brings us to weight. Thread weight is counter intuitive, the lower the weight, the fatter the thread--a 30 weight is very heavy, a 50 average, and 100 is extremely fine. There are multiple ways to express a thread's diameter, but the most common is weight, which is often combined with ply (the number of strands twisted together)--eg 50/3 is a common sight on cotton piecing thread and it means 50 weight, three ply. There is one simple rule with quilting thread: heavy to show, light to blend. If you want your actual stitches to disappear, leaving only texture, use a 50, 60, or 100 weight thread. If you really want the actual stitches to show, use a 40, 30, 12, or even 8 (8 weight will only go in your bobbin, which requires quilting upside down). 12 is about as fat as you can go through a needle. Don't be afraid to use more than one weight on a quilt. Say you're going to do a fancy motif--birds, feathers, vases, boa constrictors, who cares--you may want to do those in a big fat 30 and then do some dense fill to pop them up, using a 100. That's not to say you can't use a heavyweight for a background, it's just a different look.

My ultimate advice for choosing a thread is that if you have doubts, take some of your scraps from your quilt, a little extra backing and batting, make a wee sandwich, and practice quilting using different thread candidates, choose the ones you like and then you can rest assured that you like the effect on the fabrics of your quilt. Test squares are a common part of many a famous quilter's repertoire (I'd never thought to do such a thing until Ricky Tims told me to).

Get your thread and get ready, next time we're basting and discussing design possibilities.

Happy quilting!

More finishing!

2009-09-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I finished a quilt that I have never been very fond of, was horrible constructed (both problems with pattern and piecer were involved) and vastly improved by quilting in my opinion. I'm not sure if anyone can get a feel for the flavor of this one, as the beauty of it is really the sparkly white fabric post-quilting is fabulous. I enjoyed the challenge of the odd shapes in this and I avoided quilting the stars because they were so puffy I just thought I'd let them live in all their puffy glory. I also used alpaca batting which I have been eager to try. It quilts beautifully--my tension is fantastic. And holy buckets, it is SOOOO warm. I have been sitting under it in my basement while stitching the binding on and my basement is pretty cool and I've been roasting. I think we may be able to skip the heat in our bedroom if we put this puppy on the bed. It's a 60% alpaca 40% wool and when I washed a sample it neither felted, nor shrunk, but the fibers which have no scrim, resin or needle-punching, did drift pretty badly. I think one of the problems with alpaca batting may be that alpaca wool is extremely fine fibers (part of the reason it's so soft and warm) and they just squib right out of the weave of even fine quality quilting fabric. The batting packaging recommended only hand-washing, but I had to do my own little experiment. So now I know, I should listen to the packaging. I have a few other brands to investigate, as well as a paca/cotton blend, so I will keep everyone posted.
Now, onto the pics! (Don't worry beginning quilters--I haven't forgotten you--thread lessons on Friday)
Here's the whole monster--I bought the fabric to do this years ago, when I first started quilting. Well, I should say my mom bought it for me. I only made it about a year ago though and now, finally, it's quilted and even has three sides of binding on--one more movie and it'll truly be finished--I've even embroidered a label. I called it "Fiery Stars" because of the colors, but also because I did flames coming out of the stars on the yellow (variegated thread made it just subtle texture). I used my leftover red to create a chunked up, random border, which seems to deeply offend some quilters, but I liked it and was happy to use up all the fabric. I think I had about 10" of leftover fabric. It's about 93"x100", hehe, depending on where you measure. Like I said, not my best work, finished, hands washed, etc...
Here's a chunk of the border (my favorite chunk--I love that fabric). I used a ruler to make the curly spine of this feather and really botched the corners, but I was quilting like that machine was a Harley and I had a death wish, so that's what I get for speed. I used a vari red/yellow thread and I love the peekaboo effect it has of really showing in some spots and not in others.
Here's the curly wurly freehand feather contraption I did in these weird white shapes. The picture really doesn't do it justice. The sparkly fabric just came to life once quilted. I used a very soft yellow variegated and I just loved how it turned out. Initially I was going to micro-stipple around the feathers, but I loved the negative space that they created, so I left that. I think half of quilting for me is not just where and how one quilts, but what one leaves unquilted. There, that was my deep thought of the day, but I really do think that sometimes the texture of quilted/unquilted is the real beauty of quilting.
And finally a little close-up. It's not even close to perfect, nor would I feel comfortable doing it on someone else's quilt yet, but I love the effect and I think I've improved so much just in the past two quilts. My little tiny circles (which are harder than you'd think moving that big machine around) are gradually improving if I remember that I'm at a quilting machine, not on the interstate (this is a very hard thing for me to remember--I'm very impatient and I like me some instant gratification). You can sort of see the glitz a little in this photo.

Anyway, I'll get back on track with my lessons on Friday. Last Friday I was helping someone literally all day and just didn't have the will power (or brain power) to say anything productive on a blog.

Happy quilting!

Mini-dahlia done!

2009-08-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! I got one of my very own quilts done this weekend. I even sewed on the binding and put on a sleeve. All I have left is the hand-stitching (which I've even started!). I've had the center of this top done since 2007. I got the borders put on in May. And now, finally, at the end of August '09, I'm going to get the bloody thing finished. I'm still up in the air as to whether I'm going to sell this one or keep it. I really like how the quilting turned out (except the border-blech).
Here's the whole thing (well, almost, my wonky photography is what it is):
Here's a large shot of the corner quilting, which you can vaguely see in the shot of the whole thing:
And a close-up of my corner/dahlia edge motif:

I did it using Superior Metallic antique silver thread and I really like the texture it added. I didn't do a fill around the feather because I didn't want to detract from the feathers and I liked the texture just the way they were.

My border on the other hand was a different story. I chose to do a long, wrap-around feather with fronds going in opposite directions. It didn't work out as planned :( Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I used 100 weight silk for the border and centers and was intrigued at how it melted away.
My favorite thing about quilting for myself is that when something doesn't look nice, if I don't want to, I don't have to rip it! I found ultimately that I didn't see the border, so it definitely wasn't worth tearing out :) Hooray for not ripping! I also don't worry about my minor mistakes like I have to when quilting for others.

Anyway, I'm happy with it and already onto my next quilt.

Happy quilting!

Backing and batting, thread to follow

2009-08-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

First, let's consider backing. The back of your quilt is really what will be touching you the most, so it's important that it's soft and nice to touch. This is particularly true of a lap or snuggle quilt when you won't have a sheet separating your skin from the back. There are several options for backing, the first is to use regular fabric and piece it together--this works fine and then you can usually find a fabric that matches your quilt and that has the hand (feel) you like.
Another option that you'll see at some shops is extra-wide backing, usually 108", but some are 120". There is a more limited palette to choose from, and often the extra-wide is a lower quality fabric that the top which can lead to uneven wear and shrinkage if you wash your quilts. I'm not a huge fan of extra wide backing, but I don't mind piecing my backing either. Like everything in your quilt, it will be your choice ultimately, so if you can't stand to piece your back, extra-wide works great. One exception to my I-don't-like-extra-wide is the cotton sateen extra wide. Very soft and has a nicer weave than most.

Also be aware that you don't have to use the same fabric on the top as on the bottom. When I first started quilting, I put flannel on the backs of my quilts because I liked the softness of it. Later (and still) if I want a soft back, I use a product that is known widely as minkee and its cousins. Minkee is 100% polyester and it's furry. It's not polar fleece, which pills up fairly quickly with washing. It's much softer, stays cleaner and feels fantastic. In some circles, it's referred to it as naked skin fabric. Minkee comes in a variety of textures and colors and is wider than regular fabric; it's 60" wide. Now obviously for a lightweight summer quilt you aren't going to want it, but if you're making something snuggly, it really is fantastic and it quilts beautiful. It's pricey (usually about $20/yd) but it is so durable and often on large or small quilts, minkee ends up being cheaper because it's 60 wide. Go to your local quilt shop and ask to feel some if they carry it. You'll see why I love it so much.

The only caveat any time you use two very different fabrics on top and bottom (say, flannel top, minkee back) is that polyester (minkee) won't shrink at all and flannel will shrink a pretty decent amount. Rather than prewash my fabric (blech!), in this situation, if I'm concerned about uneven shrinkage (which to be frank, I rarely worry about stuff like that, which will undoubtedly haunt me at some point, but hasn't yet) then you can wet the top and dry it however you plan to dry your quilted quilt. I have washed a top in my washing machine before quilting it before, and dried it in the drier, and it came out fine, but I'm not going to recommend that to anyone without seeing the construction and materials. One thing is for sure, if you're going to do that, make sure you stay-stitch around the whole top (a line of stitching about 1/4" all the way around the edge of the top).

If you choose cotton top, batik back, or some variation thereof, you really don't have to worry about uneven shrinkage. Even cotton on minkee is not worth a bit of worry. Another way to alay any fears of unevenness is to use a puffy batt. Flannel is really the only cotton fabric that shrinks significantly. Now, go out and pet fabric until you find the perfect back.

One last note on backing, one thing I really don't recommend for backing and in general hate quilting on is sheets. A lot of people go out and buy a nice big sheet to use as their back, again, so they don't have to piece, so it's cheaper, the list goes on. I'm sure they have their reasons, but sheets are a pain to quilt. They tend to be a denser weave than regular quilting fabric (even cheap sheets), the grain is rarely straight, and they're hard on the needle leading to burrs, crappy tension, and just lots of headaches in general. If you're going to quilt it yourself, you can try a sheet, but make sure you change your needle often and watch your tension.

Onward to batting then!

There are several considerations when choosing a batting (the stuff that goes in between your quilt top and your backing and then you "quilt" the three layers together). Warmth, loft, shrinkage, drape, and how it looks quilted are all factors. There are so many battings on the market that I dare not try to cover them all. I'll mention some that I work with regularly and really like and you can go from there.

Let's start with warmth. If you want a really warm quilt, there are several batts available, but also bear in mind that you can use more than one layer (and even more than one type) of batting in a quilt. The warmest batting that I've worked with is wool, and I've only used Dream Wool by Quilter's Dream. It's very light, but warm, and quilts beautiful. Their wool is a washable wool, which means you can wash it on cold and dry it with no heat. Otherwise it reeeeeally shrinks. Wool is very breatable so it's perfect for warm winter bed quilts or snuggly quilts. You can layer wool too, sometimes dark minkee beards (fiber from the back pulls up through the stitching holes and leaves little 'beards' on the front) and a great way to deal with that is to put a layer of poly (I like Dream Puff) and then a layer of wool. That seems to catch the beards before they make it to the front. Dream Puff (also by quilter's dream) is a really great, warm, cheap alternative to wool. It's got a nice loft (puffiness) to it and works great with minkee to pop out your quilting design.

A more traditional batt would be 100% cotton which will shrink up a little, is moderately warm, and hangs a little stiffer than either wool or dream puff. Cotton is also a very thin batt with hardly any loft. Cotton batts are great for "heirloom" looking quilts that you want to loook old-fashioned. If you quilt a quilt with cotton batt and wash it, it shrivels up just enough to give it that rumpled antique look. I have used cotton batts a great deal on my own and other people's quilts, and while I like it okay, I find that I prefer some of the newer more environmentally and people friendly batts. Cotton (for those of you who care) is extremely water intensive and cotton cultivation has been causing water shortages for people in some parts of the world. Batting uses a huge amount of cotton compared to fabric, so I try not to use it anymore. I like to save most of my cotton consumption for fabric.

The most recent alternatives to cotton still contain some cotton, but they're moving away from that. Two of the main cotton alternatives are soy and bamboo. Soy batting is made from the leavings after soy beans have been processed into various food products. It has the same shrinkage as cotton, is quite a bit softer and has a softer drape. It's low loft, like cotton, too.
Bamboo, another cotton alternative is great because it grows extremely fast, about 2 feet a day, and is therefore very renewable. It requires little to no watering or fertilizer and the processing is pretty earth friendly. It has a very silky feel and soft drape. I carry a new product called Dream Orient from Quilter's Dream that's a blend of silk, bamboo, tencel and a little bit of cotton. It's heavenly and silk breathes really well, while being warm and light, but not smothering you either. MMMmmmm, silk batting is nice :)

I'm still researching alpaca batts for the wool allergy crowd (or even just the wool itchy crowd). Most are blends at the moment, so I'm pushing my favorite company, Quilter's Dream, to make a 100% alpaca wool batt. Any phone calls to them requesting this would be greatly appreciated. Alpaca hair is one of the warmest natural fibers in the world, extremely soft, light, and hypo-allergenic, so it will definitely make an awesome batting, I just need to get someone on the manufacturing end.

There are also a lot of poly-cotton blends on the market, none of which I'm particularly fond of. I do like 100% poly, but I'm picky. Cheap poly is extremely unpleasant to work with because it's scratchy, smells funny, and can be a nightmare to quilt. My current favorite light poly (Dream Puff is 100% poly, but many folks don't like the loft) is called Dream Green and is 100% recycled plastic bottles so it has a soft green tint because they keep the processing to a minimum to keep it "Green". It has a bit of stretch to it, which can be tricky, but it's really soft and smooth and quilts beautifully. I love it's drape too, and it's very thin so it's perfect for a lightweight summer quilt.

So that's a highlight of some battings, but like I said, there are so many different types and brands out there, you should just go out and experiment, touch, and look at quilts with different batts. If you want to order from me, click here.

Next time, we'll talk thread and design.

Happy quilting!

Quilts on the lawn

2009-08-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

Ack, I've failed another week. Last week was extremely crazy as one of my employees got very sick and so I worked a stretch of 10 days, which is not ideal for my brain or slipped disk (we have a very hard tile floor in the shop), and by Friday, I just needed a day off and one of my other employees gave me the much needed time. Then this week we've got the scramble of getting ready for the rush of quilters who come through for the big quilt show in Bozeman (Quilts on the Lawn) and on top of all that I'm teaching a class tomorrow (I thought I was teaching it last Wednesday...as it turns out, calendars serve a purpose). So, hopefully Friday I'll have my wits about me enough to discuss, batting, basting, backing, and of course, my favorite topic of all: thread!
In the mean time, I'm back to the rush and grind of primping the shop, prepping the inner teacher, and tackling the more tedious aspects of life as a small business owner.
Happy quilting!

Borders

2009-08-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

I took pictures while doing the borders on my Swanky quilt, but a). my camera seems to be having trouble focusing and b). they really weren't very useful. That being said, let us finally carry on with our border lesson.
The first step in doing your borders is to measure your quilt. I don't mean read how big it's supposed to be and cut your borders that length. You actually have to measure :) Many folks just make a big long strip and sew it on and cut it off, and in fact I did that for years. Then I became a longarmer and now I realize that unless you measure, your border ends up as more of a ruffled skirt for your quilt, or more rarely, a belt around its big fat belly.

The way to measure your quilt is this (if you can lay it out, great, if you have to fold it in halves on your kitchen table, that works too): measure the top width, the width across the middle, and the width across the bottom. Sometimes these numbers will be the same, most times they are slightly different. On the rare occasion that they are drastically different (more than an inch), you may want to trim your top if you want it to lay flat and be square. Otherwise, average these numbers. Cut your border strips however wide you want them to be, let's say 6.5" and piece them together until you have enough for that width you just came up with. I blunt piece my borders (meaning I square up their ends and sew a straight seam), but your other option is to piece them on a 45 degree angle. To do this for wide borders, I recommend cutting first.

Line the 45 degree line of your ruler up with the long side of your border fabric. Cut off the end. Then, the piece you're going to attach, cut going the other direction, but also at a 45 degree angle. Piece them together with a little quarter-inch triangle sticking off of either end. (I'll cover this more in depth when I do a special mitered border lesson, hopefully next week, with pictures and all).

So you're all pieced, now cut two border pieces the averaged width of your quilt (*NOTE--it doesn't really matter if you do length or width first, whichever you prefer). Then find the midpoint of those pieces (fold in half and give it a little press to make a crease0. Find the midpoint of the width of your quilt. Now, many people at this stage pin their borders on, but I personally like to use Elmer's Washable School Glue. Line up your centers and working from the center out run a thin line of glue along your quilt top. Lay the border, from center out to the edge. You may have to stretch or bunch up a little bit to make it fit (remember it's an average). Once it's where you want it, press (lift and set) it with a hot iron. Make sure the glue is dry before moving on. Once ironed, it won't go anywhere. Repeat for the other half of that border and the other end. NOTE: If you don't plan to wash your quilt, DO NOT use the glue method. Gluing is for those of us who will wash it out. If you aren't going to wash, do the same thing, but stick a pin every couple inches, perpendicular to the seam and pull them out as you sew.

If your iron got gunked up, get yourself a Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser (the original), get it wet and rub your iron (hot or cold, doesn't matter) really hard on that. Don't worry it won't melt. The glue often hardens onto the iron and forms a dark film--I've never had any issues with this coming off on fabric, it seams to be permanent, but don't use your favorite iron if you're worried about it. Get yourself a nice $10 "Toastmaster" for gluing.

Anyway, now that you're all glued up, go ahead and sew those seams. Then press them toward the border (you may have to tug a little to unglue any glue that squibbed beyond the seam allowance). Don't be scared if you've got some lint transfer from light to dark, this is just dark lint stuck in the glue and when you wash, it will go away. If you're scared. Do a little test with your scraps--glue together, iron, peel apart, wash, if something remains, I'm shocked, but I always tell people anytime they're nervous the best cure is a nice little test.

*I wash ALL my quilts in cold water; if I glued them a lot, I let them soak a little. I dry them too, but much of that will depend on your batting, which we'll discuss next time. Many quilters never wash their quilts. Mine live and are made in a house which is a). not kept very clean because I'd rather be quilting b). inhabited by three black haired shedding machines and also, since I don't prewash, I do like to get the sizing out eventually, after it's served it's purpose. I also use a lot of spray starch, glue, and whatever other chemicals I need to make it work. So, that's why I wash. You decide what's right for you.

Okay, once you're done with the first set of borders, measure left, middle, right of the length, average, cut your borders, find center, align, glue/pin, sew, press and voila! Your first border! If you have multiple borders, continue the process until you're done.

Borders can be a pain but they add a nice frame to most quilts. Doing them correctly is what makes them a pain, but I promise it's worth it in the end because you won't have all sorts of excess border or quilt top that you can't get to quilt out.

I'll discuss batting and backing on Friday and Thread on Tuesday and quilting on next Friday hopefully.

Until then, happy quilting!

Still a train wreck.

2009-08-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

I won't lie, dear quilters, my brain is still shot through like old swiss cheese, so my lesson is delayed. Once I make it through Saturday Sampler tomorrow and hopefully get a decent night's sleep one of these days (my cat has returned to urinating on anything cloth he can find if he's inside and yowling beneath our bedroom window when he's outside--he may quickly be incorporated into a quilt project). So between cat pee paranoia, soccer, driving all over, getting so many new things in the shop that it makes my head spin, and trying to get some stuff done around the house before summer's over, I'm useless in the explaining/teaching/writing department. Apologies again! I'll be back on my game by Tuesday and you will have your in depth explanation of how to do borders.

Happy quilting!

Back on the quiltin' wagon...almost.

2009-08-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

Well folks, I completely spaced posting last week because I was busy doing the proverbial chicken minus head act when I came back from vacation. I might've been okay, but it was County Fair week here and I judged some of the 4H kids events and did a little workshop. Anyway, point being, even if I had remembered to blog, it would have been gibberish.

Vacation in Cali was lots of fun, including a little sea otter trying to get on our kayak, which pretty much made Erik's life, and mine too, but that man loves otters. Also had deep fried artichoke hearts, which were amazing. All in all we just had a good time with brother-in-law and his wife, who's many beautiful creations convinced me to try to become a knitter. (Knitting for Lily=yarn in a drawer). Someday perhaps I'll actually get something done.

I'm going to forego my border lesson until next week. This week is pretty hectic too with some lessons, still getting caught up from last week, tons of new stuff to deal with and organize in the store, as well as my final two games of soccer :( As a wise magnet on my mom's fridge says, "Life isn't passing me by, it's running me over." That's how I've felt this summer. Things will be much tamer once soccer is done, despite my sadness, it's a ton of time. Course it also allows me to eat more candy :)

Until next time, happy quilting!

Brain dead.

2009-07-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

Apologies folks, I thought I could get one last blog in before vacation, but as it turns out, I have the IQ and proofreading abilities of a road-killed snail right now, so I'm not even going to try to address something as important as borders until I returned. That way everyone who isn't all finished with the center of their tops can get all caught up :) Yeah, I'm trying to pretend this is for you.

I have a wedding this weekend in Missoula and the rehearsal dinner is at my dad's tonight, so I have much to do before I take off for that, then one day back, then off to Santa Cruz for a week of fun with in-laws. I'm excited for vacation, but I've been on kind of a tear with sewing (I finished three tops this past week and one might get itself finished on Sunday) so I'm a little sad to be leaving my sewing room for a whole week. I still have borders to put on two, but I'm undecided as to my fabric/style of border choice, so I haven't continued.

Erik is fencing at Big Sky State Games and hoping to win the foil weapon, in case anyone wants to go watch a quilter's husband fence ;) As such I will be driving all the way to Missoula and back by my lonesome. I hate driving. I need to invent a car that when you press the pedal sews as well as drives. I think the highway patrol might confiscate the whole car though.

Down to 3 quilts on the longarm queue and then onto my own never-ending queue of tops.

I'll be linking to my longarm mentor's, Karen Parker, new blog once I'm back and she's up and running. She'll be doing fun stuff like preparing your quilt and back for a professional longarmer and other educational topics. I'm quite looking forward to it and it should be very informative and inspirational.

Hope everyone has a lovely, quilt-filled week and I'll be back July 28th.

Happy quilting!

Finally--putting blocks together

2009-07-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the myriad delays. Life gets in the way sometimes.
Putting blocks together is one of the easiest parts of a quilt as long as you had some semblance of accuracy. In general, if you put your blocks in a pile and they are all about the same size, you're good. If there are some noticeable differences, you should probably square them up. To square up your blocks, you pick the least common denominator (if your blocks are supposed to be 10" but you have one that's 9.25", you'll be trimming them all down to 9.25"). Then, fold the block in half and half again, so your block is a quarter of the size. Then divide your trim size by two (so we'll go with 4 5/8") and line up the folded edges of your block with that line on your ruler going both directions and trim. That way, you trim an equal amount from around the edges so theoretically the block is still centered correctly. You can also try to find a square ruler in the appropriate size, but there are only so many square rulers on the market.

Sorry I don't have pictures. I've never squared my blocks up, for better or worse. It's something I'm aware how to do, just in case I ever need to, but I avoid because I'm lazy and not that anal.

Onward then, to the laying out and sewing!

My pattern was on-point, which means that the squares' points are oriented towards the top and sides, rather than the corners. Regular setting is when you put each block side to side and then one row directly on top of the other. The principles are the same, but on point is a little more complicated because everything is on the diagonal and you have setting triangles (which your pattern will instruct you on cutting).

The first step is to lay your blocks out how you want them to be. Some quilts are a bunch of the same blocks, in which case you can skip this step. My blocks were all the same construction, but different fabric, so I put them on my design wall to decide the layout. Below is my layout (once it's all sewn together :)
So, once I'm happy with my blocks' positions, then I start sewing. For regular setting, line up your blocks just like you would have your block components and sew, locking seams where you can. For on point, I had to sew setting triangles to my first "row" which is really just a single block in the upper left. When sewing a triangle to a square, you want to line up the right angle side of the triangle, but again, lay it out to make sure your triangle is pointed the right way.
See how there's a flap of triangle hanging down? That's okay, extra is good. Too small is sad. Unless the pattern is wrong, you should have at least a little hangover (the only good hangover). On the above block, I sewed along the right hand side.

I like to complete a row and sew it to the next row, but you can complete all your rows and then connect them, whatever works. So here are my first two rows (note that I'm holding my camera at a 45 degree angle)
When I go to sew these together, again I have all sorts of triangle flaps hanging out, so it's a little confusing to line up (those of you with straight set are lucky, you can just sew the buggers together). The best way to be accurate is to line up the block seams and let whatever triangle business is hanging over hang over.
I make sure and press my block seams in opposite directions as I construct each row so I can line them up and lock as shown above. Then I get this:
And a close up of the triangle business on the corners.
You just keep plugging away until the whole quilt is constructed. There are a couple tips for managing so much fabric that I recommend. The first is to make sure you keep everything you can in your lap or off to the side on your sewing table, mainly because the weight can really pull if you let it drop all the way to the floor. You'll want to help your feed dogs out a little more than you would with smaller chunks.
I also really hold the pieces together a lot more when I sew blocks and rows together. If you're inclined, you might want to pin at this stage. I prefer to just adjust as I go.
You can kind of see how the majority of the fabric is piled off to my left, I'm firmly holding the seam together and sewing in short bursts so I can rearrange easily. Put your needle down into the fabric before you readjust and it will hold everything in place.

The other thing I do as I sew things together is adjust for minor errors in measurement. Sometimes you'll have a little piece that isn't even, and rather than trimming everything up, I line up to sew over it and regain accuracy by ignoring it. In the example below, the one piece of the block stuck out, so I maintained my quarter inch on the other block and ignored the pink piece sticking out.
So there you have it. Sewing the blocks together really is easy. If you have anything that's directional or needs to be oriented a certain way, I definitely recommend sewing two things together, putting them back on your design wall (floor, bed, whatever ;) to make sure everything is still oriented correctly. Even I, the queen of chaining, rarely chain blocks together for fear of getting all mucked up with my orientation or positioning.
On Friday, I'll show you borders, but next week I'm on vacation, so I won't be posting, but I'll be back the last week of July to commence the quilting and binding, the final stages of our quilt!
Happy quilting!

Still running behind

2009-07-10T18:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry dear quilters, I'm still running behind with my blocks. I don't know where this week went, but while I got my blocks done, I didn't get them put together (and therefore getting pictures to guide you through the main-top-completion phase of quilting). Sunday is slotted for this activity, so no more delays.
In happy news, at my soccer game last night, I had a beautiful assist, which was the first time I have ever kicked a ball where I wanted it to go. It was very exciting. Soccer does cut into quilting time, but we Montanans must enjoy our few months of warm weather and sunshine.

Happy quilting this weekend.

Longarm lessons

2009-07-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

I didn't get my blocks done this weekend, which is okay, because I have longarm lessons all day today and tomorrow, so my brain is pretty much used up by that. My blocks are almost done though, so I should be back with putting them together on Friday.
Happy quilting!

Happy Fourth of July!

2009-07-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth everyone! I didn't get all my blocks done because this week was very hectic, so no updates on the quilting front, but I should have them done by Tuesday, but I make no promises because this weekend is my and and Erik's first anniversary and although we're celebrating tonight (our anniversary is July 5th), the celebration may continue through the weekend. We're fundraising on the Fourth at Livingston's Arts in the Parks selling burgers and such for our Japan trip.
Happy quilting, have a safe and fun holiday!

The sub-cut and onward.

2009-06-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

Strip piecing is such a common practice in quilting that there is hardly ever a pattern where you don't sew some pieces together and then sub-cut them into smaller pieces and re-sew them. Obviously there are patterns out there that don't have strip piecing, but most easy patterns have strip piecing.
So for my project, there were two strip-pieced units per block, so I'll go through the subcutting and sewing to complete one block.
Most strip piecing allows for a little to square up after stripping. You can see that my top strip set is off on the left hand side.
So I square up that strip set. Then I measure and cut (below).

I continue to cut the appropriate number of subcut units from each strip. In my case, I needed four subunits from each unit, plus the squares I cut earlier to make a block.
My subunits ready to go.
So I lay them out as they'll be in a block. Now to be honest, I would cut ALL of my subunits for ALL of my blocks and then chain piece them, BUT if you are at all worried that you'll get things switched around, do it one block at a time. There's nothing wrong with doing that, because if you get them mixed up, it won't be faster because you'll have to rip.
I'm a chain maniac, I chain not only everything in one quilt, but I'll chain multiple projects at a time (and yes, that has led to some interesting sewing mishaps--the price you pay to be a quilting speed demon).
There's my block laid out and ready to be sew. I'll sew it in rows with three subunits per row.

Before you sew, lay the pieces together and see if there are any seams that should match up. If there are, you'll see the reason that the direction you press your seam matters. When seam lines match up, you can do something called locking the seam by butting the two ledges of the seams against each other. From the side it would look like this:
See how they're pointing opposite directions? That means when you iron the seam you're about to make, it will lay nice and flat and you'll get a nice precise point that way.

If something should go wrong as you sew the seams, you will have to rip. Many sewing machines come with a seam ripper, but they're usually dull and small, so I recommend getting one at your local quilt shop. You will need it at some point.

There are myriad ways to rip or unsew, but the one least likely to stretch your fabric is to slide your seam ripper under about every third or fourth stitch and cut it.

See how the ripper blade is under the stitch, but not cutting the fabric. Do that all along the seam, every few stitches.
Here's a seam ready to finish the rip (if you can see it :) Now gently pull the two pieces a part and one side should have a bunch of little threads and the other will have one long piece of thread. Pick these out and you're ready to resew.
Here I've got the three rows together. You always want to sew anything you can in rows (or columns) first. Occasionally beginning quilters get a wild hair and want to sew the four units in the corner together and then sew the others on. You will end up asking yourself how the hell to continue sewing it together. Most patterns are pretty good about specifying which things to sew together in which order, but some assume you can figure it out.

So finally I sew my three rows together, and I've pressed so all my seams will interlock. Here's the finished block:
And from the back you can see how neat the seam allowances look when all the pressing is done correctly.
Voila! One block down. Next time I'll show you how to put them together, then borders, then quilting, then binding!
Happy quilting!

Plan B

2009-06-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

Well folks, I'm still hurtin', but not as bad. Surgery is out, thank goodness. I may do some physical therapy, but I'm still basically trying to avoid spending any more money on my injuries.
The short of it however, is that I'm still not up to cutting more than a little at a time and Cappuccino requires a massive amount of cutting. So, plan B is to work on a quilt called Bloom Creek Blossoms, by Atkinson, using a Swanky Jelly Roll by Moda. I'd already cut up my jelly roll and the cream for the background and the center squares that you can see on the pattern (theirs are black, mine are fairy frost brown) pre-injury, so it was a good candidate.

Jelly rolls and their ilk (bali pops, charm packs, layer cakes, etc...) are all excellent ways to avoid having to think too hard about your fabric choice. If you don't mind that part, they're still fun because they're already cut and you get a great variety of fabric for a "scrappy" but coordinated look. That's why I like them. In general picking fabric is my favorite part (I pick out way more fabric for quilts than I have quilt tops), but I do like the pre-cuts for the fun variety.

As we begin sewing, I'd like to remind you that sewing, particularly straight lines and such, is not difficult. Like all things, it might take a little getting used to, but it's not hard. Do not be scared. The first simple rule to remember as it will be the case any time you're piecing (not applique) anything: RIGHT sides together. When we refer to right sides, we mean the pretty side of the fabric that was actually printed. You will find that many batiks don't have a right and wrong side, which can be great, but you also need to be careful that you don't end up with seams going every which way. Another rule to remember about QUILTING, not all sewing, is that in 99% of all patterns, you use a 1/4" seam. This is very important. If you've sewn garments, you're probably used to a 5/8" seam. Obviously this is a huge difference. Many machines have what is called a quarter inch foot (it usually has a little flap that keeps your fabric from drifting too far to the right).

If you've never used your sewing machine, get out your manual and play a little. I dare not try to cover everything about a sewing machine in this blog because machines vary wildly by model and brand and it's best to just get down and dirty and get acquainted by sewing. Thread it up with your chosen piecing thread. I personally like Superior's So Fine. It's actually a spun polyester, but please remember that all polyesters are NOT created equal. Do not piece your quilt with cheap, bargain bin thread. You've invested in a machine, in fabric, a pattern or book and you're about to invest a whole lot of time, pretty please don't ruin the experience with crappy thread. Some other nice options are Aurifil, Masterpiece (by superior), Mettler's 100% cotton. I do not like Coats and Clark Dual Duty, it is made for garment sewing and mending and it just isn't nice to work with, but it is cheap. If you get cheap polyester, you run the risk of having it tear your quilt. So Fine and other quality polyesters will not tear your quilt. Obviously you make the choice, but I really do recommend investing in good thread. Get a nice neutral cream color to start (unless you're doing all dark fabrics, then get black or gray).

So let's get started. Look at your instructions and after the cutting it will undoubtedly say something about putting, sewing, piecing, etc...two fabrics together. Lay those two pieces together (you may be pairing two pieces up 20 times or more) with their right sides together and line them up. Fabric likes to cuddle itself, so it should stick fairly well. Make sure the edges you're seaming together (that's the one that counts) are lined up. Also make sure you're sewing along the appropriate side. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but often it does. Pay attention to pictures and diagrams for the placement.
I'm peeling it back to show you the edges are lined up (the pinked (those little mountains and valleys are called pinking in sewing, who knows why) edges are a little obnoxious to line up, but it's the peaks, not the valleys that you should line up.

Put it under the foot of your sewing machine, lower the foot, gently depress the pedal and the feed dogs (the little teeth that move underneath the foot when you sew) will pull the fabric through. Let the feed dogs do the work: do not push, do not pull. Simply gently guide the fabric so it stays straight. Remember how stretchy our fabric can be and don't get too tuggy with it. If you do need to adjust and realign, stop sewing and gently "scratch" the top fabric to line up with the bottom. Gentle is the key word here, don't maul it.

Note that the right edge is lined up with that little black flap on my foot. That's the advantage of the quarter-inch foot. Also note that my hand is just gently resting on the fabric, not pushing or pulling.

Now, lots of quilters pin everything before sewing. I do not do this, I think it's a waste of time, so if you feel the need to pin, that's your business, I'm not even going to cover it here, but I will say, for the sake of your sewing machine, pull the pins out before you stitch over them. 90% of the time, you can stitch right over the pin, but man, that 10% when you hit the pin dead on is really hard on the ol' machine.

The only situation I pin is if I'm setting in a circle. Since we're not there yet, I suggest you set aside your pins and learn to piece without. I may not be a traditional quilter, and I'm sure I regularly piss off the quilt police, but damn, I'm an efficient quilter with pretty good accuracy. I know that in this day and age, we're all very busy, so you have to make the most of your time. Value your time: don't pin :)

Okay, so you've sent your first piece through the machine and you're getting ready to lift your foot, cut your threads and do the next. STOP! Don't do it! Here's another tip on efficiency: chain piece everything you can. Chain piece? You ask, head cocked to the side. Chaining or chain piecing is when you sew one unit after another without cutting the thread or even lifting the foot. The front part of a foot is curved up just slightly, and if you tuck your next unit underneath the foot as shown in the picture below, when you hit the gas again, the feed dogs will grab it and pull it under the needle and VOILA! You've now chained two things together. Some machines (mine included) also have what's called a knee lift which is a bar that sits by your leg that you can push to the side (with your leg, I've seen people use their hand, that defeats the purpose) to lift your sewing machine foot. This is especially handy when chaining because I can lift the foot a little and tuck the the fabric under there without ever using my hands. Another handy thing to have on your machine is a needle down function which makes the needle drop completely any time you stop. You can see in the picture below that my needle is down. It just prevents the previous unit from trying to get in your way by sliding back forward. (This becomes more of a problem as your pile of chained units grows).

Another thing that you may read and may choose to do which I do not, especially if I'm strip piecing (more on that next time), is back or lock stitch. Your machine may have a u-turn button, or an R button, or something of that nature that you press to make your machine sew backwards. Now, there is a time and a place for reversing, but it is not while you're chaining. Ultimately, everything in your quilt will be secured by the overlap of seams, but more importantly by quilting or tying. So, seriously, don't bother unless it's expressly indicated by the pattern. Back stitching is typically used to secure seams that you're going to be manipulating or not enclosed, like Y-seams or miters. We'll cover miters when we do borders, so you'll get some back stitching under your belt. Until then, once again, I recommend not wasting your precious time.

Okay, chain your way on through the pile of pieces that step one of your pattern calls for. And if step two is also sewing some other units together, sew those together too. Chain until you can chain no more. Then snip the little buggers apart.

My little pile of chained units, which will grow into a BIG pile as I have sixty four things to sew together for the first two steps.

Now comes the part that is the bane of my quilting existence: pressing. Okay, it's not actually that bad, it can just be a little time consuming and I would rather be piecing or cutting or quilting.

Most patterns will indicate which way you should press using a little arrow. Some will say something like "Press toward the focus fabric". Pressing is your friend (even if it is a little boring). Pressing can fix all manner of errors, but it can also create them, so press like you mean it. In my pattern the arrow indicates that I should press toward the "main" fabric in each block (as opposed to the contrast fabric). So, I put a picture below showing how the seam should lay, it should "point" like the arrow toward the main fabric (the green in this case).
This is shot from the back, obviously, as that is where your seam allowance should be. If you make a mistake, fear not, next time I will cover ripping, aka unsewing.

In order to press well, first lay your unit with the fabric that the seam is supposed to be pressed toward up. Pressing means that you set your iron on it, pick it up and set. Do not rub around any more than necessary because it distorts the fabric. This is call setting the seam.
Above is how it should look while you set it.

Then pick up the open edge of the top fabric, lift and push it back. Use your iron to carefully push that one back onto the seam allowance. You shouldn't push so hard that your thread starts peeking through, but don't be so gentle that you're left with a little fat roll of fabric hanging out there. It should lay flat.

In the rare case that the pattern doesn't indicate, the general rule is that you press toward the darker fabric, that way there's no risk of the darker part of the seam showing through the lighter fabric.

On Tuesday we'll move on to subcutting, until then, happy chaining, pressing, quilting, etc!

Still broken

2009-06-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much improvement since last week, so I still can't cut very well. If I'm not up and running by Friday (I'll have to go to a specialist if I'm not better by the end of this week), I'll figure out plan B for quilting lessons. One way or another, I'll get some sewing lessons up on Friday.

So until then, happy quilting.

A brief hiatus.

2009-06-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

I will not be adding anything to the beginning quilting series today primarily because I haven't been doing any quilting, not really because I don't want to, but because doing my cutting lesson was about all I could manage courtesy of what felt like a car wreck, but was really just a soccer injury.
Erik and I joined an adult rec league soccer team over in Bozeman, and it's nothing serious, just a bunch of grownups who love chasing a ball around and most of the people are very nice and play nice. I've never played soccer prior to this, so it's been a real learning experience.
Well, last Tuesday (we have two games a week), we were tied up, I'd been playing pretty well (the bar is pretty low) but I'd conquered one of my major issues, which is flinching when a serious dude comes running at the ball that I'm running at. So at the very end of the game I went tearing after a ball I'd stolen and I saw a guy coming, but I had about a foot in height, even though he was more athletic, so I figured I would win in an outright collision. And I would've. Moments later however, I found myself confused in agony on the ground. I practically heard my left quad rip after I'd been struck, rolled a couple times, and had him land on me. All I could think about was my leg and how baffled I was that he packed such a running wallop. The physics did not make sense. A penalty was called and I dazedly wandered off the field.
Then I found out, we did not run into each other (I was watching the ball the whole time, I only saw him running toward it when we were still about 30 feet from it). He had jump tackled me like a minor league hockey enforcer.
I was (and am) very angry not just because my quad hurt right then, but because of the ridiculousness of tackling a girl in REC league soccer with a minute left in the game. The next day I was (and am) livid because my left foot and ankle were and are extremely sore and possibly sprained and my shoulder has a ligament that if not already torn, is on the verge of being torn (I'm waiting to shell out the big bucks for an MRI). The doctor said to give it one more week and see how it feels. So I'll know by next week if it's surgery worthy or just really painful, but until then, I'm pretty gimpy when it comes to doing anything with my left arm. Cutting has proved more agony than it's worth. I got through my cutting lesson, but I tried and failed to cut the rest of the fabric.
So apologies, but blame that little battering ram who mistook me for a door. Hopefully by Tuesday I'll be feeling better, but right now I feel like road kill, and this is after over a week. Luckily I wouldn't have been able to sew this weekend anyway because I'm off to Missoula to spend Father's Day with my dad and stepmom.
Happy quilting (and healing for me)!

Cutting like a samurai.

2009-06-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, we've picked our pattern, we've got the fabric (maybe a little more than we need ;) and now we're finally ready to cut! Let us start with a basic lesson in fabric and quilting terms related to cutting. The first term that really threw me off was selvage. Selvage? Right....Well, a selvage is a part of every woven fabric and it's the edges where it's attached the loom. On most printed cottons and flannels it is easily identifiable not only because on one side of the fabric is usually white with print on it and on the other it is either white, or the color of fabric, but has noticeable little holes in it. Batiks are trickier. In the picture below, the batik is on the left, and there really isn't much notice of the selvage except a slightly denser weave. The design on a batik also doesn't usually extend onto the selvage.

Another term you will see in full or in abbreviation is "width of fabric" of WOF. To someone who's sewn, this is obvious, but to others, it's not necessarily. WOF is from selvage to selvage, and almost without exclusion, when cutting instructions refer to cutting "strips" they mean, from selvage to selvage. Typically WOF is between 40" and 45" but never count on more than 40" of usable (ie--not selvage) fabric.
Some patterns also refer to "fat quarters" which are often used in scrappy quilts or smaller, lap quilts. A quarter yard is 9" x 4oish"...A fat quarter is a half yard (18") cut in half at the fold--so 18"x20ish"--hence the name fat quarter: same area, different perimeter, geometrically speaking. If you see little folded up bits of fabric laying all over the place in quilt stores, they are likely (always ask if you aren't sure) fat quarters. Obviously a fat quarter will only have one selvage edge on it.
Our last terms will explain why I don't recommend triangles right out of the gates. Fabric has three "directions": the lengthwise grain, which runs parallel to the selvages; the crosswise grain, which runs from selvage to selvage (width-wise would've been hard to say, methinks); and finally the bias which runs at a 45 degree angle to either grain. The lengthwise grain is hardly stretchy at all (you see in clothing patterns an arrow that you're supposed to align with the "grain" which usually means either length or cross), the crosswise grain has a little more, and the bias, whoa nelly, the bias has some serious stretch, which can be handy, but can also be sad when you're trying to sew to triangles together and they stretch and warp and your quilt ends up looking more like a 3D landscape of rolling hills and valleys. In the pictures below I'm applying the same amount of pressure to all three.
The lengthwise grain. No stretch here!
Crosswise grain--a wee bit of stretch.
The bias...streeeeetchy.

Okay, so there's your intro to fabric. Now let's get a-cutting. You will need three tools: a rotary cutter (a circular razor blade on a stick), a self-healing cutting mat, and a ruler of some sort. For your first ruler, I usually recommend a 8.5"x24" or 8.5"x12 or a 6.5"x24". I like the wider 8.5" because I think they're more useful. Individual brands of these things are really a matter of preference and if you stick with quilting, you will probably end up with multiple rulers, cutters, and mats. There are more gadgets than you can shake a stick at these days.

Now, if you prewashed your fabric, you need to iron it to get it back in the general shape that it was before you washed it (ie--selvages aligned, nice crease along the length of the fabric). If you didn't (and I never do) hooray! You're ready to cut. *A quick note on ironing: try to lift and press, not rub around. Rubbing around distorts the fabric.

Many quilters leave fabric just as it rolls off the bolt to cut it (only folded in half once), but I personally believe that the longer the distance you have to go from start of cut to finish of cut, the more likely you are to slip or get crooked, or any number of mishaps. So I fold mine again, taking the fold from the bolt up to the selvage, leaving the fabric about 11" wide.
Obviously I've just got the corner turned back there so you can see what's what. You'll want it nice and straight before you start cutting, but you want to align the selvage edge (if the selvages aren't perfectly aligned, and they never are, just leave them be) to the fold, don't try to align the cut edges. We're going to square them up. So, if you're right handed, lie the ruler on top of the fabric above and slide it over to the right until there's just a little of each layer sticking out on the right side. Then you will use the dots or lines on your ruler and pick one to line up along the bottom fold of your fabric as shown below.
If your cutting mat has a grid on it, do NOT use this to measure or square up. Mats are not very accurate for starters, but they get less so every cut you make. As you cut on the lines, you put them open with your rotary cutter, and pretty soon they aren't even there any more. I'm not too adamant about how people do things in quilting, but do NOT use your mat as anything more than a surface or a guesstimate (if you just want to see if you have a quarter yard or a third, use your mat, not if you're cutting a 2.5" strip). The other reason I encourage using your ruler to measure is that it's more efficient because you don't have to fix the whole piece of fabric any time it shifts. So, if you've done a little quilting and cut with your mat, now's the time to switch.
Once you're all aligned, go ahead and cut off the little piece sticking out. There are many cutters on the market, so find one that you like. I personally only use the straight stick cutters because I cut with both hands (more on that in a minute). Here is the proper way to hold a straight cutter:
You can see that I've opened the blade, my hand is fairly relaxed and the majority of my motion will be in a downward direction. Many quilters have trouble cutting multiple layers because they put too much forward on their rotary cutter. Because it's a circle, if you put downward pressure, it will roll forward. In the real world I would be holding my ruler as pictured below:
But I have to have a hand to take the picture. Spread out your fingers, using the tips, not your palm and press firmly down, not forward or sideways, but down. Once you're comfortable with your hand position, the alignment of your dots along the bottom, cut off the little guys on the right. Always, always, always close your cutter when you're finished. They are extremely sharp and if you forget where you set it and it's open, you can give yourself a nasty cut. Or your pets, or children, or wayward spouses.

Now the reason I cut with both hands is to save time. I'm not ambidextrous, and my left hand is fairly useless for everything outside the quilting world, but you'll be surprised how quickly your weak hand learns new tricks. SO, that being said, I strongly recommend you learn to cut with both hands. The reason is that then I can square up like this:
And never move my fabric to proceed to cutting. If you squared up with your right hand (or if you're left handed, as above), you will now need to carefully flip the fabric so the squared up side is on your left (or on your right if you're a lefty). Each time you move the fabric a). takes time and b). hinders the quest for accuracy.
Okay, so you've got your square edge on the opposite side of your strong hand and your pattern says you need some width of strip. Most patterns are good about saying X strips, subcut into Y rectangles, squares, whatever, but sometimes a pattern just says you need to cut 35--5" squares. If that's the case, assume fabric is 40" wide and figure out how many strips you'd need. (For that example, you'll get 8 out of each, and therefore need 5 strips, leaving you with five extra squares--extra happens, it's okay). So my first cut is to make 6" squares so I'm going to cut a 6" strip. Line up the 6" line of the ruler with the edge of the fabric (be careful here, some rulers have a half-inch on one edge, make sure it's not throwing you off):
Now, this picture is the reason we measure TWICE, cut ONCE. Although, truth be told, I just read the pattern wrong. Anyway, so I cut a 5" strip. I lined up the left edge of the fabric with the 5" line all along and then also lined up the dots along the fold at the bottom, just to make sure everything is still square.
Then you cut along the right side of the ruler, being sure not to slip around. You can continue cutting strips by just taking the cut one out of your way and moving the ruler down the rest of the fabric.
Once I've cut my 5" strip, in order to make 5" squares, I need to subcut the strip. To do this, I turn it 90 degrees, square up the end by cutting the selvages off (I usually leave it folded in half, not in fourths, like it was when I cut the strip) and proceed to cut just like you do with strips. And voila! You have your squares. You can even layer strips on top of each other if you want.

Bear in mind that a lot of quilts use "strip-piecing" techniques where rather than subcut the initial strip, you sew two or more strips together and then subcut them. Cappuccino doesn't use this technique, but I'll take pictures of another project to show you as it is VERY handy and some pattern-writers don't have you do it when you could.

Happy Cutting! Please don't hesitate to comment or email if you have questions.

Colors, fabrics, and prints, oh my!

2009-06-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

Fabric, or perhaps more abstractly, color, is what brings many of us into the quilting sphere. I started quilting, sort of, in the summer of 2003. My mom quilts pretty casually. She does a ton of needlepoint, but has done a decent amount of quilting. So that summer I decided that it was about damn time she make me a quilt. Off we went to Little Timber Quilts for me to help her select fabric to make me a rag quilt. I'd been to Joann's and Hancock's, those sort of fabric stores, but never been overly excited about making anything more complex than a cape for Halloween. Walking through the door of LTQ was immediately appealing to me. I've painted since I was 12, so I LOVE color and texture...and here I was surrounded by all different colors and textures and ready made little paintings. My mother knew almost immediately that she had created a monster. I picked out the fabric for her to make me that quilt, but I ended up making it for myself. Before that though, I picked out fabric for a quilt to redo my bedroom (a log cabin, still not quilted)...then I picked out fabric for another project (a Lucky Stars, by Atkinson's Designs)...then another (a Yellow Brick Road that she and I took a class together to do) See pictures of three yellow brick roads I made very early in my quilt career...and then that fateful day when I bought my first fat quarter with no purpose. I just loved it.
The Yellow Brick Roads are all draped in the top of the picture. Three of the first quilts I finished.

So that's my story. I to this day have a fabric problem. Last year it really came home that I am a fabric collector, not just a quilter who happens to have a lot of fabric. I made the quilt pictured below because I loved the line with all the browns and oranges (yes, it made many people want to throw-up, but I love it!)

...I made the blocks and chose to sash it in this great orange fabric with black and metallic gold spider webs. I took enough home to sash the quilt. Finito, voila, lovely, I have fabric I love in a quilt I love, right? NO! I agonized about the spider web fabric. I couldn't sleep because there was only about a yard left on the bolt at the store, and I knew I should sell it so I can attempt to make a living. Finally, in tears (fabric doesn't often bring me to tears, but occasionally), I called my mom for advice. Sobbing, I sniffled about how I might want to make something else someday with the spider webs, and what if I never found it again, and blah blah blah. My poor mother sighs in exasperation and tells me that it's okay if I want a little extra of the spider fabric. So I gleefully took home the last little bit of the fabric and I can tell you right now that it will never get cut up unless it's my very last piece of fabric. I just had to have some of it to pull out and pet occasionally. Now, don't worry if you're just starting, this doesn't happen to most people (or at least I don't think it does). I'm an extreme fabric addict with no intention or desire for reform. I control my addiction by owning a fabric store, so I get contact with tons of pretty fabric every day so I don't have to take it all home. The moral of this tale, however, is that if you really love a fabric, for Pete's sake, buy some extra if you can afford it. A little fabric sometimes equals a lot of happiness.

Which brings me to my next point, and then I'll get on with my actual lesson. Fabrics do come in different qualities, as you will notice by the different prices found in independent quilt shops and chains like WalMart or JoAnn's. I am not a quilt shop nazi. Obviously I want and hope that everyone who quilts will shop at independents to keep us alive and fed and keep beautiful fabric on the market, but I myself have been a quilter without much of an income, and I know that sometimes you just can't afford the better stuff. So I will say only this: buy the best you can afford. Your projects will last longer, be more beautiful, feel nicer, etc...but don't beat yourself up if you have to use cheap fabric--it's the journey not the destination and your first few quilts probably aren't going to be heirloom quality anyway. The same advice applies for sewing machines, tools, etc...Buy the best you can afford, it will be worth it in the long run.
A quick note: there are three main types of quilting fabric and they are all 100% cotton: cotton prints, batiks, and flannel. Cottons and batiks work fine together, but flannel is best kept by itself (though you can use it as the back of a quilt to make it soft. I suggest Wikipedia if you want to know the differences amongst these three. As to a question that you will find addressed with differing levels of passion in various quilting publications, to prewash or not to prewash? There is no right answer, do what you want. I hate prewashing and have never prewashed a single piece of fabric in my life and I wash all my quilts and dry them on hot and have never had a problem, so, there you go. I will say that I have found cheaper fabric tends to bleed more, so if you don't prewash, use those color catcher sheets you put in the wash. Also, it's all or nothing: you can't just prewash your reds and leave the rest as cotton does shrink and when you then wash the top, the red is preshrunk and the rest isn't: you'll be sad.

Okay, now to the actual picking of fabrics. There are three main factors to consider when choosing fabric: color (first and foremost), value (second, only slightly), and print (a more minor, but still important part).

Most of us who graduated from kindergarten at least know the basics of color (or did at one point ;). The primaries--red, blue, and yellow--combine to make secondaries--purple, green, and orange--all of which can combine to make tertiaries and on and on to make all the various shades in between, like reddish pink purple or light bluey green. Knowing combinations of color is not really necessary in quilting like it is in painting, but a little color knowledge can help you make informed decisions.
The color wheel is such an excellent tool for color decisions if you know what kind of effect you're going for. One of the easiest ways to choose fabric is to go with a monochromatic color scheme where you use various shades, tints, and hues of said color. So, say all greens (and creams, but black and white don't really count as "colors" unless they're all you're using) like my quilt on the left below, or all blues, like the one in the middle. Monochromatic quilts are very peaceful, but can also run the risk of boring, so it's good to have a little zazz in there--the shiny cream in the green, the silver polka-dot in the blue. The close cousin of monochromatic is analogous. Analogous just means that they are next to each other on the color wheel. So, blues-greens-yellows, or even just blues--blue greens--greens or say from green to orange on the wheel above. Analogous colors also tend to feel pretty calm and peaceful, but do run the same risk of being boring if you don't pick either a dominant color or an interesting focus piece. A focus fabric is typically a larger print with several colors and cannot obviously be categorized as light or dark, one color or another. The quilt on the right below rides on the focus fabric, a blue and green tropical leaf print, a lot as well as the black for zazz.
I realize that the picture isn't very big, but since we're examining color, that's okay. You can instantly see that the first two are more calm than the third. Bear in mind that if you don't like green or blue, you will not like any of these quilts, so try to imagine them in a different colorway, like red or purple, or whatever your favorites are. You may already be seeing a pattern in my quilts. I do a lot of analogous and monchromatic quilts. Also a lot of blue and green.

That being said, I'm not just a one trick pony. For a flashier quilt, one of the quickest ways to get some pop (also a nice way to add some spice to a monochromatic number) is to use complimentary colors. Go back up to the color wheel and look. Complimentary colors basically are two colors that when mixed together will make brown or black and are always opposite on the color wheel. Scientifically color gets very complicated, so we'll just stick to visual color which is what you see when you mix paint or crayons or something of that nature. You'd think that when you put complimentary colors next to each other you'd get a visual muddying since they make brown, but that's not what happens. In fact because they're on opposite sides of the color wheel, they pop when next to each other. Blue and orange, purple and yellow, reddish purple and green, they all really pop. In the quilt below I used a very pale blue as the background and orange for the flowers and it just really pops.
Most people hear blue and orange and think "Blech" but it really works, even for people who don't like these colors--they think the quilt is pretty. I've had a number of people unable to say why they like this quilt, but I'd be willing to bet it's the visual appeal of the colors because the pattern has it with a white background and pink flowers and it just doesn't work for people.
Those are your basic color schemes that are nameable, but another awesome way to choose colors is to pick a focus fabric you like, or a theme (say Christmas, fall, winter) and go with that as a starting point. Below is a grouping of "fall" fabrics we put together just thinking of fallish colors.
Here again though, your color wheel can help you. On the wheel above, you'll notice that it has arrows around the outside that say "warm" and "cool"...In general you can intuitively feel this about colors--red is a warm color, but you it can have cooler or warmer shades depending on whether it's got more blue or more yellow making it more purple (and therefore cooler) or more orange (and therefore warmer). Fall and summer colors tend to be warm, while winter is cool, and spring is a mix of the two (think crisp cool blue skies or clouds, juxtaposed with vibrant, warm red tulips and yellow daffodils). Again, temperature is a great way to tie your quilt together--if you want to do a green and purple quilt, choose all cool, or all warm versions of greens and purples and it will meld a little better.
The second way I mentioned involves a focus fabric. That's how I chose colors for this quilt, even though the focus ended up being a tiny part of it (find it if you can!):
I probably wouldn't have combined these particular fabrics without that guide. Below is another example of choosing a focus fabric that I really love and choosing colors to go with it:
I love the fish print, so I chose a bunch of fabrics that I liked, then pared it down a little:
Which brings us to our other considerations: value (lightness or darkness) and scale of print (the size of the elements on a fabric). The fish fabric above is a large-scale print that I would use as a focus fabric, but that's not to say you can't cut it into tiny pieces. Focus fabrics are not necessarily going to be huge chunks or borders, they serve as a bridge to tie the rest of the quilt together. Scale is an important part of choosing fabric because variety is the spice of quilting, as well as life. If you pick all huge prints, the quilt will be muddled and confusing for me, at least. Some designers and pattern writers like using all huge prints, so you know, take my advice with a grain of salt. I like to throw in small scale and medium scale prints because then there are places for your eyes to "rest" if there's pieces of big prints every which where, your eyes just constantly flutter over the quilt and can never pause long enough to decide what the heck is going on. SO, that's my two cents. Below is an example of similar colors in negligible (in quilting we refer to these as "reading as solid") print, small print, medium print, and large print. All of these would fill (more or less) the same color and value role, just different texture as a result of the print size.
On the note of "reading as solid", I never actually use solid anything in my quilts. Unless you're going for an Amish or antique look, I just don't think they're as visually appealing or attractive as something that reads as a solid. That's all I'll say about print.
Next in my culling is value. Value is best described as where the color would fall on a scale of black to white if you took a black and white photo of it. There are tools for seeing value if you have trouble (they are little pieces of red, transparent plastic, or green, transparent plastic). In general though I think it's good to practice seeing value with the naked eye. If you're having trouble, go to a color section and find the lightest one and try to order them, stand back, squint and see if anything looks out of place, and continue. Quilt shop employees may wonder what you're doing, but for the most part, we're a passive lot. Below is a French Braid that made use of value changes to create the "glow" effect.
You can see there's one piece that sticks out more in some braids than others because there was a wide range of values within it, but also because it's cooler than the others. The lesson is: if it bothers you before you sew it together, it will bother you after even more, so fix it before you sew. Hahahha, if only I took my own advice. Oh well, I still love it. Below I also pulled a light, a medium, and a dark of blue, green, and purple so you could see how they feel the same even though they're different colors (the light blue is just a sliver at the bottom--sorry, I didn't realize how crappy the picture was until after I'd put all the fabric away).
Here again, some people sew with all mediums and don't like contrast, but I think one of the most important parts of a quilt is the contrast in values...Go back up to the blue and orange quilt--doesn't that dark blue really snap up the light stuff? The flowers and leaves are mediums, but having those lights and darks makes a huge difference, so in general I think it's good to have contrast, and balance--mediums, lights, and darks.
There are some tricksters out there, where you want to think it's a light because it has a light background, or that it's a dark because there's black on it, but in general, most prints that are all over the value board ultimately average out and read as mediums. The three prints below are excellent examples of these tricky fabrics. Don't be afraid to use them, they cut up and sew up just as nicely, they can just throw you off in a big ol' piece on the bolt.
So there you have it, now you can go forth and choose fabrics for your quilt, with at least these loose guidelines and opines from me. Again, I don't really feel that there are rules in quilting and if some combination of fabrics floats your canoe, just go with it--it's your quilt, sewing on fabric you love is the whole point!

One last tidbit of advice for those still wary of picking fabric (many an experienced quilter hates that part)--if you're really scared, the brave new world of quilting we're in has come in to save you. Many beginner patterns work really well for jelly rolls and bali pops (40--2.5" strips from a line of fabrics or batiks), layer cakes (10" squares of a whole coordinated line), or charm squares (5" squares), so pick one of those up and sew away, but try to analyze what you like about the combinations of colors and prints: that will help you to make your own choices in the future.

Finally, a note on buying fabric. In my own quilting life, but especially as a quilt shop owner, I have experienced the tragedy of not being able to get more of a specific print. To those of you who don't know, there is only one fabric manufacturer of cotton prints (batiks tend to be more loosey goosey about reprinting) that reprints their fabric. The rest print a set number of bolts, and when it's gone, it's gone, they don't print it again (except in exceptional cases like the Very Hungry Caterpillar, where they were making so much money they'll probably never stop printing that). This can be very frustrating if you bought something three years ago and get around to sewing with it and wish you had a half yard more. There are sadly no hard and fast rules for how much of anything you should buy, but in my quilting experience (I've made over 30 quilts, and probably about 40 tops that need quilting--not bad, especially since 90% of those are from the past two years) a print you really love that isn't especially large, I never buy less than two yards. If it's large, I buy four. If I want it as a border, I buy four. If it's a blender, at least 1. Why these numbers? Because usally if I love something, I want to build around it, and most patterns that call for a focus fabric never call for much less than two yards. If you only make miniatures, you can probably adjust this. This also leaves me room to recover from cutting errors, and maybe even have a little left over for my fabric petting zoo. I get a lot of grief for just trying to oversell people, but honestly, on this, I have so many women come through, frantically searching for something they bought years ago and didn't get enough of, that I'm only pushing for you to get that extra fabric in your own self-interest. I also tend to like my quilts to match, so that scrappy "I didn't have enough of this red" look is just not appealing to me, but if you like that look, you probably care less if your reds don't match. Again, just my opinion, but hard earned (I used to only buy fat quarters, and I still have most of them), so like all my advice, take it or leave it.

Well, here's my stockpile that I've selected for my Cappuccino quilt and Tuesday we can start talkng tools of the trade, cutting, and more!

Until then, happy quilting (and fabric shopping!)!

More alpaca drama.

2009-06-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

But we're almost finished with alpaca-trouble. I have all my stuff planned for the next lesson in beginning quilting, but I spent the morning putting up fencing for the alpacas, and must hurry home to continue weed-whacking (it's an electric fence, it's more about keeping coyotes, wolves, and dogs out than alpacas in) to keep it from grounding out. Originally the plan was to fence this weekend, but then the shed we got for them which was supposed to come Friday had a miscommunication and couldn't come until Monday. Which ended up being fine because weed-whacking, pounding posts and stringing electric fence are less than appealing in 35 degree weather with rain and wind! So, anyway, today stuff started to dry out so there was no time to waste, husband and I have been busy little alpaca farmers.
So, I apologize. Once we get the fence finished, they really will be cute little low-maintenance lawn-mowers...Just getting the fence finished has proved to be problematic courtesy of many factors, but Montana weather is really the biggest bee in my bonnet right now.
I've at least picked a pattern for my class--Cappuccino by Possibilities. It'll be interesting for a beginner because of the layers of borders around the blocks where accuracy can really hit you in your soft parts, but it is also a pattern that will look okay if the blocks end up wonky and not 'lined-up' in the traditional sense of the word. So Friday I'll be posting photos and talking about fabric selection and then the cutting and sewing and quilting can commence!
Until then happy quilting and fencing!

The first steps.

2009-06-05T09:42:00.000-07:00

The first step of making a quilt is deciding that you want to make one. Now, I'm not opposed to making a table runner or something small as your first project, but this is where I think it's important to evaluate your personal interests and goals in quilting. While I have at this point made oodles of table runners, I don't really like making table runners. Why, you ask? Don't I like tables to be pretty and no longer naked? Of course. Except that my table is about 4' square and covered in junk at all times. Where would the runner go? Anyway, I like making them as gifts because most people have real tables that they eat on. But for myself personally I just really like quilts, the big fabric monsters you can curl up under on your couch or bed.

On the flip side, I know many quilters who just like to make smaller projects like table runners and wall-hangings because they don't need a bunch of big quilts laying around. So, you decide according to your tastes. I will tell you in quilting that there isn't a whole lot of right and wrong, just your taste and other people's. So don't be scared of the quilt police: instead, just tell them they're wrong, see how they like it.

So, let us pick a pattern. Here are some guidelines for the beginner:

1. Don't pick something that consists entirely of triangles or any triangle relatives (like diamonds). The reason will become clear when I show you how fabric behaves.

2. Don't pick something with itty bitty pieces. No real reason except that usually when someone starts quilting accuracy is a little bit more loosey goosey than it is once you get your feet wet. If you really want to do itty bitty pieces, that's fine, but you might have to rip more. But hey, everyone has to learn to rip at some point.

3. A classic beginner project is a sampler quilt. In case you're just raising your eyebrows at that, it just means making several different block patterns and putting them together, rather than a bunch of one block pattern.

4. If you find something that you absolutely love, don't obey any of the above rules. Just dive in. You like curves? Well, everyone who's ever made a quilt with curves sews their first curve sometimes, so you go ahead. The real key to quilting is just like anything else, with practice you will improve, and if you choose to start practicing with something hard, you may face more speed bumps along the way, but that's half the fun, right?

So, go to your local quilt shop or hop online and start perusing. It is nice to look at the patterns or books in the flesh sometimes because then you can see what kind of yardage you need, if it's fat-quarter friendly, whether you can make different sizes, etc...But as with everything in quilting, do what works for you and your budget. Pick your pattern and Tuesday I'll start with the basics of fabric picking (all of which you can throw out the window if you so choose ;).

Until then, happy quilting!

Coming up

2009-06-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hello dear quilters, I know many of you are expecting an e-newsletter, and it's in the works, but between the long-arming load and the new additions to the family and machine repairs, many web updates have eluded me for the past month. SO, that being said, expect your e-letter by the end of the week.
In bloggy news, I've decided that starting Friday I'm going to do a "Beginning Quilting" from first cut to final binding stitch, it will be a "walk-through" as they call it for video games :) I plan to comprehensively cover every aspect of making a fairly basic (but not boring!) quilt, but hopefully for the more experienced quilter this will have some nifty tips and tricks that maybe you don't know. I'll sprinkle in some regular posts for fun, but this will be my summer project as our Japan trip has been put off until next summer because of swine flu. Yeah, I know.
So, look for that. Also check back for alpaca updates.
Happy quilting!

The boys are all settled in

2009-05-29T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, the alpacas seem to have adjusted without much ado to their new home in Big Timber. We have finally named all three. Iggy stuck for the gold one, Cuzco is the black one (pronounced kooz-ko), and Yoshi is the white one. Yoshi and Cuzco are pretty amiable, but Iggy is stand-offish. We think he misses the herd because he's ungelded, so not having the ladies around might be making him a little blue.

I'm now on a mission to find a spinning wheel for fairly cheap since I blew most of my budget on the 'pacas. Iggy's wool is such a beautiful color all on it's own that I don't even want to dye it. It's a honey golden color, but it has pink undertones. It's going to make beautiful yarn.

The car ride with the alpacas was very interesting. We drove up to great falls with a much smaller animal in mind because they don't weigh very much (around 100 lbs). So, I thought we could fit all three in the back of my station wagon, but when we got there and saw those gangly, five foot tall cuties, I suspected there would be no cramming three in my car. So that's why I had to make an unexpected second trip on Tuesday.
On Monday, we helped shear Yoshi and Iggy and then stuffed them in my car. Iggy went meekly and never moved the entire trip. Which was kind of a miracle because Yoshi made it constantly known how unhappy he was with the situation. He was so in Iggy's business it was amazing. Yoshi seemed to think that Iggy's window was better than his, so he would leeeean way over Iggy and snuffle Iggy, then he'd try to get up, bonk his head, make some noise and end up back in Iggy's business.
The best part of this whole ritual was that while they were in the back, you didn't want to turn around and look them in the face because they were a little edgy and we didn't want to scare them into spitting point-blank. So you'd face forward and forget that you had an alpaca right behind you. So Yoshi would silently lean forward until he was right by your ear and let out a loud "Chuf!" which was a spittly, indignant sound he made about every 15 minutes and often is a warning shot for spitting. So, either me or Erik was always jumping when the alpaca alarm would go off in our ears.
He never did spit on us, but man, by the time I got him home and let him out, he rocketed about 12 feet out of the back of my car, like his cute little butt was on fire. Poor Iggy had apparently been holding so still because he had to pee very badly. When he got out he started dribbling before he was out of the car and didn't stop for about 20 minutes.
It was also pretty amusing because we had to stop and gas up on our way home and people were just so confused about what we had in our car. I was joking with one woman and I said, "Funny lookin' dogs, huh?" and she stared at me and backed slowly away. Yeah, that does happen to me a lot, so I'm used to it. I also heard one guy berating his girlfriend for saying they weren't llamas; he was positive they were llamas and she was being an idiot. I did hold my tongue, but it was very hard. Anyway, the moral of the story is that if you ever want to have a good laugh, stop at a gas station with an alpaca in your trunk.
Day 2 I had to go by myself because Erik had to work. By the time I got to Great Falls, Cuzco was sheared and ready to go, so we stuffed him in my car, where he promptly tried to stuff himself back out the window of the car. But you have to just drive, if you stop every time they get freaked out, they just freak out again as you start up again, so I'm heading out of Great Falls with an alpaca doing circles in the back of my car, scuttering around on the plastic and making pathetic (but cute!) little wookie noises. Nothing like looking in the rearview, and getting an alpaca rear-view and wondering, without many options, what you'll do if the alpaca decides to let loose on your shoulder.
And lucky me! I got to find out what you do when an alpaca lets loose in your car. Now, let it be known, that if I could have gotten the alpaca back in my car by myself (it's not as easy as you might think to cram a five foot lanky, scared piece of livestock into your wagon), I would have taken the poor guy for a little walk when we gassed up because I suspected from his gassiness that he really needed to go. But alas, I couldn't get him back into the car, so I didn't dare take him out. So I pushed on for home. And we almost made it. Almost. About thirty miles from home, poor little Cuzco lifted his bum into the air and started the flow on five gallons of alpaca pee. Yes. In horror, I thought should I stop? To what purpose? I have nothing very absorbent in my car. Nonetheless I start to slow down. Bad, very bad idea. The change in speed caused him to freak out, so he starts scrabbling around while still urinating, falls in his own pee, and jumps up, spraying alpaca urine everywhere. I take a huge splash in the face and gasp in horror, which then promptly ended with a shot of eau de alpaca right in my mouth. Oh yeah. I got alpaca pee in my mouth. Awesome. Try to resist the urge to scream in horror after that happens, but I wisely kept my mouth shut and took more piddle in the face. It really made for a fun final 30 miles, but at least he held it that long. So, my car is very malodorous right now, but it will be getting a thorough scrub down and upholstery shampooing this weekend. Cuzco will also be getting hosed.
Anyway, once we got home, he was very well behaved and he walks on a lead just like a dog, so he might be the prize show and tell alpaca. I'm just going to make sure he hits the poop and pee pile before any more road trips.

So there's my tale of alpaca fun. I'm sure more stories will arise as I go. One of these days I'll get some actual quilting done.
Happy quilting!

Alpacas!!

2009-05-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

I'm now the proud owner of three boy alpacas! They're not all named yet, so there will be updates and there are some good stories about carrying alpacas in your car, but for now, it is late, I'm very very pooped from two adventurous, alpaca filled days, so I'll share some cute photos and share stories on Friday. It's like a really cute cliffhanger!
The first alpaca we sheared, being stubborn and refusing to go near the car.

The second alpaca (Iggy, he's the only one we've named) being stuffed in the car.
Me and Unnamed Alpaca #1 in the car. Stories on the joy of riding in a car with him on Friday.
Iggy happily snuggled in our yard.
Day 2. Unnamed Alpaca #2. The lonely alpaca car ride at Eddie's Corner getting gas...Also a good story about riding in a car with #2.
All three boys happily reunited after harrowing car rides. Stories and names to follow.
Happy quilting!

Eeek!

2009-05-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry dear quilters--Karen and I ripped the store to shreds this week in a frenzy of rearranging, I saw two fabric reps, and quilted two quilts this week. So though it wasn't boring, I don't really have anything too interesting either because I was too busy, BUT I am almost done with a little one of mine that I'm doing custom work on, SO look forward to pics of that (and maybe alpacas!) on Tuesday. Erik and I are going to test drive the little alpacas on Monday and if we love them (which I know I will :) we're bringing three home with us.
Happy quilting!

Tasty bits

2009-05-19T16:16:00.000-07:00

Well, as promised, here are a few of the things I worked on at my lessons.
Jellyfishing (okay, I made that up, but in the book we used, they were called jellyfish feathers, so...): it's basically a freeform fill feather (ha! say that a few times fast).

No-backtracking feathers with two colors and only marking the spine...This is a ribbony feather variety.

Standard feather with feather-fur outers tried on for size.

Feathery border using a template to make the spine and free-forming the rest.

So much fun! We practiced fills, outlining, dealing with not-so-perfect borders...Anyway, I will post more pics when I actually get to work on one of my own quilts. :( My queue is getting down there, so soon. I'm also still waiting for toys and gadgets to arrive in the mail.
Happy quilting as always!

Quilting lessons

2009-05-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

OOOoooooOOOO, I don't have my camera so I can't put up pictures of my accomplishments during my lessons, but I feel much improved and full of inspiration and new ideas, new tricks, and my credit card statement will be full of the costs of new gadgets!
Karen Parker was who taught me, she runs her own custom quilting service called Sew Specialties, and she is a blast to work with. I not only learned a ton, but I had a great time, and got to wear a cat while quilting! Karen really really knows her stuff, and she and I are both hoping to create some sort of long-arm support/education group for sharing ideas, etc...So, if you're interested, please email me at lilykw@gmail.com and I'll start the organizational process...She's also very open to giving more lessons, and she is a bottomless pit of information, so it was very worthwhile and affordable.
Tuesday I'll remember my camera and post pictures...I only got one quilt quilted (and that was primarily to practice my stitch-in-the-ditch skills--for those of you who don't long-arm, it's harder than you'd think) but then we practiced lots of fun fancy stuff on a sheet.
I've felt for a long time now that I wanted to venture into the custom world, but I needed a little push and a little help, and Karen was definitely that so this summer I'm going to be a custom quiltin' fool. I have tons of tops to work on (as you've seen) and I'm trying to push through my queue while I wait for my new toys, gadgets, accessories, marking tools, etc... to arrive.
My goal is to have at least one quilt in a show by this fall. Which may require piecing something new, and trying for that a-word (accuracy) instead of my favorite, the s word (speed). SO, I'll keep you posted on that and post pics on Tuesday!
And finally, before I bid you fare weekend, I want to send out a big public "Thank you!" to Karen for taking me under her creative wing. I'm eternally grateful!

Happy quilting!

Why finish the old when you can start something new?

2009-05-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

Since I'll be a long-arm learning fool tomorrow, I thought I'd post today. I'm about to squib right out of my skin I'm so excited for my lessons this week, but all the getting ready to finish so many projects inspired me to start a bunch of new stuff this weekend :). Makes perfect sense, huh?

I've been in the mood to use up fat quarters, and one of my collections of fat quarters that I've hoarded over the years is an extensive pile of fruit and vegetables, my personal obsession amongst novelty fabrics. I only like realistic food though. So, I was in a cutting mood, so I cut all my fruits and veggies to make a quilt called "Gypsy Girl" from Anka's Treasures' Fat Quarter Five. It felt about as close to cooking as I ever get :)

Next I sorted and cut to make a quilt out of Strip Therapy 2: Bali Pop Obsession. I had to use Sherbet for something, so I picked my favorite pattern, "Vertigo" and got organized. No sewing, just more cutting and picking out pairs of strips. I am not going to allow myself to start sewing on any of these until I get at least two quilts quilted and bound (okay, maybe just quilted ;).

I cut out pattern pieces for my High Street Messenger Bag, by Amy Butler. And finally, I'm plotting to make the cover quilt from Charmed a book I just got in. I found a great line (who knows why I didn't order it) from Moda called Swanky, by Chez Moi, over in Livingston at Back Porch Quilts. Well, naturally, I picked up the charms and a little yardage, and had fabric remorse when I got home (this was last weekend). I stifled it. But then... Then this:
Now I know those of you who know me may be thinking, "Seriously?" but this cover quilt, when combined with the funky pinks, lime greens, yellows, and corals of Swanky, is going to be a fantastically Lily quilt. Throw on some machine applique instead of needle-turn, and you got yourself one wild charm quilt. So, I called Livingston this afternoon to clean them out of Swanky and asked Dear Husband to pick them up after work :). I don't know about the scalloped borders, but the rest I do know about and can hardly wait.
Then of course, I got an invoice today informing me that this book will be here, possibly even tomorrow: French Braid Obsession:
I mean, honestly, when do these book authors expect me to sleep? Someone needs to come up with a time-stasher. If we could all save up time, like when we drove somewhere, it would just pile up in a cupboard somewhere and when we got home we could pull out a big ol' chunk of time, wouldn't that be great?
Anyway, just thought I'd share my plight, and give you a little glimmer of the show and tell to come! Hopefully I'll have some fun quilting tips to share on Friday, wish me luck and hope that I don't scare my poor teacher to death when I show up with 15 quilts! That's right, I culled down my collection that I'm taking from 23 to 15. I just want to be prepared for anything :)
Happy quilting!

Wednesday...Friday...same thing, right?

2009-05-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm sorry, Wednesday's pictures didn't happen. I'm too disorganized to be a blogger, really. I get distracted and when I get going on something I'm a little too obsessive to remember that I'm supposed to blog. So here's the lonestar pic in case I forget in the next fifteen seconds (not unheard of):
This week, the obsession was getting backing and batting ready for quilting lessons next week. Wooohooo! Except that I couldn't decide which quilts I wanted to take, and it began expanding from four or five, into, ahem, twenty-three. Yeah. And I wish I could say that was all my tops. It isn't. Of the twenty-three, however, six aren't my tops. They're shop tops that were made either by someone at work, or as a group effort. So, anyway, having a backing and batting prepared is very motivational for me, I feel that now I might actually finish these quilts. I even cut binding for a few, which is no small miracle. Scarier still, I pieced some binding.
Anyway, we used up a TON of batting remnants by piecing them, which I thought would be terrible, but is fairly easy if you square the edges. I also found a stash of batting I had from my pre-quilt-shop days, so I got that all used up. I'm trying LOTS of different battings too, I have an alpaca & wool blend, I have straight wool, cotton, cotton/poly, Dream Green recycled batting, dream puff, bamboo.
I still have to decide which ones I'll take to my lessons, but I'm taking some tops that I don't think we'll get to quilting so I can brainstorm with my teacher, Karen Parker, in Billings. Anyway, I decided I needed some record of this miracle before I bag it up and pack it in my car so Karen, Big Timber Karen, who helped me power through piecing and cutting 23 backs and battings, took a couple pictures.
Mount Quilts-to-be.
Can you spot the non-quilt in picture two?
Anyway, it was very inspirational for me to get all those quilts ready to go. Now I'm burning to quilt, but other duties call, so I'll probably have to tough it out until Tuesday. I like this picture as three of my finished quilts are hanging in the background. My long-arm isn't going to know what hit it.
Happy quilting! No blogs on Tuesday, but when I get back later next week, I'll have lots of show and tell hopefully.

Lone star

2009-05-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

Imagine that I did a lone star quilt out of Jelly Roll Quilts, and tomorrow I will show proof! My camera is quite dead, if I get a minute I might run home and get my charger, but otherwise, I will post pictures tomorrow. I used Moda's Neptune for it and counter to traditon used a dark background, but you will just have to wait and see! I learned several valuable lessons--most important of which is that even if you read the directions eight times, you can still cut wrong! And I did. The first go round I cut all my background pieces wrong. The second valuable lesson is that when working with small bias diamonds, close enough is not as close as one might hope. I wish that I had taken the time to "square up" the diamonds once they were pieced before putting them into the star.
The one lesson that I learned that proved beneficial, and I really knew from other quilts is that Best-Pressing the crap out of your fabric before you cut it on the bias makes a HUGE difference in accuracy. Cardboard doesn't stretch, and that's about how stiff I made my fabric. I actually used an entire 16 oz bottle of Carribean Beach on this quilt.
All in all though, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of this quilt, and the nice pattern for a jelly roll.
So, come back tomorrow for pictures.
Until then, happy quilting!

Wouldn't know I'm a quilter, would you?

2009-04-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

Well, despite having a weekend retreat, I didn't manage to get anything done. I spent a lot of time gabbing, which I know comes as a surprise when you put 25 women in a giant log cabin filled with sewing machines and irons. Unfortunately my project luck (or perhaps ability to pay attention to a pattern) was pretty bad. I worked on an Olivia the Piglet quilt, which I ruined half of the blocks beyond repair (sadly it's not as easy to untrim things as it is to unsew). So, very close to the finish line I had to cease that project.
The next project was a jelly roll quilt, which due to an inexplicable paranoia about doing things wrong, took me forever because I reread and remeasured everything multiple times. It's four lonestars from the book Jelly Roll Quilts, which I love. I got all the diamonds put together, so all that remains is to put the setting triangles (it's a no Y-seams method) on and finish the stars. So, pictures soon, perhaps.
All in all though, it was great fun, good for the mental health, and very inspirational. I'll post picturs on the web soon.
Happy quilting!

Sorry

2009-04-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

I just haven't had time to quilt the past few days. I should have lots to report next week post-quilt-retreat (we still have spots :) I probably won't be able to post Friday, but you never know how ambitious I might be on any given day. Otherwise, as always:
Happy quilting!

Teen Day

2009-04-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

I was down at the high school in town tie-dying t-shirts today with teenagers (say that five times fast)...It was fun to see the kids and I'm hoping they'll all come down and show off their tie-dye shirts so I can see how they turn out.
So, now I'm just having fun with shop-hoppers and fundraising this weekend at the Mother of All Garage Sales over in Livingston. Come check it out at the Livingston fairgrounds.
Happy quilting!

Like a quilt top factory.

2009-04-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

I finished another top this weekend, and it was kind of a challenge for me because it was flannel, and I so rarely sew with flannel. I was inspired by Valori Wells' Urban Flannel because the critters are so stinkin' cute.
I should've taken a picture before I put up my window display, but I didn't, so here you go. The pattern I used was actually, amusingly, from a book called Batik Gems, but it was perfect for a larger print with lots of coordinates.
Anyway, I'm going to put the tie-dyed pink minkee in the window on the back and fussy cut an elephant for a label...Someday...when it gets quilted. Which, at the rate I'm going, could be when I'm 75.
Happy quilting!

A quilted quilt!

2009-04-10T13:08:00.001-07:00

Woohoo, I finally finished the quilt that I was using for practice before moving on to my ever increasing queue. I like how it turned out a lot. I must have had a mini-math-seizure on one border though, as I had about four extra inches even though the other three were fine. Oh well, it did quilt out. I think I used about 4000 yds of thread total on this bad boy. This type of top is great for me to practice on because there are discrete sections, but not just blocks, so thread changes are easier and planning ornate quilting is more interesting.
Here's the whole top, but you can't see the quilting very well.
But here's the center from above where you can see the feathery business I did in that center medallion in a happy variegated thread of lime, pink, blue, teal, and purple. It's a Signature Pixelles, but I don't remember which color number.
And a close up fo the center. I've found that bright thred just looks so awesome on black fabric.
I've also found that McTavishing looks fabulous on metallic fabrics like Rock Candy or Fairy Frost. Anyway, I had a lot of fun, but that quilt was a doozy to power through being as QADD as I am. So back to my queue now, but it's one more quilt I can check off my list. Also, Vicky cut binding for me, know that I'm binding challenged, she has given me one less excuse. So I may actually bind this one ;)
Happy quilting and Easter!

Fencing...

2009-04-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

Erik had a big fencing tournament (big for MT, anyway) in Bozeman all day Saturday, the annual Stab-a-Fool Tournie. Anyway, he got 1st in foil, his main weapon, 2nd in saber, and 5th in epee, which he's never fenced at a tournament level. Anyway, it was fun to watch him. Here's a couple good pics of him doing foil. He's the one in the black socks, with the weapon all a blur.

It was the first time I got to meet his fencing buddies, so that was fun too.
So, not much quilting, but happy quilting anyway!

New sewing table!

2009-04-03T13:44:00.000-07:00

Hooray, my dad and I finally finished my new sewing table. I won't lie, some legs are wonky, it's not even close to kilter, and it ain't the prettiest thing I ever laid eyes on, but oooohlala, look at all that space, AND my sewing machine bed is finally flush with my table, making machine quilting so much easier. Not that I've had a chance to use it since I just got my sewing room put back together this morning. Anyway, we did everything for about $200 dollars, which is WAY cheaper than most prefab and didn't require me moving my 8000 pound desk out of the room.
I'm hoping to find some drawers that will fit underneath a little better to maximize my storage space, but this works.
Now all I have left to do is put this iron-on edging (apparently even carpenters like stuff you can iron on) to the raw edges of the particle board. Woohoo! I'm so excited to use it, but dear husband and I are off to his fencing tournament all day tomorrow, so I won't get to use it until Sunday :( .
Happy, and oh so spacious, quilting!

McTavishing--or Kinrosswrighting...

2009-03-31T09:20:00.000-07:00

I don't know how much my attempts at McTavishing bear any resemblance to the actual thing. I have a huge queue on my longarm right now, but I've been in a rut, so I wanted to experiment a little, so I put on one of mine and am doing some Kinrosswrighting (doesn't have quite the same ring) on it. She says that everyone's McTavish is different so they should just add an -ing to the end of their last name, but you didn't count on hyphenated names, did you, Ms. McTavish!
The pattern is from that wretched book Crazy Eights...some of you may recall another quilt, the one I made for my mother-in-law was very similar. That's because the pattern was so wrong I was sure I had botched it. So I made another one, meticulously, and as it turned out, the pattern was just horrendously wrong--it's since been pulled from the market, which is a damn shame, because having made other quilts from the book, they were awesome. Just the one she seems to have forgotten all her math skills on.
I did little dragonflies in some of the triangles and swirlies in others.
It's very intense. I'm definitely in this quilt for the long haul, but that's okay, more practice that way. So that's what's on the docket for today.
At open sewing Friday, this is what I accomplished (I'd started beforehand).
It's from Brenda Henning's Strip Therapy and made with a Kiwiberry Bali Pop, which are on my website, but backordered until July :( It was super-fast and mindless, which is perfect for gabbing and sewing.
Happy quilting!

Potluck and sewing!

2009-03-27T11:23:00.001-07:00

I haven't done much sewing this week due to meetings and what not, but I'm having a pot luck and open sewing at the shop tonight, under the auspices of the Hoffman Challenge, but people are working on whatever strikes their fancy. Then they can leave their stuff here until tomorrow morning for Fourth Saturday Open Sewing at LTQ.
Pot luck starts at 5:30, sewing goes until the last quilter drops (try to outlast me, I dare you!), and open sewing starts at 10:00am tomorrow. Pot luck is BYOB (and LTQ is NOT a dry store :)
Happy sewing and eating!

More baggage

2009-03-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

The good kind, that is. I made yet another of Amy Butler's delightful bag patterns last night: the Frenchy Bag. It was very fun, very easy, and pretty fast. I'd done most of my cutting another evening, but I did all the sewing last night in about an hour. I really got out of my box with fabric, and it came out as a sweet little spring bag:
As you can see it's already happily on display in the store. I was very proud of myself as I'd never installed a magnetic snap (or any other kind of snap) before, and it was a cinch.
Aside from that, I finally finished all my braids for my Hoffman Challenge French Braid quilt. Now I just have to put them together, but not before agonizing a little about what to use for the separator bands.
The richness of the colors just doesn't come through in the pictures, but I really like how these came out. We have this great brown minkee with a green paisley design that I might have to use on the back of this. Mmmmmm....minkee.
Happy quilting!

Bags, runners, and quilts, oh my!

2009-03-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, except the quilts, I did get some stuff done on my lovely Monday off this week. I made another Amy Butler bag, the Nappy Bag, but I didn't make it for nappies, or at least not yet. I made it to haul my projects and other Lily-detritus around. I used some fabric I got on my honeymoon for the exterior and a couple different stash fabrics for the interior. It only calls for one fabric for the interior, but I wanted my pockets to be a different color so I could see them when I looked into the bag. Vision is awesome.

I think I may have to glitter some of the flowers...God forbid I should make something that doesn't sparkle a little. :) Just call me a crow.Well, I guess the inside pockets are fairy frost, but inner sparkle doesn't count for everything.

Then I also made a fun little table runner out of a Neptune charm pack using Little Charmers III and it was super fast--maybe 2 hours tops.
Man, I just love the colors in this line. Some Montanans seem to get hung up on the anchors and other maritime features, but all I can see is the beautiful colors and textures...Look at that navy! Anyway, that was what I was up to on my day off. I have a full weekend with hubby this weekend so I should finally be able to get some stuff done. ;)
Happy quilting!

Tired puppy

2009-03-17T16:34:00.000-07:00

I'm finally back in action after the Big Sky Quilt Retreat last week. I had an excellent time and met lots of fun quilters and quilt shop owners. My humble little booth is pictured below (some people had huge, very fancy booths):
I bought a hat from the woman in the booth next to me, owner of the Big Yellow House in Absorokee. She works with women in Kyrgystan who hand felt all these wonderful things. I had to have the hat pictured below. One of my local quilters commented, "You have to have a lot of self-confidence to wear that hat" and I do...but more importantly I love it! I feel just like a little elf! It's felted wool, but fortunately lined so it doesn't make me itch (and it's merino, so it's pretty soft).

Most amusingly, however, the hat proves to be a very very frightening thing for my dog, Elli. I had it sitting on a table by my couch (which is more properly her couch) and she barked at it. Initially I assumed that she'd stepped on a pin or something, so I crawled all over the floor looking and feeling for a pin. Then, later on, once she'd crept back into the room, when I moved the hat, she fled in terror and when presented with it directly, she cowers with her tail between her legs, shivering in fear. Apparently it is a haunted (or maybe just smelly) hat.
I'll definitely be doing more shows--but I'll have to make more of an effort to sleep next time. I slept about four or five hours a night up there, and I'm definitely an eight hour kind of girl, so I'm still pretty pooped.
Happy quilting!

Rockin' the quilt show...

2009-03-13T20:11:00.000-07:00

I'm having an excellent time up here at the quilt show. I don't have my camera cords so I can't load any pics from the show, but for those of you who read this--COME TO THE SHRINE AUDITORIUM on Broadwater in Billings, MT. The weather is beautiful, the quilts are amazing, the vendors are great fun, and of course, my wonderful self is here, what more could you ask for? I feel so lucky because my neighbor booths are both full of wonderful people--I have Bonnie and Tiffany from Rock City Quilts (in Valier, MT, google 'em) who have both been very helpful from tips for future shows to manning my booth so I can take a little tour of the ladies room...on my other side I have the Big Yellow House, which is not a quilt shop, but a woman (Paula) who works with women from Kyrgyzstan who make all these wonderful felted wool products and Paula sells them in the US...I myself have a very unique and stylish hat that I got for 50% off. The other booths are awesome too, I've just been too busy at my booth to really check out the other booths. I did meet a longarmer, Karen Parker, who is so fantastic and she's agreed to give me lessons, so I'm extremely excited about that and my new friend, Tiffany, from Valier is a long-armer too and is going to join me for lessons.
Anyway, I hope some of you will make it down tomorrow...It's open from 8:30-4:30. It's so very worth it. Very inspirational.
Happy quilting (and quilt show viewing)!
Pictures Tuesday!

Show show show

2009-03-10T16:05:00.001-07:00

Just getting ready for the show. Will try to blog Friday if I have wireless at my hotel...If not, I'll be back next Tuesday!
Happy quilting!

Getting ready for the show

2009-03-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

I'm off to be a vendor (my first time) at the Big Sky Quilt Retreat in Billings next week so I've been busily strategizing about that, working myself into a froth, and hoping for the best. I also haven't been getting much quilting done since last weekend. I've been working late and by the time I get home, I just want to eat, watch an episode of Deadwood (Dad got us the complete series on DVD--it's awesome, but not for the faint of heart or ear), and crawl into bed.
I can't remember if I ever posted pictures of my completed table runner that I had marked for quilting, but here it is, in its flawed glory...practice practice practice is what this was, and I think I'm gradually improving (done on my home machine):
Also, Thursday morning, I woke up to walk into my kitchen and see this:
Our giant cactus (which started as just an arm my cat knocked off a much larger cactus) silhouetted by the blizzard that had thrown up on our picture window. As it turned out, it had only snowed about 3 or 4 inches at our place, but the wind had blown every flake of snow from three counties up against my house, so we had some fun drifts and as pictured, a very snow-caked picture window. Then it all melted off by evening, only to snow again this morning. Oh Montana and your manic weather.
Happy quilting!

Quilt for the cure...

2009-03-03T11:31:00.000-08:00

I love and carry many of Blank Quilting's ovarian cancer Inspiration fabrics (search ovarian cancer on at www.ltquilts.com and you can see them all if the link doesn't work) and I've been pondering for a long time the perfect thing to do with it and this past weekend, I finally figured it out.
It's a simple pattern by Atkinson called "Slideshow". It's a fat quarter quilt and the lap size is perfect to put minkee on the back (without borders). Anyway, I really like how it came out. I used Fairy Frost in Diamond as the background instead of doing a more traditional pale background.
I'm hoping to do some fun feather wreaths in the big squares, but I haven't quite decided. It's also vital to have a scant quarter inch seam allowance with all the tiny squares it's easy to end up a little short, so I did a bit of easing. Okay, maybe a lot of easing. It's not the flattest quilt I've ever made, but nothing a little blocking and dense quilting won't fix.
Happy quilting!

Quilters are awesome.

2009-02-27T10:08:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's easy to forget what wonderful, caring people quilters can be, but this week, I was reminded anew. Life has been rough for me since Christmas, and I try to leave that sort of baggage at home so that LTQ is a happy place to come, but I failed and finally ended up venting to a fellow quilter (who always brightens my day) and Karen (one of my employees). Both were very understanding, supportive, and just having them listen to me made me feel soooooo much better. I felt so lucky that I could do that, and not be judged or mocked or have my feelings brushed off. Then that very same quilter brought me a wonderful gift bag on Thursday and I was so touched. She just wanted me to feel better and went out of her way to help me. I can't even begin to express how much better that kindness made me feel.
It's that kind of caring and thought that I think brings so many quilters together. Quilters take care of each other, listen, and lend a shoulder to cry on, or an ear to vent to, and it really, really makes a difference in my life, and for a lot of other quilters too. So here's a great big hug and a thank you, not just to my guardian angel quilter, but to all of you, who have made my job so full of joy, creativity, caring, and compassion. I feel really blessed to be a part of such a great community.
Thank you all, and happy quilting!

I AM a rock star!

2009-02-24T16:23:00.001-08:00

So, the other day, this young gal comes in and she stops dead when she sees me and says, "Are you Lil?" To which I responded, "Well, I'm Lily..." wondering why this poor young woman looked so stunned, and then she asked if I made a quilt (my blue poppy one block wonder) and I replied yes and she said, with great enthusiasm, "You are a ROCK STAR!" Which is of course an awesome compliment, but not one I hear a whole lot in the quilt business, so we had a good laugh at the time. So thanks, if you're out there reading this...
But anyway, then I was long-arming yesterday on a local high school student's quilt with this fantastic neon orange Brytes thread (bling bling) and after I got it done, all I could think was, "I am a rock star!"
So here it is:
There's the whole quilt, which she did an awesome job with, and is obviously a girl after my own heart...Here's some detail of my freehand "ricky-doodles" (thanks, Ricky Tims!):
All in all, I did really feel like a rock star after this quilt, and I never would have even had that thought without that girl coming in here.
Happy rock-star quilting!

Sleepy sheep

2009-02-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

The week after President's Day sale can sometimes be a little quiet. It's been more lively than I expected, but Karen and I got into trouble nonetheless. Big Fork Bay has this adorable pattern "Heavenly Sheep" that we thought we could improve slightly. How you ask? With minkee. How else? We decided to make all the adorable little sheep and the stars and moon with different colors of minkee.
Not finished yet, but getting there:
It's two sheep (maybe three, we're thinking of adding another) and a border short of being finished. Here are some of the individual little sheepies.
Checked minkee sheepy.
Dot minkee sheepy.
Rosette minkee sheepy. They're so cute, I can't wait to get their little faces all stitched out.
Happy quilting!

Pushing my quilting limits

2009-02-17T15:13:00.001-08:00

It's not much of an accomplishment, but I made a quick table runner with my scraps from a layer cake quilt I made a while ago (from "The Sweet Life", for inquiring minds). What took me the most time was designing the quilting pattern that *hopefully* I will be able to quilt without making it look too terrible.
Here's the top:

Here's the quilting designs all marked and ready to be stitched with water-soluble thread.

The designs are very very intricate, which given the nature of the table runner is slightly absurd, but I cranked that puppy out in 15 minutes so I could practice some wild quilting on it. Practice probably won't make this little quilter perfect, but improvements are getting more and more visible with every project.
I've already stitched one out in water-soluble thread and it went surprisingly well. I also have something interesting planned for the back...So with any luck, pictures of that on Friday.
Happy quilting!

Nothing but working and binding.

2009-02-14T08:38:00.001-08:00

Well quilters, I've failed at my Friday appointment, but not because I forgot this time. Yesterday I came in to work at 8:00am. I'll be honest, I am NOT a morning person, so this was a big accomplishment for me. I'm a night owl...Anyway, I have a huge pile of quilts that I'm quilting for the local high school students from last semester and I'm really trying to get them done so the poor kids can have their quilts back. So I finished one I'd been working on before the shop opened.
Well, the minute my doors opened, I didn't have a chance to do much besides help people. I didn't even get the poor girl called so she could come get her quilt. We had tons of people getting their last day V-day presents, but we also had the pre-President's Day Sale pre-cutting rush. So, I was here until 7:00PM at night cutting fabric.
It was also me and Erik's fifth anniversary (we started dating on a Friday the 13th, too) so I had to go to dinner. So alas, no blogging.
In any case, all I've been doing anyway is hand-stitching binding. Booooring.
Anyway,
Happy quilting!

Georgin' it...

2009-02-10T13:51:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a quilt for my friend's wedding (which was an unnamed number of years ago...) The top has been finished for over a year, I just haven't had a chance to quilt it. So finally I decided that I would do it on George instead of the longarm because I like freemotion and I don't get to do it as often as I'd like.
So...I chose a rather dense pattern without realizing it. I'm doing swirls, but almost every single element gets retraced, so it's like quilting the whole thing twice. I have little flowers scattered throughout too. I'm about one third done, so it'll still be a while, but here it is.
The swirls (done, shockingly with Brytes).
The flowers. You can sort of see that the fabric is all pretty floral. It's a jelly roll quilt done with Moda's Wildflower line that came out last spring, I think.
Happy to be getting some quilting done, however little.
Happy quilting!

Come Tuesday...

2009-02-07T05:56:00.000-08:00

Hopefully I'll be back on the ball. Sorry folks. My dad has been staying with us every week night for over a month, and I just don't get to sew with a houseguest and when I don't sew, I don't feel like I have anything to show for myself, and I forget to blog. So, my apologies. I promise I'll get back on my blogging game and have pictures and everything.
Happy quilting, hope you guys are getting to quilt more than me.

Brain dead.

2009-02-04T11:51:00.000-08:00

Hi all, apparently I was not meant to be a blogger because sometimes I just space it out. We had a hoppin' day yesterday, with long-arm lessons, lots of quilters, and George getting a good workout. I'll try to get some pictures up later this week of some Georging I've been doing.
Happy quilting for now, more later.

Back from the tropics...

2009-01-30T10:06:00.001-08:00

And while I'm glad to be home, I'm not glad that it's still January in Montana. Brrr....Anyway, here are some of my trip highlights.
This is the view from our room. Oooh la la. They did everything at this hotel for you, it's actually kind of awkward to be waited on so much. Cancun Palace was the place and I do highly recommend it. They even bring you drinks (I mostly drank water, mostly :) while you lay around the pool. And there's a swim up bar. We had beautiful 80 degree weather the whole time.
Here's my mom in front of the ruins at Chichen Itza. It was a really long day--12 hours, with 7 of that on a bus. Blech to busrides. Our guide at the ruins was very good with lots of cool information. If you clap near the pyramid, it makes a bird call noise--very cool.
This is me getting a smooch from Kimba, one of the adults dolphins we got to swim with (2 adults and one one-year-old) We got pushed across the pool by the dolphins by putting their noses in the balls of our feet. The baby they had, really really wanted to play with me, so much so that he got in trouble and they made me get out until he calmed down. Dolphins are much stronger and faster than I ever realized, but this was definitely the best part of my trip. I have video of me getting foot pushed, so I'm going to try to put it on Youtube. I'll let you know how that turns out.
That is me feeding fish while we snorkeled (at Snorkeling Adventure--also highly recommended)--one of the buggers bit me. We were all supposed to snorkel in a big group between two guides, but presumably because I was young, blonde, wearing a bikini, and spoke some Spanish, I got to go all over the place with a private guide as two of the guides bickered over who got to show me around. We went three different places and Juan Carlos got to show me around two, my other guide, just one.
That's Juan Carlos, one of my guides. I'm a terrible swimmer normally, but put a pair of flippers on me and I'm a demon in the water. I have really long legs so I really pack some leverage. Being a strong flipper swimmer was key as the currents in some places were too rough for some people. One woman got hung up on some coral because she couldn't swim hard enough. I like to pretend that's why I got a private tour, but I'm pretty sure good flipper skills was not the main factor. ;)
My other private guide never introduced himself, but we did track down this sting ray together, which was the highlight of my snorkeling. All in all it was really fun. I wish there was more snorkeling in Montana, or, you know, any.
So that's my vacation in a nutshell. Sprinkle in some loafing by the pool, a trip on a pirate ship (yeah, kind of a cocktail and show number) which I didn't get any good pictures of, and it was very relaxing.
But now I'm home again home again, jiggity jig, and as always, back to quilting! My dad and I are working on a plan to convert my large, executive style desk that I sew on (it's a $2000 dollar desk, but I got it for $30, it's very hard to part with because it's not only awesome, but such a bargain!) into a sewing table. We're going to add on so that my sewing machine bed will be flush with the top of the desk instead of sitting on top of it. Wish me luck in that little endeavor :)
Happy Quilting!

Machine quilting...

2009-01-20T12:24:00.001-08:00

Hello, quilters! I haven't felt like doing a bit of piecing, but I've had quite a hankering to machine quilt. This was quite a conundrum as I mostly have large (queen or bigger) tops done and it's hard to motivate yourself to do that on your home machine when you own an APQS Millenium and George at work. So, I decided that I would finish a quilt I've been working on for my adorable nephew, Max, who will be two in April. His dad is a colonel in the army and gets shipped out in February, so I made him this quilt thinking that the camo and the wildlife (his dad is also an avid hunter) would give him something cuddly to hold when he missed his dad.
I had to put tiger minkee on the back so he could have some sort of "pelt", but also just because minkee is so snuggly. The quilting is fairly, um, shall we say, special? The batting was a bagged batting and it never relaxed properly so there are lumps and humps, but I figure it will get dragged around and loved. At least I hope so.
The other thing I worked on this weekend was a quick bias quilt inspired by something in that book that came out years ago: Quick Quilts with Quick Bias or something. The pattern in the book required tracing and quilt as you go, etc... and I'm just not much of a tracer or a quilt as you go type person, so I improvised. I am almost done quilting it, but my poor little machine really really really really needs a good cleaning and this morning it kachunked enough to say that I could quilt no more until I cleaned the gunk out of its innards. So, once that's done, I can finish quilting this. I think my feathers are coming right along, getting less mutated by the day.
I'll be on a plane on Friday so I probably won't blog, but you never know. My mom's excellent salesmanship won her an all-expense-paid trip to Cancun for two and she's taking me along. Hooray! We get put up in a pretty classy place, so I'm excited for that and some sunshine, Chichen Itza, dolphins and relaxation for five daysi even our food is included so I'll likely be 20lbs heavier when I return. I will have my computer, so hopefully you'll get some ruin pictures, maybe a dolphin if I'm lucky.
Until then, happy quilting!

Preoccupied.

2009-01-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

Hello, dear quilters, I apologize that I have nothing to show. Life has not been conducive to quilting lately. My dad is staying with us for the entire month of January, maybe longer, but we end up sitting around shooting the s*%t rather than me getting any quilting done. On top of that, my poor pooch hasn't been doing well since we got back. She's been acting very strange and we found out Tuesday that she's got an ear infection, so we're hoping that's all there is to it, but we're waiting for her medicine to work since they couldn't find anything else wrong. I also finally broke down and bought myself a rowing machine. I rowed in college and really liked it, but since we moved away from North Carolina, I haven't been rowing. Anyway, I finally realized that despite all my good intentions, I just can't seem to get myself outdoors to exercise in the winter. So now I'm finally getting my exercise which means less quilting, but more energy, so that's good. Since last Saturday, I'm up to 36,101 meters or about 23 miles. Woohoo!
And finally, and I'm sure you'll all feel very bad for me about this, my mom won a trip to Cancun through her business and poor me, she asked if I wanted to go. Schucks, Cancun or Montana in January? I think we know the answer to that. So she and I leave next Friday for six days in hopefully sunny, warm, beautiful Cancun, all expenses paid. Woohoo! Anyway, so I've been scrambling around trying to get ready to go. Yes, you can send sympathy cards :)
Hopefully I'll get something fun done this weekend.
Happy quilting!

New block of the month

2009-01-13T10:12:00.000-08:00

Hello, quilters, just a quick post today, but I wanted to show the new block of the month we'll be doing this year. It will be $6/month if you finish your previous month's block, and $11 if you don't. We will have two colorways--batiks in the colors below and teal, brown, and cream. It's made by Southwind Designs and she has very good instructions as I've made a number of her table runners and one full sized quilt from her recent book (Peeled Back Patchwork--which I will put online tomorrow as it's apparently not online).
Anyway, the border and setting are part of the deal, so if you're interested, please call and sign up so we now how many patterns to order and what color kit to make for you (406.932.6078)...It starts February 14th and you can come either at 9:00am or noon.
Happy quilting!

Final 2008 Saturday Sampler

2009-01-09T15:44:00.000-08:00

Here at LTQ we have a 2nd Saturday Block of the Month. This year we did a true sampler with applique, paper-piecing, and regular piecing. January is the final block (the next year starts in February, for anyone who's interested) and people asked me to come up with a setting pattern. I came up with the one in progress below for a king size, or deep queen, but I also have a downsized version that makes a more regular queen size. I wanted this to have good spaces for me to quilt some more intricate stuff (more practice for me!) and the setting blocks were perfect for that. There's also a nice secondary design. This is the batik one, but we also did one in blues, yellows, and whites (which you can sort of see off to the side).
As you can see, it outgrew out 72" design wall. Finished with borders it will end up being about 115" square. Mmmmm....batiks...
We have our first in store Scrap Therapy class tomorrow and it's bound to be a party with the number I think I have showing up.
It's also dear husband's birthday today, so we're going to celebrate tonight.
Happy quilting!

Green halos...

2009-01-06T14:00:00.001-08:00

I'm home in Montana and it's so good to be back where there are discrete towns and mountains. Can't say I'm excited to be back in the unforgiving Big Timber wind (The Wind, as I think of it, as it's vicious enough to deserve proper noun status). All in all though it's great to be home even though we had a very nice trip, minus the first day of travel (our flights home were thankfully and mercifully very uneventful). Our cats have been exceptionally desperate for love, and leftover cereal milk (my cat Medea thinks this is a right, not a privilege).
Upon returning to home sweet home, I got all my blocks finished for the "Not your Grandmother's Log Cabin" that I worked on in New Jersey. I'm really pleased with how it's coming out, though I have yet to do setting blocks and the fantastic pieced border. I'm very glad I noted which piece went where as I was cutting and scheming though, or I would have confused myself. I meant for this to be a pink/orange/coral/yellow quilt, but surprisingly, it somehow ended up with a lot of lime green. Huh. I'll be.
My favorite part is the unexpected dark green halo I ended up with around the center medallion. My assistant is in the forground (I do wish that she could hold an iron in those drooly jowls)...So, I'm very close to being done, but I have bigger fish to fry this week, as our last 2008 (yes, I know it's 2009) Saturday Sampler meets Saturday and I'm trying to get the sampler blocks all put together with a pattern I wrote...or am writing as the case may be :) No one ever accused me of planning ahead.
Happy quilting!

Busy busy.

2008-12-30T14:55:00.000-08:00

Sorry for lack of posting, but we've been really busy with family and friends so I haven't had any time to blog, or do much of anything else. I've managed to work a little on my "Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin" that I cut out before I left Montana. I'm hoping (brother and sister in-law are leaving early tomorrow, which we are sad about, but life around the house will quiet down) that I'll be able to get the blocks done before I head home on Friday.
I also plan to put the latest class schedule up tomorrow and send out the newsletter, so if you haven't signed up yet, click here. Then you won't miss any updates about new wonderful toys, books, coupons, classes, etc...
Happy New Year, and as always, happy quilting!

Safe in New Jersey!

2008-12-24T12:10:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a long day of traveling on Monday and Tuesday, as a suprise Montana style blizzard sent us up to Billings on Monday night so we wouldn't have to worry about getting down for our flight Tuesday morning. The roads were thankfully not icy, but visibility, particularly when a semi passed, was frighteningly bad. But we made it. Our flight out of Billings was delayed enough (while we were on the plane, unfortunately) that we missed our (also delayed) flight out of Minneapolis. Luckily, a very merciful gate agent overbooked us on a 4:30 flight to Philly instead of the 7:30 flight, so we finally made it to Clinton at about 10Pm, which was two hours earlier than the later flight would have gotten into Philly.
It's so warm here compared to Montana I wore shorts today to go to the gym (ha! when 35 is warm, you know you've gone back to being a Montanan, not a North Carolinian). It's raining though, and freezing in spots, so you have to be careful not to end up on your rear on the frozen slushy mess that covers the ground. Nonetheless, it feels awesome compared to -20, or even 5.
I brought my mom's little Janome Jem Platinum with me as a carry on and got quite a bit of attention for it ("A sewing machine? What are you going to do with that?"--"Um, sew?"--"Huh. Sewing machine.") However, when we sprinted from one end of the Minneapolis airport to the other, its lightweight 11 lbs seemed, well, heavy as all hell. So, I got my workout.
I'm excited to have some down time to sew, sew, sew. I got a "Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin" all cut out before I left, so that's first on my list. Updates soon on that.
Well, I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas tomorrow, or happy Chanukah, or just happy quilting!

The great shake up!

2008-12-19T15:09:00.000-08:00

Well, Karen has been busily giving the shop a makeover while I finish up all the last minute things before I head of to NJ for Xmas...It looks awesome in the shop with new quilts hanging and everything all tidy.

We also are lucky enough to have Big Fork Bay Cotton Company's Ty Livingston (search Ty Livingston in our online catalog at www.ltquilts.com to see all of his patterns that we have) trunk show right now, which are quite adorable.
My favorite is Peek-A-Boo (below)

Ty is a Montana artist, so I hope everyone will take a look at his other stuff. They're all very adorable. Here's our window displaying them (sorry for the glare):
Anyway, I'm off to NJ on Tuesday, so I'll try to post Wednesday since I'll be flying all day Tuesday.
Happy Holidays and Happy Quilting!

One block wonder...

2008-12-16T16:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I finished the main body of my current One Block Wonder. I put in some extra pizzazz with a few tumbling blocks from One Block Wonder Encore (which I have, but apparently haven't put online).
The original fabric was huge blue poppies.
I also got the quilt for my mother-in-law all bound and shipped. So hopefully it will get there before we get there next Tuesday.
Happy quilting everyone!

Finito!!!

2008-12-12T16:04:00.000-08:00

Well, at long last I am finished quilting the quilt for my mother-in-law, or more accurately, for dear husband and I, since she's buying it to redo his room at home. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. Very fancy!
I ended up using five different colors of Brytes, including #1104, Sunflower, #1114 Ballerina, #1121 Gecko, #1118 Mood, and #1140 Hot Pants. I used yellow So Fine! in the bobbin, which is good, because it is extremely fine and I probably still used 30 bobbins! All told, I think I used about 1500-2000 yds of thread on the top and bottom. So here are some pictures...
There is the entire top...Sorry, I didn't have a good way to photograph it, but you can see some of the texture...
Above is the center medallion with feathers filling the star points and some swirlymajigs (the technical term) in the purple filler...I used this quilt to practice feathers feathers and more feathers, but I didn't want to put feathers in the purple and take away from the center.I tried to mark the elaborate design on the star above but failed to find any good method, so I freehanded them all...So they're like little snowflakes...unique. ;)
I did big, floppy overlapping feathers in the striped sections...I like how they turned out, especially on the minkee.
That's right. Minkee....Ooooo, I wish it photographed well, but the back of this quilt is quite possibly more beautiful than the front.

Another minkee shot...
Anyway, I'm going to bind it as fast as I can and ship it to its new home in NJ!
Happy quilting everyone!

Dead camera...

2008-12-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm rolling right along on the quilting of my Crazy Eights with minkee--but I can't take pictures because my battery died and the charger is at home...So I will post pictures tomorrow and then, hopefully, I will be able to post pictures of the finished quilting. My mother-in-law is buying it from me for Erik's bedroom at home in New Jersey which they are remodeling since it still had bunk beds and baseball wall-paper.
I'm glad to be selling this quilt, but I'm glad I'll get to visit it. It's one of those quilts that I have a love-hate relationship with. We had some hard times in the piecing (courtesy of HUGE inaccuracies in the book), but ultimately I love how it looks and with minkee on the back, ooh la la. Anyway, I'm rushing to get it done so I can mail it before we fly back to NJ for Christmas...That and two other quilts! Eeek. I have a few late nights ahead of me, but it's much better than last year.
I will post pictures tomorrow!!
Happy quilting!

One more off the list...almost.

2008-12-05T14:36:00.000-08:00

I finished quilting the above quilt on the longarm today...The wind is blowing a million miles per hour, so it was fairly quiet. Anyway, I made this top over a year ago (from "Forty Fabulous Quick Cut Quilts," one of my favorite basic quilting books) and just haven't had time to quilt it...It has minkee on the back and my poor husband is desperately in need of a cuddly minkee couch blankee, so I'm giving it to him for Xmas, though he may get it sooner depending on my motivation to bind. Below is the overall shot of the minkee because it shows the quilting so well...unfortunately it doesn't photograph very well, or maybe I don't photograph it very well.
I did an all over meander with random feathers sprouting here and there...It was a good way to practice free-form feathers. Some of them are mutant feathers, but I still like them, mutant or not. Here's a minkee close-up.
Here's one on the front...I used Superior Brytes #1104 to quilt. Mmmmmm...I love Brytes. They are my favorite solid colored thread...possibly even my favorite overall, but I don't want to hurt my other threads' feelings.

Ooops

2008-12-03T12:15:00.000-08:00

Hi all, apologies for forgetting to post twice in a row...Black Friday was too busy and yesterday was my birthday, so hopefully you'll all forgive me! Pretty please.
Aside from that, I just feel like I don't have anything interesting to report. I got to see my adorable nephew, Max, over Thanksgiving. He's just so stinking cute! He was too shy to give me hugs, but I did get a couple of high-fives. I wish he was closer so he wouldn't be shy around me!
I haven't had much of a chance to sew with all the family stuff going on, but I did manage to finish my "Buttonholes" batik quilt that I started a while back. It was really fun and fast...I also really tried to go outside my box with colors. I love batiks and I wanted to do something a little scrappier.
The picture kind of dulls out the greens that I used for the "buttonholes", but we have a really nice selection of minty green batiks right now, and I just couldn't resist them.
Things are busy busy with Christmas just around the bend, but I'll try not to be as forgetful as I was this past week!
Happy quilting!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-25T12:01:00.000-08:00

First of all--I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving and eats lots of delicious food. Second, I'm getting close to finishing another One-Block Wonder, so look for pictures soon. Lastly, we're having an open house on Friday for people to come and start their hoffman challenge quilts--I intend to bake mini-muffins and have the coffee on all day, so I hope my local readers will stop by at least.
I intended to take some pictures for you this morning, but our hot water heater decided to be naughty--so I spent the morning tinkering with that instead. Nothing like a cold shower in November in Montana. Brisk.
That being said, I did get a picture this weekend that exemplifies happiness.
I mean, really, could any animal on the planet be more content? We came into the living (aka sewing) room on Sunday, and there was Elli, fully enjoying her rights to the "scratching post". She slept like that for hours, occasionally her tail would come to life, but she was obviously just in a state of pure bliss. She loves that couch, I don't know what she'd do if she wasn't allowed on it, probably kill us in our sleep. Elli is super thankful this holiday season, that her new owners have a piece of crap $30 couch they brought from North Carolina as a scratching post.
Happy Thanksgiving again! Wishing you all the Elli-esque happiness you see above :)

Minkee...

2008-11-21T15:08:00.000-08:00

Oooh la la, for those of you who have never heard, or more importantly felt, minkee blankee, you must do this sometime soon. It's necessary for your well-being.
Minkee is 100% polyester and is super super soft furry stuff, it's 60" wide so it's great for backs since its so cuddly. Anyway below is the quilt I'm quilting on the long-arm and since its mine, I feel free to actually experiment with some intricate, complex patterns...unfortunately I couldn't find a good way to mark this quilt so I'm doing it all free form so it's pretty special in some places, but I feel the overall effect of this block pattern is pleasing.
I'm using Brytes thread to quilt it in several different colors including Sunflower and Hot Pants. Anyway, another of Minkee's fantastic features is the way quilting textures show up on it. For example, the back of this Minkee-fied quilt looks awesome compared to the front, and just awesome in general if I do say so myself. Pardon the picture, I was squatting around under my longarm to take it.

I love it! Anyway, just it was worth seeing how awesome quilting can look on minkee because I know a lot of quilters are wary of how it will quilt: and now you know--beautifully!
Happy quilting!

Machine quilting...

2008-11-18T15:08:00.001-08:00

I had a machine quilting class last night that was quite fun. To prepare for class, I made a "Waffle Time" table runner because the center is nice and open for quilting.
Instead of just quilting it, I did some "faux" bobbin quilting, using Ricky Tims' Razzle Dazzle. I used the color "Gold Crown" though I kind of wish I'd done Ruby Slippers now, oh well, what can you do? And don't say the dirty R-word, because I don't do that unless my life or livelihood depends on it.
You can see the gold stitching above. I only did this on the top because then I could draw the design on a stabilizer, I prefer Rinsaway (which I have in the shop), also known as Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff. It's mostly water soluble, so you don't have to tear it away. It turns into a spider web of polyester inside your quilt once it gets washed. It's super easy to trace on and works great for bobbinwork (since you're upside down anyway) and also for marking. Ricky Tims' (Ricky is my go-to source for all things quilting) Grand Finale DVD is the best resource on the market for bobbinwork, machine quilting, binding entirely by machine, marking, machine trapunto, etc...I love Ricky, he's my quilting hero. He also teaches you how to mark your quilt using water soluble thread, which is also, incidentally, an excellent way to practice your design. I also did this on my table topper...below is a picture of some of the water soluble stitching, and the back of the top, where I had my Rinsaway with the design drawn on it (you can also print on rinsaway).
Watersoluble stitching on the front of the quilt, that I can now follow with my actual quilting thread, now that I'm all practiced up. And then, what the back of the top, not the back of the quilt, looks like:
There you can see more of the overall design. A note about watersoluble thread: if it's on the top, it better be on the bottom. You never want to mix it with other thread because when you get it wet, half your stitch dissolves, and voila, your stitching is no longer stitching, it's just a piece of thread floating and being sad :(
So, that was fun and I'll definitely post pictures once I finish it up.
Happy quilting (and now happy marking!)!

No time to sew :(

2008-11-14T16:25:00.000-08:00

Well dear quilters, I wish I had something to report, but I don't. I've been working late all week, so there hasn't been any time to quilt. Hopefully on Tuesday I'll have something to report. I've got one of my quilts on ol' Millie and I've planned some pretty ornate quilting which I have yet to do on the longarm (I've done some on my home machine and George), so that will be an interesting experience.
I can use some feedback though...I've been reading extensively on marking quilts, and I haven't really found a good answer for marking busy prints that have a lot of color...any of you out there have a fantastic idea? Ricky Tims' watersoluble thread method is pretty good, but requires more planning than I put into this one. Huurruumph. I'm stumped. Please post any quilt marking tips you have!
Happy weekend quilting!

2008-11-11T16:27:00.000-08:00

Well, here is the polar bear that I've been working on...I've got his face done, I just need to do the stitching, but I won't do that until I've finished the entire top. Pardon the weird triangle on his neck...I'm changing that fabric but I didn't have the fabric with me when I was finishing this. So, tonight I'll fix his neck fur.
Anyway, I like how he's going. I plan to have him standing in water (as the real bear this bear is based on was) with my photos blended into the landscape.
Anyway, this has been all consuming, and very very time consuming! But I really like how he's turning out.
Happy Quilting!!

Web site stuff...

2008-11-09T17:31:00.000-08:00

Hello dear readers, I just wanted to let you all know that if you haven't signed up for my e-newsletter, I hope you will soon. Just go to www.ltquilts.com and click on Register to Win and enter your name and email address. It's the best way to keep abreast of fun happenings in the store and online.
AND
I also thought I'd give my readers a heads up about our pre-holiday sale: Nov. 10th-14th, we're giving 15% off ALL fabric (except the stuff already on sale) as our way of thanking you for being such great customers so I hope you'll take advantage of that. It's online and in the shop. It's a great way to get going on Christmas presents, finish projects, or get fabric for quilts you've been thinking about doing!
Happy quilting!

Quilting...

2008-11-07T15:39:00.000-08:00

Well, I had time to quilt another of my quilts which is so much more fun than quilting someone else's quilt. I've had lots of people renting and learning to do their own, and for those of you who haven't done so, I hope you will. I'm trying to work toward everyone quilting their own rather than quilting any myself. I'll have a heart attack at 30 at the stress rate I'm going.
Anyway enough complaining, here's the pictures:
I did loopdeloos and spider webs all over this quilt with a heavy variegated yellow thread. It was quite fun to do the spider webs. I did them really fast, so they're a little sloppy, but to be honest, I like them that way...maybe they look more natural that way. Anyway, here's one that shows up less because it's not on the brown border:

I've also been busily cutting out lots of tiny pieces for my polar bear quilt, but the good news is that while it won't be done on Tuesday, I'll definitely have pictures.
Happy quilting!

Hope you all voted...

2008-11-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

Because, as a wise woman I know said, "If you don't vote, you don't have bitching rights." Anyway, regardless of how the chips fall, I think we'll all be glad when the thing is over. So until Friday, I'm going back to Decision '08.
Happy quilting without all the election babble from here on out!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T12:58:00.000-07:00

Well quilters, in case you were wondering what 300 little bags of gummi goodness looks like, here is what it looks like:
We make these up for the little kids who do a main street parade of trick-or-treating so they don't have to do it in the dark and cold. It's fun to see their costumes.

And as promised, here is my done over studio...All that's left to be done is get me (Erik has one, but sometimes we're both in the room working) a short swivel chair (I have a tall one that I use when I paint at my easel or draw on my cutting table) and cut a hole in my desk for my sewing machine to sit in. I've been perusing different sewing cabinets but I love love love my giant executive's desk and I can't bear to part with it. So. I'm trying to find some generous soul with a jig-saw to cut me a whole. My dad might have one, so I've got to check on that.
My favorite new addition right now is my design wall.
And for those of you who haven't met her yet, that's Elli. She was my mom's black lab, but my mom was trying to find a new home for her unsuccessfully when Siri died. We were planning on getting another dog at some point, maybe not so soon, but we thought what the heck, and adopted Elli. She's a good shop dog and loves all the different people coming in.

Spooky quilting!

The internet is driving me crazy...

2008-10-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

My connection at the shop today has been so slow it's maddening, so I will try to load pictures of my latest endeavors, but I make no promises.
This is something I worked on a little this weekend. Still pondering the blocks. Going to change a block or two...It's Cheryl Whittmeyer's "Buttonholes". My new design wall has made life so much easier for quilts like this. My cats can't even knock the blocks off! Thwarted, cats!
This is my (finally) finished (aka--finished top) lime green batik quilt from the book French Braid Quilts...They are so much fun to make. This bad boy is 98"x110, if I remember correctly.

My last picture won't upload so you'll have to wait on the edge of your seat for that on Friday. Nothing like the suspense of a quilt, eh? I'm also busily making a polar bear quilt that will incorporate some of my photos from my trip to Churchill. So look for pictures of that soon.
Happy quilting all!

Studio rearranging

2008-10-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

Hello dear quilters, sorry I didn't post on Tuesday. I went up to Billings to present at a high school career fair that they told me was Tuesday, but alas, it was Wednesday. So I did my errands in Billings and drove down again on Wednesday only to have to rush back to Livingston that afternoon. Anyway, I'm sick of driving.
In my evenings, I was busily completely rearranging my studio. I've been having terrible back and neck troubles and sewing has become agony for me, so I'm trying to improve the ergonomics and work-flow of my studio. I spend a lot of hours there, and I'd rather if they were a little less painful. Needless to say, I haven't done any sewing since I've been dragging furniture to and fro, trying to find a reasonable way to store my stash that doesn't involve 60 lb tubs of fabric. I find often that the task of pulling out that tub and digging into its depths instantly kills my motivation for a project. I practically need scuba gear to get to the bottom of my stash.
So I've been relocating all my fabric to smaller compartments and moving my notions, stabilizers, and other random crap to shelves and what not to open up my smaller spaces for fabric.
Tuesday I should have pictures of the new improved, now with work triangle, studio.
Happy weekend quilting!

Too busy to quilt :(

2008-10-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

Well dear quilters, the last few days have run me ragged and by the time I get home in the evening I can barely figure out how to take my shoes off (and they're slip ons!), let alone do anything productive in the studio.
Hopefully this weekend I'll do something fun that I can report on Tuesday.
Happy quilting!

Bobbin quilting

2008-10-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

Well, when I was up at retreat, I was pondering how to quilt a table runner that I used some of Valeri Wells large funky prints in and on the back when it occurred to me that using the large flower motifs as a quilting pattern was an excellent idea. Then it occurred to me that it would also make using fun, sparkly bobbin thread super easy as I would be working from the back anyway.
So the image above is the back of the table runner but what I was looking at while I quilted. I used silvery gray Brytes, #1149 Silver Dollar. I used a #100/16 Schmetz topstitch needle and Dream Green batting (100% recycled plastic bottles and its awesome to quilt with). The only adjustment I made was my top tension which I cranked up to 8.8 on my machine (tension strengths vary by machine), a Janome 10,000. I did it all free motion with my Quilt halo and Supreme Slider. In my bobbin I used Superior Threads Halo--a sparkly decorative thread made for bobbin work, couching, and serging. I used #755 Bluebell. If you haven't done bobbin work before, Halo is great way to start because you don't have to tinker with your bobbin tension, you just tighten up your top.
I really like how it turned out. Unfortunately the sparkliness doesn't show in the photograph.
Here's another flower:
Happy quilting!

Magic!

2008-10-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

Well, dear quilters, blogger isn't behaving, so forgive the formatting. I'm demonstrating how to glue for a perfect miter. Start out like you would any miter, mark a quarter inch from the corners of your tops and sew to that point exactly (I like to shrink my stitch length). Make sure you backstitch or lockstitch so it's secure. Once you've done that, lay the corner to be mitered on your ironing board like shown below.

Make sure the side piece is really going straight up. Then fold the top piece back at a 45 degree angle, matching your points if you've got multiple borders. Give it a healthy shot of Best Press and iron by setting: do not rub your iron back and forth, you'll distort the corner.
Peel your nice crisp fold back and run a very thin line of Elmer's School Glue (I prefer the gel, but any ol' elmer's SCHOOL glue will work--not Glue-All, be careful, they look similar).
Next lay it back where it was, careful to realign your fold, but also make sure that the top strip lines up perfectly with the bottom strip (this ensures a nice 45 degree angle). Iron. Yes, heat set the glue. Again, don't rub it around, just set. Once the glue is dry, it will hold really well. Take it to your iron fold your quilt so the outside is going up in a 45 degree angle and sew from your border attaching stitching right off the edge. Use that great crease as your line.
You should end up with stitching that looks like the stitching above (I've already trimmed to a quarter inch above.) Trim to a quarter inch past your stitching and then press your miter to either side.
Voila! A beautiful foolproof miter. Happy quilting!

Too tired to think...

2008-10-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

LTQ's fall quilt retreat was this past weekend. It was very eventful to say the least, and while we had a good time ultimately, it really wore me out. So I'll try to have an interesting blog on Friday.

Happy Quilting!

Elmer's! Who knew!

2008-09-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

Besides Sharon Schamber that is! Dearest quilters, my life is forever changed as a quilter. Why, you ask? Because I don't have to pin ever again and I can still be deliciously accurate and play with Elmer's School Glue, just like my youth.
In my class with Sharon Schamber we used Elmer's School Glue Gel (regular works, but gel is better and also notoriously hard to find) to put our whole Piecelique project together before sewing even a stitch. She mentioned that she used ESG (Elmer's School Glue) to glue together everything before she sewed. I didn't think much of it at the time, but this past couple weeks, in my streak of finishing, I've been putting on a large amount of pieced borders and I'll be damned if ESG isn't the best notion I've ever used in my life!
You just run a thin line of glue along the edge of your fabric, lay the other fabric on it, heat set it with your iron and voila it holds better and more accurately than pins and you can ease and stretch with more 'ease' (haha, listen to my wit) than you would believe! I eased 6 inches into a pieced border and it lays flat! Glue is my hero! Don't forget to heat set though or it won't work. The best part is that it all washes out so if you get it all over your quilt, it doesn't matter! Washable glue! Oh joy! The other awesome discovery I made is that if you get it all over your iron, it doesn't matter, not even a little! I ironed WHITE fabric right after smearing gobs of steaming, oozing hot elmer's all over my iron. A few white flakes was the only repercussion! Amazing. After many glued borders I now have some sort of fossilized brown crud on my iron, but no matter how I try, it doesn't transfer to my fabric.
Anyway, had to share. I'm experimenting with glue for mitering tonight and will report on results before retreat this weekend.
Happy gluing!

Slow connection...

2008-09-26T22:05:00.001-07:00

Hi quilters, my internet connection at work was miserably slow all day, so I was unable to post with pictures, so look for some pictures of my favorite new notion and its myriad wonderful uses on Tuesday. Happy weekend quilting!

Glitter, glitter

2008-09-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

So here is a brief tutorial of glitter usage--it is washable but you have to heat set it and they recommend pre-heating your oven to 250 and turning it off and then putting it in there until it cools down. I haven't quite managed fabric in the oven, so I've used a mid heat iron and a press cloth, but it does flatten it a little, so the oven is next for me.
First: gather supplies. Ultrafine ArtGlitter Institute glitter (bought from www.ltquilts.com or LTQ in the flesh of course!) in the colors of your choice, project to glitter, dries clear fabric glue, and micro tip if you desire fine lines.
Next, if you are still a little scared, draw your design out first, but I prefer to just go for it and let the glue fall where it may.
Then you pour a liberal amount of glitter over the glue. Feel free to dump the whole jar or vial, we'll recover 98% of it (and the rest you can just roll in a little or "douse yourself with a pinch" as they say at the company). Go ahead, dump away....I'll wait....Ooooo, doesn't all that glitter just make you feel better!? I do. If you've had a really bad day, do this before going to the grocery store so you will sparkle publicly.
And finally, shake the excess off your piece onto a piece of paper (the bigger the better, or at least have a couple sheets handy. Shiny paper, magazine style, seems to work a little better. Then fold your paper and return the unused sparkles to their vial or jar to await the next project. And voila! Glittered! unfortunately the sparkliness is hard to capture in a photo and this is a pearlescent glitter so it's not quite as sparkly.
Happy glittering!

More finishing...

2008-09-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

Wahoo! I finished a large quilt...I've graduated from just finishing my small projects. I finished my blue French braid. Although technically speaking, it's a team LTQ project, but I did quilt it and hand-stitch the binding down. It is currently in the window at the shop, and therefore not ideal for pictures, but I will post some shots of the quilting once it comes out. I used metallic silver and even did some border feathers.
I also finished my smalll one block wonder; well, I have three sides to hand-stitch down, but that is manageable.
Sorry for no pics...I'm going to do glitter demo on Tuesdays blog.
Happy quilting!

The Quiltin' Fool

Been a long time....

Our puppy kindergarten graduate.

Many thanks...

Sad news.

Sorry for the absence.

Miss Nova!

Puppy day is at last at hand!

Long time no blog.

Exploding brains and disks.

Who's a quilter?

Just kidding!

#&@^*%*

The crappiest blogger.

Thread, glorious thread!

More finishing!

Mini-dahlia done!

Backing and batting, thread to follow

Quilts on the lawn

Borders

Still a train wreck.

Back on the quiltin' wagon...almost.

Brain dead.

Finally--putting blocks together

Still running behind

Longarm lessons

Happy Fourth of July!

The sub-cut and onward.

Plan B

Still broken

A brief hiatus.

Cutting like a samurai.

Colors, fabrics, and prints, oh my!

More alpaca drama.

The first steps.

Coming up

The boys are all settled in

Alpacas!!

Eeek!

Tasty bits

Quilting lessons

Why finish the old when you can start something new?

Wednesday...Friday...same thing, right?

Lone star

Wouldn't know I'm a quilter, would you?

Sorry

Teen Day

Like a quilt top factory.

A quilted quilt!

Fencing...

New sewing table!

McTavishing--or Kinrosswrighting...

Potluck and sewing!

More baggage

Bags, runners, and quilts, oh my!

Tired puppy

Rockin' the quilt show...

Show show show

Getting ready for the show

Quilt for the cure...

Quilters are awesome.

I AM a rock star!

Sleepy sheep

Pushing my quilting limits

Nothing but working and binding.

Georgin' it...

Come Tuesday...

Brain dead.

Back from the tropics...

Machine quilting...

Preoccupied.

New block of the month

Final 2008 Saturday Sampler

Green halos...

Busy busy.

Safe in New Jersey!

The great shake up!

One block wonder...

Finito!!!

Dead camera...

#&@^%