A thread emergency – almost

Now here's a sight to get you worried!  Once I started quilting the Triple Star I realized that the thread was going a lot faster than I had expected. I usually work with cones of thread, so it hadn't occurred to me that one 500-yard spool wouldn't be enough to quilt a queen sized quilt. But it isn't.

Monday night I completed the rings of quilting on the muslin around the stars and had to decide, continue quilting the colored sections with the same thread, or switch to a different thread. A solid thread could have worked, but I really like the effect of the variegated, so I checked and found a couple of places online that had the thread. Yesterday my sister stopped by her local JoAnn's to see if they had it, they didn't, so I ordered some from Red Rock Threads.


Wow, they have a lot of great threads. I ordered another spool of the Pixelles, plus two other threads, with two-day delivery and got the notice this morning that it had shipped. As long as it doesn't show up with a note in it that it's back-ordered, I should be fine. Just in time, of course, since I completely ran out tonight.


But I have plenty to do while I wait. Tonight I'll prep some more hanging sleeves and start getting my Boxy Stars ready for pinning. That's the last one I have to quilt for the show.


Back to the sewing room. More later.

Treadling on to another finish!

Busy day! I woke up at 5 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep, so got busy on organizing everything for our quilt show program. After collecting and listing all the ads and items I still need, I was ready to start typing in descriptions to enter in the program. Fortunately our show chair had already organized and listed all the entries on a database, so I'm able to build on it and will copy and paste into the program. Thank goodness for computers! I had a dream (nightmare?) a few nights ago that it was the day before the show and I was trying to type up the program on an old electric typewriter. I guess it could have been worse, I could have been using the antique one I have for display.

As far as quilts, good news and good news. Last night I finished hand-stitching the binding on the Cool Jazz quilt and (I hope) finished burying threads. That means all it needs is a sleeve and label and it will be ready for the show. I love the colors in this one and think the quilting really plays it up. These pictures are the finished quilt and a detail shot of the quilting.

I'm also making good progress on the Triple Star. I had originally hoped to have my industrial Pfaff set up to quilt this one, since it's queen size, but I've really had less trouble than I expected using my Singer 15-30.  I guess it helps that I'm quilting a little more loosely than on some quilts, and that I'm quilting in smaller areas at each time. That makes it easier to "puddle" up the quilt to work on each section, then move on.


Enjoy! More later.

A good day for quilting?

It's raining! I know for some people that's a problem, but we've had more than 100 days of temperatures over 90 this year, and, after a fairly rainy early summer, we've had only one day of rain in the last month or so. So a nice, soft steady rain is just the thing.

I have come to the conclusion – a no-brainer, really – that if I am going to do many large quilts I will have to come up with a bigger ironing and pinning area. Fortunately my current setup, a regular ironing board and small dining room table set on bed risers, work for the wall hangings and throw to twin size quilts I usually do. But this queen size Triple Star is like wrestling an elephant. All of my sewing time yesterday went to prepping and pinning, and I am down to the last couple of sections, so today I should be able to actually quilt. It should be a good workout!

I sewed the binding on Cool Jazz Friday night and started the hand-sewing while we watched a movie. I'll say one thing about my binding/sleeve sewing marathon lately. I haven't had to look far for a hand-sewing project to work on while watching TV!

I was looking at one of my favorite online fabric sites yesterday, Connecting Threads. Drooling over the new batiks, to be exact. I noticed that they have a section with free patterns and tutorials that I hadn't seen before. I spent a while looking through and found some really cute things. There's a Christmas tree pincushion, and a peppermint candy pincushion that would be great stocking stuffers for quilting friends. There are some pretty wall hangings/table runners/table toppers, designed to use their fabric of course, but could be used with other fabrics as well. And a really nice selection of ideas/patterns for English Paper Piecing. I may have to try the little Christmas ornaments. It's worth some browsing time. Just go to the site, choose patterns, then free patterns.

Time to get busy, more later.

Scribbling on fabric

I'm still relatively new to free-motion quilting and there are days when I feel like I'm getting pretty good at it, and days when I wonder why I want to make such a mess. But as many people have said (not just about quilting) if you want to be good at it, practice, practice, practice.

One of the most useful things I do is do test swatches and warmup pieces. Test swatches are just what they sound like. I use a single piece of fabric and try out designs so I can see how they look and how easy/hard they are to do, without the distraction of pieced blocks behind them. The test swatches usually end up a major mess, as I'll try different things as long as there's room to squeeze them in, or designs will morph from one to another. Very frequently, I'll get an idea, try it out and decide I don't like it, or make changes to the design.

After picking out free-motion quilting in two huge sections of a quilt last year, because I decided I really didn't like the design, I've decided it's well worth the time to test in

advance.

The other thing I do is warm up blocks. When I want to do mindless sewing, I make crumb blocks. I trim these up to about eight inches square, then layer them with a double layer of batting and keep them near my machine. When I sit down to begin free-motion work, I pull one or two or these blocks out and warm up by doing the same design I'm planning for my quilt. This can really help to get the rhythm going if it's been a little while since I worked on the quilt. These quilted blocks become potholders, eyeglass cases, etc.

Once in a while I feel like I need to a little extra testing. For my Triple Star quilt I've been picturing a vine with flowers and leaves, in bright variegated thread. I looked through some quilting ideas and saw a flower, then did some scribbling on paper to decide I liked the flower with a spiral in the middle. During a break from finishing the Cool Jazz quilt I tried the design and decided I liked it. With Cool Jazz done, last night I threaded up the machine with the variegated thread I bought for Triple Star and tried it. I love it, just what I've been picturing. Now I need to decide on bobbin thread and do one final test, then I'll be ready to start quilting as soon as everything is pinned.

I'm looking forward to a good weekend of quilting. More later.

I love colorful fabric

No one has ever accused me of liking boring colors! That occurred to me as I walked past my table this morning. It is piled high with the Cool Jazz quilt, which is now quilted and waiting for binding, my Treadle On hearts quilt, which I'm putting a sleeve on, and the backing for my Triple Star quilt, which I was measuring, getting ready to stitch. It's certainly a cheerful sight to start the day.

I think every quilter has a favorite "genre" of fabric, the one they are automatically drawn to. For me, it's certainly bright and colorful fabrics, jewel tones, brights, batiks, and so on. Some lucky people can focus on their favorites and pretty much ignore other types of fabric, unless they are making a quilt for a specific purpose.

I thought about this the other night at quilt guild. One of our members, who also loves brights, brought in a beautiful quilt made in pastels. It was a gift, made to suit the colors of the recipient. Another guild member loves Civil War repros, to the extent that she has gotten rid of most of her other fabric.

In a way I'm envious. It must be nice to know your focus and be able to pick fabric that always goes together. I'd certainly have less fabric if I didn't love all of it. But while colorful fabrics are my favorites, how could I live without all the other fabrics I love. The subtle colors and prints of Civil War repros, the cheerful pastels of 30s repros, the graphic impact of black and white, the possibilities of floral and landscape fabric, the whimsy of novelty fabrics.

No, I just can't do it. It would be like going to a buffet and only eating steak. I enjoy steak, but I want some vegetables and shrimp and potatoes and cake and..... You get the picture.

I am excited that I finished the quilting on Cool Jazz last night. I decided to stick with the same quilting I'd done in the center sections, since anything more elaborate really wouldn't show up against the print fabric in the border. I've decided to quilt the Triple Star next, since it's the largest and will take a little longer – I'm starting to worry about time as the show gets closer. I did a test swatch last night with the design I want to use, so just need to try it again with the thread I picked out to make sure it will work. So, I just need to get it pinned (my least favorite part) and I'll be ready to go.

Time to get busy. More later.

Counting down to the quilt show

We had a very good guild meeting last night, with a couple of visitors and new members. Our speaker, from Augusta, explained a technique to make t-shirt quilts by preparing the t-shirts, framing them with fabric, then appliqueing them to a background. I like this much better than piecing the framed sections, because it gives a lot more flexibility in the way you arrange the t-shirts. I may have to dig out all those t-shirts I saved from college and make me one – but not any time soon.

The big discussion, of course, was about the quilt show. We're up to 200 quilts! That's amazing for a first show, and more than 160 of them will be judged. It's just amazing how much needs to be done between now and the show, and how much there will be to do during the show. One thing is sure, no one involved has time to be bored.

I took my Vintage Bow Ties for show and tell and explained that we had made these blocks for an exchange and I liked them so much that I made extras, which became this quilt. It was fun hearing the murmurings from visitors when I said I had quilted it on my treadle. I still don't think they all believe that I free-motion on a treadle, so it will be fun to demonstrate at the quilt show.

Since I went to the meeting last night, there was no sewing, but Monday night I did finish the quilting in the body of the Cool Jazz quilt, and sewed a sleeve on another one. I'm pleased with my progress, but still getting worried about time.

Speaking of time, I'd better get to work. More later.

Monday already?

I made some good progress on the Cool Jazz quilt yesterday. I finished quilting on two more sections, leaving one section and the border to go. In breaks from quilting I started prepping binding and the backing for the Triple Star quilt and pulled out fabric for our pirates costumes and got it in the laundry. There's just so much coming up all at the same time.

We took a break last night and went to a movie, the new Resident Evil in 3-D. It was pretty good for what it is, a live video game. But what really impressed me was the magic makeup This woman has been running around killing zombies and fighting with the evil corporation for months and her makeup is still perfect. And apparently it's contagious, as along the way she finds another woman who's been living in the wilderness for month, filthy, hair matted into knots. Next scene, the other woman has perfect makeup and her hair looks freshly washed. On a scale of unreality, that beats zombies any day!

Time to get to work, more later.