Friday, April 21, 2017

What's wrong with this picture?

Oh, not THIS picture, though.

Rejoice with me! My laptop now has a new brain and is running great! I picked 'er up from the digital hospital on Thursday and have been dancing a jig ever since! Other than having my digital life come grinding to a halt and all the trauma that caused, I had to use a paper calendar! I also didn't have my usual "Good morning - here is your list of appointments coming up, and a list of all of the tasks you've been putting off way too long" greeting from Outlook. The tragedy in that was that I forgot to enter the APQS Millie giveaway every day!! Which reminds me, I need to put all of the appointments that are scribbled on my beautiful AQS calendar into Outlook before I stand somebody up. Can anyone guess who these lovely people are?

News from the studio

Miss Margie is good as new and we are open for business! Time to get those tops done that have been staring you in the face or a while. Remember, free batting on your first quilting order!

New pattern for Irish Pinwheels

Yea! Now that my laptop has a new brain and all of my precious apps and files are unaffected, I can resume normal life. (Don't you wish getting a new brain was as easy as unplugging the old one, and putting in a new one?) Anyway, normal life includes publishing a pattern now and then. The pdf pattern for Irish Pinwheels was already complete before my laptop died, so all I had to do was enter a few details about it on Craftsy, and upload it. Maybe I'll actually make one for myself soon. I have most of the fabric, but it has to take a place at the back of the line behind 3 other priority projects - well, unless I change my mind. Click here for the pattern: Irish Pinwheels



Junk to Jewels

Junk to Jewels
Here's the latest creation from Linda in NY. Such a happy quilt! So full of life. The block is known as Aunt Sukey's Choice (among other things). We used the new Filigris pantograph.
Filigris













Rebekah's Lone Star

Joyce is at it again. What a pretty lone star quilt! We used the very versitile Pipeline panto. You go girl!











New pantos in the studio

Twine
Filigris (again)












What's Wrong with this Picture?

No... these are not supposed to be harem pants (or eunuch britches). They are supposed to be p.j. bottoms for me. And no, my legs aren't that short! I'm still laughing over the thought of trying to walk while wearing them. I'll wait while you figure it out......
..........still waiting......

See, this is really a bigger problem than just sewing the front side seams together and the back side seams together rather than doing it right. Wonder when I last made a pair of pants... Not only did I use a lovely 5/8" seam, but I serged the raw seam edges together to prevent raveling. Do you think I'm going to pick out the serged edges as well as the regular stitching? NO. These are p.j.'s not Lady Gertrude's wedding dress. I'll cut off the serging and just use a narrower seam. Golly. And I was so proud that they were going to get done today.

New machine status

Met with the bank this week. Financing strategy is in place. Be thinking about whether you want to have a sweet longarm of your own. Margie will be coming on the market in a few weeks.

Tips and Techniques

Spin your seam intersections to reduce bulk

Have you noticed that when you make a block, such as a pinwheel block, with several seams that intersect in one place, that they often form a hard "knot" of a place? Well, that knot can be a challenge for the needle to penetrate during quilting. If it is bad enough, it will pose a risk of a broken needle or damaged quilt top. Here's how that knot can be minimized.



  • Join your pieces as usual.
  • Then remove the vertical stitches within the seam allowance on both sides of the seam. I have noted that area for you with a ceramic pencil.
 
  • Press the seams in a circle and flatten out the center of the intersection.
Your block will lay flatter and the seam intersection will be easier for the needle to penetrate.


Learning for the week

Are you kidding? Guess I needed to check one more time.


Well, that's it for now. Please have a simply delightful, quilty weekend!

Now, let's go quilt something! 

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Yes, I am still here!

It has been a long time since my last post! I haven't really been idle, just stymied! Last time, I told you that my longarm was on vacation. Well, she's back and running in peak form. That's the good news. Just about the time I was ready to write the next post, the motherboard in my laptop fried to a crisp! So, I'm trying to limp along electronically with my little tablet. I've been quilting, and piecing, and having a great time, and even taking pictures. But I don't have a way to share the pics with you, access my calendar, any of my files, or any of the software I depend so heavily upon. As you can imagine, I'm getting a good workout practicing patience!

In other news... in the last post I told you we had a beautiful, new roof! Guess what. It leaked worse than before it was installed. Yikes. So I quick called my guy, who called the big boss, who sent out his head construction guy to look at it. The flashing around the chimney flue was missing. There had been some - but someone just ignored putting it back on. Not to mention there was a significant hole in the sub-roof that wasn't fixed when the roof went on. Golly. So they bowed and scraped and groveled, and got all of that repaired lickety-split. So far so good. NOW I can start the search for a drywall contractor to address the interior damage. I don't like loose ends.

News from the studio

There is BIG news from the studio! I visited with my APQS dealer on Monday. I love spending time with her whenever I can. She is a delightful person! Anyway, we talked everything over, and I have ordered a brand new longarm!! Within the next few months, I will take delivery on a 2017 APQS Millennium! AND a computer! I can hardly contain myself! But first, we gotta do what we gotta do: line up good financing, and sell Miss Margie the longarm. She is not on the market yet, I still have work to do and get everything worked out with the bank. I will keep you posted!