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! 

Stripping can be fun!

No, not that kind of stripping! And not even strip poker - which, actually, is especially fun when played with other quilters. (With fabric strips, of course.) Anyway, after I finished the "Sabrina's Garden" quilt (see below), I needed to cleanse my quilting pallet with a sewing activity without purpose. As you may know, I am not a stash builder, I am a project buyer. Over the years I have collected a little stash of leftovers. I rarely go to the leftovers when I am ready to select fabric for a project, so they are just "going to waste."

So, I collected all of the fabric left-overs I could find that had at least 1 good 2 1/2" x wof strip's worth remaining. I pressed them and cut between 1 and 4 strips each. I needed one box to put them in, but wound up ordering a bundle of 50 to get the size I wanted. (acid free document boxes) I'm willing to share at my cost. Just let me know.

In just a few hours, I had prepared the fabric, and cut enough strips for 3 1/2 jelly rolls!! Who'd a thought. And so, what will I do with the strips?  Well, there are at least 3 charity quilts in that box waiting for the next pallet-cleansing activity.


 
In the last post, I told you about my desire to make a comprehensive index of all of the quilts I have made. And, I DID! Okay... so I found 2 more project boxes buried in the studio closet yesterday - both UFOs. I wonder how many more there are....  But this has been a great project. Not only did I dig in all of the closets to find quilts and projects, I examined every quilt to see if it needed a sleeve or label, and made a note of whether it has been in any quilt shows or if it wants to be in one. There are a few shy quilts in my collection that would have a hissy fit if I tried to put them in a show. If you would like to have a blank version of the Excel spreadsheet for your own index, just shoot me an email.

News from the studio

Sabrina's Garden

Sabrina's Garden

Panto: Pipeline

All done! Including sleeve and label. Sabrina's Garden has had a few names along the way. When I first designed it, I called it "Fancy Pants Dance".  It has always reminded me of happy dancing, and America's Funniest Videos once had a toddler who did what her dad called the "fancy pants dance". That gave way to "Promenade Home" - no doubt the result of a brain-cramp. But when I took Sabrina off of the longarm, she was too elegant for a promenade. People dancing in a garden... reminded me of the movie Sabrina, and her dancing in the atrium. Ah - perfect. Sabrina's Garden.

Current Project: Hunter's Star

I have wanted to make a hunter's star quilt for a good while, ever since I saw a beautiful powdery blue and white one at the 2013 or 2014 Sycamore Stitchers' show. So, not long ago, I was snooping around pinterest for hunter's star quilts, and ran across a very scrappy and adorable project from the Hopeful Homemaker called Scrappy Hunter's Star. The pieces are all cut from layer cakes! Do you think I have some gorgeous layer cakes in the studio? Of course I do! I was totally overwhelmed to think about making the quilt all scrappy like the pattern, so I'll just use all the same fabric in a block, and scrappy up the block layout.

New panto in the studio: Pipeline

Pipeline

Learning for the week

There is a difference between a hissy-fit and a conniption-fit, and southern girls know what it is. We also know the difference between a smidge, a hair, a tad, and a bit. It's just a fraction.


Enjoy! Now let's go quilt something!