The Butterfly Effect

Happy New Year everyone!! Monday, January 4 officially marks the end of the holiday season and the return to the normal routines of life. Have you made any resolutions this year? I stopped making resolutions years ago because they were usually either guilt based, fear of something-based, or just wishful thinking. So I encourage you to examine where your resolutions come from. If their basis is any of the above - rethink them.

The best, and most successful resolutions are about relationships, friendships, and joy. Here are some suggestions:

Batiks, Etc., Wytheville, VA

• Reconnect with an old friend and stay in touch.
• Invite 3 people you want to get to know to lunch (one at a time, of course).
• Invite a new member of your guild to your home for a private "sit & sew".
• Holler "Road Trip" at your guild meeting! (I do this when I'm planning a trip to Batiks, Etc. in Wytheville, VA.) No telling what fun you will have giggling all the way to the quilt store.

Get the idea?

News from the Studio

Joyce came to pick up her beautiful quilt, today. The DH took the picture for us. Ain't he sweet? She has quite a story about this quilt. Joyce told me that from the beginning it was a challenge, fraught with discouragement and exhaustion with the whole thing. But when quilted with the meandering leaf pattern, it went from a sluggish, all-consuming caterpillar, to a beautiful butterfly of a quilt. It's now full of life, infused with Joyce's love, and will look great on any bed. She is still working on a name for her quilt. One option she came up with: Never Give Up!


Joyce is also an accomplished knitter. When she came to pick up her quilt, she brought me these very nice (and warm!) hand warmers. Great job, Joyce and Thank You!

Frogging

On another topic, every quilter is an expert at frogging. When you have to "rip-it, rip-it, rip-it" - you are frogging. Here I am, engaged in that very activity. When I finished Joyce's quilt, I examined it thoroughly and found a place that had a boo-boo in the quilting. So it had to come out. Re-stitching the area was simple enough and now it's good as new.

Learning for the Week

I didn't learn anything this week. I'm still trying to recover from the Christmas pancakes. (See the Dec. 27, 2015 blog post).


Now, let's get back to the sewing room!

A Very Puzzling Christmas

I hope you are still enjoying your Christmas weekend! This year, Christmas was a bit challenging for me. It was just the 2 of us, so you'd think the day's events would be simple. Well, Jim had a wonderful Christmas day. Me? Not so much.

I decided to treat the DH to pancakes for breakfast. Right. The Bisquick was about 4 years old, and hadn't been used but once, 4 years ago. So I added some baking powder - just to fluff them up. Then I didn't have any milk, so I used 1/2 & 1/2, which of course, adds more fat. Next, I didn't notice that the griddle wasn't set hot enough until late in the game, so they turned out cooked, but were Bisquick color. I decided to blow my low-carb lifestyle and have some anyway. Well, the pancakes were AWFUL. Serves me right for blowing my carbs.

Then came playing with the presents. Santa brought each of us a puzzle. The DH's was called "Dad's Shed" - and old-timey workshop shed with hand tools and stuff you haven't seen since the 30's and 40's. The DH has some of both his father's and grandfather's tools, so he had a wonderful time putting it together and reminiscing. It had 500 pieces. Piece of cake.

Santa brought me a 1,000 piece puzzle called Grandma's Craft Room. But, I'm not sure what Grandma they were trying to depict. It had an old sewing machine and a new computer! The artist must have been an art school reject: 2 of the cats looked angry, and the other one looked like a dog! 

The worst part is that both the DH and I got completely compulsive about our respective puzzles! So much so, that I forgot to take any of my meds. One of them is a mind-helping drug, so without it, I got to feeling crazy by 10:00. But did I stop? No. I just kept going .. and going .. and going. Of course, I wound up with a raging headache. We forgot to eat lunch, so about 4:00, I took my meds and ate a lot of (low-carb) junk food that upset my stomach. Rats. Needless to say, I quit working on the puzzle and took some Tums. So much for Christmas day.

Thankfully, I got plenty of sleep that night and woke up the next day feeling great. The DH worked with me to finish my puzzle, and we had a wonderful time putting it together. We watched a good movie, too: The Monuments Men. 

News from the Studio

 

I got a good start on my customer, Joyce's king sized Trip Around the World quilt. She is a wonderful piecer, so it is behaving very well, and is a joy to work on. She picked a meandering leaf free-motion pattern, and a beautiful thread that's perfect for the quilt. 

 

Learning for the Week

Don't use 4 year old Bisquick for anything.

Have a wonderful week! Now let's go quilt something.

'Tis the season - hug your sewing machine

I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season! After several years with no Christmas decorations at all (due to various circumstances) this year we put up a little pre-lit tree. Think we have it all decorated yet? Of course not, but it's up along with our usual clothing gifts to each other from Land's End. Of course, Santa has something up his sleeve, especially for the DH. Hmmm, I see that the table looks a little cock-eyed...

News from the Studio

This week, I finished quilting a What Knots quilt for Robin. A member of the AHQ guild, she made this quilt in a workshop we had last May. Robin is a wonderful piecer and her quilts are a joy to work on. Nice job Robin!






   

Robin chose the Poplar pantograph. It is perfect for this quilt!

New Pantograph

 Poplar: This is lovely, and a very versatile design. I love it.












Now, I know you are busy with Christmas activities and obligations. Include some time with your sewing machine or longarm, too. If you just don't have time for that, this month, at least give your machine(s) a hug and let them know you haven't forgotten about them!

Have a beautiful week! Now let's go quilt something!

Where is Sherlock When You Need Him?

See? No Self-threading needle

Our big adventure this week was a fruitless search for a lost needle. I had just used a self-threading needle to bury thread tails while quilting on the longarm. I had laid the needle down on the quilt in order to pick up scissors to clip the tails. When I reached for the needle to secure it in the little piece of fabric where I keep it, it was nowhere to be found. Nowhere. The DH and I searched for it on the quilt with lights and by feel. we checked every nook and cranny. You wouldn't believe all the likely and unlikely place we searched.Thankfully, since we examined the quilt thoroughly and meticulously, we are convinced it is not on or in the quilt. We are just baffled.

News from the Studio

In Tennessee, if you hold a "raffle" you could wind up in jail. It's illegal. So, how does the guild "raffle" off a gorgeous Opportunity Quilt that has been made as a guild project to make money for charity? Well, we sell kisses. No not that kind, Hershey Kisses. You buy kisses with real $$, and are rewarded with a tickets that you can enter into a drawing for the quilt. We donate 100% of the proceeds to our charities.

This week, I finished quilting the Opportunity Quilt, and today another guild member came by to pick it up so she can put the binding on. I'm hoping she has time to finish the binding in time to show it to the guild at our upcoming Christmas party.  It is a queen size. The drawing will be held at the end of the Appalachian Heritage Quilters annual Quilt Show in March.

New Pantographs Now Available

Bolero: It is the one shown on the Opportunity Quilt.

Star Dance: I mostly use this on Quilts of Valor.

 

Learning for the week

Duh! Don't let go of the needle until you've put it safely in it's proper place!

Now, let's go quilt something!

Marketing is not a 4 letter word

This year, I decided to participate in the Crossroads Marketplace. Each year, around this time, the Women's Ministry of my church provides an opportunity for women to sell crafts, products, and services to the general public. I went to display my work as a quilter, and talk to people about quilting, longarm quilting, and to meet people who might need my services. 

What fun! The woman at the table behind me and I had opportunities to talk and get to know each other some. We are continuing to develop a nice friendship. The greatest surprise about the experience was the significant number of people visiting my table who wanted to talk about the quilts their mothers or grandmothers used to make, and how much those quilts meant to them. What a blessing to share those stories with them. Those stories reveal the true value of quilting.

News From the Studio

Yesterday, I finished quilting a Little Charmer quilt for my customer, Malinda. (Click Little Charmer to buy the pattern.) Isn't it darling? She used a super-soft cotton flannel for a comfy backing. The quilting pattern was a free-motion paisley, top thread was Superior's Rainbows, Seashell, bobbin was Superior's Bottom Line, Natural white.



A few months ago, I quilted a Wizard of Oz quilt for Diana. She sent me pictures of it all bound and beautiful.








Remember the class I took in September from Angel Huffman in Louisville, KY? (see post dated September 29) She taught us a technique for quilting blocks that Eva Larkin's details in her book: Free-Motion Quilting Made Easy. Well, I used my own Little Charmer quilt to develop skill with this technique.

Mark your block into 8 sections (both diagonals, vertically, and horizontally) then add dots for key pivot or turning spots. What a nice, quick technique! It works well for both longarm quilting and domestic machine quilting. Give it a try.

Have a wonderful week! Now let's go quilt something.

Just Dee-Lited!

 Yesterday, the neighbors across the street came out and sat on their front porch just enjoying the unusually warm weather and the sunshine. Quick like a bunny, I put my shoes on, and went over there. I had to. I had neglected getting to know any of my neighbors beyond their first names since we've lived here. Earlier in the week, they put a for sale sign in their front yard. I was very disappointed, and deeply regretted my lack of initiative. They are retired, friendly, and delightful - and I had missed my chance to make new friends.

So, I had to go over and sit with them for a while and to wish them well on their move. Well, I was delighted to spend a good long time just chatting and getting to know them better. I was even more delighted to learn that they will not be moving far, and that they, too, are interested in continuing to develop our friendship! What a relief!

News from the Studio

 In my last post, I told you about the new Dee-Lite lighting system that my DH was installing on my longarm frame. Well, he did it! And I am so blessed! Now I have "daylight" fluorescent tubes that show the colors accurately and make it easy to see what I'm doing. The maker and seller of these lights was very helpful. We had our list of questions, and he was glad to spend time on the phone answering them. I can recommend them for any longarm machine.

 A couple of weeks ago, one of our very talented local quilters blessed our guild with a workshop. She taught us her "freezer paper piecing" method. Until the workshop, I have refused to paper piece anything. I completely dislike having to tear out the paper when I'm done! Well, that's no longer an issue! With her method, you never sew through the paper, so when you want to remove the freezer paper, it just peels off, no muss, no fuss, no bother!

Tips and Techniques 

Do you take your quilt tops to a longarmer? Have you ever noticed a dark thread, probably a ravel, showing through a lighter fabric --- after the quilting is done? The real culprit is the fabric. Most printed fabrics are a bit coarsely woven, and ravel easily, even high quality quilt store fabric.

This is the back of the guild's "opportunity quilt" (think a non-raffle, raffle quilt). See the dark threads laying on the light fabric? They will show through to the front after the quilting is done unless they are removed.

You can see my little bowl of trimmings, and I wasn't even 1/4 of the way through it.  So, do yourself and your longarmer a favor and trim the ravels and thread tails from the back of your quilt before you give it to her. Yes, it is very time consuming, but you worked hard to create a treasure, and you want it to look its very best when it is finished.

Now, have a wonderful week and go do something quilty!

A Quilting Vacation is the Best Vacation

Wow, Summer and early Fall have been a whirlwind of travel! I need to hide the car keys and just stay home for a while! I've enjoyed the activities (mostly) and had fun, but I'm ready to just quilt for a change!

Vacation

This month, my dearest friend in the whole world (except for my DH, of course) came for our annual 2 weeks of vacation together. Dorothy arrived on 9/30, and returned home on 10/15.  We spent 5 days in Pigeon Forge, TN at a cabin owned by a sister quilter. We had planned to enjoy a touristy show, sight see, shop hop, quilt some, and eat.

But that's not what happened. We made the mistake of shop hopping first. So, we bought fabric, sewed, and ate. And had a wonderful time!! The rest of the time at my house, we were mostly couch potatoes. The DH treated us like royalty, and we enjoyed a lot of silliness together.

News from the studio

Here is the customer quilt that I did yesterday. It's a cutie. It's a smaller version of Jacks on the Porch, which she calls Jacks by the Pond because of the cute frog fabric she used. The quilting is free motion swirls.

The DH is installing NEW LIGHTING for my longarm!!! Yea! I am SO excited! Finally, I will have lots of daylight illumination over my work. 

Longarm lighting at Quilted Joy

I saw the lighting on the machines at Quilted Joy. They are the Dee-Lite system from Deloa's Quilt Shop.

Learning for the week

Quilting is SO much fun!

Now let's go quilt something!!