I continued working on the backing for the wedding quilt last night. I now have 6 of the Dream Big Dance panels sewn together and the 3rd strip ready to sew to the larger panel. It’s all carefully laid over the belly bar of the long arm since I’ve pressed the sections. In the meantime I started thinking about what to use for the back of the 2nd Test Quilt. I found 1 yard of this Red Hat fabric and think I’ll use it.
I was asked about my longarm last week only to discover I hadn’t written about it. So this is the LongArm post.
I quilt on a 26″ Innova longarm with stitch regulation, Lightning Stitch and AutoPiolot Mach3. It sits on a 12-foot table. Although a longarm was on my dream list, it was just that a dream. Where would I put it, how could I afford it? It was through a series of events (both good and bad) that this fully loaded machine came to live with me. Never in my dreams did I think I would own a machine with all the bells and whistles.
The architect calls this room the Den. It is 13′ x 18 1/2′. I think the room was used as a den for about a year. Then it was a bedroom for my nephews for a year, then my sewing room and office (I’ve worked from home for 20 years), and now it is just my quilting studio, my office desk moving to the spare bedroom when the long arm arrived. These pictures are from shortly after the machine was setup in December 2019. My room is no longer this clean.
Under the machine on the “back side” I have built a couple of PVC batting racks. The batting on the roll in the foreground is 120″ wide and the other roll is 96″ wide.
Since the machine moved in my cats are not happy. They are no longer allowed in the space. To assist with that, I’ve hung a screen door in the opening going into the kitchen. I now also keep the door going into the living room closed. It was hung when the room was used as a bedroom.
I started longarming in September 2010, renting time on an HandiQuitler a little over an hour away from me. In June 2012 I found a shop about 15 minutes from me which rented time on Noltings. I don’t think either shop rents time anymore. I started quilting on the Innova in August 2018.
My quilt guild is now selling tickets for this beautiful red and white quilt. It measures 64″ x 84″. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. For more information about the quilt or to purchase tickets check out the Guild’s website. starlightquilters.com/2021_opportunity_quilt.
As of 8 PM Sunday night, this is as far as I have gotten on the 2nd quarter of the wedding quilt. Each cross of units contains 2 lavender broken dishes, 2 seafoam broken dishes, and the 5 neutrals squares necessary to make one block in the quilt. It doesn’t seem like much, but much of the weekend was spent doing non-piecing quilting.
This year I’m my Guild’s Quilt Registration Chair to the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival, so Saturday morning started off with a call with my co-chair. Afterwards, I visited a friend to try and figure out how to load the bobbin to the new to her Bernina 820. That machine is smarter than I am.
Afterwards, instead of coming straight home, I headed off to Stitch-On Needlework in Lawrence Kansas. They do Facebook Live Shows on Mondays and Thursdays. A few months ago I fell in love with a quilt they had hanging in the background.
This is Fairy Floss with Maggie Sashing from The Block-Maker II for Half-Rectangle Triangles by Janna L. Thomas.
The last time I was in the shop they didn’t have it in stock, but Saturday was my lucky day and I was able to pick up a copy.
Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon was spent working on the Guild’s website, bringing the content up-to-date. I also watched the video on how to use the Bloc-Loc Half-Rectangle Triangle ruler. I fell in love with the quilt in the background of the video.
This quilt is Star Fusion with the Serena sashing. The video can be seen HERE. It was after this that I finally sat at my sewing machine.
I haven’t decided if I’ll try to assemble a few blocks tonight or not.
What’s another project when you have more projects in progress than you can count on your fingers and toes? I’m a member of the Mississippi Quilt Association and they are doing a Quilt-A-Long since every meeting this year has been canceled. It’s a simple 12 block beginner sampler, and the hope is many of them will be shown at the June Gathering next year.
Earlier tonight I was reminded I elected to participate and decided I needed to get in gear. The first 4 blocks were sent out last week. Given that I tend to go scrappy, and that I doubt I could round up enough fabric from my stash to use 3 or 4 fabrics through out the quilt, I started looking for the border to base my color choices on. I found the stripe in the center of the picture above. This is the second time I pulled this fabric to use as a border. Maybe this time I’ll actually use it. I’ll use the bright white as my background fabric.
The first block is Uneven Nine-Patch.
Work on the #mqaquiltalong is not preventing me from working on the lavender and seafoam quilt.
Progress is being made. 1/4 of a gazillion HST are sewn into Broken Dish units, 1/4 of a gazillion HST are cut and ready to sew.
Easy Breezy = 83
Yesterday morning I hung up 1/2 of the quilt top on my shelves and spotted one broken dish unit turned. Fortunately it was on the first row and easy to fix. When I took it down and hung up the second half and also discovered a turned block, this time on the last row. Now that the top is complete I can contemplate the quilting while I work on the batik version of this quilt.
But first a reminder. Make notes, especially when you aren’t planning on cutting into the fabric immediately. Last month my sister bought these Kansas Troubles fabrics and gave me great notes. Turns out she made a sticky note for everything she was buying.
Unfortunately I did not take good notes. I had a note card indicating how many FQs I needed and total yardage needed. But when I got to the shop, I ended up calculating on the fly based on what I was purchasing.
Oh, did I mention I’m working from my own pattern? So, I did the math on the fly, added in yardage for a couple of pillowcases and binding in either lavender or seafoam and came home with my fabric and washed it. Now 8 weeks later, I’m not sure how I was going to handle my neutrals. Can I find the note card visible on the stack of lavender fabric? No.
So, here I sit. The color strips are cut for the HST. I purchases 1/2 yard cuts of all but 5 of the fabrics — more bang for my buck than purchasing FQs. Last night I pressed everything and cut them into FQs. The lavender and seafoam yardage is clearly my choices for binding and pillowcase cuffs. It’s the neutrals I’m struggling with.
I need strips for HST, and squares. Per EQ I need 11 1/2 yards of neutrals. 7 1/8 yards for the squares and 4 1/2 yards for the HST. I only have 10 1/2 yards, which is supposed to include yardage for pillowcases. Clearly my math was wrong. I’ll figure out something…..
Easy Breezy = 82
This month has flown by, or dragged by, I haven’t made up my mind yet.
On the quilting front, I quilted 4 quilts for a customer. I’m doing edge-to-edge computer driven quilting for hire. My customer was thrilled with all of the quilts I’ve done for her. The top 2 are the Minky backs. Depending on who you ask Minky is a bear to work with, or it’s not. I suspect it has to do with the quality of the Minky. This is from Shannon. It is WONDERFUL. It’s also hot, so I was asked to not use batting. The 2 tops came out just fine.
I’ve also been playing with pouring acrylics. The vase and painting above it were done at the same time. Then I did the painting on the right. Finally I attempted to do some Christmas ornaments, but the paint didn’t stick to the inside of the ornaments. I’ve since painted them on the outside with mixed results, but I haven’t taken a picture yet.
There’s a new quilt shop in town — Stashworthy Fabric. It’s on the north side of town — about 35 minutes from me. They had been open for about a week when I stopped in.
As for my quilting projects, I’ve been working on a “gazillion” red/neutral and blue/neutral HSTs. I finally finished them, and have started assembling my broken dishes units. If I’ve counted right, the red ones are made, and the blue ones are partially assembled. I am concerned though as I came up with an extra blue/neutral HST. Does that mean I need 3 more or have 1 extra? Of course since I’ve already thought I had all I needed who knows for certain. I hope to finish this quilt top tonight or tomorrow so I can start working on the “real” quilt — which needed even more HST as it is large.
The United States celebrated 100 years of Women’s Suffrage back on August 18, 2020. Starlight Quilters Guild was asked to make 36 12″ quilts in celebration. We used the purple and yellow stars from a replica of Alice Paul’s banner with one star for each of the 36 states which ratified the 19th Amendment.
This is my quilt.
I based it on the story of Harry T. Burn’s vote in the Tennessee General Assembly. As the story goes, the assembly was evenly split with suffrage supporters wearing yellow roses and those against wearing red roses. His mother, an educated woman, wrote him a letter which he had in his pocket urging him to vote for suffrage, which was not the view of the men in is district. At the last moment, wearing a red rose, he voted to ratify the amendment making Tennessee the 36th and final state needed to amend the constitution.
The blocks I picked are Rosebuds, Mother’s Choice and Tennessee. The purple star is from the banner and was a required to be included in the quilt. Here’s what I wrote on each block:
Rosebud:
He wore a red rose
His constituents said no
Women should not vote
Mothers’ Choice:
Mother’s Choice was vote
So a letter to Harry
Give women the vote
Tennessee:
Harry changed his mind
So Tennessee ratified
Now women can vote
Star:
One hundred years past
The ballot box was accessed
Regardless of sex
The quilts can be seen at Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center in Overland Park, Kansas through January 23rd. They are currently hanging in the lobby. The plan is to show them at the 2021 Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival in June and the 2021 Starlight Quilters Guild Quilt Show in the Fall of 2021.
As our grandmother’s and great-grandmothers fought so hard for our right to vote, please make your voice heard and vote on November 3rd if you have not voted early. (I voted last week.)
Not too long ago, I was brought 4 quilts tops to quilt. It was the first time I had a customer in my sewing room. I discovered that thread selection was an issue. She picked colors off my colors card, but of course, we had to try it on the quilt tops. She was standing on the back side of the quilt frame, I was on the front side, and the thread was in the 2nd drawer of the chest. There were so many spools of thread in the drawer to find anything you had to pull a bunch out.
It started me thinking about a better storage solution for my thread and where it should be in the space.
Monday, I found this cabinet on Facebook Marketplace.
My original plan was to fix glass panes so they didn’t need the backing, but after I broke the glass, I decided I didn’t need to see my thread.
My main thread drawer is empty. Now I just need to figure out where exactly I’m going to put the cabinet. For now it’s in the middle of my living room.
It’s been a long 2 weeks. I’m not sure what I was doing the first week of my absence – I can’t think that washing my quilts took up all that time, but I guess that is what I was doing the first week. I need to refold them to get them back into the cabinet, but for now, they are sitting on my bed protected from cat hair by a towel. I’m not sure what Sherbet is protecting them from.
The 2nd week, I know what I was doing. Working long hours – and that was before anyone got wind of me being out of the office on vacation this week. Needless to say there was no quilting happening last week.
I finally was able to begin quilting this past Saturday – after I swapped out the ruler foot for the cup foot on my Innova. Of course I first had to make a trip to the hardware store because I couldn’t find my 6mm allen wrench. It has been in the top drawer for nearly a year. Who knows what happened. I’m sure it will turn up now that I’ve replaced it.
Once the foot was replaced I loaded the first of 4 customer quilts on the frame. I’ve decided I will do a bit of computerized edge-to-edge quilting to help pay for my quilting hobby.
This is the back of the 4th quilt.
