Classes

I took a workshop, in September. Actually 3 days worth of workshops.... I think I have missed workshops where we really learn!!!!  Where the instructor is prepared, knows her topic and shares her knowledge with ease and abandon.

I took the class at Quilted Joy (an APQS dealer) in Louisville KY. It was 3 days with Bethanne Nemesh, learning how to feather her way... 5 classes in all. Not that I am any where near good enough with the longarm to do much of anything... freehand, before or now after the class, but I did learn some things that will make going forward a little easier or at least a bit more freeing in my abilities to date.

I have had some difficulty .... getting things going on the front side of my machine. I can Panto/Edge to Edge all day, but I don't find that very much fun. Just following a line at the back of the machine doesn't allow me to see any of the surface of the quilt, and am certain, that I would not be able to do that for others for long!!! (if that was my intention with the longarm).

During the classes all were able to have time on a longarm to practice what we were learning on paper. My first machine for practicing was the bottom of the line longarm. I got it by default, as I was the last one out of the tables and it was the only one left. A very frustrating experience to say the least. A very temperamental machine that moved like a stick in very thick mud. But we got through it.... Day 2 I got one more like my machine!!!

One of the things I wanted to do while taking the class, was to compare my LA with another LA. My machine... did not track well... and created a wobble... when stitching. I did not feel it when going a moderate speed or at the back, but when going very s-l-o-w or trying to back track, I did!!! It was not something I could replicate.... or even describe with a reasonable description, but I know it was not right. FINALLY figured it out. My table was NOT level, I spent an afternoon following the classes, on my hands and knees adjusting the leveling feet... and then double checked it with an electronic angle finding level. What a miracle that thing was. I had gotten my table within a .20 of level.... and have no idea of where it started, but it makes me wonder exactly I paid for to have it installed and then rechecked? If it was for building the frame... I could have done that .... part myself!!!! I did quilt up some fabric... for a bag (I will be helping friend construct a bag over the next few weeks), and will make one at the same time so I am a few steps ahead for the bumps in the construction and pattern. There are several!!! It is one of those patterns written by person with a non-construction background.

2 Quilts from the Sampler Smack Down Book
edit (I did not quilt these, Bethanne did for her book)

I also took these classes in lieu of going to the MQX show in Springfield IL. I had plans to go, but the disorganized process of the class sign ups left me feeling let down and did not want to experience a huge difficulty after traveling to the show. I hope everyone had a great time at the show and I will certainly miss the eye candy... and maybe some of the vendors too. Maybe I will try and go next year...

One class was for edge finishing... Devil is in the Details. Here is my sample of the beaded edge.

All in all interesting and fun.

More Quilting

I am still busy with playing on the longarm!!! That might be.... the anthem for the year, Still Playing on the Longarm... I'm sure there is a beat for that.

I have had a couple of more finishes. Out of order....

Quilt #9 off the longarm is a quilt destined for the Veterans. It is a lap quilt. There is a Permanent Veterans Home opening in the area later this year. I have offered to quilt tops destined for a Charity for free for the 2 guilds I belong to. This was the first of many Charity Quilts.  I chose an E2E with loops and stars that is not too dense and will leave the quilt nice and soft. I used a Signature variegated top and a green Omni in the bobbin. I don't have a picture of the completed quilt. I gave it back the maker the same week for binding. She gave me another to quilt.

The other, #8 is a large quilt. The top I made in January, a Guild mystery project. I have decided to name it "Paseo Caliente" and it is 80x80. It contains a couple of firsts for me too. My first Mystery and my first Precut Project!- I used a Jelly Roll, I chose a Kaffe.... collective (it was labeled all Kaffe, but I know a couple of the prints are not his) for the low contrast which will usually ensure a project that will turn out... even if your fabric choices were not the best! Me I like it, and if I get tired of the front.... the back is just as nice!!! Quilted E2E with an orange Glide thread top and an red Omni in the bobbin.

I think I like the back nearly as much as the front.

#7 Was a Winnie the Pooh Panel.... that I picked up at a quilt shop at a clearance price. I wanted to practice with a ruler. It did not turn out bad.... but not something I really want to show. The ruler came with an accessories pack I purchased with the LA. It was not what I expected, because the description I had of the package was mostly threads, but I somehow wound up with a ruler. It has a channel in the center... but I was having some difficulty.... getting up/down the channel smoothly. I have since discovered that the foot is a bit tight and it is not just me! Why did they include this ruler? and I also discovered that the panel.... printing was not even.... why did I ever think it would be. They NEVER are!!! But it was very inexpensive.... and it only needed a scrap of batting and a backing.... It will make a small person happy. No photo.

I have been staying busy making some tops as well!!! I was the president of a guild a long time ago .... way back in 1989.... could have been 1990. The guild membership back then was at about a 100 consistently and I served for 2 years and before that I was the VP. The guild would most often purchase a gift for the out going president, but we had a small quilt show that year and the show committee decided to have a block challenge, little did I know... that it was to make blocks to give to me. I was stunned. I am just now getting them into a top. Well several tops!!! The pile of blocks numbered more than 40! So far I have 2 tops done.... and number 3 is on the wall. It has proved a bit challenging, to find fabrics to blend. All I have found are solids.... so that is what I am using to set the tops. This is a photo of most of the blocks on the wall for sorting.... Of course they are various sizes.... around 12.5 inches square and 95% are hand pieced with various levels of expertise. I think I  have done all of those ladies a disservice by not making these into a top... sooner. Many of the makers are gone, although the guild is still around.

I am off to sew something!

More Later- Beth

Time Flies

Its March!!! and now almost April!!! and even with an extra day in February... the month was all too short. I think the groundhog was right and that we will have an early spring, at least on my block in KY!!!! There is a maple in the front blooming. I don't know the variety... and the one in the back has the bark changing color, but the buds are slow to swell. In wandering around the yard I can see swelling buds on the flowering cherries, the birch and the Knockout roses are just a few days away from leaves!!! We spend a Sunday cutting them back.

So how has all this time gone by so quickly... well I am still playing and making more quilts than I ever thought I could. Granted none of them are show stoppers!!! But I am making some progress and presented below in the order completed and their fate!!!


While I was waiting for the longarm to arrive, I found a pile of blocks I acquired in Virginia at the annual Guild auction, (a quilters garage sale of sorts). I bid on a box of stuff... and really just stuff. In the box were 18 blocks, 12 sampler type and 9 of the baskets. These were made  by several quilters and of course were many different sizes. So the first was this one. I really just threw it together, thinking my quilting would not be great.... so it would become a dog blanket. So once it was quilted and bound I tossed it into the washer... and oh my it had a fabulous texture... and scrunched up so nicely. I posted it on the previous blog and called it Axels blanket before I bound it. It was backed in flannel. My brother and family just recently moved from southern California to Wyoming and are suffering from the difference in temperatures. I sent the quilt to them as a warming gift! Quilted E2E in YLI Gold Cotton top and King Tut Variegated Orange in the bobbin. I called it Monkey Tails, because the design reminded me of money tails, and their new place has monkey in the name! A very happy coincidence!

Next up was the other pile of acquired blocks- the baskets. I set them on point and filled in with plain blocks. Remember this was a practice piece and was going to become Linzis dog blanket. But it also turned out nice and now lives draped over the railing looking from the second floor to the family room. Also quilted E2E with white Omni top and bobbin and flannel backed too.

My sister has dabbled in quilt making and had a pile of blocks and a completed top, along with a couple of smaller projects. So I took a pile of her swap blocks added some similar fabrics as sashing and put the whole thing together. Some of those swap blocks were way out of size!!! One I even had to add some fabric to get it up to size on one edge. I quilted the top E2E in Omni natural on top and in the bobbin, bound it, added a label and sent it back to her. She liked it!!!

Next up was a top she completed, all I did was press it to death and then quilted it. I am happy to say, it quilted up great. I was afraid it would have a couple of tucks in it from some billowy areas. I also backed in a brown flannel. I matched the bobbin to the back Essential Cotton Thread and quilted the top in a dark blue YLI cotton. She liked this one as well. Still on the frame! I forgot to take a picture of the finished quilt.... oh well. The brown flannel had the look of quilted leather.

I quilted one other for a baby. I foundation pieced the top from all my black and white scraps and the color was all from scraps as well. I only purchased fabric for the border and a flannel backing. I quilted the top E2E in black Omni and in the bobbin was a white Omni.

Overall I have had some fun.... quilting and E2E is a nice way to make nice quilt very quickly. I have a new found appreciation for hand guided quilting and the skill it takes. I am not anywhere near quilting from the front... but I long to get there, as the panto is fun, but very boring!

More to tell, but I hate using blogger to write in.... and the MS Live program no longer works on old laptop.... so I will have to find a new program or get used to blogger again- YUCK!!!


More Later-  Beth

Playing

Once again, I have neglected to update what is going on in Kentucky. Aside from the day to day operations at home… dogs, husband, guilds and house, we have had two major weather interruptions. One was for a ‘Snowmageddon’ type thing, which means more than a couple of inches of snow at one time. We did get a bunch of snow… about 8” overall, but certainly not the 12-14 plus inches that was hyped every day for a week on the weather. It snowed for almost 24 hours, but it was a nice dry powdery snow, and wasn’t the predicted wet and heavy… which is probably what kept it from becoming a disaster in Northern Kentucky. The second was in the last week, where a warm front and a cold front collided right over the Ohio River and was predicted to be more like a springtime storm system, which would spawn heavy wind, rains and tornadoes. Thankfully we only had a short spell of heavy wind and lots of rain.  Both storms required being prepared for long power outages and sheltering in place. Somehow Kentucky missed the memo on moving infrastructure underground, so we still have many of the power lines above ground for the trees, snow and ice to bring down.

I was slated to go to Tennessee for my second class from the distributor where we get more information on maintenance and some other longarm practice and fills. But the storm (with the predictions of ice) made me cancel my plans to go. I was going to pickup a couple of add on items for the system… But those will have to wait a few weeks longer.

In the meantime!

I have been playing in the studios!!! Both of them. Not much to show from the upstairs Creative Space… Although I have been working up there, preparing things for the downstairs Longarm Studio. I spent the first 2 weeks after the Longarm was set up, playing with a practice piece. I pre prepared it by marking some squares and lines and stencils…. 

Practice Piece#1

And once I did those things I filled in the empty space with some free motion doodling, just trying to get a feel for driving the machine rather than the quilt. IT IS VERY DIFFERENT!!! It felt at first like I was trying to drive a fish.  It was also very frustrating in the beginning, because the Leaders (what all the fabric parts are attached to on the frame) were a little too long and made advancing the quilt very difficult. 

Once those were replaced I put another practice piece on … and this time was going to do the same thing as before… mostly just playing.

I read, watched or heard that one of the best ways to work through some of the LA issues was to load a pantograph and do it to the end of the loaded sandwich, and when you are done change thread colors and do it again and again. I did it 2.5 times, put on a different pantograph and did it a few more times. The bobbin and top thread are different…. On the whole piece. I wanted to learn to balance the tension. And I DID! Neither color shows on either side, except where the new thread or bobbin came on line. YAY. It is one of the more difficult things to get done on a longarm… Of course that was with very similar threads and weights. But once I start experimenting with other threads, content and weights it might change, dramatically.

I loaded a top next. This top came from a stack of blocks I picked up somewhere in Virginia by way of a bonus…. Not what I would have purchased, but I threw them in the UFO/Orphan block box. I pulled them out, and sashed them with similar types of prints just to get it into a top large enough to quilt. I did not spend a huge amount of time constructing this nor cost of a border or backing. The blocks were made (by others) in a swap with various construction methods, various seam allowances, and each finished block size varied… and was way out of shape.

This one is to be titled Axels Dog Blanket. It is really just for practice/play on the longarm. To help set all the steps of loading, thread, tension, and the actual practice. I backed it with flannel, bright orange and I will bind it with a bright orange cotton as well.

Next I have another top of similar blocks, although these are baskets and had they had even more issues with size and shape, than this first set, and were also part of a swap … I also backed in flannel and quilted… I learned a few things… on this one too. Like bias edges … YUCK!!! It will be titled Linzis Dog Blanket.

Next up? A baby quilt. Well that is the plan at the moment!!

More Later!!!

Beth

This and That!

Once again its been more than a month since I posted on the blog. Sometimes I wonder where all the time goes, and then I look back, and just the big stuff sucks up lots of the time.  The ‘new’ knee for the DH is almost completely healed and he is almost done with Physical Therapy. He is young for a replacement and has sailed through the rehab. The only issues is some restless leg stuff and a gait adjustment, which will take time. We have joined a Fitness Club (otherwise known as a gym)… to help his continued rehab and my physic… and our overall mobility as we age. I have been wearing a Fitbit since June and I move much more than I would have thought, but I still eat more than I burn… in calories… so a little more work… and maybe a little less eat…

Of course the preparations for Christmas, also took a few extra hours… around here. Not that I went over board with the decorations or the the tree. But it was a enough for us. Santa was quite generous again this year. I have been wanting a Vitamix. I have a blender and a food processor, but there are some things that the Vitamix  just does better. So this morning I gave it a chance to turn a bunch of fruits and veggies into something tasty. It was not perfect, but close. A trip to the grocery… and we have everything we need for something tasty tomorrow.

We are just coming up on the 6 month mark for the move to 

Kentucky and completing the adjustments to the house, that we think will make living here

easier. The kitchen is large with counter and cabinets around the perimeter and nothing in the middle.
To fix that we built an island and had a top made of granite.

It was installed on Wednesday. It does not match the rest of the kitchen. We wanted it to look like a furniture, and are thinking about how we want to remodel the kitchen a little later. I am really going to like the extra counter space. 

I have also done some rearranging and reorganizing of our basement storage space. Much of what needed to go into the storage area, was in the main basement space, and we needed to get it all together and packed up. I spent a week doing that, so now it is Done Done Done. Now this space is ready for a new job.

Stairs Down

Looking back toward stairs

From stairs to the other end

Stay tuned for the next installment of ‘the room’, on the other hand if you've been on Facebook, you know why!!! I tried to post this several times, but once again their has been a software change that is not compatible with the programs I use.


More later - Beth