More Baby Quilts

The cute little Teddy Bear Baby Quilt is finished

This is so very cute! I used the Handiquilter Multi Clamshell tool to quilt the 4in clamshells over it. Works every time and looks great on baby quilts.

Also finished my special baby quilt ready for the new arrival

The fabrics in this one are just gorgeous...soft and playful in apricot/pink tones. You probably cannot see this but the fabric has a bit of a cottage/farm theme. Really pretty. It is from Art Gallery Fabrics...a selection of 'Cottage Grove' fabrics. The pattern will be available in my Etsy shop within the month. I have done all the photos, now it is just a matter of putting the pattern together which should not take too long.

Also made a little fabric book

Got a panel with the pages from the last quilt show. Easy enough to do in terms of putting this together however, this was digitally printed fabric which I did not realise when I bought it. Had to be really careful with the stitching as it leaves little white runs as soon as a needle pierces it. Dislike that as it makes the job unnecessarily harder. 

So, what's next? I had a fair amount of fabric left over from the Art Gallery Fabrics 'Cottage Grove' Fat 

Quarter bundle. Have cut that all up into squares and will be starting to put that together soon for a very simple baby quilt to be hopefully sold (on Etsy). Actually seen some new rulers by Amanda Murphy called the Apples and Oranges rulers which would make for a perfect design on a simple squares quilt. Mind you I have to find the rulers first...always takes a bit longer before things come to Australia.

Happy Quilting!

Karin

Cute Baby Quilt

Must be the baby season! Had to quickly finish another baby quilt for a friend of my daughter's. Chose this cute teddy bear panel from Devonstone Collection (design #DV6130) to quickly quilt a clamshell design over it. Then had to hunt around for a suitable backing...as the colours are somewhat washed out I thought that this would be challenging but found something straight away which fitted it perfectly.

Too cute! quilted it with my trusted Aurifil thread 50/2 in a soft yellow colour. Was lucky as I also found a solid in the same colour as the narrow inner border. Currently finishing off sewing the binding to the back and then this can be gifted.

Happy quilting!

Karin

More Ruler Work and Two More Finishes

Its been a productive couple of weeks...managed to finish all of the charity quilts ready to be delivered next week.

Had a lovely 'I Spy' quilt to finish. Given its colourful fabric I just meandered over it. Still find that the most effective and fast ways to finish some of the more scrappy type quilts.

Nearly got side tracked again in going through my stash to find similar fabric that could be used for an 'I Spy' quilt. Such a good isea and a fun project! Restrained myself though and kept going with the next charity project.

Now this one took a bit longer as I had to ditch the seams first but then I got going with some simple curves in the blocks. What started out as just wanting to do a motif in the larger yellow squares turned to an allover design. Really enjoy using Lisa Calle's Pro Echo rulers!

Put a piano key border around it as well using a blend in purple colour. Came out great and finished it off nicely.

Next will be another baby quilt panel that I will quilt up for one of my daughter's friends who is expecting and then my machine will go in for a spa day. I had some issues with my stitch regulator...minor, and maybe related to the particular project I was working on. Experienced some racing of the needle at odd times. This has since stopped and could very well be attributable to the sliding mat I have around my needle plate...not sure. I thought that maybe the edges of that might have been catching the fabric, so I have now taped this down a bit better and have not experienced this again. But in speaking to the dealer we decided that we may as well have a bit of a look and while at the shop the machine might as well get cleaned and oiled on the inside. Not strictly speaking necessary, but can't hurt...I have had this machine now for over four years and while Bernina talks about it only having to go for service at 30 million stitches I have since heard different viewpoints. In the end I contacted Bernina some time back asking around service and they had said that it was recommended to have your machine looked at every couple of years to make sure everything runs fine. As I am thinking about putting my machine on the frame at some stage later this year I thought it might be a good idea to get the machine running as best as it can. (assuming that I will have a horrendous adjustment period).

That's all from me today...have a nice quilty weekend!

Karin

Some Ruler Work

Here is the finished Ballerina quilt from a few weeks ago. Again forgot to post the finish here as I had posted it on my facebook page and IG and then moved straight on.

The outer border is done with the HQ 4" Swag set...finally used it! The 4" swags fitted nicely around the long edge of the border, however I had to problem solve a bit for the top and bottom because I needed to elongate my swags by 1/4in to make it fit. Found that I had an oval corner shape that just fitted that width (and height) and which was only ever so slightly different (tiny bit slimmer on the top). I used this as sliding the HQ 4" swag along to make it a bit wider produced some wonky shapes. Worked really well.

Really enjoying the ruler work at the moment so I moved straight on to the next charity quilt. A striking little number

Used my favoutite curve set for this...the Lisa Calle Pro Echo rulers and chose the 7" curve. By the way, Lisa Calle is doing little workshops on ruler quilting on FB every Monday and I think you can get a bit of a discount on her rulers this month. Watched the first one last week on using straight rulers. Very enjoyable.

The ditching was a bit of a hassle and to save time I just ditched in a grid around the blocks and left the diagonal untouched.

Really liked how this turned out as the unditched areas tended to puff out a bit more and really made the curves stand out. Mind you, my stitch regulator was a bit unhappy at times...the backing was very thin and in the white areas I had some racing at times. Not quite sure why...maybe the thinner fabric both from the backing but also in the top or the puffiness. Definitely something noticable as I approached the seams at times. Experimented on some scraps that I had and had no problem at all, so hopefully it had to do with the fabrics in this quilt.

Well, I am already on to the next quilt which I will just meander over as I have got another one to go after that. You probably wonder at my sudden surge of activity...we are expecting our first grandchild in August and I do want these charity quilts to be delivered before this. While I will take a few additional ones after this there no doubt will be a few months of very limited quilting activity. Somehow it seemed quite far away and all of a sudden it is so very close. My daughter is huge by now and I would not be surprised if this baby makes her entrance a little bit earlier. We shall see. Still need to handstitch the binding of that special baby down. Also need to prepare for a workshop which has now moved to November, write up a pattern etc...all before the end of August! As always in life lots of other things going on...

But, hey, we work best under pressure!

Karin

Baptist Fan Charity Quilt

Quick update on the finished Baptist fan charity quilt.

Turned out great, looking fairly accurate on the top edge

Love the consistency and the 1in spacing between the fans

...and another close up

That's it...already onto the next charity quilt, currently ditching which will take a little moment. Planning a little bit of ruler work but we shall see as to whether I have got any energy left after I finished the ditching.

Happy quilting!

Karin

More Charity Quilts

I am running behind in the the quilting of the charity quilts. Have four more to go before I pick up new quilt tops, so I am really knuckling down trying to get this done (hopefully by mid - August). Very much in the mood for ruler quilting and the next quilt top presented the perfect opportunity to do some Baptist fans again.

I am using templates from Michael's Quilts. Purchased those a couple of years ago now and still think they are fantastic and the best on the market. Remembered that I looked at other ones at the time, i.e. Amanda Murphy had just brought out her Baptist fan rulers but they were too narrow for me. I was looking at a 1in space between the curves in order to use it as an allover design. That's how I eventually came across the templates from Michael Quilts. 

First issue was that my charity quilt was not exactly straight around the edges. As I can't mark the charity quilts my trusted masking tape came in really handy (using a lot of that lately). In order to start my fans I needed a straight edge, so I used a large right angle and marked the 5-1/2in height of the fans with masking tape straight across. Had not thought that through though as I needed to get my beginning fans straight! The first little circle is 1-1/2in high so I had another straight tape line at 2in and from there I chalked in the 1-1/2in line.

Bit clumsy, but worked fine. As I was stitching along I removed the tape

Took me a moment to get comfortable again with the templates. The largest template is based on an 11in circle, hence it is quite big to use on a sitdown longarm. Takes up my whole hand.

As you can see I have lots of little grippy disks on the back and also use the sticky drawliner pieces to hold the ruler in place. Similarly, the smallest fan is based on a 3in circle and is somewhat awkward to hold, so a slow pace was the go. Initially I was dreadful at backtracking over previously stitched lines, but improved as I went along. The trick is to use the top of the templates to help you stitch along 1in to get to the next fan.

Now, I am not going to say this is super easy...it's not. Being on the sitdown means everything moves and you are surrounded by your fabric sandwich which may not always cooperate in terms of push and pull. Nevertheless I was impressed how consistent this looked after a few rows. I forgot how heavy this is on the shoulders, so given my shoulder issues I had to really take it easy. So I took my time doing about 2- 3 rows per sitting.

Looking good

I finished the last few rows today but could not take a photo...just too grey and rainy over here. Turned out lovely and fits this quilt really well. I think it was originally a memory quilt top as there are lots of old shirt fabrics in there. Really interesting to stitch over. Will take a photo tomorrow of the finished quilt. The Bapist fans came out great...funny though there is always one row in doing this where you think 'oh, I lost the plot' as nothing seems to align properly and you feel as if you are really trailling off. Then the next row...everything seems back to normal and I had several fans that aligned a 100%. Too weird. So, not for the faint-hearted, but I am used to it and just keep blindly going and hope for the best. The surprise is always on the top where you can see exactly how much or how little you have been out with your alignment. Given that the edges of this quilt were not totally straight, my top row came out great. Not a 100%, but good enough. Once the binding is on, this will hardly be visible. 

So jsut have the binding to go and then it is on to the next one!

Karin

Gridwork on a Charity Quilt

Have not completely finished my baby quilt, however the binding is on and it just needs to be handstitched to the back.

Was itching to stitch so I made a start on the pile of charity quilts I have sitting here. First one I picked up is a cute ballerina panel quilt in pastel pink tones. Decided to try a new thread on this that I purchased at the last quilt show. It is 50wt Konfetti from Wonderfil threads. 

Now when trialling new thread I go by what experience has taught me over the years. This thread is different to Aurifil 50/2 thread in that it is thicker and feels more cottony, so I assumed it was 50/3 thread. In fact it felt very much like the Mettler thread cone I used for the last few charity quilts. So I decided to use the Mettler setting (i.e. tension and speed) that I kept on my machine for this thread and no surprise, it was just about right. Also used this thread on the bobbin which turned out to be a bit of a hassle in terms of the tie offs. On my machine which is a Bernina Q20, I have a programmable tie off function.

It is set to something like 4 or 5 stitches before you start off. With Aurifil 50/2 that gives me a very neat tie off. With this thread it was more like a horrendous knot...very unsightly and hard to digest. Absolutely a nightmare to bury in your quilt. Tried different ways to counter-act this, i.e. starting off carefully in Manual, making a few stitches on the spot and then taking off in Regulated mode but still, the thread kept making these unsightly knots. This slowed me down there for a while...in the end I used the Manual mode to start off with some very small stitches and then moving over to the Regulated mode. I think if this was my own quilt I was quilting I would put something like Decobob in the bobbin which is an 80 wt thread...I think the knotting issue would be far less. Anyway, I have a whole cone of this so I continued with it, as the stitching looked fine otherwise and one big plus...this thread has absolutely no lint!

For the ballerina quilt I initially decided to do the center panel in a meander and then do some ruler work in the borders, however I did not really like that idea. The problem with the charity quilts is that I cannot really mark them a lot other than using a bit of chalk. The fabric is likely not pre-washed and getting rid of the blue marker with water could lead to disasters (think colour run). Maybe not so relevant in this pink quilt but it is also winter over here, so I would have problems getting that dried in a hurry.

Looking at it I thought a grid would look nice over the ballerinas. Have not done this on the sitdown machine before over an entire quilt, so that was going to be a good challenge. Now, if this was my own quilt, I would definitely pre-mark this before basting and then just follow my lines but that was not an option here. So I needed to come up with something different. In the end I used masking tape.

Found the center of the panel first. I did not trust the straightness of the panel, so that is why I did not start in the corners. Maybe it would have been fine, but I don't know...could not think that through. Started in the center and did my 45 degree angle from there. Put two lines in for good maesure to see how accurate I would end up after the first line because I did this after the quilt sandwich was all put together and this has a puffy wool batting, so I was not quite confident that this would work out. Did the first two lines and it did look alright, so I continued without the tape basing every subsequent line on the previous one, going very slowly with carefully aligning my ruler. I used the Handiquilter straight line ruler for this which is about 9 in long, so it was bit by bit, moving the ruler along, following the previous line. I made the lines 2 in apart to match the pieced second border. Was not that confident that it would turn out accurately when I started the crosshatch as I had to move a fair amount of quilt around on the diagonal with a fair amount of puff from the wool batting. Aligned my straight ruler on the previous lines but also used some additional 45 degree lines to keep the angle as consistent as I could. But wow...to my surprise, it turned out brilliantly

Even measured the squares...yep, more or less 2in, looking nice and square. Not that it matters that much if it was out a bit but I was expecting much more inaccuracy. Now to that checkerboard border. Will put some curves in there and finish off the outer border with a bit of a scallop. Still undecided whether I will quilt the smaller 1-1/2in borders down or leave them unquilted.

This, of course, is all taking a bit longer than anticipated, but I felt a bit like experimenting. For a kid's quilt this is quite long and larger than usual. Given that this worked out well, a simple grid is a really good option for a smallish baby quilt. Definitely will do this again.

Karin

Update on Baby Quilt

Before I get into the baby quilt, here are some photos from the Garden Charity Quilt I talked about in previous posts. Noticed the other day that I actually had not put up any photos of the finished thing...and that after I did all that practice to be sure that I actually could execute thatt design. For readers who have not read about it as yet, I decided to do the Hndiquilter Flutterby Design over this charity quilt. Had to practice a bit to be able to do this though over a larger area.

This is what that looked like

Bit hard to see as I used a lightgreen blend in thread, here is the back

I was so sure that I had talked about his, but maybe I just posted it on IG or Instagram.

Anyway, for this baby quilt I decided to do my favourite edge-to-edge design called Daisy Dotz #2 available through Urban Elementz. I have done this design numerous times but still enjoy doing it, so I made a start today. I am using Golden Threads paper to get the rows onto the quilt 

Labour intensive...yes, but the result is always stunning and given that this is a bit of a special quilt, I do not mind the extra time. In the picture above you see the first two rows stitched out already. I secure the paper with removable glue dots but also use pins as you can see in the picture above. I am quilting with Aurifil 50/2 cotton thread in regulated mode at 10 SPI. I am going not too slow but also not too fast in terms of speed just moving along those lines. I do use a blue erasable marker for drawing out my lines, basically becuse I am used to that blue colour and it also ensures that I do not inadvertently transfer any pencil marks or similar onto the quilt. After I finish the first two rows, I take the top and the first row out, i.e. remove the paper. Firstly to see how my stitching went, but also to free up the quilt (as you go along some compaction happens and I feel it is easier to free everything up for the laignment of subsequent rows. Aside from that I also enjoy just sitting there quietly taking out the paper after each of the rows. i don't think I would want to do that in one hit for an entire quilt...that would take ages!! With the second row still there and a partial row drawn in I align the next two rows and continue...so relaxing to stitch out.

What about mistakes? Yes, they do happen...sometimes you deviate from your lines a bit but I reckon as long as you keep them nice and round and in line with the design, that does not really matter. I do put more effort in on the second row to stay exactly on my lines as this is where I will have to align the next two rows, but I must say, I do not stress over it as you really cannot notice it if you are a bit out. What if you thread breaks or some other small disaster happens and you need to take something out and redo a section? Absolutely possible...the paper is wafer thin and delicate, so any unpicking will have to be done from the back. I unpick my section stitch by stitch in order to keep the paper on top intact. As you can see the holes where the needle went really well, you just start again in one of those holes, secure your thread and continue on. Must say that I have never messed up an entire row but if you do, you will just have to re-do it, i.e. draw out more rows and start again.

Had a new mishap today though...my mind must have temporarily wandered off

Did not stitch out one of those leaves...noticed it, but continued and then when I finished the rows went back and stitched that one leave in there (with the paper still intact).

This is how far I got today...

Managed four rows (the thread running through is my basting)...not that much,but it is a start and I am taking my time with this as I do enjoy this process. Tomorrow I will draw out another few rows and continue slowly but steadily. Love this design! 

Will keep you posted...

Karin

Gorgeous Baby Quilt Coming Up

I am working on several projects at once...as always! Finished my gorgeous baby quilt top though. This one is for us, however I will write up the pattern for my Etsy shop in due course. For once I did take good notes while I was making it, so hopefully that won't take too long.

It's absolutely gorgeous fabric! Acquired from a local quilt shop that put together a selection of 'Cottage Grove' fabrics from Art Gallery Fabrics for a Fat Quarter bundle. The quality is outstanding and even after washing the fabric, it felt just superb. I complemented this with some Kona Solid greens to make the stars. Really like the combination of the soft pinks and greens. As usual I changed my mind about borders and ended up buying more fabric only to realize that my border fabric was directional and needed to be placed lengthwise on the sides of the quilt top. What a hassle! Had to do some tricky math to work out how I was going to make this go all around the quilt. In the end I did not exactly pattern match as I would have lost inches of fabric doing this and this fabric was not exactly cheap. I got some fabric left from my Fat Quarter bundle and am thinking of putting another little baby quilt together from that, possibly just doing a Charm Square quilt or similar. I think I might still have enough for a smallish quilt. We'll see.

The last few days I have been torturing myself with trying to work out a Zig-Zag border for another Freemotion-quilting workshop. Should have been quite simple and it was until I decided to look at various different dimensions and shifting my Zig-Zag around. I was looking at Cindy Needham's stencil out of her Border package, but then could not work out the dimensions that were used to produce this stencil. I was there for days until I realised how that stencil was structured! I ended up doing mine a bit different and had to take a deep dive into how to make borders fit a particular length of quilt as I will need to talk about that if I want people to be able to follow the instructions for the borders. Got myself utterly confused a number of times (as usually happens with borders for me) and had to really knuckle down and work this out properly. In the end I used my Affinity Designer Pro program to draw my borders out and check the measurements to make sure I can actually explain how I got to the dimensions chosen and apply this to other borders. Always sounds so simple, i.e. just look at the repeat and either reduce or enlarge as you need it...I was there doing fractions galore, but it definitely helped to have  a visual via the drawing program so I could see what I was doing and where my thinking went a bit wonky at times.

Have a little sample project that I will be stitching out shortly to see how much time is involved in that little skillbuilder workshop. This is for the second half of the year so lots of time still but I want to get this done so that I can discuss it further with the shop owner in terms of what she wants size wise. My sample is based on a 2in zig-zag so it will turn out rather small. I am thinking to make it a 3in zig-zag for the workshop as that allows more space for filler designs. We'll see...

Apart from that lots of UFOs and charity quilts waiting to be quilted. My gorgeous baby quilt is next with a special edge-to-edge design and then I need to write up the pattern.

Will try to post a bit more regularly again once I get back to the actual quilting!

Until then...enjoy what you are working on!

Karin

Making Tiny Stars

I am working on a new quilt pattern...very easy, but includes these tiny 4-1/2in stars. Maybe not one of my brighter ideas but it is for a small baby quilt. Need 20 of them in two different tones. Nothing complicated, just a bit fiddly. Have made 12 so far

Have the most gorgeous fabric to go with this...will be all light greenish with soft pink and apricot tones. Looking forward to finishing these tiny stars and starting on the other blocks.

As I get bored very easily, I am also continuing on my scrap reduction challenge. As part of Lisa Calle's Quilters Groove Creative Design Society we are making a scrappy log cabin quilt. Did a few blocks a few months ago but then got side tracked into other things. While I am doing these little stars I am also making scrappy log cabins at the same time. I usually make two tiny stars and a couple of scrappy log cabins.

I think everyone in the group is making them a bit differently. I settled on a random approach in terms of strip width and colouring. A little bit of thinking this through though is required in order not to be left with a tiny, tiny strip on the outside. Spent one evening though cutting some of my strips straight at 1-1/2in, 2in and anything in between. Goes quicker that way and helps me to make sure that I am sewing them on straight. You could of course also make this really wonky and not worry about the straightness of the components but I started off straight, so I thought that I better continue that way. Have made quite a few by now

Layout is yet to be decided...must say that I find the blocks a tad confusing to lay them out as there is just too much going on in terms of colour. Will have to concentrate when it is time to put these together. While I have been doing these I also thought that it would have looked really nice if I had just done one colour. Have seen a red/white scrappy one on the net and that looked absolutely fabulous. We'll see...no doubt I will have heaps of scraps left over even after this exercise.

Back to the tiny stars...

Karin

Practising the Flutterby Motif

First of all...thanks to everyone that responded to my last post. I received each comment via email! Yah!

Now to some serious quilty talk...practice, practice practice!

I have the last charity quilt to complete

...a full on 'Garden Quilt'. For some time now I have been thinking about doing a butterfly design on it. So, I did some practice of a motif that I had seen on the internet...I think by Adria (sorry can't remember her last name but she comes up on my FB with classes that she offers). As the charity quilt is a large lap size quilt I made myself a quilt sandwich out of calico and tried this out.

Not too bad but somehow did not like the shape of my butterflys. Then I remembered the Handiquilter Flutterbys Minute Motifs and gave that a whirl on a small piece of fabric.

Not that great but I liked the shape much better. Definitely needed more practice on a bigger piece. Then I remembered my UFO quilt. I have had that quilt for several years. It is basted (just goes to show how long a good baste will last) and I have used it in my workshops for beginning freemotion quilters to have a trial on their domestic machines with a 'real' quilt. The purpose is to demonstrate how disorientating it is to have a scrappy (and very colourful) quilt under the throat of your machine and how to plan and structure your edge to edge design, i.e. know the path you are going to take and how you change direction when quilting. This has been very difficult for most people as the pure riot of colours and bulk of the quilt usually leads to a fair amount of confusion. It's been a great teaching tool but after the last class I thought that I would retire this quilt.

Spent some time taking the quilting attempts of various classes out, steamed it up and off we went. I am not sure what this quilt is going to become...maybe another quilt for the cats or a floor rug for the soon to be new addition to the family. Not sure yet. The quilt has some amazing blocks in there, all a bit wonky (that's why they became UFOs) but never mind...I even found the first fabric that I ever bought in there.

Here is the path of the design

So I started with the Flutterbys on the quilt. Was not sure exactly how big I wanted to go but thought it would become evident once I started on the quilt. I think I ended up doing the Flutterbys about 1.5in - 2in. As you need some speed as you are quilting it it did get a bit wonky here and there...it was particularly challenging to keep each side approximately the same. Could at times not see where I had been before.

Soon realised that it did not matter that much because you cannot actually see the design that well on a colourful quilt like this. I am still quilting with the light green Mettler Silky Finish 50 on the machine. Have several cones of that and it's about time that I make a bit of an in-road into my thread stash.

Overall the butterflys looked alright, every now and then a bit wonky, initially too skinny but I soon got in the swing of things. Looking at the Handiquilter Minute Motif now I can see that I have done the design a bit different to what they have, i.e. my top wings are a bit longer but that was a way for me to be sure of where I was going thinking 'top wing, then down to the bottom wing and up again'.

Finished it today but you be hard pressed to see the design unless you hold the quilt in your hands.

However, after having done this I feel a bit reassured that I can execute this design on the charity quilt. Had no problem travelling along, maybe need to make my loops slightly smaller but even when you get yoursef stuck on top of a butterfly you can always reverse out and start looping again from the bottom of the motif. My only other issue was to swing out far enough to actually make the motif. Every now and then I had to give them a smallish bottom wing as I was getting too close to a neighbouring loop. But apart from that this design works very well as an overall design.

Will bind this with my leftover scraps of binding...bit excited about that because I almost used them all up by now.

Karin

Email Comment Notifications

It's been a while now that I have not received any email notifications for comments left on my blog. Every now and then I would look at the settings, try different things but had no success in fixing it. It's a hassle because that meant that I had to remember to look at my blog to see whether anybody commented and of course, sometimes I did forget to do that so comments would sit there waiting for moderation.

The other day then both my husband and myself spent hours looking at this problem. I think we fixed this now. After some research I did come across a blog post at Life and Linda 'Hopefully a fix on blogger's No-Reply'.

We tried this out several times and it seems to work when my husband commented from his Ipad on my blog.

Could I please ask for a few people to give me a comment just so that I can test this out on a wider audience. This would also then show me whether or not the No-Reply blogger has been fixed. Apparently that is an issue again.

Thanks in advance!

Here is a little close up of the quilty goodness from the other day

Love Lisa Calle's Pro Echo rulers. They work so well for me each and every time.

Karin

Progress Report

Well, the AMQF has come and gone. Four days of all things quilting. I went every single day...not exactly how I had it all planned out but with having to drop off my quilt and picking it up, retail hall and one class it just turned out that way.

My quilt looked nice on the black background. It won third place and got a beautiful yellow ribbon. Loved it!

Got to do one class with Bethanne Nemesh 'From A to Zen' which was very good (as usual) and a group of us got talking to her after the class. Was able to have a very close look at some of the quilts she had brought over, including some class samples of the classes that I had done previously online. This was a bit special, I must say.

I did allocate a whole morning to exploring longarm frames and machines...have been thinking about this for a while by now and before I went to the show I did a fair amount of research into the topic in order to be a bit prepared. As so often happens when consulting the internet, I got quite confused with all the different choices (and we don't have that much choice in Australia!). Anyway, I was wondering how difficult it would be to get used to quilting on a frame versus on the sitdown machine...in previous quilt shows I have had a few moments here and there on various machines, but nothing ever quite seriously. So this time I really had a very good look and try on some machines to see how difficult it would be for me to maybe make that switch.

Must say that I got a bit side tracked in my research, lured by the cost of various set ups. As I really would want to do edge-to-edge quilting I started looking at computerized set ups which is insanely expensive. I would absolutely love to have a set up like this but am reluctant to give up my sit down machine. So I started looking at cheaper set ups and was able to test these at the show. Not to mention the brands but what I thought was a great deal (longarm, frame plus computer) felt absolutely horrendous to stitch on. Tried a higher model of the same brand which was better but that would mean that I would again hit over $20000 if I wanted a computerized set up. In the end I went to the Bernina stand. One try on the Bernina Q20 on the frame and I was sold...it was like day and night. I know my machine and I obviously think it is a good machine but the difference in operation on the frame compared to others was astounding. The machine was extremely light and easy to manoeuvre and I was able to stitch basic meandering patterns in about 5 minutes. Obviously I would need more practice to do the fine detailed quilting that I am used to but at least I was able to ascertain that I would be able to make that transition after a bit of practice. I had a really great time with the sales person...she even let me try some rulers which was also quite easy going. Talked through all the options, different frames, accessories needed etc., marvelled at the quality of the frames and this helped me greatly to get my thinking straight. I have got the machine and now that I know that I could make that transition with a bit of practice, this really opened it up for some decision-making in the future. All I would need is a frame and the space for it...the computer that comes with the Bernina is out...just too costly. Unfortunately I cannot justify that expense ($24000 for the computer system alone) as I am not intending to set up a business. However went away really quite happy after having done all the research and reassured myself that indeed this would be an option for me, now it is just a matter of time and space. Will have to wait a while...we are planning some renovations over the latter part of the year and various other things are happening. But there is no hurry, I love my sitdown Bernina and when the time is right I just plonk my machine on a frame rather than looking at getting an additional machine of a different brand. 

After this little adventure I have started back on the charity quilts. Managed to pin and baste two quilts in one hit

Really felt like some ruler quilting and started today after having spent a day stitching -in-the-ditch.

As this is a charity quilt I only ditched the major seams otherwise I would have had to spent another day just ditching. The intersections of this quilt were horrendous...at times like little hard pebbles. Also think that the fabrics used in this quilt are quite old or maybe the quilt top is quite old. Everything felt a bit more movable. In order to secure all this I decided to quilt a simple line design, semi-continuous depending on whether I remembered where to go next. Would have liked to do an individual motif in the white squares, however that would have taken forever. This way I literally zoomed along finishing half of the quilt in one go today. I stitched the curves with the Pro Echo curve no 6 which made a nice deep curve in the coloured squares and was also the right size for the white squares. Looks quite nice and will hold this all together. Also tried a different thread today...Mettler Silk Finish 50wt...no problem at all, stitched very nicely, but then again my machine stitches nicely with any thread, just a matter of getting the tension adjustment right.

So, that's where I am at...next on the agenda is some piecing of a sweet little baby quilt.

Karin

Back in Action!

Its seems like a very long time that I wrote a post.

My FMQ workshop came and went. It went very well, I think. The content was well received and the ladies had a little bit of fun as well. I always forget to take photos but the owner of the shop, being so much younger than me, always does some reels/stories which she puts on FB and IG. Unfortunately I am always not so sure how I can share this to my FB page or IG and then miss the opportunity to do anything about this.

What have I been doing? Well, I finished my background filler project...it was incredibly hard and at the last moment I decided to put it into the Australian Machine Quilting Festival which will be held here at the end of March. That meant that I had to speed up my quilting and resolve to get this done. Frozen shoulder or not I persevered much to my physio's dismay. In the last week I literally had to quilt for several hours each day to get my entry in by the deadline...and then of course they changed the deadline and gave another week. But it was done and the entry got in on time. Since then I have been working on getting binding and labelling done. Unfortunately I cannot show the quilt to you as yet as you are not supposed to have images of quilt entries on social media. But not long now and I will post some photos of it hanging at the show. They always look good hanging on a dark background. Not sure how it will be received as it looks like one of Bethany Nemesh' quilts which of course makes sense as I was using that quilt as a practice piece for the many designs that we learned in the Breaking Boundaries class. We shall see.

I did also finish my challenge block, an Ohio star, for Lisa Calle's group, however have not quilted it yet and am not sure whether I will manage til the end of the month.

I will probably be late with that finish but it does not matter. I used my favourite William Morris fabric for this so at some stage I will quilt that up nicely.

The other 'thing' that has caused some major excitement in the household is that my eldest daughter is pregnant. We are going to be first time grandparents by the end of August. So, I have been fabric shopping twice already and am looking at what patterns to use for a sweet little girl baby quilt. Found this amazingly cute fabric from Art Gallery Fabrics. Here it is in one of their free patterns on their web site

Very soft colours...gorgeous fabric! Not sure whether I will do a pattern like this, seems a bit too involved for me, so I am looking around for something a bit easier and quicker. Also dragged out another Growth Chart Panel that I happened to have in girlish tones, so will quilt that first so the parents-to-be have a little bit of decoration for their nursery room.

So, as you can see all my plans for this year came to a complete stop in terms of what I had planned but what a lovely surprise that was. With the quilt show approaching, I will be out of action again for a few days as I am also attending a workshop with Bethanne Nemesh and of course there is the Retail Hall. Once that is over hopefully I can get back to some quilting routine.

 

Karin