Barbara's Quilt Finished

A little late to sharing, but yay!  Barbara's quilt is finished and by now should have made its way home.  :)  I had so much fun quilting this - and I know I say that frequently but I really do love my job, and I really DO enjoy quilting quilt tops up for folks!

Barbara had been concerned that her top might be too plain for fancy quilting - I'm so glad she decided to send it along despite that concern.  The truth is, for most of us machine quilters who do a lot of custom work, the simply pieced tops are our FAVORITE.  The ones that have a lot of negative space give us the most opportunity for creativity.

Barbara sent along a few photos of quilting she had see online and requested something with a similar feeling.  I can at times recreate quilting, but often times it works best for me to see a photograph of what you like and then create something new and fresh but with a similar feeling or style.  So that is what we did here.  Because the photo she sent was a tad difficult to draw directly on I opted to recreate her blocks and share with her my ideas for each section of the quilt.

 

I almost always ask for the tiniest bit of creative freedom even when a mock up is approved.  Just like any plan, sometimes ideas look better on paper than in reality.  Or, what happens more often with my work, is that I think up little details to improve on a design as I'm working.  Sometimes those little gems are what really set that quilting design off.

Barbara requested two layers of my Hobbs 80/20 batting.  For most show quilts I like to use wool layered over Hobbs, but I find that 80/20 in double layers quilts up very nice too.  Wool is slightly lighter and has a filling quality that 80/20 doesn't.

I used Glide in the top and Bottom Line in the bobbin.  I do love this combination for appropriate quilts.  As a general rule I prefer a fine top thread for dense quilting - but this quilt in particular has dense and medium/light areas of quilting and I wanted the heavier thread to compensate in those areas with less quilting to give it a more even feeling.

All in all I am very please with how this one turned out!  I think I always spot a few things with each quilt that I will do slightly different on the next...but I still think it turned out quite drool worthy!  :)

R.I.P. - How I Murdered My Long Arm Motor

Many tears of frustration and anger have been cried over the last week - my quick fix that had my machine down for over a week soon turned into a nightmare - when I broke it!  Opening up my motor to check on an issue resulted in my accidentally snapping the main power supply.  Oops.  This was a day I was really happy to be my own boss...but also really sad to be too because it was my own $300 that had to be spent to replace that motor.

Ugh.

The good news?  Eunice the long arm is up and running!!!  Thank goodness, I was really in a panic for a few days there!  I'm so impressed with APQS and how quickly they got that motor out to me - especially since I had the free shipping (which usually  means - SLOW shipping) and it was the week of Thanksgiving.  I didn't however realize the motor wouldn't be ready to install right out of the box - so that set me back about half a day, but I did get it installed and quilted for several hours yesterday without issue so I think *thank goodness* the problem is solved.

My new super awesome RUNNING motor.  :)

I am so grateful for those who have quilts here who have been extremely patient with me!  I will be working extra long hours and all quilts currently in house will be finished by the end of the week.  Barring no further issues with Eunice - since she now has a brand new motor the hopes are that she will be running well for another decade and a half - and I will be quilting up a storm this week.

In other news - since little machine quilting has been going on due to my down machine -I did pull out this quilt...

...and have been working on the finishing details.  It has a few trouble areas that I want to correct before showing it anywhere.  The biggest being that bias tape around the edge that I should have ripped off and reattached.  Since I didn't...I had to think of a way to improve the wonky stitches...I had planned to either add cording or piping of some sort around it when I designed the quilt...but instead I have been adding seed beads....boy are they doing the trick!  I don't know if I'll get it completely perfect and flawless ...but at least to where I can stand to look at it!

I love that the seed beads add a pretty sparkle and really add to the character of the quilt...if you click on the bottom photo of that bias tape edge you can see where the beading stops - and what an improvement they make to evening out the lines.

I am going to try to get this quilt finished for Lake Farm Park Quilts 2015 in Kirtland, Ohio - our local show that I have yet to enter...but if I cannot get it ready in time for the deadline I'll shoot for the NQA show in Columbus, Ohio.

Happy quilting all - and many more photos to come now that I can actually QUILT again!!  :)  I hope all who are in the States reading had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy New Year...and The Quilt That Never Ends!

Happy New Year!  It's hard to believe that it is already 2014!  A year ago today I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of my long arm...and I could barely do a decent stipple when it first came home.  While there are still imperfections and things I will need to improve and work on, I'm really thrilled with how my "vintage charm" or "looks like a stinkin' wedding quilt" or whatever it will be called is coming along.  A sweet quilting acquaintence asked me if I was going to enter this in the local quilt show, and while I would like to, the deadline is in four days and I have a mess of beading and embelishments that will still be added to this so I just don't think I'll make the deadline.  I have dreamed since I started machine quilting of entering something in one of the MQX shows so that's what I'm hoping for.  The deadline is February 1st and I have a slew of things left to do, plus customer quilts, so - fingers crossed!  I do really want to put this out there to share and there are lots of really great shows out there looking for entrants so when it is done it will go somewhere.  LOL!  ;)

I've got only 6" at the bottom of the quilt left that as soon as I'm finished with some other priority work I'll finish up and finally be done...

Here's the center.  I literally cried over this.  LOL!  The pressure got to me a little bit and the lack of sleep too I think.  The first time I'd marked off that center square it was TERRIBLE!  It was off cneter and wobbly and just terrible.  I marked it again and stitched it out and - wheew - it turned out really pretty.  :)  The stripes are stitched...it's looking a little like a popcorn box though so I thought beads - BEADS SOLVE ALL PROBLEMS!  LOL  I thought maybe I could do something creative in there...  :)

Up close in the sun yesterday afternoon of the bottom left corner...almost there!

Today I got brave and took a shot of the back.  There is no mercy with white thread on a mauve backing.  Every hiccup shows but, at the same time, I've learned many lessons.  :)

 

So I'm very very happy, despite the years this may have taken off my life!  :)  I am already thinking about my next project...