Simple Custom for Darlene

I'm a little behind on sharing photos of this one, but here are a few shots of the simple custom I finished for Darlene last week when Millie arrived.  I am amazed at how much easier tensioning this machine is.  If you ever began sewing on an older machine and then bought one of the newer fancier high end machines...I liken it to that experience.  Before purchasing my Juki I sewed on an old 1970's Europro, then a Simplicity Quilter's Classic and a White that my mother gifted me.  When the Juki came home, it was as if the angels were singing when it came time to tension finicky threads.  Same with Millie Mouse!

Not only is the tension easy to master and much more consistent, I am finding that having that stitch regulation allows me to work with a broader range of threads with a lot less fussing.  I have actually been using the same size needle between 40 wt. glide, metallic, 100 wt. invisifil and 100 wt. silk.  Of course I had to loosen up the bobbin tension a bit for the finer threads, but I was kind of pushing it leaving the same needle in (I only have one 3.5 left so I was trying to see if I could get away with it without having to wait for an order of new needles)...and surprisingly I had only one thread break that was more from my hastily pulling at the threads than stitching.

This was a fun quilt to work on - not terribly labor intensive so it was very enjoyable without a lot of thinking behind it...also those pretty lovely consistent stitches are great to look at!

I actually started this one on the Ulti when the handles went...so it was really fascinating to compare how much easier it was to quilt after Millie came home.

I am definitely enjoying my new machine!  :)  Working on another beautiful and giant quilt from Cindy today and as always I will share photos when I'm finished.  She has requested the pantograph Sonnet by Patricia Ritter and I - it will be my first time using it and also my first pantograph with stitch regulation - I'm very excited!

Deanna's Quilt - Finished - and an Art Quilt

I don't have much more to share today other than a finished photo of Deanna's quilt!  :)  It turned out really pretty - though I didn't have time to take great pictures as I finished it late last night and it was picked up this afternoon.  Today was eventful as my youngest had a doctor appointment out of town - and as soon as we got out of town my van broke down!  Boo!  It is being fixed and should be ready for pick up tomorrow, but wheew it was quite the afternoon.

After a stressful day I just needed to veg out a bit.  I cleaned for quite a while and then fiddled with the Juki.  I have a frozen screw in the needle plate that I messed with for about three hours.  I still haven't gotten it removed but I was able to clean under the needle plate so I went on and sewed for a while.  This was the final product...

I am really pleased with it for the most part.  I am always trying to find ways to which I can translate paintings onto quilts.  Painting is a passion second to quilts...I would love to incorporate the two without fussing with fabric dyes.  I do like to hand dye fabric...but not for the painting aspect.  I used my favorite Jaquard Lumiere paints with acrylic artist paints.  I need to add binding to two of the sides and maybe some beads as well.

I am looking forward to getting my car back tomorrow.  I'll be loading up Cindy's quilt for a quick all over quilting and then it's on to Bobbie's halloween quilt.  :)  Can you believe it's almost the end of July already?!