Eunice is Back in Business!

Yes!!!  After what seemed like a long start getting back into customer quilts, my sweet long arm Eunice is back in business!  LOL!

I think at this point I could change my motor brushes with my eyes closed too.  I had to open up the motor, fix the motor brushes (several times), reattach wires that I didn't even know lived in my machine, replace the belt, then the needles - and NOW she sews!  LOL!

Here are some shots of Pamela's snowman quilt...

I think the border is probably my favorite...I love the way the quilting looks with it!  :)

On to the next!!  :)

Update!

Just a little update as to where I am at work wise!  It has been quite a week!

This past week my Father went into the hospital for emergency surgery for a urinary blockage.  I won't go into details, but it was no fun for Dad!!  :(  My Mother relies on him quite a bit for transportation as she has had a number of strokes over the years and consequentially now suffers from epilepsy, so she no longer drives.  In addition to that I just wanted to be there for my Mom and Dad!  :)  So Dad is home now and doing really well after two surgeries and a three day hospital stay.  Wheew!

As if that wasn't enough to throw my week out of whack, I broke my very last long arm needle and had to put off quilting for two days while I waited for needles to come in, and THEN the belt on my long arm snapped!  OH my!  There is truth to that saying, "when it rains it pours!"

I think I have answered all emails and messages and am pretty much caught up now.  I have a few quilts in wait (Pamela, Deanna) but please know they are coming and I will contact you very soon!  I never want to leave anyone hanging or wondering what is going on with their quilt!  :)

Thank you all for being really wonderful and understanding!  It was really nice to get so many well wishes and prayers while Dad was sick.  As my parents grow older the reality of their mortality really begins to weigh on me...I know we haven't got forever but I truly am grateful for the time we DO have!!  :)  I love them!  :)

- Valerie

A Special Gift

I know I have been posty mcposterson lately - and now that I'm working on customer quilts again I may slow back down to a post a week - but I just had to share.

Yesterday I received a gift in the mail that just about brought me to tears.  My Husband, a.k.a. the sweetest man on the face of the planet, bought me two very special books for Christmas.  One was by Sharon Schamber, and another by Karen McTavish.  Because he is a collector of baseball cards and sports memorabillia, his immediate thought to make it even more special was to ask if he might get an autograph to go with the book.  Well Karen's book was out of print, so he didn't get to order it directly from her - so he couldn't get an autographed copy.  Instead he asked if maybe she could send a Christmas card...and she did!  He once before had asked her for an autographed photo which she obliged and I have saved with all of my quilting books - I was a little afraid she was going to think I was "one of those" fans what with all the photos and autograph requests!!!  But I have to say, I was tickled and honored that someone of her talent and level would take a moment to do somthing special for me - twice! -  and that meant so much.

Now my Husband had also emailed Sharon Schamber and from what I understand her son runs her website.  Christmas day had come and gone and he told me that he had tried to get ahold of Sharon but never heard back.  I told my Husband not to be offended, she is really top of the crop and really, I don't think I know a quilter who's been quilting long who isn't lusting after her quilts!!  :)  So I really didn't expect to hear anything, and I was content with that.  Well low and behold about a week after Christmas my husband recieved an email from Sharon's son.  He apologized for the delayed response and said that Sharon wanted to send more than an autograph, but something "special".  My Husband shared the email with me and I about lept out of my chair in excitement wondering what it could be!  He had sent a small photo attachment along with the email and I looked at it carefully - like any good obsessed quilter fan I had remembered a similar photo from Sharon's Instagram feed...and I immediately recognized that it was a snippet of one of her embroidery designs!!!

Needless to say I have been virtually stalking the mail man for my little surprise...and yesterday was the day! 

This is what I received from Sharon...

I mean, is that unbelieveable or what?!  I know lesser known artists who sell PRINTS of their works with an autograph for a pretty penny...so I can only imagine the monetary value a signed piece of work directly from Sharon would go for...not that I would ever part with it.  Truly, it just meant so very much to me, I can't even express it.  Just now I want to cry!!  LOL! 

Here is the reverse side...it is autographed!  :)  My Husband said to me, "WOW!  That is the equivalent of Derek Jeter sending me a signed cleat!"  It is very exciting and so beautiful...



I love Sharon's immaculate detail in everything that she does.  Even the embroidered binding is magnificent!  I learned even just by looking at this small piece.  I hope that I get to see one of her masterpiece quilts in person one day...

...and that shiny gold thread is to die for!  Something that surprised me was the stiffness and flatness of the little piece.  I think much of that is from the thin batting and the heavy stitching, but I kind of think Sharon is known for her heavy use of starch.  You could definitely tell a bit of starch and pressing happened here!  LOL!  :)  So fascinating to have this real life little quilt in my hands and to be able to study Sharon's design up close and how she attached her binding and all the little details that can be missed in a photograph.

Even the packaging was special - I mean I think the package was about as exciting to recieve as the little quilt!  I won't show the whole envelope as it has addresses on it, but this was the little message written on the back...you can not tell me you wouldn't squeel a little with excitment and anticipation if you found this in your mail box!!  :)

I may sound a little dramatic, but those of you who are absolutely crazy passionate about quilting will understand where I come from.  These two women really changed my life.  I don't think I really found my niche in quilting until I started machine quilting.  From the start I tried to emulate Sharon Schamber's work even way back when I was quilting on my little Simplicity Quilter's Classic!!!  When I saw the amazing creations by both Sharon and Karen, I knew this was for me.  I knew that I wanted to spend my life creating quilted works of art.  I had known I loved quilting right from the get go, but it took me a while to find my true place and passion.  These two ladies really lead me there.

When you share and create you just don't know who you will influence, who you will inspire, how you change people.  I'm a real believer in that things are "meant to be" and people who are supposed to touch your life.  I am so honored and touched and thrilled to have received such special gifts from both Sharon and Karen...and more than anything to be given their TIME.  Because time is so very precious!!!

So last night was just sweet, I went to bed feeling very lucky and very blessed.  I don't know if I deserve to be so lucky, to have such a wonderful Husband and beautiful family and the ability to spend my days doing what I love...but somehow I am.  Life is so very good!  :)

Quilting is DONE!!!!

YAY!!!  I finished the quilting on this today - FINALLY!  I had most of it done last night but this morning had to finish up a couple of small areas I had missed...but I am thrilled to say the quilting is finished.  The next few days I'll work on adding beads, a few crystals, lace, and cording.  I also need to add a hanging sleeve and label...

Absolutely nothing helps to photograph quilting like the afternoon sun!  :)  Shows off some of the sparkle in the fabric too...

I did piece the back - it is half white muslin and half mauve cotton sateen...I actually LOVE teh contrast!!!

I decided to use that vintage lace along the seam to soften it a bit...and I will add crystals to the back as well to highlight the pretty quilting...I actually like the back as much as the front ont this!!!

Part of me wishes I had used the mauve cotton sateen on the entire back.  It looks so amazing with the quilting against it.  But - I think the opportunity to use the lace will be really beautiful too.

 

I'll be working on Pamela's quilt next - she has been waiting patiently during this time off for her turn...pictures soon!  :)

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...

Almost at the Half Way Point

I am almost at the half way point on this quilt - OH MY GOODNESS!!  I cannot wait to be finished.  I have half a dozen more ideas floating in my head and I have quilts coming in soon!!!  Tomorrow is our second Christmas with my Husbands family...a day of play...then after that I have to buckle down because that only gives me one more week to finish the quilting on this.

I have been getting a lot of questions about what batting or what thread I'm using.  This is Glide thread on the top and in the bobbin - the cream fabric is mainley natural muslin - meaning there are natural imperfections in the fabric.  I like the look personally - and I like even more the idea of an elegant design over what is normally thought of as an inexpensive utilitarian fabric.  I love love love Glide thread because it tends to quilt up somewhere between a very fine thread and a thicker polyester thread...it's perfect for sort of, all purpose quilting.  You can do a lot of dense quilting without a terrible amount of thread build up or you can do really simple designs and they look very elegant and fancy with Glide's bit of shine.  I wind my own bobbins and have yet to use the magna bobbins but I hear great things about them!  I also like that Glide comes off the cone really smoothly.  I have only had one cone out of the forty or more that I've purchased from them that I had to use a thread net over.  (The price is right too - and they have one all across the board price...so I pay the same for the thread as you!  I am not affiliated - just a fan!)

I am using two layers of batting - and I prefer two layers of a lower loft batting to one layer of high loft batting.  It just gives a better more fuller look in my opinion.  Dare I say I even like the look of a "faux" trapunto look with two layers of batting and dense quilting versus real machine trapunto over top another layer or two layers of batt.  Or maybe I'm just lazy and would rather quilt the crumbs out of my quilt instead of cut away batting...  LOL!  :)

The top batting is Hobbs Tuscany Wool - I have never used this brand of wool before this quilt and I have never made a quilt this size with wool, but I do like Hobbs 80/20 quite a lot and they are very consistent so I thought it would be a good wool to start with.  I do love the fullness and the loft...but I don't like the memory retention and the sort of looseness of the batting.  When on the frame I like to poke the sides of my quilt where there is no top with pins while I am adjusting things and wool doesn't make a very good pincusion!  :)

The bottom layer is an off brand equivalent to Warm and Natural.  I have no real strong feelings about Warm and Natural either way other than to say that Warm and White tends to beard and beard bright white through my fabric so I rarely if ever use it anymore.  I honestly don't care for cotton either because I'm a machine quilter - I feel like poly and poly blends show off the quilting better and I like even more that poly batts tend to retain fold lines less.  I do however really like the look of these two batts together (wool and cotton) - though in the future to get more bang on the back I will probably layer wool with Hobbs 80/20.  Hobbs and Quilter's Dream have been my two favorite battings so far...and both are pretty economically priced.

Alright, happy sewing!  Hopefully I'll be DONE next time you hear from me!!!  :)

Free Motion Play on My New Juki!

Happy day after Christmas!!!  I hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday, even if you don't celebrate.  It was so great here, family - food - and goodies!!!  I was FINALLY able to open my Juki...I gotta say that was a TOUGH wait!

I needed to make up a sample to paint before I attempt painting on my "vintage charm slash wedding quilt" and well, what better time to play with my new toy!  I'm using Robinson Anton thread that came with the machine, two layers of low loft Quilters Dream poly batt, and muslin.  Just scraps from the stockings pretty much.

I want to say the Robison Anton seems to sew up a lot like Glide...but this is the only experience I've had with it yet so I can't really say  much more.  I like it a lot though, and being a huge Glide fan (still haven't tried magna bobbins though) I think I'm going to like this thread.  

The coins turned out really cool and are WAY easier when I can slow down with the Juki versus on the long arm!  LOL

Below is some of the thread I got with the machine...plus one more that is on the spool pin.

Ooooh and there she is!  My Juki!  She needs a name I think ... she's a lot younger than Eunice so I think she needs a younger name...I'll have to think on it!  LOL

OH!  One more goody the Husband bought me...I have been wanting this book forever!!!  It is out of print and kind of difficult to get your hands on because quilters tend to hang on to it.  I have never spent so much on a book and outside of Cindy Needhams Linen Quilt book I don't think I will again...but I had to have this for my collection and I love it.  My Husband even got ahold of Karen and asked her to send me a Christmas card!  LOL!  She is so super sweet, she obliged him and it was kind of exciting to get a card from one of my quilting super heroes!  :)  LOL  I will save it forever with the books for my children.

Alright I'm off - just had to share.  I have a TON of work to makeup after being off for so long and goofing around the last few days!!  :)  Hope you all are getting some sewing done out there!!