Grip & Stitch Disks, BPQ Show and Giveaway!!!

These are the disks I love!  I always use them and now have 4 pairs, one for each machine station and another to keep in my class bag, because I love quilting with them and hate being without them.  They even help me grip and move the fabric or larger part of piecing and sewing projects much easier than my old way of grabbing  a handful of the fabric when I'm sewing.  If you've been to one of my quilting classes or free motion quilting demonstrations, you've seen me use these!  When I was at the Houston Quilt Market last year, a little video was made in the APQS booth when I was demonstrating quilting on the George (this is the long arm quilting machine I have - it's in a table, like my Bernina and Pfaff), and Clever Craft Tools has some U-Tube videos on their website.

Besides quilting and sewing, there are lots of other things I can see these disks being used for, such as when my husband is using his scroll saw.  Even though it's a saw, which is cutting the wood apart, instead of joining, the operation of the blade is up and down and the wood is moved like you move fabric when quilting, and I think it would give the woodworker an easier way to maneuver the wood they are cutting.  Now I just need to dream up a project that will get him to get out his scroll saw and try it.  Hmmm, I wonder if he will let me play with it?

Now here's the giveaway part.  I have a set of the newest version of the Grip & Stitch disks, which has even better quality foam and instead of the gray layer in the middle, it's now white.  Starting today, I'll be setting up my booth  at the Block Party Quilters Quilt Show with my booth neighbor, who is the manufacturer of these cool disks, Clever Craft Tools, and she has given me a pair to giveaway.  So leave a comment on this blog post and on Monday I'll use the random number generator to pick a winner!  

If you're local, come see us at the Block Party Quilt Show this weekend and say hi!  There will even be a machine so you can take the disks on a test spin.

(The fine print:  If you're the winner, I'll need a way to contact you or will have to pick a different winner if I am unable to get in touch with you next week.)

Painted Floral Quilts

These two little quilts were begun when I was at Quiltworks NW, demonstrating the Grip 'n Stitch disks, as I wanted to show the shop hoppers a more interesting quilting than just the little doodling, that just showed how to use the disks.  First I used chalk to draw circles around my drink bottle, scattering them across my sample, fat quarter, quilt sandwiches.  Once the flower centers were filled with quilting, petals were added, and then I chalked the stems and leaf placement.  I didn't stop until the whole quilt sandwich was covered with quilting!

For the second fat quarter quilt, flower heads were quilted in the circles, and then I decided they would be placed in vases, so I added a few more chalk lines.  Switching between chalking a few outlines and quilting, I worked until there was no more room for quilting! 

 Of course, the next step is going to be painting in the quilted designs, although I'm thinking I might like to try a wash of color to make the background more interesting before starting on the flowers.

Quilt, Knit, Weave, Spin...

Between yesterday and this morning, I shuffled and cut decks for the Figs and Ginger quilts:

I decided the quickest way to go, would be to cut each deck and place the sections onto card stock to keep everything in order.  These can then be stacked, ready for sewing.

Three stacks have been sewn into blocks, so I'm making progress:

My Aquitaine Cuffs are coming along nicely, and I'm halfway up the second chart!

I'm weaving some grey scarves in between other projects.  The warp is long enough for three scarves, each will be woven with a different pattern, and the first is finished, it's the swirling stars design in medium and light grey.  Now I'm working on the second scarf, which I would describe as interlocking tabs, as I don't know what the pattern would really be called, as it is only a number in the book, I'm using, which is A Weaver's Book of 8-shaft Patterns:

I'm also trying to do at least a few minutes of spinning each day, since I've decided to spin for a sweater.  When I was at the Allyn Knit Shop, I purchased a 3 lb bag of wool, which I seem to have lost the tag for:-(  It's soft, and I think it is a merino blend that is from local sheep.  There is some veg matter, which is seriously slowing me down, but otherwise, it is a dream to spin!  I'm spinning this wool woolen style, as it is a roving, and almost spins itself in that method, but there is so much wool, it is going a long way, so much so, that I feel like I'm spinning an endless bag of wool!  This is what I've spun so far (the numerical tags are to help me decide the order of bobbins to use when plying):

I still have quite a ways to go, and am wondering if I'll have enough bobbins, or if I'll need to start plying to empty some bobbins so that I can finish spinning.

Because this is such a large project, and the roving is quite thin, not needing to be pre-drafted or split, I'm spinning right out of the bag, only breaking the yarn when I get too thin, or have filled a bobbin.

Figs and Ginger - fabrics found

Yeah!  I managed to find all the fabrics in my stash!!!  So far, I believe I have enough for two twin quilts, and have also pulled out two fabrics that I think may work for the borders, but I'm going to wait to decide on the border fabrics, until I have the center panels complete.

Here's my fabric:

In case you missed my previous post, I'm making the Figs and Ginger pattern from Stack the Deck Revisited, by Karla Alexander, and have invited my readers to quilt-a-long.  I've decided to make two for twin beds that are in the same room, but I'm making one the mirror image of the other, so that the angle of the design can point towards the other bed / nightstand, making a chevron design.  Have you chosen your fabrics yet?

Madrona photo shoot

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I'm busy making gifts, and many can't be seen until after they've been gifted, and of course, there are some that may never be photographed, because I gifted them as soon as they were finished, so I have no pictures.  Anyway, I had to get the large quilts photographed today so that I can use the space tomorrow to set up the Christmas tree, and that means I have pictures to post:  Madrona today, and others to follow. 

Well, here it is at last, the finished Madrona quilt, taken while hanging, instead of doing my best to take a picture of it lying on the floort.  At 89" wide and 62-1/4" high, I believe it's the largest wall quilt that I've made so far!

Here's a detail shot of the bark.  I wanted to show the ragged look that the trees have as the bark peels away.

The trees and much of the quilt top were collaged into place, and then quilted, leaving all the raw edges to ravel and add texture.

The ferns were fussy cut from a batik fabric, but re-colored with Seta-scrib fabric pens.

And here's my photo set-up.  Sometimes I hang a black curtain behind the quilts, but not today.

Vivienne Moore's Oasis

This past summer I was able to take Vivienne Moore's Oasis class in Sisters, OR.  While I was cutting the fabric before class, I got carried away and cut more than double the pieces required, but thought I'd make a larger quilt anyways.  Last night I finished quilting it and today I hope to get the binding and sleeve on, because I need to turn it in for a local quilt show, before I leave for market.  

Note to self:  Don't enter anything that isn't already finished in a show, not ever again!

Madrona - Finished quilting

I've managed to finish quilting my Madrona quilt, yipee!! It's washed and has dried while being laid out on the floor (on painter's plastic to protect the carpet), and is waiting to have a facing and sleeve sewn on.

My Book is Here!!!

It's here!  It's here! It's here!!!!!!

Imagine opening a whole box of your very own books.  Not one, or two, or three, a whole box!!!

If you pre-ordered a book, and didn't ask for it to be endorsed to you or a friend, please let me know asap, as I'd like to get them all in the mail as quick as possible, so you can hold it in your hands and start flipping through it!

If you didn't pre-order, and would like to order a book from me, signed, or signed and endorsed to you or a friend, please contact me, and you can either fill out a snail mail order form and mail it back to me with a check, or you could pay me through Paypal. [Unfortunately, my hope to finish my website updates and get a shopping cart is not complete as yet, because my computer decided to die, so I'm busy reinstalling programs and moving the files I had saved on a portable drive into the new computer.  I'll continue on when it is ready, but I also need to get lots of things done for quilt market, because I'm doing a schoolhouse presentatio, and have things to finish for that as well.]

If you plan to purchase my book from your local quilt shop, or elsewhere, they should be arriving soon, if not today, as my local quilt shop received them this morning.  If they haven't ordered them yet, I'll bet they would if you asked!

Hand Stamped mini-quilts

Before quilting the Madrona quilt, I needed to spend some time warming up on a few smaller quilts. These had been waiting for me, and now they're quilted! All of them have been stamped with Lumiere fabric paint, using stamps that I carved. As you can see I got a little carried away on the first, starting to machine embroider to add color. The next stop for these quilts is to be embellished with hand quilting, beads, sequins, hand embroidery, more paint..... and then they will have their edges finished and a sleeve added. (I'm trying the "save for web" choice in Photoshop, so I can see what, if any change it makes in the pictures on my blog.)

Sunrise quilt and a little more Madrona info.

One of my readers asked about my construction methods for the Madrona quilt - did I use a freezer paper pattern. The short answer is no, but it is mostly because of the size of it. I'll have to go into more detail in another post, however here is a quilt that I found I had forgotten to blog, that I did use freezer paper to construct the borders. When I looked for it's picture, it seems it wasn't blogged because I only had fuzzy pictures, and I have remedied that by taking some new ones:-)



The center panel, and all the fabrics were either hand painted by me with Pebeo fabric paints, or hand dyed with Procion MX dyes. The first thing I did was pin the center panel up on the wall and measure it, and then I tore two pieces of freezer paper that were longer than the quilt's size in either direction to allow for sewing together and squaring up. Each piece was divided lengthwise, then pinned around the quilt, and then the wavy lines were roughly sketched in place.

One strip was cut out to work with at a time and divided into sections when needed(offset from one another). The freezer paper was pressed to the front of the fabric, and then it was trimmed, leaving about 1/4" seam allowance. The seam allowance of the applique pieces that were to be on top was glue basted to the wrong side, and then the pieces were glue basted together. Once I had a couple rows complete, I began stitching the sections together with a tiny blind hem stitch.

A flange of folded fabric was basted in place around the panel and then the border was added. For the side panels, I made a clean cut on the side that was to be sewn to the panel, and then stitched them on and trimmed them to the same length as the panel, and then repeated with the upper and lower panels. I decided to do a free hand cut outer edge, and then a traditional binding and sleeve to finish it up.

Close up of the sun:



Here's a close up of the water:




And a close up of the sky:

Quilts from Libby's Class - 3 Finished!

They're quilted, bound, and have sleeves sewn to the back, so all that is needed is a label, which I plan to print on the computer.

Some quilting, some weaving

Yep, I've been a busy beaver, cutting, sewing and quilting, so here's a little preview of the quilting.

I warped up my inkle loom with a design found in Heather Heroldt's "Beginning Inkle Weaving" and love the design, although I'm still working on my selvedges as well as keeping the width even. This one was made the full length of the loom.

Another quilted quilt and Demo this afternoon

Yep, I've finished quilting another quilt, so here's a sneek peek of the quilting on the back of the quilt. Time to move on to squaring up, binding and adding a sleeve, then on to another quilt.

Demo:
This afternoon, from 12-3pm, I'll be down at Gathering Fabric, in Woodinville, WA, doing a demo for my Clothlesline Tote Bag made with Bali Pops. Stop by and say hi if you're in the area.

Yes, of course I've been quilting

The problem is, I just can't show you what I'm making - not yet. But in the meantime, I thought I'd show you how I quilted a couple of the borders on the quilt I just finished quilting. No, this isn't the front - it's the back, and I'm sorry to say I have been having tension issues.

Tension problems always seem to rear their ugly heads on this machine anytime I decide to use those pre-wound cardboard-sided bobbins. Yes, it's good thread, my machine just doesn't like the cardboard, and although I have tried, it doesn't seem possible to have good tension (I think the cardboard rubs inside the bobbin case), and in trying to get them to work, I usually end up messing it up, which sometimes takes me a while to get "just perfect". I finally did get it fixed, but I'm not as happy with this quilt back as I could have been. I've decided they are just not worth it, and in the future plan to wind any remaining pre-wound bobbins onto my own bobbins.

Hearts, Flowers, and Swirls - quilt finished!

Just a quick picture with my pocket camera, so I could show you how it came out. For quilting, I ended up stippling the background of the smaller hearts, and using multicolor thread to quilt swirls on the striped border. Now off to finish the pattern.

Floral Vest - more info

Judy said my vest looked like the class she took several years ago based on Rosemary Eichorn's style.

Well, the vest pattern is a Rosemary Eichorn pattern, Vest #101, that has been discontinued, although she does have another that is quite similar. While I did follow the pattern instructions for the assembly, it was not done in her collage technique, other than the darker green fern fabric. After cutting out my vest, I covered it with paper and sketched the flowers where I wanted, and then used my pattern to applique all the flowers in place. Of course, since I used myoriginal pattern, I no longer have it, so have re-drawn the flowers from a combination of tracing from a photograph of my vest, making some small adjustments as I went to create new patterns. The butterfly was created with patterns cut from a fabric that looked like overlapping parts of butterfly wings. I collaged the parts together, and then cut a litle body out. Most of the beading was done by hand, but the flower centers with large beads were sewn by machine.

Looking back, I wish I had pieced the lining before the vest was cut out and appliqued, but her technique for finishing the shoulder seam and edges worked like a charm! The vest can be worn reversed, and as you can see it is quite different. The front closure is a large, handmade frog that is on the inside, and both sides have large, coordinating glass buttons.

Artistic Free Motion Online Class

begins this Friday, February 13th! There are still a few openings, so sign up if you are interested in learning to free motion quilt with me. Although you can still sign up once the class has begun, and all questions and answers will be saved in the forum for the duration of the class, it's best to sign up before it starts, so that you will have as much time as possible to practice and ask your own questions. It is a four week class that is as similar to my "in person" class, as possible.

A couple things that are different between taking an online class and an "in person" class, is that you can't look over my shoulder or from the side to see how I work, and I can't look at your work "in person". Because I am not able to demonstrate in person, I have included a short video, so that you can really see how I stitch out many of the designs, as well as many more pictures, showing examples of the designs we are working on at the time. You can show me your work by uploading pictures in the forum to show off your work, or so that I can help you if you are having trouble with something. Instead of one day to try to learn everything, the lesson is broken up into smaller chunks, so that you will have more opportunity to practice before continuing on to the next lesson.

Come learn to free motion quilt with me!

Artistic Free Motion Online class in February

If you've been wanting to take a class with me, but have been unable to make it to a regular class, come join my Artistic Free Motion Online class in February! The class will be on the Quilter's Keep Learning website over the course of four weeks, so that you can work when you have time, and have more time to digest all the information. There is also a quilting video , so you can see how I quilt, not just read about it.

These pictures are some of the samplers that I've stitched using continuous designs that I like to use as fills, but we will also go beyond what you see here, as well as all those details that you need to know to make your life easier, and your quilting stitches better.