Retirement

No, not mine.  I could only wish.  I’m retiring the old short shank darning foot. 

She’s quilted many, many miles with me, but after playing with the new feet, she just doesn’t have the flexibility to do it anymore.  The Bernina was able to work through that, so I’ll save the foot for emergencies on her.  But, the new feet have so much more flexibility to their movement that I’ll be using them.  I didn’t even notice that the old foot had gotten stiff until I changed to the new. 

Anyway, it has made all the difference free motion quilting on the 15-91.  I was about to give up in frustration and decided to change feet instead and whammo-bammo, we’re off to the races.

I wanted to show the difference in scale for the picture of the front of the house. 

Rob and I talked about it last night and we’ve decided we need to do a video of the whole process of this quilt.  This weekend, I plan to wash the silk and make sure the blue marker will wash out and I plan to start the enlarged drawings that will be traced onto the quilt. 

So much hinges on whether the washout marker damages the silk.  It changes how this will be transferred to the silk and how much can be drawn in advance.

Be well.  Have a great Friday. It’s supposed to rain here.  Yay!!!

Lane

I can’t help it

I could not help starting to quilt the baby quilt today. 

There’s something about me that makes it hard to focus on one thing for a long time.  And, the ditch work on the Indian Orange Peel is…unending. 

Actually, most of it is done, but what is left is tedious and takes a lot of concentration.  So, I needed the distraction of starting to quilt another quilt.  And, the baby quilt is mostly straight lines and a shape I haven’t traced yet.  But, I hope to cut my own plastic template…I’ll let you know how that goes and whether I lose a finger in the process.

I’m also spending some free time tracing pictures for the whole cloth quilt. 

I printed this photo and traced it.  And, after it was done, I realized it was too big.  The plan was to put it on the overhead projector.  But, if the whole house was blown up to the size of this tracing, it would be bigger than the fabric I plan to use.  So, I have to print it smaller and trace again so I can blow it up with the overhead and make it fit into the rest of the house. 

Perfection is such a pain, right? 

Anything worth doing is worth doing…was that right?  Or was it twice?  Either way, I usually end up doing it twice to get it right.

Have a great Thursday.  February is ending.  The state courts have declared Texas’ ban on gay marriage to be unconstitutional.  Whoo-hoo.  It’s not over yet, but we’re gettting there.  Judge Garcia of the federal Western District of Texas wrote that by denying same-sex couples the right to marry, the state "[demeans] their dignity for no legitimate reason".  (BBC news)

Yeah, well, we knew that, but thanks for saying it.  By the way, is there ever a legitimate reason for the state to demean someone’s dignity?  Wait, shouldn’t everybody be worried about that possibility? 

Be well.  Lane

Spring springs again

Well, I waited til the worst day in a week to take these.  It’s gray and threatening rain.  But, I’m not complaining because we need the rain.  I’ve been trying not to water and to hold out until it rains.  And, I’ve done pretty good.  I’ve watered things in pots and things I’ve moved, but stayed away from the established plants. 

But, there are a few things in bloom.

The Astilbulon (sp?)

Vibrant pink Bougainvillea that’s been in the shed all winter.

The last of the Forsythia blooms as the leaves come on.  We have to keep this in a large pot.  It is highly invasive.

Witch hazel in bloom.

And, the first of the orange blossoms ready to pop open.

I’m ready.  My garden is in great shape for February.  And, there has been something in bloom for the full 12 months of the calendar year.  I got an unexpected bloom out of the Rosemary in January that completed the calendar.  Now, we’ll assess anything that we lost due to the extra cold weather.  But, I don’t think that’s very much.

Take care and have a great Tuesday.  Lane.

Over the weekend

What a great weekend we had.  I spent as much of it as I possibly could outside, enjoying it.  And, starting to move the plants out.  We didn’t get any oranges because I didn’t move the tree out of the greenhouse and let the bugs get to it early enough.  So, this year, as soon as I saw the flowers starting to form, out it came.

This weekend, we received the instructions for the second Civil War Sampler block from Barbara Brackman. 

My friend Barb, who shares her stash with me will recognize some of her recent gifts in this one.  The blocks are complex and I’m enjoying them.  Glad I’m not doing them by hand, like they would have been made in the era. 

I think a brown and green and pink theme is emerging, even in just the second block.  I’m going to have to decide if I want that because I don’t have much pink.

And, I also replaced the border on the baby quilt.  This is the third border.  I took off a green inner border and then a turquoise outer border and this time, I pin basted it so I can’t change my mind again.

And, I won’t.  I won’t, I won’t, I won’t.  I really like the baby’s Mom and really want to give her something unusual because I think she’ll enjoy that.  But, I didn’t mean for it to be so brown.

Anyway, it is what it is and it’s pinbasted so that’s all it’s going to be. 

I’ve also been ditch quilting.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get any video made this weekend.  I was in the yard too much.  But, we will get to it. 

Sydney had a singing competition this weekend.  She looked very professional.

She didn’t do so well.  So, the goal is to get her to try again in the future.  Somehow, keep her from giving up.  She’s like me before quilting, if it ain’t easy, it’s not worth doing again, right?  Perfect comes right off and no practice should be required.  Right? 

And, the best thing I can do is let her see me make quilting mistakes and redo and pick out and learn and take classes and do more and better and keep rising to my own challenges.  And, explain that’s what I’m doing and encourage her to do the same.  That’s the only way I know to teach that lesson.

Be well.  Have a great Monday.  Spring is coming, but even we are going to have another night in the thirties this week.  Dang, I just pulled all the ferns out.

Lane

Border work

Well, I’m about half way down the first border, quilting all those long pointy lines.  And, seeing every place my points don’t match.  But, you know, it’s too late to worry about that now. 

Yesterday, I spread the quilt out and just gave it a glance over.  There aren’t very many points that don’t match.  Most viewers at the show won’t notice.  But, I know the judge is going to see every one.  And, that makes me feel bad.  Even though probably 96% of the points are spot on, and there are hundreds of points, that 4% is bugging the crud out of me.  I knew it would.  And, I’m doing my absolute very best to just put those thoughts out of my mind.  Because, it’s too late to worry about that now.  Deja vu.

Yesterday, I took an ebay chance.  I think I bought five needles and two bobbins for the two spool.  The seller found them with a singer machine and advertised them as vintage singer parts.  But, my discerning eye says that they are national needles (national machines often take a longer needle) and that the two industrial bobbins are actually spools for the two spool machine.  Wouldn’t that be terrific?  The spools look similar to the old 35mm camera film spools, with a narrow post down the middle and straight ends.  If I’m right, those things are going to hold hundreds of yards of thread each.  Won’t know till they get here tho. 

I paid ninety-nine cents plus shipping.  Even if they aren’t what I think they are, it is worth it to find out.  I guess I’m a gambler like that.  They’ve been on ebay for months as the seller tried to off load them and I’ve watched the price drop.  If you’re going to sell stuff, you need to know about it.  Any vintage machine collector will tell you that the parts that are stored with a machine don’t necessarily fit that machine.  Believe the guy that spent a half hour trying to make a high shank foot fit a slant shank machine.  They’re close.  And, they came in the same box.  But, they don’t belong together.

Every day, I walk in the yard and see something new popping out of the ground.  Spring is on it’s way, y’all.  If it’s here this week, then it will be where you are soon.  I’m starting to see little birds on the feeders again.  And, the jays that nest next door every year are back.  I can’t keep the feeders filled and I saw a very pregnant squirrel yesterday.

Sydney’s health class is progressing.  It has led to some very interesting conversations.  Yesterday, they talked about condoms, so today, I got to talk about them.  Jeez, y’all.  This stuff is hard.  I know why so many parents choose not to have these conversations.  It can be very embarrassing.  But, I just plow on and don’t worry about that because she needs information more than I need to avoid feeling shame.

But, it’s hard to do.

Have a great Friday, y’all.  Rob has agreed to video me quilting on the Bernina this weekend, so you’ll get to see me on a newer machine.  Lane

Repairs

I’m not the only one around here that’s handy.  Right now, there are three ice makers spread out on Rob’s worktable as he tries to solve the problem of why we are having to use old fashioned plastic ice trays to make ice.  “"(What? Is it the stone ages again or something?)

Anyway, he has been diligently working on it since Saturday and I think he’s just about got it licked.  He has to go pick up a part this afternoon.  I think he’s been stressed about it.  But, I haven’t. 

And, I’ve been working on sewing machines.  I’m still working on the two spool foot.  This foot was all bent to heck and back when I got the machine.  I straightened it and made it like my other griest feet and suddenly, the needle wouldn’t go through it anymore.  It had been bent on purpose.  Holy pliers, batman. 

Anyway, I’ve bent and twisted and turned and hammered and ground metal away with the Dremel and have finally ended up with a foot that I think will work.

I don’t mind cleaning and polishing the metal (see how shiny it all is?).  But, we don’t have the equipment for metal shaping.

The new darning feet came in for my short shank machines. 

Old and often repaired foot on the left, new foot on the right.  When I bought the first one, these feet cost about $30 each.  Believe me, I used it long enough to get my money’s worth.  It’s been repaired at least three times. 

I’ll pull out the Dremel and open up the new foot like the old one is.  It makes it easier to follow lines.  The new foot was $6.15.  Quite a difference in price since I shopped last.  But, it seems to be the same quality, so I’m looking for years of service out of the new ones.  Because of the price of the feet and the shipping, I bought two.

I’m also advocating different needles for quilting.  I was taught to use Universal needles because they would go between the threads of the fabric and not pierce the threads of the fabric.  But, in my class with Barbara Shapel, she suggested sharps or denim needles.  I had a few sharps in my needle collection and started using them.  I’m very happy.  They don’t get dull as fast and are less likely to bend.  So, I took advantage of a half off notions wall and stocked up.

That should last me a little while.  That half off notions price was a coupon.  It was from JoAnn’s.  It was called a “multiscan” coupon.  Please note that a multi-scan coupon must be scanned once for every notions item.  If they just scan it once, you only get half off once.  The coupon had been out two days and I was the first one that brought this to their attention while they were re-working my receipt to charge me correctly.  It’s a real buyer beware world out there, y’all.  I read my JoAnn’s receipt on the way out the door every time and that’s how I caught it. 

Have a good one.  Lane

video

Hey, all.  I had several requests for video of me quilting last week.  We have the video, it’s just on the treadle sewing machine instead of my Bernina.  But, I watched them this morning and they’re very much what I am doing on the Indian Orange Peel quilt.  These are not new videos.  You may have seen them before. 

This is a series of video, so the first one is stability stitching with a walking foot.  I’ve learned since these were made to have side lighting when I do ditch work.  It casts a shadow from the ridge into the ditch and makes the ditch easier to see.  You can’t quilt the ditch if you can’t see the ditch.  The Teflon sheet is a Supreme Slider.

The beginning

Next, I set the machine up for free motion quilting, just like I do my Bernina.  The feed dogs do not drop in either machine.

Setup

Here, I set up the quilt to be free motion quilted.  This is how I fit the quilt into the machine. 

Quilt

And, here Rob is video taping me doing fmq.  Notice that I am listening to music.  Also, free hand free motion goes much faster than ditch work free motion (and I might have been trying to show off a little by going fast).  If I get off a line in free hand, no one will ever know because the line was only ever in my head.  But, if I get off the line in ditchwork, it’s always there. 

Quilting

 

Everybody have a great Tuesday.  Lane

ninety-five cents well spent

It was my birthday over the weekend.  We’re pretty low key around here around Valentine’s and my day.  On Friday night, Rob and I went out for dinner.  I love Italian.  He’s kinda “egh, whatever” about it.  So, he asked me for Italian.  We had appetizers and a humongous pizza.  We were back home in an hour and it was a very special hour, indeed.  We each brought up work, once, but neither of us wanted to talk work.  We talked about kid for a second, but neither of us wanted to talk about her, either.  So, we talked about us.  And, that was very nice. 

On Saturday, we went antiquing.  Rob and I like this very much and usually choose it as our go-to activity for special days.  Sydney goes along.  She brought her camera and I saw her several times out taking pictures of the countryside.  And, there were several things she picked out that I paid for. 

We weren’t in the mood to buy things, tho.  We shopped and we had a very “bad for us” lunch in a country cafe, but we didn’t really bring many things home.

One of the things I brought home was a tiny placemat in homespun fabrics.  It cost me ninety-five cents.  And, it was a red hot mess.  No points matched.  Some blocks were squares, some were rectangles.  And, it had white spray paint or flocking or something in a section of it. 

I ended up taking it completely apart and re-cutting the hst’s and putting the whole thing back together on the two spool machine.  And, then I free motion quilted it on that machine, using a bent paper clip as a foot (okay, I’ll tell more about that later) and it did pretty good.  I have some changes to make in how it is set up in the cabinet.  But, once that’s done, I can see me doing bigger things on it. 

Anyway, I added the border to make it the original size (yes, I cut a lot of it away to get evenly sized blocks) and re-used the poly batting and blue cotton back and even the binding.  So, the only thing I added was the border, and that was a piece of binding left from another quilt I made. 

I also made a boatload of spool pin doilies.

Different patterns, one I made up and will be keeping.  I’m going to feel a fool if the guild doesn’t want to sell these.  I think I should reach out to that lady, pretty quick. 

And, I bought this terrible little bag to carry all my supplies in.

It’s made from a table cloth and some rickrack and has a button.  Like a pajama bag, I guess. 

It’s so cheerful.  And, so out of character for me. 

Lane

Happy Valentine’s day!

I hope you’re all having a wonderful Valentine’s.  It’s not just a day for couples.  It’s also a good day to just celebrate all kinds of love.  Rob and I exchanged cards, Sydney and I exchanged cards.  I’ve wished happy Valentine’s to a couple very surprised single friends that didn’t think anyone would.  Sydney’s valentine at school is her best friend. 

It’s just a good day to say, hey, I care.  And, that can’t help but benefit any relationship.

I had several questions yesterday. 

Lindaroo asked if I was doing my ditchwork free motion and yes, I am.

She also asked how I was staying in the ditch and I can only say that’s from a whole lot of practice.  And, sometimes I drift out of the ditch and if it’s bad enough, I stop and pick it out and start again.  Can’t always be helped.  But, mostly, I put my tongue between my teeth and stick the tip of it out of my mouth, like you’re supposed to do when you go fishing, and I knit my brows together, and I quilt real slow.  I counted my stitches to be able to tell how slow.  Now, you’re used to watching people that put the pedal to the metal and go fast.  If you count a second as the time it takes to think “one-one-thousand”, then I am quilting about 2.5 stitches per second.  Not very fast.  But, I have a boatload of control over where that needle is coming down and can sometimes lift my foot off the pedal quick enough to avoid a mistaken stitch.

Yes, it takes forever.  But, less time than picking it out and putting it in again would.

The other question was why they stopped making the two spool machines.  That’s also about machine speed.  I don’t actually know the answer, but the most plausible answer I’ve read was that the hook takes a very long time to get around the whole spool.  That was fine on a treadle, where the machine can’t go very fast, but it didn’t work with electric motors that could go much faster. 

The lady on the internet that seems the most knowledgeable uses hers on a treadle and she gets that thing going really fast and it does just fine.  I converted mine to an electric motor and the machine can handle as much speed as the motor can give it.

And, if you want one of these, couple things to make sure of.  MAKE SURE IT HAS THE SPOOL CANISTER.  The only spool canister I’ve ever seen sell on ebay, without the machine, sold for over $300.  I paid $75 for my machine and it might have had free shipping.  It was rusted pretty much on the bottom of the machine, including the rods there, and the canister.  I spent some time cleaning all that up and making the machine work again.  It also had a bent rod and was locked, but I was able to straighten it.  You have to watch for them.  It took me well over a year to find mine.  They can also be disguised as regular vintage National machines, so watch the bobbin winder and if it’s long enough to fit a spool on, ask the seller questions about the bobbin and see if it’s the rotary bobbin or the spool canister.  AND MAKE SURE THE CANISTER IS THERE!

Be well.  Lane 

More about the two spool

Yes, I am boring and don’t have anything that’s actually interesting to say.  All I’m doing is quilting back and forth along zig-zag lines on the Indian Orange Peel.  Back and forth.  Backwards and forwards.  Around this edge.  Don’t build up too many layers of thread.  Back and forth.  It’s hypnotizing.

Anyway, thought I’d talk about why I bought the two spool.  LW mentioned it yesterday.  The thing holds a whole spool of thread in the bobbin.  And, like LW, I think running out of bobbin is a pain. 

Here is the spool case (equivalent to a bobbin case in a conventional machine) compared to the singer class 15J bobbin and bobbin case and the featherweight bobbin.

It was made to hold those little wooden spools of thread.  Now, the spool you’re seeing there with the thread stacked on it is not a vintage thread.  I wound that spool on the convenient spool winder attachment.

 

The one you see was not the first spool I wound.  But, it is the best spool I’ve wound.  It takes some practice because there’s no tension guide.  Your fingers are the tension and the guide and you have to move your hand back and forth to stack the thread on the spool.  But, it gets easier and if I can do it, anybody can.

I had a whole collection of wooden spools that had come to me over the years.  I picked out the emptiest ones that would hold the most thread and will use them with this machine. 

Looking at those spools, you can see that one would hold more thread than the other.  The one with the smallest center was made to hold 125 yards of 30 wt thread.  I use 50 or 60 weight, so it holds a lot more than those yards for me.  Not enough label left on the other one to know what it held. Maybe silk?  125 to 150 yards seems to be a standard length on these spools.  And, the spool was made to hold that length of whatever thread.  Or maybe not.  That’s just me speculating.  Anyway, it’s a heck of a lot more than even those big 15J bobbins that I use in the Bernina.

Have a great day.  Syd is in Health class.  Last night, her homework was to ask me questions about what I thought was appropriate sexual behavior among teens.  I’m so glad I’ve kept a running conversation about what I thought was appropriate with her for about three years, so we had language built up between us on the topic and could talk openly, freely and without embarassment.  But, in class, she had to write what she thought was appropriate and what she thought I’d say was appropriate, and then, what I actually said.  I am very glad to say that all three of those answers were very similar.  I guess she’s been listening well enough to at least parrot back what I say, even if she doesn’t really believe it. 

Even if it makes me gullible, I think she really believes it.  She not a good liar.  And, I get the feeling she makes the boys treat her nice.  That’s all I care about.

I’d hate to have to kick some big ole football player ass, ya know.

Be well.  Have a great Thursday.

Lane

The National Two-Spool

I haven’t updated you on the two spool in a while.  But, I’ve been slowly and steadily working on her.  I’m not ready to try to quilt with her, even though that’s my eventual intention.  But, I have her sewing a good quarter inch seam and so she’s seeing some use.

She is set into my Mom’s cabinet, which has a shelf she can sit on.  I need a box to fill in the space at the needle end.  The opening in the cabinet is larger than the machine.  But, for now, she’s doing some good piecing work.

I painted her decals back in with gold paint pens and added an electric motor.  Next is to wax her bed, but I’ve waited.  Every so often I find a place I’d like to add some paint and I won’t be able to do that after she’s waxed. 

I had to alter a Griest foot for her.  She doesn’t take the normal foot.  Her needle and her foot post are closer together than other machines.  I had to take the Dremel to this foot and extend the opening in the middle so that the needle had room to clear the foot. 

I have done a good bit of piecing on her.  And, I’m still on my first spool of thread in the bobbin.  I think this machine and I are going to get along really well.  Just need to finish training her up for the real show. 

Be well.  Have a great hump day.  Lane 

Spool pin doilies

Bonnie Hunter started this. 

She has several patterns for them on her quiltville website, though I couldn’t find the one I’m using.  But, I’d gladly share it with you if you write me.  Just google spool pin doily and Bonnie, yes, our Bonnie who creates obsession in so many of us, will show up right at the top of the list. 

But, I warn you, they’re addictive.  They’re like a lollipop.  Over quick so you think, why not another?  And, another.  And, another.

I’ve made one for the two spool.

And, I’ve made one for my Grandmother’s 15-91

I’ve made one for each of the featherweights.

And, I suspect I’ll make one for the treadle and the hand crank and the 301.  They don’t take any time (about 25 minutes) and they don’t take any thread.  I’m likely going to ask the lady in charge of the guild boutique if she’d like me to make some to sell at the quilt show this year.  What do you think we could get?  They’re about the size of a silver dollar.  Goodness knows I have a plenty of this size crochet thread.  But, would we get enough money to make it worth my while? 

Everybody have a great Tuesday.  We have yet another late start at school because of ice that didn’t happen.  yippee.

Lane

Show quilt progress

This weekend was all about making progress on the show quilts.  That was my main priority. 

For the whole cloth quilt, I want to quilt a picture of our house.  And, that starts with a photo.

I printed it out, 8x10 and put it in a plastic sleeve protector.  I’m using a fine point sharpie to trace the house onto the plastic.

See the resemblance?  Okay, so it’s filling in.  There are some places that my photo is not detailed enough to trace and I plan to use other photos that are closer and more detailed to fill in those sections.  For example, the front door.  I have a great close up of the door and the adirondack chairs on either side and some large tropical foliage, so all I needed was the outlines of door and window to fit my tracings together.  All this will be put on the overhead projector, so I can change scales of photos to make them fit, so long as I have registration lines, like the outline of the door and window. 

I feel like I”m off to the races.  I have the silk and the thread.  Next is to take a scrap of that silk and mark it with a blue washout marker and make sure I can wash that marker out.  If not, this is going to be more freehand than I wanted because white chalk won’t stand up to it.  But, that’s okay, too. 

And, I got the ditch work around most of the little points on this quilt done.  It is not taking nearly as long as I thought.  But, it still has been a significant investment of time over the weekend. 

Rob watched me bend a needle while we were talking yesterday and he was surprised.  He said “it’s actually bent.”  I think he thought bent needle was some kind of euphemism. 

 

The next thing to do is lay it out and find mistakes and fix them.  There was a tension issue and that means the invisible thread feels like sandpaper in that area.  Easy enough to pull and repair.  And, there might be a couple of sections where I got a bit out of the ditch and need to repair.  And, I saw a small pleat in the back.  But, not too much.  I’m pretty happy.  And, it wouldn’t be a show quilt if I wasn’t pulling out and repairing, right? 

I wonder if any show quilts ever get there without the benefit of a seam ripper?

Other than that, scrubbing the shower should qualify as an olympic event.  Dad-gummit, in the south, we fight mold and mildew all the time and there should be some heroism granted for every small victory.

Have a great Monday.  Lane

And, we’re cooking with gas now…

Does everybody remember that saying?  Are there young ‘uns that don’t know that cooking with gas instead of wood or coal was a good thing and a great improvement?  It means all things are going better.

Now that I’ve decreased the loft of the quilt, my Bernina is much happier.  We’ve got about half of the vertical and horizontal stability stitching in and after that, I begin the tedious miles of ditch work around every one of those little points.  It’s a good thing that’s my vision or it would seem very daunting indeed. 

So, this one will stay on this machine, just like this and I can start the next one. 

For the next one, I’ll be blowing up a photo to poster size and transferring it to fabric as a whole cloth, thread sketch, like a pen and ink sketch.  (Boy, those are lofty goals, eh?  Again, the little engine is chugging “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.”)

I’m going to try to do that on my Grandmother’s 15-91.  I have her all set up and figured out.  Now, let’s see what she can do with some fine fabric and thread.  I need to get far enough along on that one that I can submit the pre show photo in July.  But, with such ambitious goals, I can hardly afford to wait. 

I can submit three in a show and I’m thinking of the Blue Heron thread painting as my third.  Is it okay to enter something you did in a class?  What are the right and wrong on that within a guild? 

I also got Mary’s stack and whack together. 

I have a friend that is fighting the consistent quarter inch seam battle that every successful quilter eventually fights.  And, I’ve been showing her this quilt as an example of how to pin points to get them to match.  Yesterday, she brought in her machine and I looked at it, and it’s a machine specifically for quilting, and I told her to stop using the quarter inch foot that came with it and we set her up with a different foot and a seam guide “fence”.  I’m pretty sure it is going to solve her problem.  The quarter inch foot didn’t cover the right side feed dogs, so her piecing always pulled to the left.  What we set up yesterday moves the needle to the right, and uses a wider foot that covers all the feed dogs, and we set up the fence to keep her on the exact quarter inch.  I hope to hear good things from her today about how much happier she is with her piecing.

Everybody have a great Thursday.  The President of the guild wrote me yesterday that I’m back on as secretary. 

Whaaaaaa?

Lane

Anything worth doing is worth doing right

All of my quilting time this morning was spent re- pin basting the Indian Orange Peel quilt.  I decided I wanted a good poof to the quilt and…okay, you’ll have to forgive me because when I say this, you’re all going to cluck and say, no, that wouldn’t work.  I knew it too, but for some reason I needed to actually experience it before my brain could grasp it….I doubled my layer of thin cotton batting.  I wanted more loft.  And, we know you do that by buying higher loft batting, not by doubling the layers.  I tried to quilt the first line of stability quilting in and I knew it wasn’t going to work.  It was too heavy in my lap.  I had no control over the quilt.  But, I still had to put in a second line of quilting.  And, in those two lines of quilting, I broke 4 needles and changed feet three times trying to find something that would life high enough to let me move the quilt under it.  And, I roared and I cried.  This is supposed to be my show quilt this year.

And, yesterday morning.  I pulled out those two lines of quilting and separated all the layers.

And, this morning, I pin basted it all together again with just one layer of batting. 

Teaching an old dog new tricks is very hard work. 

So, we’re back on track and have only lost three days of quilting time.  Not bad.  I have another quilt that isn’t nearly this far along that I also want to finish.

Lofty goals for the common man.

Be well.  Have a good Tuesday.  I did say yes to the board position, but they had already found someone to fill it.  As my friend JC said to me at the meeting last night, I still get points for being willing.  There was another job that was still open, but I just am not up to coordinating volunteers.  I’m afraid my riding crop management style might not really be taken well by the ladies of the guild.

Lane

Joen Wolfrom’s class

Wow, I had a great time at Joen’s class on Saturday.  It was a lecture class and we didn’t sew, tho we did get to play in the fabrics we brought.

I learned about layering design using color.  I’m making Barbara Brackman’s Civil War quilt this year using my Civil War repros.  So, here’s a link to Barbara’s block 1.  See how Barbara started with the light in the center and worked to a dark background?  Well, Joen suggested we start with dark in the center and add layers backward toward the light background and I tried that.  Here’s my block.  I like them both.  One comes toward you and one goes away.  Mine would be even more distinct if I didn’t have the little dark squares outside the star.  And, yes, I did turn them that way on purpose. 

I also learned to pull fabrics from photos.  Remember this photo?

Well, all these colors are in that photo.

Wouldnt that make a fun quilt with a few more yellows? 

And, the last thing was about the color wheel.  Remember this quilt?  I called it monochromatic.  Well, it’s not.  It is an analogous color scheme consisting of yellow-green, spring green, and pure green. 

It was a delightful day spent with a renowned quilter.  She was witty and wry and quick to correct me if I was wrong, reminding me of the 6th grade teacher she was before.  I said fussy cutting and she quickly corrected me that it wasn’t fussy of us to cut that way, but rather selective.  And, that she had tried to coin the term selective cutting before fussy cutting came into use.  I will try to remember.

Everybody have a great Monday.  Tonight is guild meeting.  The guild president has asked me to take an office on the board.  I have all day to decide.  I could remain obscure.  Or, I could be one of the first men to serve on the board and maybe break a barrier. 

Lane