11.6.14

wip's...

These  6 snowmen table runners and 5 pillow covers are coming along. I've learned how to load the Gammill quilter with the backing fabric, float the batting (and tops) then pin my smaller tops such as pillow covers and table runners to quilt all in one running item. Thanks to the "quilter man" for using the term "float" during my lesson.

It's very time efficient and is giving me the experience in loading and positioning tops before I tackle a quilt. I am quilting with my favorite design, free motion quilting, and decided to play with straight line quilting.  Hey, on this quilter there is a vertical lock and a horizontal lock feature that makes it a breeze.  It was easy and they look good. 

These wip's will be ready for the "finish up Friday" posting over at Crazy Mom Quilts and should be in the shop by Friday as well. 

In a previous posting I admitted these snowmen centers were cut down from previous projects, but I may not have admitted how long ago these were started. My goal is to chisel down on some pre-cut squares, projects started but not finished that are filling many, many, many storage totes in my sewing room. There will be many, many echo::home goods projects in the future. 

This next photo shows snowmen table runners hanging on one of my shelves in the sewing room.  Can you find the other wip?  It's another quilted pillow cover.  In reality all of that fabric is but a small portion of what I have in my stash....and it is all wip's.

Installing 6 zippers, ugh, my least favorite part of sewing.  I've got hundreds, literally hundreds of zippers that I've picked up over the years at thrift stores so no need to invest a fortune in those notions. I don't really enjoy installing zippers, never have and probably never will. Having the feature of a zipper rather than an envelope closure makes these pillow covers truly reversible. Well worth the effort.

Now that I've taken a break from squaring up the table runners, back to the sewing room and get the binding on the table runners and the pillows all zipped up. 

As I was finishing up quilting on the table runners last evening I had about 20" left of the back fabric and batting left on machine so I decided to cut a 15"x 45" piece of green print fabric to make another, whole cloth, table runner.  

That will be a surprise and may even be listed in the shop, if not I may decide to do a give away. Either way I just could not let that section of quilt backing go to waste.  

Watch for the finish up post tomorrow. 

10.28.14

the adventure continues...

My Gammill long arm quilter set up was finished yesterday evening and I had my first lesson on a baby sized quilt sample. I did free motion quilting on this test piece since that type of quilting is my most preferred design. Thanks to Mike, who will now be referred to as the "quilt man", for setting up my machine and showing me how to use it.  His calm demeanor, great teaching skills and reassurance that I will pick this up quickly was just what I needed. I'm not going for fancy quilting patterns, just yet, so there was no need for extensive training.  With many years of sewing experience much of what I know already came in handy during my lesson.  

The reason I picked a cute, vintage like, floral print for the top instead of plain muslin was to finish this off with binding and give the quilt to my great niece, Isa, for her baby dolls. 

I used a varigated thread and it looked great on the print side, not distracting from the floral print. The muslin backside really shows off the quilting which I kind of like.

Wouldn't you know, my bobbin ran out of thread last evening just before finishing the quilting and I was too tired to try rethreading the machine once I took the spool off to refill a bobbin. So I turned off the machine and left the project sit unfinished. Early this morning I remembered how I avoid rethreading my sergers by leaving thread in the machine and cutting it near the spool/cone. Once the bobbin was filled I put the cone of thread back on the spindle and tie that to the thread still in the machine and slowly pulling the knotted threads thru all the tension guides; I ended up just having to thread the needle. 

Viola.....it worked on the quilter. 

Shortcuts are fun. 

You can see the quilting in the photo above. Not bad for my very first attempt on a long arm quilter.  I've thought of making several baby size whole cloth quilts to fine tune my long arm quilting skills before I tackle larger quilts.  Who knows, if they turn out to my satisfaction I may even put some in the shop.

My Simple Dreams are coming true. When I bought my home many years ago, when my children were little, I envisioned having the 2 extra bedrooms (once my 3 children grew up and left home) put to good use as a sewing room/studio and the other room as a quilting room. I even replaced the carpet several years ago with wood floors as a step in that direction. Progress.

I have lived in the same town as the Gammill headquarters for over 17 years and have only been in the showroom two times.  The first time was several years ago, to drool over the machines.  The second time was yesterday to purchase needles and bobbins.  They have a nice selection of threads as well.  How convenient to be so close. I'm sure I will be shopping there more often for quilting supplies.

6.28.13

more quilts on their way.....

 

 I'm currently working on 5 of these framed square quilt tops.  

Although I use homespun and prints they 

photograph so modern and clean. 

Hope to have at least one listed 

in the shop by next weekend.