Today the purple and green Sampler quilt will be getting its machine binding completed, and then it will be ready to go home.

The quilting is not the star of this quilt, the fabrics are. But the backing fabric is subtle enough to really display the texture of the quilting.

My customer provided Poly-fil Traditional 100% Polyester batting and it was a dream to work with. It's not as drapey as 100% cotton, but it proved to be the perfect batting for puffing up the unquilted areas. The quilt is a bit stiff in the tiny purple cornerstones right now, but with laundering and use it will soften up beautifully.

Now for the fun part: turning the binding onto the front and attaching it by machine. I chose to purchase a dark purple binding fabric that matches the darkest purple in the rose-patterned focus fabric. I'll use clear thread in the bobbin in order to camouflage the stitching on the back, which is how I always do machine bindings. Just for fun I'm using a very dark purple shimmery embroidery thread on top to attach the binding onto the front of the quilt.

And, with any luck it will be ready for delivery by this afternoon!

Tomorrow begins a new project for Common Quilts. I will begin teaching a quiltmaking class. It's a first for me. I'm hoping that the 40+ quilts I've made in the past 9 years will count for something as I pass on my love for quilting to a new generation.

Purple and green is certainly the most loved color-combination among my prolific customers.

Today's lovely project not only represents the beloved purple-and-green combination, but it also represents another customer favorite: the Sampler.

Longarm machine quilters have a secret love affair with Samplers. The excitement of all those different blocks calling out for different quilting designs, is what keeps this longarmer from going completely nutty out here in the wilderness.

After speaking at length with my customer about how to quilt this beauty, we decided on stitch-in-the-ditch (SID) for every block in order to highlight all of the different piecing. And, because that would leave open spaces here and there, I'd fill in where necessary to keep the quilting uniform. I decided on using clear nylon thread for all of the quilting in the blocks. I didn't want to interrupt the flow of all of those beautiful fabrics with thread color. The fabrics on this quilt do all the work, so I didn't want to detract from them.

As soon as I saw this quilt, I knew I wanted to use one of my favorite pantograph border designs on the deep green 6" border. It is called "Maggie's Roses" by Deb Geissler and it's part of a group of designs that is printed onto one pantograph roll. The roll includes a beautiful allover design of roses and leaves, 2 different sized rose border treatments and a couple of rose corner motifs. For the border quilting I wanted the thread to show. So I chose Metro embroidery thread in a shimmery rose color (#2155), coupled with Aurifil 40 wt. cotton in a matching color in the bobbin.

Using a pantograph on borders requires turning the quilt midway through the quilting process. The top border was quilted using the pantograph from the back of the machine. Then, I worked through the sampler blocks using minimal SID just to stabilize the center of the quilt. Getting to the bottom of the quilt, I again returned to the back of my machine and used the pantograph on the bottom border.

It seems like a lot of work undoing all of those pins and turning the quilt. But the result is worth it! Especially if there is a certain pantograph border that is perfect for the job. And since I am a bit obsessed with things being uniform and even, I would never attempt to put roses and leaves on a border using freehand.

I love thinking up quilting ideas for quilts. But I usually find safe ways of executing them. I'm not sure if it stems from my lack of confidence, or my disdain for ripping out imperfect stitches...

After spending a much-needed sewing day at our Quilters Guild meeting, I was able to put the center of the star together for my newest show quilt project!

But it if wasn't for the quick and caring response of the quilt pattern's creator, Deb Karasik of Quilt Mavens, I would still be trying to figure out where I had left this missing piece:

Even though it was a Sunday morning, I emailed her and asked if she could somehow help me by sending me just one section of the paper piece I needed to make a new wedge.

Within only minutes, she had responded. She emailed me the PDF file for that section, I printed it out on my printer, and before I could say "I need my nap" I had pieced it and put it back on my design wall.

Here is the next block, with the fabrics I've chosen:

I highly recommend her patterns. Visit her website and be prepared to drool!

www.debkarasik.com

I finished this adorable cat wallhanging for my customer, and delivered it to her at the Guild meeting. I think she loved it! I had a great time working on it, in fact I'd wished it was a bigger quilt! The fabrics were beautiful. and each quilting area was fun to approach and fun to execute.

Here is a shot of it with side lighting, which is hard to come by here in my studio:

When I think of table runners, I never think of pantographs. Last week, that changed.

What you're seeing in this picture are the backs of 2 completed table runners side-by-side. The one on the left was quilted using "Iron Works" and the one on the right was quilted using "Pretty Petals". Both of these designs are by Celine Spader.

I ordered these pantographs. from Digi-tech. When you place a pantograph order from Digi-tech you have the option of purchasing your design in digital form, or in paper form. I use paper patterns, and was pleasantly surprised when given the choice of what SIZE I wanted my pantograph to be! You can order the default size or you can order a custom size.

How wonderful that is for me, since I love dense tight patterns and my customers like wide open patterns. I can purchase the same design, but in different sizes depending on the project.

Be prepared to wait a bit longer for a custom size. I think it was about a week or so before I received my custom-sized pantograph. Compared to 3-5 days when I've ordered stock patterns from other businesses.

If you've never been to Digi-tech's site, you'll be amazed at the hundreds of designs you've probably never seen before.

http://stores.homestead.com/jschick/StoreFront.bok

I know other longarmers have used pantographs on table runners. But for some reason my brain hadn't fully grasped it yet. Now I'm in the market for small, dense pantos to use specifically for my customers who want table runners done inexpensively.

Of the many injustices in this world, the unsigned and abandoned vintage quilt top may not seem like a very big one. But in the quilting world, this is a heartbreaker.

Chances are, this cheerful Dresden Plate quilt top was long ago lovingly hand-appliqued by a woman with smiling hopes of it one day being on the bed of a loved one.

But her loved one instead gave it away, unfinished, at an estate sale.

And chances are, she never had to witness this injustice.

Enter the contemporary phenomenon known as "ebay". Hundreds and hundreds of these anonymous attic finds are auctioned off to the highest bidder. I cry when I go through those auctions and see all of those memories being dug up and sold.

But as a longarm quilter, it occurred to me that I could honor these women of the past by buying and finishing these beautiful memories. And, maybe even by using the same quilting patterns they would've finished them with had they been able to.

That is how I came across this humble, unquilted Dresden Plate quilt top on ebay. Since my budget was very small, I was shocked to see that I had won this quilt top for just $65.

I set out to use quilting patterns that women might've used back in the forties. Every now and then I am able to put this beauty on my machine and add a few stitches here and there. The yellow sashing will have a simple rope design in it when it's finished.

Here are some of the fabrics, quilted and unquilted for your viewing pleasure. Maybe they are even a step back in time for someone reading this today.

One of the perks of my job is that I get to work on cute projects for my customers. My customer made this warmly adorable Cats wallhanging and said I could do anything I wanted to do. So I began by doing stitch-in-the-ditch in all of the seams with YLI nylon thread on top and Aurifil 40 wt. tan-colored cotton in the bobbin.

After finger-tracing a quilting path, I finally found a way to SID each cat with only one start and stop. I could've travelled over to the next cat, too, but I discovered I had to retrace too many quilting lines to accomplish that. I don't like too many retraced quilting lines to show up on the back. Even if it is going to hang on the wall.

For the body of the cats, I've decided on a nice curvy-topped fan-flower stencil. I'm still auditioning thread, but I'm leaning towards a deep tan cotton thread because of the colors and textures of the homespun fabrics. I'm also thinking of using a variety of thread types, but staying in the same colorway. And if I can figure it out, I'd like to put a face on the cats.

But today, my studio is being toured by some dear friends. They are true lovers of crafts and the machines that take them up a notch. So, I'd better get this place cleaned up!

This Lone Star baby quilt was finished this morning, and I am loving how it feels. The soft flannel backing combined with the wonderful wool batting makes this baby quilt very luxurious to hold.

I wasn't sure how a Lone Star would look with a pantograph running across it, since I had only seen Lone Star quilts with custom designs on them. But I think this pantograph has just the right density for this quilt, without making those perfect seams bulge up unevenly.

The very center of the Lone Star proved to be the only challenge for my machine, and even that was barely noteworthy. My hopping foot would not get up close to the center seam because of the build-up of seams in that spot. So the stitch length changed to accommodate it, as seen in the center of this picture:

On the Phat Tuesday front, I have cut out the pieces for the next phase of paper piecing and have organized them so I can more easily steal away time to sew them together.

I used one of the actual paper piecing wedges to draw up my color placement, and to make notes on the correct sizes to cut out each strip. I figure I'll paper-piece the seven unmarked pieces first and by then I'll have it down well enough to go ahead and use up that 8th piece that I've marked!

In California there are 2 upcoming quilt shows that I'm aware of: Autumn in the Alps is in Weaverville on October 2nd. And, the Pacific International Quilt Festival is in Santa Clara on October 14-17. I missed the deadlines for entering my own quilts in these shows. But hopefully I can find some avenue of opportunity to show my quilts this Winter.

When I opened up this customer quilt and saw the perfectly pieced Lone Star in the center, coupled with that adorable mushroom fabric in the border, I immediately wanted it! The lighting in my studio this morning is not giving this cute baby quilt its true vibrancy.

The Lone Star on this quilt is a QuiltSmart pattern, and my customer added more background fabric at the top and bottom of the Lone Star block in order to make this quilt rectangular instead of square.

Since it's a baby quilt, my customer asked me to do a pantograph on it. It is for a boy baby, so I rummaged through my pantograph stash and found what I think is the perfect design for this quilt - "Pipeline" by Patricia Ritter. I was inspired by the spirals in the mushroom fabric, so this panto was the perfect solution.

I had originally loaded up some Madeira Polyneon Variegated thread in a great colorway of blues, reds, greens and yellows. But then my eye caught sight of a delicious spool of King Tut "Angel Teal" cotton variegated thread and there was no turning back. The variegation is so subtle that it doesn't look busy on the yellow background fabric, yet it's blue for a Boy. Clicking on the close-up below shows the slight color changes that make this thread one of my favorites.

Ironically, I had given up on King Tut thread about 2 years ago. It would not behave in my machine no matter what combination of bobbin thread, tension or prayer I tried. However, this new color has been flawless. I've been using Aurifil 40 wt. cotton in the bobbin and it's been just perfect.

My customer provided the wool batting, which I love. And the backing is a pale blue dotty flannel. So far these combinations are proving to be an absolute joy to work with.

This quilt pattern is called "Phat Tuesday" by Deb Karasik:

When I saw this pattern my heart dropped and I knew I had to make it. This pattern came with all the paper patterns for paper piecing a 70 X 70 quilt. I've been working at it a little at a time and this is the mock-up I have so far on my design wall:

Finding the time to make my own quilts is a challenge. But I've resolved to make time for it, somehow. This particular quilt is one I'd like to make into a show quilt. And, I'd like to enter my past quilts in more shows so I can get out more often!