Being in the longarm business, and a member of our wonderfully productive quilt guild, I am called upon to participate in charity quilts. Since I can't actually contribute to the piecing process, I am happy to contribute to the quilting process. In order for me to keep my business balanced with my charity, I schedule one "Soldier Quilt" per quarter. 

This is the first one of the year. It is a Lone Star pattern (Radiant Star, I think) with a nice dotty background fabric. As you already know, Lone Stars are famous for having wonky sections in them. Usually it's the large setting squares in each corner, along with the center star itself. This quilt's center star was really nice and flat. And only the top 2 setting squares had extra fabric in them. 

Since these discrepancies can change the side borders quite a bit, I pulled out my centering tape measure and made sure each side looked as close to this as possible as I rolled through the quilt:

The quilting pattern I chose was an all-over meander - not too small - so I could take in the extra fabric in the top corners and border:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

As soon as I got past that area, every roll of the quilt was just wonderful. I had no surprises at the bottom (except for one - which I'll explain later...).

As far as tension, I have to thank Judy C. for commenting on my last blog post about her rotary tension discs. I changed out my rotary disc tension assembly for my aftermarket tensioner (which acts like the upper black tensioner, but looks like the rotary tension knob), and today my tension was 99% perfect again. Thank you Judy C.!! And just as a precaution, I ordered a new rotary disc tension assembly as well as a new black tensioner. Sounds confusing! But I'll try anything. 

The only tension glitch I ran into today was that my slippery Madeira Polyneon thread kept jumping out of the first thread guide before the rotary disc tension assembly. Every time it slipped out, a small loop would happen on top. So I'd have to stop and put the thread back onto the thread guide. After awhile I got tired of that, and decided it was time to be proactive. The is the engineering feat that completely eliminated the problem:

The Tiger Tape, not Elmo.

And now for the surprise: on the last row of the quilt I pulled the machine over to the closest edge of the border to baste it down. Suddenly the machine turned itself off momentarily, and then back on again - making a stitch without my consent. I went to the electrical cords and checked them all, tightening them for good measure. Back to the front I go, and it happens again. I got smart and only turned on the light instead of the power, so the machine would not put the needle into the quilt while I was moving it. Sure enough, whenever I moved the machine head onto the quilt, the power went off. When I moved it back off the quilt, it came back on again! I checked every plug once more. All of them were normal looking to me. 

So I laughed and realized that nothing more could be done until my Wonderful Husband comes home tonight. Nothing more, that is, except for a mountain of dishes and a week's worth of neglected housework.

: )

A Friday Finish!

Today the tension decided to randomly do this on the back:

Which looked like this on the front:

I tried every trick in the book to remedy it (of course). But because it was intermittently random, I was unable to figure out what it wanted from me. The sample I stitched was perfect (of course). 

The quilt I finished yesterday had a batik backing - notorious for tension issues. My machine behaved absolutely perfectly on that one.

But not today. I loosened tension, tightened tension, changed needles, slowed down, sped up, danced a jig, and (for a change) didn't curse.

Knowing what I know about my machine, I kept on going until the quilt was finished. It would not have mattered who I called or what I did to try to fix this problem. This would be another discounted quilting job because of the unexplainable tension. If you've followed my blog for awhile you may have noticed that this is a recurring problem. And did I mention how many hours I've spent on the phone with every technician I could find - to no avail? How about the hundreds of miles of driving and hundreds of dollars in motels and fuel to have a technician "help" me - to no avail? And he's the one who sold me the machine! That's another rant for another day....

The one bright spot in this day has been the beautiful Western fabrics in this quilt. All of the fabrics were good quality fabrics that were wonderful to work with. The piecing was terrific and the borders were great. I had intended to see if I could put the rose border from the backing at the top of the quilt, so that when it was turned down on a bed the roses would show. But the rose border proved to be too close to the edge of the backing fabric and didn't allow me enough room to attach the quilt top. 

Have a great weekend!!

: )

All done!

Up next is this beautiful star quilt which uses lots of western fabrics. On this one, my customer has asked for a large meander.

Here is the elegant western rose fabric she has provided for the backing. I love this fabric!

Now that the basics are laid down on this quilt, it's time for the details. My favorite part! My plan for the details involves using all sorts of thread with some level of bling. For instance, in the Sun I used red metallic in the red arc, a shimmery orange #80130 (Marigold) Glide 40 wt. polyester in the 2 center arcs, and gold metallic in the spikes:

I was thinking I would have to unpin and turn the quilt in order to do the long side borders. But I threw caution to the wind and went for it vertically. I couldn't believe how much easier it was to stitch this design vertically than it was horizontally! That just never happens:

The next section to get details today was the Ocean. Three different shell designs were added using Madeira Polyneon 40 wt. variegated thread - in blues, aquas, greens and purples. The variegation is subtle:

I purchased the spiral shell and starfish designs from Embroidery Library, and the fan shell is from Deb Geissler's pantograph "Seashells", which I haven't had the chance to use yet. I took a picture of it and cropped out just the shell I wanted. Then I pulled it into my Print Shop program to size it. 

In order to actually stitch out these shells, I devised a method that worked for me. First I went to the back of the machine and used the laser to set the outer edges of the square:

Then I placed the design inside the square, taping it to the plastic pantograph cover so it wouldn't move:

I removed the top thread and the bobbin thread from the machine, and stitched the design from the back of the machine - as if I were stitching a pantograph:

At the front of the machine, I used a Marvy Marker to draw the lines more visibly, and decrease the too-small curved details:

And then I stitched it out:

Here is a scary shot of how the starfish looked before I buried the knotted thread ends:

And, the pretty fan shell:

It's been so fun getting to this level of the project. And hopefully it will move faster now that the majority of the quilting is behind me.

The Sky background is finally finished! After spending a week stitching the main decorative designs into the Sky, I finished off the wide open blue areas with a small meander. 

For the main designs I used Aurifil cotton 40 wt. #2715, but for the meander I switched to the same color in 50 wt. so that the meander blended into the background, while letting the main designs pop a little.

The last time I tried to use the 50 wt. Aurifil on this quilt it gave me fits while sampling it on a scrap. So when I knew I wanted to use it in the background, I decided to change the needle to a 3.5 just to see if that would help. Today. It didn't seem to help before, but that was Before. Never mind how it decides to work one day and not another on exactly the same quilt... that's another rant for another day.

But today the thread behaved perfectly. In fact, this entire quilt has had 99% perfect tension - especially on the back! Since I've blamed fabric for bad tension on the back in the past, I will be woman enough to credit the fabric for the fantastic tension on the back of this quilt.

The lighthouse got the "beaded curtain" treatment:

After completing all of the meandering, I was annoyed by an area where the meander wasn't consistent. It seemed to be too large. My eye kept stopping in that area, and I could hear myself making excuses. So I unstitched it. Notice the holes left in the fabric:

I quilted it over again, disregarding the previous stitching holes, to a consistency I liked much better:

Here is the new stitching area an hour later:

The holes will not go away on batiks unless water is applied. It's very scary as a quilter to have to face this. But it's inevitable - or at least it is for me. So I ever-so-carefully dabbed all of the teeny tiny holes with a damp piece of cotton batting, making extra sure the water didn't soak onto the backing (which is very dark blue). Thankfully this light blue fabric is mottled throughout with several shades of blue - similar to a typical sky. It looks "watery" already. So at times when I shivered at seeing a dark spot, I realized it was only the fabric and not my attempts to hide holes. Whew!

And now for the neglected Blooming Nine Patch - just waiting for me to finish putting the squares together. So far I've completed stitching a large corner. The next few rows have already been stacked up next to my sewing machine for when I get a few moments to sew them together. It sure looks odd in the meantime:

My Mom and I were brainstorming this morning about taking some classes on color. Specifically value. We are both seriously challenged in this area. As quilters we have been winging it for so many years, with some success. Our handicap has never stopped us from making quilts. However, like the stripey mishap on my BNP, we have quilts that don't get out much because we used one or more "off" fabrics - because we don't understand value. 

But today she was beaming about the Art Quilter who spoke at her guild this week: Grace Errea. It seems that Grace has a wonderful ability to teach color (specifically value), and that's because she took a color class at the local college that changed her life. My Mom bought Grace's newest book "Impressionist Applique" and is now charged up to try her hand at Art Quilts. 

Mind you, I somehow managed to get a "standard" art gene from a distant ancestor - but not from my Mom. She's the first to admit that Art Quilts are beyond her. She knows herself well, and I know that I've never in my life seen her stand back and tilt her head and look deeper into any work of Art. She experiences Art at purely face value, and moves on. But thanks to Grace Errea, who encouraged all of the quilters at the guild meeting to "try new things always", my Mom wants to learn to be an Art Quilter! 

And because my Mom is inspired, I am now inspired too. 

My Mom doesn't read this blog, she's a busy lady. So what are the chances that I would whine about my artistic shortcomings on one day, and be inspired to take an art class on the next! I tell you, only my Mom can bring that stuff out of me. And she didn't even know she was doing it!

God bless her.

Today I accomplished a bit of swirl echoing, and a rope border treatment on the top and bottom borders.

For the rope border, I chose this shimmery Glide 40 wt. thread, in color #27521 (Chestnut):

The Dritz stencil that I mentioned before, is now permanently retired from my studio. I can't count the times I've picked it up because it is such a common size, only to discover that there is no way to see through it for placement. So, I pulled this one down because as you can see, it's transparent - like stencils should be:

Since the stitching path wasn't suggested on the above stencil, I used the stitching path from this stencil instead:

As you can see, below, this path leaves one edge looking kind of unfinished. To me, anyway:

So, when I got to the end I backtracked along the bottom edge using the chalk lines of the stencil to keep my spacing somewhat consistent:

It seems that these days in my studio are filled with so much thinking and planning and redesigning, and not a lot of actual quilting. That's the nature of Custom quilting I guess, and especially Custom quilting with artistic elements. The Sky area on this beautiful quilt is the part that will take me the longest to finish, because (as previously confessed) I am not an artist in the sense that artists draw. I don't draw, so I calculate and measure and manipulate every tool I have to make my designs look drawn. When I think of how amazing the finished products are when a true artist has drawn with thread on a quilt, I can get quite depressed. I always ask myself "What do you think you're doing charging people for this amateurish work?"

But here I am, almost 6 years into my longarm quilting business. With loyal customers like mine who continue to trust me their masterpieces, how could I possibly be depressed? 

Where is that face-slapping smiley when I need it?