I've been working

I have been working ALOT on using things. We all own so many patterns and have so many ideas. We have magazines and books. In my case I own three of these panels. I bought them the first time I went to Houston Quilt Festival...uhm....at least 5 years ago. I began to hand quilt one of them...my one and only attempt at hand quilting. That's been sitting half done for the past 3 years. Well, I finally got off my duff and finished this one on my home sewing machine. THe full shot was very blurry so I'll have to retake it. In the meantime, you can check out the quilting. I've also finished the hand quilted one....on the machine. I agonizzed over whether or not to do hand and machine quilting together and decided that done is done and perfect is not part of my name.

Speaking of Houston.....anyone going??????????? They may be recovering but the show is still on.

The decision

Sort Of! You know me and the whole "don't show an entire project before it's finished but here is the middle to the table runner. I'm so tickled with the quilting on this.





Oh, It is not perfect. It wobbles a bit this way or that and my loops are not perfect but man! I knew I'd be able to work with this system. I've had this book by Pam Clarke called Quilting Inside the Lines. I have wanted a to try this system for some time now. It really does work. First I practiced on paper, then fabric and then my table runner. I don't have the stencil but may end up sending for it because it works! I'm not sure if you can tell, but I am thrilled. I'll show the whole thing once I bind it. Hey, and the best part is, Mrs. S's anniversary isn't until the end of the month!!!!

I do have two questions though....

How do I get better pictures of the quilting? Obviously my lighting is off.....Do I backlight? Make it brighter? Darker?

Should I fill in the background around the design? I filled all of the individual squares but didn't want to ruin anything so didn't do the cream background fabric. I'm leaning toward leaving it alone. I have big problems with scale when quilting that I don't want to mess it up.

Happenings

I quilted on the CCCat's longarm today. WhooHOOO! With her guidance, I've accumulated a few pantographs and cones of thread!! Here's the newest color additions....These are So Fine thread from Superior.

This is the one panto I bought. It's called popcorn and I really like it. I would show the rest of the pantos but can't seem to copy the pictures. We used two different pantos on the quilt because we just wanted to know how they looked! This longarm quilting is incredibly fun. I am so, so fortunate to have such a generous friend. We make a good team. She quilts, I cut and fuss, I quilt, she cuts and fusses....well mostly today I quilted while she did the grunt work. We are also a good team at getting in trouble in fabric stores, at quilt shows...ect. Now, I have never attended a show with her but have managed to spend 100's of dollars while she attended!! I told her she is not allowed to go to another show for a long time. It is waaayyyy too hard on my checkbook! UUURRGGHHHH!!!! I tried to post the pictures I just spent time finding of the threads ect. but blogger is acting punky!

We managed to get the entire Mary Engelbreight quilt finished.....despite me. I was a bit distracted. I am leaving tomorrow to go Ohio. My dad has to have some tests and a possible procedure so I'm going to be with him and my siblings. I will bind and post photos of the quilt when I return.

Fun? YOU BETCHA!

Not only do I have a great family, I have a great group of quilting friends! One of my friends, CCCat, recently bought a long arm machine. She has graciously allowed me to learn to quilt on it. Yesterday I quilted one of our HeartStrings quilts, start to finish....I needed to warm up for my boot quilt. When I went home last night, I practiced "quilting" patterns. The pajama quilter recommends practicing on a white board. I don't own a white board, but I do own a 6 ft. mirror. I put it on my table and doodled away! Here are my practices.

CCCat does own a white board and I practiced more there....
This is the picture you are waiting for.....my quilt on the machine. We spent 5 hours working today. Together we set it up and I quilted. It is just over 1/2 done. I don't know how long

was actual quilting time but we only took breaks to roll the quilt, wind another bobbin, have one bit of trouble with the a knot and have a standing snack of nuts. We won't win any speed races but it's tons faster than my home machine. Also, she has only had her machine since Sept. and this is the 3rd time I've ever touched it. Yesterday was the first time I'd even been exposed to loading the quilt so I was still learning/remembering today.

I don't know what in the world I was doing with my chin, but I must have been concentrating like crazy! It's funny, the movement of long arm is exactly like the movement of pushing the quilt around on my home machine. If you are a competent home machine quilter, you will more than likely be able to use the long arm.
Here is a closeup of the quilting. I tried like crazy to not have to move this so you could enlarge it but no such luck. I inadvertently deleted it and had to move the picture after it reloaded. The pattern seems to be the one I resort to when I can't figure out what else to do. I did however, learn a new flower, wrote words in the quilt and have mastered the leaf! That middle flower didn't come out like I'd hoped but it still looks good kinda wonky.I'm going back tomorrow to finish and once it's bound I'll show the entire thing.