Quilting Whimsy

My new collection of quilting designs for embroidery sewing machines is moving along very quickly.  Here are some of the stitched out samples, including two large Mega Hoop designs, small designs, borders, and even some contemporary fun things.  Above, my own version of the large design done free motion in the center of a new wall quilt that will showcase the designs like the chickadee, sleeping cat, fronds, rabbit in feathers, formal medallion, pod flower, angel wings, and more.

I've been "off the grid" for two weeks, traveling to help with a family emergency, but am home now and working on my quilt.  One thing I really love about quilting is it helps ease anxiety and gives you a peaceful time to let your mind calm, your body concentrate on the task at hand.

Oliver is glad to see me back home, back in routine, at my machine and doing all my typical daily things. 

I'll try and check the comments and questions you have left and answer all of them, in the posts where you commented.

It's Quilt Market right now so many exciting things are happening in quilting.  I will have a few new products for my June session at Empty Spools (Asilomar) coming up, and I've got some new ideas for this class to try. 

Hope your spring is wonderful, and busy, and full of flowers and sun.

Keep quilting, your work gets better every day!
Diane

Spring Arrived

While I was away for nine days to the Pacific Coast near Monterey, California, spring has arrived here in Wisconsin.  The snow is gone, it will be close to 60 degrees today, the grass is showing a bit of green.  I leave, and wow, the snow disappears!

I had the most marvelous class at Empty Spools (http://www.emptyspoolsseminars.com/) at Asilomar near Pacific Grove, right on the ocean.  It was serene and restful, and my class of 24 motivated women accomplished great things with their machine quilting.  If you want to take your work to a new level, please consider this 5-day class with me next year.  I'll be there for Session II, March 25-30, and Session V, May 27 - June 1.  There are many other great teachers there in each session, it is a feast for quilters.  And the food is nice too!

So much has happened while I was away that it will take me a little time to catch up.  Meanwhile I will be thinking of some of the things I learned from my classes there and a wonderful 2-day class for the Monterey Peninsula Quilt Guild afterwards.  I was inspired by creative ideas and questions, by problems encountered, by helpful suggestions from everyone.  I will write about it soon and we can all learn.

My new Gingko design was successful, and Apple Core was a hit and looked stunning when everyone tried it on various fabrics and with thread colors that complemented rather than contrasted.  It was FUN.  My students worked very hard, put in long hours, and listened and experimented, and the results were worth it. 

I've also had requests for a continuation of my monthly quilting tips on my website, which I shall try to do once again, but am fighting the old and slow and temperamental computer used for that.  I may have to re-do the website on my new equipment, and if that is the case, it will be a bit of time before the tips re-appear, because I have other commitments right now.  Please be patient.

One of these projects is a regular column in American Quilter Magazine, the AQS member publication, but also available on news stands.  I will be answering your questions there about machine quilting, so watch for the upcoming first column and email me your questions.  I will read them all, choose one topic that recurs, and answer it in the next issue.  Hope you enjoy it! 

Meanwhile, it is time to unpack, play with Oliver who missed me but enjoyed his time with his cat Dad, and get back into my usual routine.  Paducah is right around the corner too.

Get out some beautiful fabric, batt, and thread, put in a fresh needle, and do some play at your machine today and everyday.  And keep quilting, your work gets better every day.

Diane

Introducing Oliver

Where have I been for two weeks?  What have I been doing?  If you guessed "new kitten" you would be correct!  This post is about my cat, so bail out now if you are looking for quilting information, just sayin'.

With absolutely no plans whatsoever to even think about a new cat until perhaps in the spring when my first teaching trip is completed, when the cold and snow will be gone, and kittens are being born and needing homes---- what do we do but succomb to the charms of this little guy.

He is from the Wisconsin Humane Society where my husband had a bit of time before a meeting there and strolled through the cat condos and made eye contact with this charmer, named Oliver.  After a phone call with all the details, I said let's think about bringing Oliver home, they sent me photos and the rest is the gentle but compelling slide into new cat mom-hood. 

We brought him home after I spent a day vainly trying to cat proof the house, and he was a burst of pure joy in our lives.  He radiated energy and happiness. His purring is so loud you can hear it across a room.  He has springs in his legs.  He is a cat pretzel.  Anything and everything is entertainment. 

He is 6 months old, was surrendered because his first owner had health problems and could not care for him, and now he is our sweet and mischievous little cat, playing hard, sleeping it off, eating and playing once again, spending lots of time on my lap.

We have had geriatric cats for the last 6 years or so and before that mature cats, so all the ways of a young one are coming back to me!  How can they be so inventive, get into so much trouble, be so darn cute???

Yesterday, after a week here, I opened the sewing room door, the room to the forbidden city.  I had thought it was clean for him, but of course he could jump on the cutting table, pull the pins off the samples and notes on the wall and then kill with great delight anything he managed to knock down. 

I thought I had swept up all the loose threads.  How can he fit behind things in the narrowest places and come out with threads hanging? 

He loves to lie on the foot control of my sewing machine.  I see trouble brewing in that department.

All my pins, pincushions, threads, bobbins, are now in drawers.  He did knock over my little bottle of oil and kitty hockey it all over the room before I rescued it, lid still intact.  Whew.

His favorite is a label that was wrapped around a bundle of Cherrywood fabrics, see photo below.  It skitters nicely around the hard surface floors in our house.  He carries it around in his mouth, then drops it and proceeds to kill it, on the bed, under a chair, in the shower.  He takes it upstairs to play with, then downstairs.  Thanks Cherrywood for the great label, you could market it as an expensive cat toy!

He is beautiful.  His fur is short and like velvet.  He is a combination of our Hillary and Arnie in looks and temperament, naughty, but mellow and sweet and spunky.  He is smart as a whip.  He knows everything already, our routines, the name of the UPS guy, when the mail comes, what dogs go by on their walks. 

His litter is in the laundry room, his room now.  He was raised well, and yes he now jumps up on the kitchen island, but he is aware he is being naughty.  A raised eyebrow and he is down from there fast.

We are smiling, we love him, today I am going to try and quilt.  I think I might wait for his afternoon nap.

My trip is coming up fast to Asilomar in CA, for Empty Spools Seminars.  I have things organized, know what I'll teach, have samples, so if you are in my class there, do not worry, I will still remember how to quilt.  I'm so looking forward to my time there as usual, and know we are going to have a wonderful class.

If you have questions, please ask, and if I have any more info for you in the next two weeks I will post it here on my blog.

Meanwhile, keep on quilting, your work gets better every day!

Diane

Snow Day

It's a snow day here in Wisconsin....and just about everywhere else this winter. We don't have the right to whine about it, as other areas have had it worse, but we stay in today and catch up on that list of things to do. I have a long list.

Getting ready for my class in March at Empty Spools at Asilomar, CA, is on top of my list. Handouts, new samples, ideas to teach that are different from past years. A teacher has to do this or classes become rote and boring, and if they are boring to the teacher, oh my I hate to think how they would be for students. To read about the classes there, go to http://www.emptyspoolsseminars.com/

I don't have props or performing tricks like tap dancing, but I will try and have some exciting machine quilting things for class. Others who are not involved in machine quilting might think that it is about as exciting as watching snow fall, or paint dry, or dust accumulate, but we can get rosy cheeked from finding a new way to create a design that will work in our quilts. Or a new thread to try, or a way to do something that has been too difficult in the past.

I also like to take some time on a day like this and look at other blogs, see what everyone is up to. Ivory Spring did some knockout beautiful Apple Core quilting in the Marabella Sneak peak post at http://www.ivoryspring.wordpress.com/ Love it! I'm going to quilt another sample today, only use it around a central motif as background and figure out how to resolve the dead ends and travel well to the next line. We shall see, but it's a good snow day job.

There are dishes in the sink, but they are at the bottom of my list. Just noticed some great dust globs hanging from the ceiling fan in here too. They look dangerous.

I also have been resting and being careful using my right thumb, as quilting the Alzheimer's quilt just about killed my hands. I'm so used to using pre-washed fabrics that start out soft and lustrous, and soft wool batt, but working on poly batt and stiff coarse donated fabrics was like quilting in cement.

The thudding sound of my poor needle as it went through that sandwich was not music to my ears. The quilt was stiff and difficult to grasp, had a life of its own, and only got worse as I quilted more and more.

Curves that were smooth and lovely were very difficult to achieve with these materials. It seemed the fabric and batt had a life of its own, and definitely made freehand quilting quite difficult. Tension was almost impossible to get right, and isn't right in much of the quilt, but I had to accept getting it as OK as possible, even trying various machines for the best stitch.

The point is sometimes your materials hamper and hinder your skills. If you find your hands get sore and really suffer from grasping and moving the quilt then perhaps it's time to explore some different materials, especially batting.

Backing on this project was a batik and difficult to work with. It barely would slide on the machine using The Slider, and without that aide it was moving in jerks all the time and I was sore all over. I really audition any fabrics for my own quilts not only for the top but especially for the back, before layering the quilt with something that proves to be difficult under the needle.

I pre-wash all my fabrics, and press them with a little of my starch mixture before I cut and piece them. Backing is also prepared this way, and although there is great drama in a very dark backing color, it is really hard to work with dark bobbin thread or contrast color bobbin thread and have it all look wonderful in the end.

A medium shade for the backing is usually my choice, and all my early quilts had high quality muslin on the back and it worked perfectly, no pleats or puckers, and the back looked wholecloth at the end, beautiful.

Many of you think quilting with your group on charity projects with mystery fabrics and batt will improve your machine quilting, but it usually is a test of your skill to do a good job with this situation. Please practice on good stuff to improve your skills. It makes all the difference.

But oh I am so pleased with the quilt, that I persevered and made it through to the end with a few empty spools, and a great sense of accomplishment.

Enjoy your snow day, do a little quilting, or take some time off to rest your muscles.

Diane