Saturday Report

 BJ came by today to pick up her quilt that came off the longarm last night. It looks sort of Christmassy I think, but isn't intended to be.

 It's quilted all over with freehand leaves and vines in keeping with the nature based fabric designs.

The quilting is pretty subtle, using a pale green Superior brand trilobal polyester.

Then I headed out to brave the Christmas crowds, not nearly as bad as I expected but my purchases were mostly gift certificates plus some few grocery items. I had ordered a small pork crown roast for Christmas dinner and my sweet cleaning ladies have left me home made enchiladas for Christmas Eve!

As of this evening I am caught up on the "Easy Street" mystery quilt, in the nick of time because a new clue was released today! Above is Clue #3, shaded four patches.

And clue #4, 64 more Flying Geese combined with 64 Geese from Clue #2! I haven't had time to peek at Clue #5 yet but I have next week to do it, however I also need to cut and pre-sew for the NYE Mystery that my group does each year. This time we will gather for the day at Jacki's home, it should be fun as she has plans for extra curricular activities! 

"Build Your Best Log Cabin"

Log Cabin is an old and simple, easy block from Civil War era that has multiple, countless really, variations and it is often a new quilter's first experience.
 It was the first large quilt I attempted, a queen size for my Mum in her favorite colors, peach and blue. It remained on their bed many years but I have no idea where it might be now since both of my parents have passed onto eternity. It was tied which was a traditional method originally because many were foundation pieced.

Recently I was invited to preview this new eBook from Fons and Porter.

You can get your own free eBook here, I think you will enjoy it as it is quite different from the usual Log Cabin books, featuring the three most popular LC block styles. It begins with a short history of the LC block and goes on to show a chart for traditional blocks to cut the various widths of strips depending on choice of block size. 

Traditional settings are shown as well as a few newer versions such as Ricky Timms "Bears in Bertie's Log Cabin", Shon McMain's contemporary "Woven Log Cabin", and an unusual version of Courthouse Steps.

In addition to full and clear directions there are quilting suggestions and even a piping tutorial.

I will be referring back to this eBook in the future, LC is such an easy block and makes up into a fast quilt when you need one in a hurry!

So check out your own free copy of this eBook here and let me know what you think!

Oh Christmas Tree Skirt...........

Heather over at Books And Quilts invited me to join in their Christmas Tree Skirt show.

This one has been around a long time, so long in fact that I don't remember where or when I purchased it, so long ago that it was not even made in China! I do recall that the price was very good, on sale, and I knew I could never make anything similar for the materials and time involved.

If you would like to join in and show off your Christmas tree skirt along with a little history then this is the place to link it up!

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 I love the bling which photography has not really enhanced, it's a very pretty, green velvet with lots of sequins.

It is somewhat the worse for wear in a couple spots, our son and DIL have a couple of Yorkies that are obstinate about potty training and one year they used my tree skirt! I cleaned it up but those areas show damage, hidden behind/under the tree usually.

This year due to my recent spinal surgeries we have only the little tree I call "Matt's Tree" because it displays the memorial ornaments I have acquired each year since 2006. The quilted Santa table topper I made a few years ago. Perhaps next Christmas we may have the larger tree again as well.

Easy Street Update

Only a little bit of sewing going on here, life is getting in the way, drat!

 However clue #2, 192 x FG are all done as are the grey and white 4 patches from clue #1.

They went fast, I nest the seams as I cut them right sides together so when I come to the machine I find that I do not need to pin.

 Part of this accuracy is due to the Pfaff's IDF [Integrated Dual Feed] a built in walking foot.

 You can tell that I have been sewing up a storm, see all the fluff that had to be "blown away"?

Now I am only two clues behind and I have until Saturday to catch up.

Next up, clue #3, 64 shaded four patches.

Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild

The Christmas party/ meeting was held today and I rode with BJ and Jacki who kindly chauffered  us- the meetings are held "way out" in Chandler, well, that's way out when you live in north central or north west Phoenix!

I think there were 20 plus quilters attending and we had a pot luck lunch............

 and a mini quilt show. Here are three happy quilters checking out the displayed quilts.

I am not a "modern quilt" maker per se, but now and then I produce something that falls into that category, below are the three quilts I chose to show.

This two sided quilt from the "Ugly Quilt Fabric Challenge" I think fits the category, or is it more in the contemporary department?!

The new Christmas table runner also seemed to fit the modern quilt category.

 I was not really sure about this white whole-cloth quilt, does it fit modern or is it traditional? You tell me! I can get quite confused about some of these categories, other than the obvious, Civil War or 30's etc, but who really cares they are all quilts, right?!

And as it was raining and rather chilly in Phx. today I wore the jacket I made for my Mum in 1995 that displays a variety of quilting/sewing techniques, chenille, sashiko etc.

We had a FQ exchange at the party, "modern fabrics", and we were each assigned a different color.

While we were in that area we went to the 35th.Ave. quilt store and each found fabrics that we just had to have! 

 This caught my eye, antique typewriters

and two yards followed me home.........

it goes with my bracelet made from antique typewriter keys.

These are the extra fabrics I needed for the Bonnie Hunter Mystery "Easy Street", they arrived yesterday from thousandsofbolts.com. Now I can get back to that project tomorrow after church. Clue #4 came out today and I am waaaay behind, only halfway done with one clue so I have a lot of catching up to do this week, but to be fair to myself there were already three clues out when I joined in last week! Wish me luck.

BJ's quilt is on the LA and I have made a start on it, hoping to work on it in between the BH mystery.

`

Easy Street

After hearing my quilty friends chat about Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery, I was inveigled into joining them!

After a search through my stash I could see I needed to  [scream] purchase fabric! But if you check my "fabric in and out" tally in the sidebar, you will see that I have been very good this year and it is the season for giving.........our $$$ to the retailers, LOL!

There was no grey whatsoever in my stash, and I needed more turquoise, black on white and another yard of lime green. Perhaps I should have subbed those colors but it would have meant an entirely new slate of colors so I went with Bonnie's choices. 

As you can see by clicking on the Bonnie Hunter quilt parade link at the top of this page, every one of her quilts I have made, especially the mysteries has resulted in a beautiful quilt so why change now?

 In the past I have made small one color adjustments viz. in Double Delight I switched from double pinks to red- but never changed the entire scheme. It is always amazing to me that even using the same colors all the participant's quilts turn out quite different. I am pleased to be able to clean out some of the smaller bits of these fabrics, although I may have new little bits left after completion of Easy Street! Sigh, what's a quilter to do?
Make another quilt, LOL!

Confined to the house unless DH chauffeurs me [post op. directives from the neurosurgeon] I used my fingers to do the walking and after a diligent search at my favorite online quilt shop, Thousands of Bolts [and only one nut!] identified the necessary additions, all seven yards, for "Easy Street".

Frustrated at having to by-pass the first couple of instructions until the rest of the fabric arrives, I found that there are enough purples and black on white to make 128 Flying Geese.

Bonnie uses her favorite method for construction of FG, but I prefer the "four at a time" method  [click  for directions] so that's what I am doing.

These are very small FG, 2"x3.5" now and only 1.5"x 3.0" once sewn into the quilt blocks. I find the four at a time method allows me to trim to the exact size and still maintain my 1/4" sewing allowance especially at the apex of the triangle, something I have struggled with using other methods.
Bonnie says she called this quilt "Easy Street" because it is an easier version than she usually designs so I am hoping to catch up by Christmas? Stay tuned!

A Modern Christmas Table Runner

As planned I have a new runner for the front hall table, my modern Christmas table runner is finished!
When I first looked at the directions I was thinking this would be a pain, but really the cutting was the worst part. I did have to make some adjustments before quilting because the sizes of some of the pieces were not very accurate so some trimming was required but other than that it was pretty simple.
In case you are wondering, it came from "Connecting Threads".

Using more great Superior threads, I quilted the gifts with Rainbows threads used in some of the applique, in a simple meandering loopy design and the ribbons in a "ribbon" sort of design. These threads are fine so they do not show up boldly.

  I thought about quilting the white part with the same variegated Rainbows thread, but decided I wanted something more subtle and found this  "glitter" thread, it's a flat "hologram" thread, comes in 24 colors I think this is the pearl, though the flash shows up very pink in the pic.    

It has been  in my collection for some time and it looked as if it would represent sparkly snowflakes very well. I have never used it before but depending upon the reliability of Superior brand threads and "Dr" Bob's excellent directions for use of all their threads, I decided to give it a try and from the first few experimental stitches it sewed beautifully.  I loosened the tensions a bit more, they were already dialed back for the trilobal thread, and I had zero thread breakage or any other problems. Dr. Bob suggests a #14 needle but I just left the #16 titanium that I had used for the trilobals.

I hope you can see from these close up pics that the thread has sewn in perfectly and gives a delightful soft sparkly look, I wish I had a black light to show it better. I did have quite a few threads to "bury" because these are slippery threads that would be liable to unravel if not properly secured.

 I am very pleased with my new runner and the thoroughly modern backing.

The double fold bias binding I made finishes it up nicely, woohoo success!

A little Applique

Today I felt well enough to get up and around a bit-in truth it is very difficult for me to be inactive, I need to be productive and that's pretty difficult lying flat in bed!
My surgery turned out to be two operations 48 hours apart owing to a problem that arose after the first.
All that fasting/anesthesia/drugs/more fasting/anesthesia/drugs is really hard on the body and creates havoc for the immune system so you can be sure I will be using every natural method possible to get my system back to "normal".
I decided to tackle the applique on the Christmas table runner and I found that sitting is really more comfortable, less pressure on the surgical area than lying in bed.

 In earlier years I had made quite a few appliqued quilts and won some ribbons at it but it's very time consuming and doesn't allow for "pedal to the metal" sewing, so in recent years my applique projects have been few and far between. With this in mind I will tell you a few of the "tricks" I find make it a more palatable process, starting with an open toe applique foot that allows for better vision of the work area.

You need to use a good tear-away  stabilizer.

I find this one removes nicely, I also use it for the embroidery machine.

I like to use fancy threads for applique, if you are going to all that trouble why not make the most of the effect? This time I pulled out a few from my longarm selection, some Superior "Rainbows" and "Art Colors" trilobal polyesters.

To use these specialty threads efficiently it's important to have the correct needle and these titanium coated topstitch needles from Superior are the best I have found. A #14 [90] will usually be sufficient to allow easy access for the thread in order not to shred.

These threads are very "slick" and require the ends to be tied off or otherwise secured to ensure that they do not unravel. Secure the beginning by sewingover the tails for a half inch, and then leaving sufficient thread at the very end to bury the tails by threading them into the back of the work. That way when you launder the article you won't have the applique coming loose! You get a good look at the open toe applique foot here. One more thing, often I find it necessary to adjust tension and this works best for me if I tweak the bobbin tension a little bit tighter to pull the fancy thread down to the back of the work giving a nicer appearance.
Now I know the DSM manufacturers may say "never touch the bobbin tension" but that is malarkey I can testify as a longarmer for eleven years I constantly adjust my bobbin tension and the machine police have never come to my door! What is a longarm but a DSM on steroids?!

There are two small screws on the bobbin, the really tiny one on the left holds the tension arm in place, don't mess with that, but the larger of the two controls the tension of the thread coming off the bobbin so if you tighten this screw just a little you may like the result and what have you lost? You can always turn it back that fraction to what it was before, which is exactly what I do when I return to regular stitching. Your instruction book may even have some directions for bobbin tension adjustment from some of the more enlightened manufacturers!

Have no fear, you can do this!

While I am far from the world's greatest appliquer you can see how the specialty threads make a pretty effect in spite of the operator!

Now to quilt and bind it!