Merry Mayhem 2016

This quilt was a New Year's Day mystery quilt, back in (I think) 2016.  It waited a long time to be finished. I finally finished the blocks in one of my finishing sprees earlier this year.  And now, it is quilted and ready to bind.

I played with my new Millie longarm for this. I designed a quilting design for the blocks and quilted all of them the same way. Then I created designs for the sashing and borders to finish it off.  I'm still figuring out the program. So far, I haven't managed to create a corner design that lets me finish borders nicely, but I'm having fun playing with the program, and am getting a handle on a lot of it.

This quilt will get bound soon, and then sent off to Victoria's Quilts in September.

Plugging Along

As expected, peacock is not going to be a short project. I spent time cutting out all the fabric for the main feathers (20 of them), in preparation for assembly line sewing these critters.  An evening's worth of work and this is what I have so far. 6 pieces, out of 48, sewn on each of the feathers. I just hope I can keep all my little piles of fabric pieces in order until I finish this step.

Peacock Fun

I have a new project underway today. Violet Craft came out with a new pattern - a peacock, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it. Arrived in the store this week, and it immediately came home.

I hunted through my stash for just the right fabric, and remembered that I had bought some a couple of years ago that I loved - because it was peacock coloured. The line was even called Peacock Paradise (by Northcott). Dug it out of the "fabric that needs a project" pile, and discovered that not only are the colours perfect, but I bought exactly the right amount of background fsbric for this project. It's like it was meant to be.

I started the pattern today - and one single peacock feather took me all afternoon to finish. This is not going to be a quick project :) But here it is, in all of its lonely glory.

Playing with Pantographs

Autumn Wind

 Here are a few of the designs I've been playing with on my new longarm. Some purchased, pantographs, like Autumn Wind and Fan Palm.

Wood Grain is my own design, which was created initially for quilting Fancy Forest by Elizabeth Hartman.  I converted it from a freehand to a computerized program because it's been so popular.

Fan Palm

Pipeline at the bottom is a modified pantograph design that came with my new longarm.

Much as I love the relaxing motion of driving the longarm myself, the computer has already given me so much more freedom to experiment with designs that require a more accurate line or a steadier hand than is possible to do with freemotion.  Next up - CIRCLES!

Wood Grain

Pipeline

New Toy!

I have a new baby! I hope my old machine doesn't get jealous, but this little beauty has 26" and a computer. I have been having a blast learning to use it (which is in part to blame for my absence here on the blog).  Hopefully I'll get back to posting more frequently now.

I've been playing mostly with the computer, and have done a file of pantograph designs on various quilts so far.  I've even managed to create my own designs, and have almost made friends with the computer program.

Machine Oil

This post is a little PSA (Public Service Announcement) regarding that bottle of sewing machine oil you have next to your machine.  If it looks like the one on the right, DON'T USE IT!

I have been happily using that bottle, which came with my longarm, since I got it. The oil isn't sticky, it seems to lubricate fine, so why replace it?  Well, yesterday I decided it was probably about time. I was picking up one machine from the shop, spotted the oil and picked up a new bottle - the one on the left. See how crisp and clean it looks?

I have been fighting with my machine for ages. Every time I oiled it, the tension would be a mess and I'd have to fight with it to get it back in line.  Rethreading didn't work. It didn't matter if it was a new bobbin or a half-full one I'd just pulled out. Every time I oiled the machine, I had to work at it to fix the tension.  It would start like this. See those little eyelashes?

Or even worse, like this mess.
But eventually it would fix itself (sometimes with a loud snap) and I'd be fine until the next time.

I took it in for service, and they couldn't reproduce the problem. I finally resigned myself to this being a 'feature' of my machine that I would have to live with. Oiling was relegated to once only, as I started a quilt. Not a good policy, since the norm is to oil every 2 bobbins, and a large quilts takes upwards of 5.  But it was working for me, somewhat.

But today I had fresh oil, so as I loaded my next quilt I used it in my longarm - precisely one oiling of the bobbin race. And I could not believe the difference! Not a SINGLE issue with tension. It was beautiful, and the tension never flinched.

So the moral here, ladies and gentlemen, is don't keep using that discoloured oil in your machine.  Invest in fresh oil as often as necessary (a whole $5 this bottle cost me). You might not realize what's happening, but your machine will thank you.

Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day, and that means it's quilt show weekend here in Ottawa.  I couldn't enter any quilts in the show, since I'm not a guild member. But I was thrilled to have a few of my customers enter their quilts.

One in particular received 3 ribbons for 2 of her quilts.  I loved quilting these, and was thrilled to see them do so well at the show.