Lots went on last night at the quilt guild meeting. Every meeting they have door drawings, a library we can check out sewing/craft related books, and snacks. Last night there was also a table where they were giving away craft books which covered topics from patchwork quilting to Family Circle's Weekend Crafts. I looked at the books and chose two; one on patchwork quilting and one on handcrafted gifts and toys. All of the books looked interesting, but I didn't want to be greedy.
The quilt show is coming up next weekend, and the guild is raffling off a beautiful quilt called "Empire Beauty." It looks like it has lots of appliqué in the border. I hope to win this quilt, but then, probably many others do also. At the end of our meetings, we have "show and tell" where we get to show off our creations. There were several bunnies there from the class we had a couple of weeks ago; I brought two myself. Every one was different and they were all adorable.
After the bunnies, we showed our other creations. I had brought a little green turtle with a quilted shell. He was a big hit. Everyone encouraged me to enter it into the quilt show, which I intend to do. The entry form requires photos, so taking pictures will be on my agenda today. After showing my turtle, I sat down. Then suddenly, one of the ladies came up behind me and handed me a couple more of the giveaway books. I thanked her and returned my attention to the others who were showing their handiwork. A couple of minutes later, the same lady came up behind me again with more books! Now the total rose to six books. All of them seem to be in new condition. I am now well stocked for craft books, at least for now. :)
Maybe next year I'll have a quilt to enter into the show.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
On Order
The den has been rearranged to make room for the newly acquired quilting frame. Well, mostly. I still haven't figured out where to put the treadle sewing machine that is sitting in the corner along the wall where the quilting frame will go. And lest anyone should be silly enough to suggest getting rid of said treadle sewing machine, not on your life. I'd sooner give up the 55 gallon aquarium or the television. I made progress, though. Today I opened the box and took out the assembly instructions to look over, carefully re-taping the box back so Butch can't get at any of the pieces. He tries to eat the strangest things. We're always finding rocks and pieces of wood that he has brought in from outside to chew on. When we take stuff like that away from him, he takes it very philosophically. He knows he can always just go back outside and bring in another rock or hunk of firewood.
Today we ordered the parts from here to make the necessary pieces to turn the hand quilting frame into a machine quilting frame. Of course, if we had ever won the lottery, we wouldn't have to cobble something together like this, but considering that a new quilting machine/frame setup can cost around $8k-$14k, I didn't see any way I could make enough quilts to justify spending that kind of money.
I did see an interesting website today that offers "stretched arm" quilting machines for as little as $1,899, and the company is just a hop and a skip from my place back in Tulsa. They take vintage Singer model 201 sewing machines and cut/paste them into long-arm sewing machines. Okay, it's a little more complicated than cut and paste, but you get the idea.
I have a mostly-completed quilt top that will likely become my practice/learning quilt, and depending on how badly it turns out, it could end up in the dog house. Meanwhile, the t-shirt quilt for DDIL is patiently waiting for me to come to sort of decision regarding the quilting of it. Bobbie and Gracie are in no hurry; they think it sleeps very nicely as is.
Today we ordered the parts from here to make the necessary pieces to turn the hand quilting frame into a machine quilting frame. Of course, if we had ever won the lottery, we wouldn't have to cobble something together like this, but considering that a new quilting machine/frame setup can cost around $8k-$14k, I didn't see any way I could make enough quilts to justify spending that kind of money.
I did see an interesting website today that offers "stretched arm" quilting machines for as little as $1,899, and the company is just a hop and a skip from my place back in Tulsa. They take vintage Singer model 201 sewing machines and cut/paste them into long-arm sewing machines. Okay, it's a little more complicated than cut and paste, but you get the idea.
I have a mostly-completed quilt top that will likely become my practice/learning quilt, and depending on how badly it turns out, it could end up in the dog house. Meanwhile, the t-shirt quilt for DDIL is patiently waiting for me to come to sort of decision regarding the quilting of it. Bobbie and Gracie are in no hurry; they think it sleeps very nicely as is.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Hurry Up and Wait
She's excited to see it, but not before it's finished. I'm talking about the t-shirt quilt for DDIL. DGD's birthday is in June, so maybe I'll get it finished by then so I can take it with me for the visit. I hate not being close enough to visit anytime, and airline travel is expensive and bothersome. I guess it's worth it though, if I get to see the grands.
Anyhow, yesterday we went to Tracy and bought a quilt frame. It came with lights at each end. It's still sitting in the box on the floor in the den. We'll have to rearrange the furniture to make room for it. (Know anyone who wants to buy a 55 gallon aquarium with a beautiful mahogany base and hood?) The quilt frame is intended to be used for hand quilting, but DH says he can create an attachment to enable using a sewing machine with the frame. This would be cool.
I've been practicing my free-motion quilting on scraps from the quilt, using my trusty Singer 201-2 in it's cabinet. It's obvious I still need a lot of practice. Coordinating the movement of the fabric with the speed of the machine is the hardest part. Well, except maybe making smooth curves instead of jerky lines. Now I'm trying to decide if I should just use a diagonal grid or attempt a more elaborate design, and if I should mark the lines or just wing it. I'm also trying to decide if I should wait to see if DH will get his quilter invention done in a timely manner. Meantime, Gracie and Bobbie vie for dibs on the quilt as a bed.
Because the t-shirts used to make this quilt are all from concerts attended my DDIL, I digitized a music notes design for my embroidery machine, with the intent of using it to quilt the border. It turned out fairly well.
Anyhow, yesterday we went to Tracy and bought a quilt frame. It came with lights at each end. It's still sitting in the box on the floor in the den. We'll have to rearrange the furniture to make room for it. (Know anyone who wants to buy a 55 gallon aquarium with a beautiful mahogany base and hood?) The quilt frame is intended to be used for hand quilting, but DH says he can create an attachment to enable using a sewing machine with the frame. This would be cool.
I've been practicing my free-motion quilting on scraps from the quilt, using my trusty Singer 201-2 in it's cabinet. It's obvious I still need a lot of practice. Coordinating the movement of the fabric with the speed of the machine is the hardest part. Well, except maybe making smooth curves instead of jerky lines. Now I'm trying to decide if I should just use a diagonal grid or attempt a more elaborate design, and if I should mark the lines or just wing it. I'm also trying to decide if I should wait to see if DH will get his quilter invention done in a timely manner. Meantime, Gracie and Bobbie vie for dibs on the quilt as a bed.
Because the t-shirts used to make this quilt are all from concerts attended my DDIL, I digitized a music notes design for my embroidery machine, with the intent of using it to quilt the border. It turned out fairly well.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Quilted Delay
So, I rearranged things in my sewing room, to enable me to free-motion quilt the t-shirt quilt for my DDIL. This is a bed-size quilt and will require a lot of room to enable me to quilt it on my machine. Because I have several machines in cabinets, I decided to set one of the extras behind the machine I intend to use, which is a 1940 Singer 201-2 in a #42 cabinet. I got this machine on a whim, at an auction, intending to put my 1970s Kenmore in the cabinet. Fortunately, the Kenmore wouldn't fit. I say fortunately, because the 201 turned out to be a wonderful machine, a real workhorse and wonderful stitcher.
Setting the two cabinets together, one behind the other gave plenty of room spreading out the quilt for machine quilting it. Only now, Gracie seems to have claimed the quilt, and she isn't going to give it up without a fight. I still have some practicing to do before I am brave enough to work on the actual quilt, so Gracie (Lily Grace) will have a little time to find a new perch before she gets evicted.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Quilted T-Shirts, Part Two
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| Click photo to enlarge |
My sewing room is tiny and crowded; could this be caused by the presence of 10 sewing machines, four of them in cabinets? And don't forget the two sergers...Anyhow, this is the reason the quilt was laid out on the floor in the den, (don't worry folks, I vacuumed the carpet first) as it was the only place in the house with a large enough flat area to do this. Pinning the quilt "sandwich" together involved several hours crawling around on the floor. I felt like I'd been working!
The next challenge will be to get this top quilted. I've only actually machine quilted one or two small quilts myself. Usually I send it out to have it done by someone with a long-arm quilting machine, but I have the urge to learn to do it myself. This will require plenty of preparation and practice, but I gotta learn sometime.
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