Becky's quilt obsession

I somehow managed to not blog about my 5th finish for Scrap Squad, a quilt I really like as I finally found luminosity. This is from Carolyn McCormick’s pattern Star Struck, which appeared in Quiltmaker in Oct-Nov, I believe. DH made acrylic templates for it down in the shop as the star points and even the central “diamond” were unusual shapes for which no commercial templates are available. I’m so fortunate that he can do this for me. I quilted this one using the Circle Lord frame and a spiral circle, not my usual long boards. This way I was able to center the spiral in each diamond. I picked yellow thread (Superior So Fine, with Bottom Line pre-wound bobbins) for all the quilting, but have mixed feelings about how it shows on the black as I had starts and stops that I, at first, was not good at hiding. I did improve on this. On a side note, my quilting friend, JoAnne, who made these quilt s had a house fire the night before Thanksgiving. She had smoke and water damage in...

You might have read my blog post over on Quilty Pleasures Blog about the Mandarin Express quilt I made in red, black and white for the scrap squad. In it I gave the illusion that I caught my mistake while it was a top. Not so. This is the picture I took of it for the blog: Do you see it?  The offending section? Try the right end of the second row of stars . . . .Ah, now you see it. Note that it is entirely quilted, binding in place, and hanging for its final picture. I did not see this until posting it as the last picture in the Quilty Pleasures blog. My DDH (double dear) was kind enough to Photoshop a correction of the quilt in time for me to meet my deadline. This, however, is how the quilt was actually finished. The first step was to carefully rip out the quilting, leaving as long tail as possible to each line. I was fortunate that all the edges here are turned under already. The hardest part was actually finding a stitch to start ripping out the piece. I now have increase...

I was sewing along, putting on binding, and kept hearing something bump. I reset the bobbin, and finally looked at the back of the machine. The green thread had fallen over on the power strip, so I set it back some, and sewed some more. It kept bumping, and I finally investigated. While the fly wheel (I think that’s what it’s called) was still on, I was pulling out the thread that was wrapped around until it broke. Then DH popped the cover off the wheel, and I was trying to cut and pull out thread, and it still wasn’t coming out very well. There is a large screw holding the wheel to the drive shaft – or whatever that’s called – and he gingerly tried  turning it – it worked – and the wheel came off. This is what it looked like when he took it off. That cone of green thread (Superior Sew Fine) had been nearly full. I usually use that thread on the Black Bart (longarm), but it matched the previous binding. Strong thread - it never broke until I  pulled too hard trying to remove ...

Last year I offered to quilt some tops that were donated after the tsunami. Then shoulder stuff happened, then other things. To make a long story short, I’ve now started on them. I had expected tops ready for quilting, but since I don’t quilt for others, I guess I don’t have an appreciation for how some toppers prepare their quilts. I’ve done quite a bit of work on the few tops I’ve worked with, some of work at my own choosing. I quilted some Heartstrings tops last, and sent them to Las Vegas for the VA hospital. Since I think they are still short, I was looking at this box of tops to see if I could add borders to some to make them large enough for VA needs. (I figure the Japanese quilters have taken care of the tsunami victims by now.)  I had navy fabric that worked with the first top, and there weren’t but a few tiny flowers in the strippy parts, so I added borders to it. The second top was obviously of kid fabrics, so I left it as is. It was the only one in the box that was nic...

Someone attending MQS (machine quilters' showcase) today, and tomorrow, is using my new 12' Nolting table. We took apart our 14' table today, and tomorrow after class will drive over to Overland Park, KS and exchange them, for a fee. I hope I am going to like having the machine up here where I can have breaks when working on it, but it does make a tight fit for the room. Where am I supposed to put all this? Underneath all this is my cutting table. I hope to see the top of it soon after we assemble the long-arm. I hated giving up my closets when we built/moved to this house. If I would finish some UFO's it would help. I hope I have room under the table to fill it with "rolly" carts. The DGC have 2, and the pink bin of dress-up clothes. There are also dolly beds, etc. Then I have 2 big rolls of batting, plus some packages. Ugh, I don't think I'll like the next few days. I do plan to stop the rearranging on Wednesday to go to the Vendor sale at...