A new project...

While we are on vacation, I thought I'd start a new project.  I brought two things with me....my Granny Squares project (still 60 squares short) and a smaller version of the Supernova quilt from Freshly Pieced....

I am using 2.5" squares so I can use some of the charm squares I got from my last Spectrum swap.  I'm also going to piece it slightly different than she did, just to be more efficient and not waste any fabric.  I sort of made little kits of fabric and diagrams of the 9 blocks before I left Vegas...

We are in Flagstaff, AZ...the land of no air conditioning.  I'm not big on vacationing for several reasons...

1.  If you are working, vacations are fun because you aren't at work.  But if you are a teacher on summer break, you are NOT working so this is just more of the same, but in a different location.

2.  When vacationing, you should stay somewhere way better than where you live.  But right now, I really like where I live (nice sheets and towels, air conditioning, snacks, two sewing rooms, lots of cable TV, etc) so there is a really high standard to beat on a vacation...

Anywho, I'll post up pics of random Flagstaff stuff that is sewing related from Rebecca's iPhone! 
Happy sewing!

Vinyl Zippered Pouch

Yesterday I decided to make a vinyl zippered pouch similiar to one Joyce made me last year.  I did find the directions, but it was pretty simple to make.  Mine is about 9" x 10"... I ordered the black and white comic print from eQuilter last week....

The funniest part ended up under the zipper...damn it!!  Poor planning on my part...it is the bubble above the woman's head....

I'm fairly certain that there has been NO extra money in the budget since I learned to sew!!  LOL....Hubs doesn't know it yet, but all the extra money will soon be spent at the fabric shop!

I don't think I posted about the Rainbow Spectrum swap charm squares that I received.  I sent in 5 yards of purples, cut into 5" squares, and received back 5 yards of charms squares.  256 rainbow colored charm squares!  I have no idea of what to do with them, but they look inviting...

I've got to go find a sewing project.  But the little zippered pouch was satisfying...how often do I finish something in a day???

Have fun sewing!

Cola's quilt....

So Nichola, from Made by Cola, came by my house on Saturday to learn about longarming.  I think her husband will have a surprise one day when she decides to buy one "just for fun"....LOL!  She did some practicing but then I finished up the quilt with the panto Garden Frills...This is her challenge quilt for the LVMQG Pantone Orange Challenge....Shhhh...the reveal isn't for two weeks!

It was good to get some panto practice...it is all coming back to me now... ;-)

Happy Quilting....

Behind the Scenes...Longarming

A friend of mine recently mentioned that she didn't know what longarming was about....so here is a picture essay on longarming!!  I did my orange quilt today with my homemade panto--done in 2 hours!!  No problems...yeah!

First step...square up the backing (it should be a rectangle--opposite sides parallel and equal, 90 degree angles on the corners).  Then pin on the backing to the take-up roller and the backing roller....

This involves about 150+ pins for the top and bottom....I takes me about 20 mins to pin on a quilt backing....wrong side up by the way!!  See all the corsage pins--these are very pokey when you stick yourself....

Next, you lay on the batting....

Finally, you lay on the quilt top.  I float the quilt top...which means I let it drop onto the floor....see the extra roller above the quilt top (with the blue tape on it)--That is the roller a serious quilter would pin the quilt top to and rollup like the backing.  But that takes too much time so I don't do it....lots of quilters float their tops.  Some even float their bottoms....

You have to make sure the quilt top is very flat (hopefully) and mount it parallel to the take up roller.  You don't want to mount it crooked or you will have problems later.... I sew the top of the quilt to secure the start of the sandwich....

I'm following a panto today so I have placed the panto on the table at the back of the machine.  I will follow the lines on the panto with the laser light.  This seems easy, but the head probably weighs over 30 pounds so you have to practice to learn to move it right.  Once you get going, though, it is almost like the laser falls into a grove on the panto and you can't go wrong.  How long does it take to get to that "sweet spot".... quite a while.... ;-)

As you trace the panto with the laser, the needle follows the same path on the quilt top....see the wavy lines??

After about 10 wavy rows, I have to advance the quilt top up onto the take-up roller, then start panto-ing again.  I wish the panto had about 15 rows....oh well....

BUDDY BREAK....he looks like he is sleeping under the quilt while I'm quilting....

But if you look under the quilt, you can see he has slipped out of the bed is half in/half out....how wonky??  What is wrong with this dog??  LOL....

Finally, I did a last swoop across the panto and I ran out of quilt top!!  Tada....done!

Here is the finished top.  The wavy lines go vertically on the quilt top (I had it mounted sideways).  It took about 2 hours of quilting to get it done....awesome!  I used a light ivory thread on the top and blue on the bottom and the tension was pretty good so both sides look nice.  ;-)

Finally, you unpin it all and thank the quiting gods that you didn't have any major problems....

So if you ever wondered what happened to your quilt when you dropped it off at your longarmer, this might have answered your questions.  There are also sometimes lots of chocolate, pills or alcohol involved, but since it was a PG-13 show, I didn't get detailed on that part.... ;-)  By the way, it is only PG-13 and not G because of the dog nudity...other than that, it was a clean production....;-)

Happy Quilting!

Panto making and a rainbow quilt....

I saw on the Sew Kind of Wonderful blog that she made her own panto....so I thought I'd do the same.  Turns out that it takes a lot of time and I could have bought the panto for $16.50 online.  Hmmm.....I might have to rethink the homemade panto idea...

Here is the actual process....taping down long easel paper and tracing the template (which is used for corrugated sheeting and can be found at Home Depot).

I made this one but felt like I might screw up when following the pencil line so every other sewing line I drew on with marker...the actual panto for this is called the Packer Wave, I believe, but I had already bought all the supplies when I saw there was a panto....hmmmmm.....

I don't know if I ever showed this quilt....a king size rainbown "broken dishes" quilt that I made about 13 years ago.  Most of the fabric was from Jo-Ann or the local Hancock's as there weren't that many quilt shops in town back then and I was on a budget.  I remember that I had it quilted at Fabric Boutique by someone who had a longarm in the back and a business called Quilts in the Attic.  It cost $200 and I almost choked to death on that price....LOL....Obviously a better idea is to spend $20,000 and buy your own longarm...duh....

And a side view....the other view was from standing on top of the dog stairs...

Anyhow, I drug this quilt out because the batting is thinner than what I use so hopefully it will be cooler to sleep under....last night Buddy and I were having hot flashes and couldn't get any sleep at all!!!  Maybe this is the ticket to a good night's sleep....

I'm still on the orange quilt...gotta go!

Misc stuff...

Hello quilters!  First of all, Buddy has been very sick for about a month.  We thought it was an allergic reaction to a tree outside, then chemical burns from painting our house, then a bug bite, but it turns out at least part of it was a systemic reaction to a rabies shot he got at the end of April.  He ended up with an abscess on his hip from the injection that needed to be drained.  The shoelace thing went through his skin and was tied on the outside--disgusting, but it worked.  He had major scratching, all his soft membranes (around his eyes, mouth, pads of feet) were raw...he was a hot mess!  



Now the drain has been removed, he is on lots of medication, and he feels a lot better!  What a trooper....they also did skin scrapings because he was scratching and had a dark dander which I over-reacted to and determined to be mange via the internet.  LOL....but I took a sample to school and used the zoology microscope to rule out mange mites, but the vet still took a sample anyway, just to confirm my non-diagnosis....it isn't mange.  Just flakey skin from the reaction.....FYI, mange is contagious between dogs and humans (ick...especially if you cuddle or sleep with your pet!).

My orange challenge quilt is coming along...all the blocks are made, they just need to be assembled into a top.  That is today's challenge, I guess....I have to have it completely finished before we leave on our vacation in about 10 days!

I've gotten off the caffeine, hopefully.  It has been 5 days of no coffee, no tea, no Coke.  I substitute watered down Kool-Aid and drink that instead.  Eventually, when the non-stop headache goes away, I will drop the Kool-Aid as well.  And because it is summer and I'm feeling lazy, we have devolved into college students living off of Cup 'o Noodles and Top Ramen.  That is the best 28 cents I've ever spent!!  However, it is possible that I'm now addicted to MSG.... ;-)

We had a wonderful time at our LVMQG sew-in on Sunday!  About a dozen quilters met at Fabric Boutique to sew and snack and have a good time....Thanks go out to Sharon for arranging this meet-up.  The owner of the shop was very gracious and treated us like family.  I got some work done on a charity quilt that I'll post about later this week....

I need to work on making a panto for my orange quilt...Happy Quilting!

Quilting today....

Today I loaded up Joyce's quilt...I did an allover floral freehand in the center and some cursive "L"s in the borders.  I did some really horrible quilting in the first border (not the L's) and had to take the quilt off the frame and sit and pick out a whole bunch of fugly crap.  That sucked, I can't lie.  But then I went with something simple and it worked out OK....

The bitch of the whole situation is that this damn machine has a stitch regulator but something isn't right about it so I did the whole quilt non-stitch regulated.  I don't mind that, but I do get pissy when I spent a lot of money and it doesn't do what I want.....I need to load a junk piece of fabric tomorrow and mess around with it some more....

I added some sticker bling to the machine head hoping it would be cheerful....didn't work yet.  More practice is necessary before I feel confident about this quilting...it has been at least 3 years since I sold the last longarm machine...

I'll post more stuff tomorrow, but it has been a long day and I need to rest!!  Happy quilting...

Journal Swap....

I meant to post a few pics earlier in the week of the lovely journal cover that I got from Darlene, but this was the last week of school and it was very hectic!!  So here it is....I picked the fabric from Kate Spain's Good Fortune and Darlene improvised the cover.  It is not a typical journal, it has grid paper inside!!  I can't wait to draft something cool...

This challenge was sponsored by the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild.  I absolutely LOVE my new journal...it is perfect!  Darlene does the most wonderful embroidery on her machine...and she is not working at Quiltique (the LQS) so I'm sure I'll see more of her work on display in the store as well.

Thanks, Darlene!  You made my week with this wonderful swap gift.... ;-)

Happy Quilting!