Time Travel

The weeks go so fast.  The quilt goes so slowly.  Spring seems to have come to the mountains.  We have wild pasque flowers all over our yard.  I have never seen so many.  They are small but so special...about the size of crocuses.

Pasque Flower

Another motif quilted.  This is such fun. I never get bored doing these intricate designs.  This isn't complete, but I couldn't sew today.  The feather will be repeated on the other three sides.  Those stitches really look bumpy in close up photo.  Do them over or not?  That is the question.

Motif with metallic gold and Isacord turquoise thread.

This is a busy time getting the house into Spring/Summer mode.  Pulling winter-stored stuff out of the Guest House (repurposed garage) so that visitors can stay there.  My daughter and grand-daughter are coming in another week and the sewing room has to be turned back into a bedroom as well.  To top it off we are due for snow in the next few days.  So much for Spring!

Life is never dull at our house and we love it.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you joy in your spring cleaning and straight lines in your FMQ.

My Talking Quilt

Do you have conversations with your quilt?  I do.  Sometimes my side of the conversation needs some cleaning up, but we do converse.  When I stitch nicely my quilt dances.  When I try to go my own way my quilt chastises me.

I draw my designs out on tracing paper, but I forgot something.  I filled in all the spaces and it looked so nice on paper, but when I began to stitch I realized that if I fill all those spaces with stitches, there will be no puff.  Empty spaces don't look good on paper, but they look beautiful on a quilt.  My quilt agrees, "YES!"  See below.  I filled one side with the pebbles, but the remaining un-quilted sides showed me that the fill was no good.  Have you ever ripped out pebbles?

Pebbles = No Puff

My designs are drawn with pencil on paper that is basically white so there are still thread color choices to make.  I thought I had them all worked out, but the quilt disagreed.  I have tried all ideas and threads on the scrap sandwich, but it is different when translated to the actual quilt.

Here is our conversation regarding the latest motif:

Quilt:  "Get rid of the black thread.  It makes me feel dirty and depressed." (no photo)

Me:  "OK.  It is gone.  I will use red."

The upper motif is filled with red and a diagonal grid.

Quilt:  "Ick.  It doesn't show.  Now I feel completely invisible.  I know you didn't plan on using orange thread, but I think that is the answer to make me feel alive.  The diagonal grid is bad."

Me:  "OK.  Red is gone.  I give up.  Orange it is and I'll change the grid."

Quilt:  "I LOVE it.  Now I can dance. I can fly. I will be noticed.  I love being surrounded by gold.  I feel like a queen."

Success!  You can't see the puff on the lower motif, but it makes a nice frame.
(photo slightly distorted)

I was ripping out the curved, diagonal grid (see the other photo) on the upper motif and noticed that the vertical seam in the middle really disrupted puff.  I changed the grid to vertical instead of diagonal with the center grid line on the seam, and worked out to the sides.  Now the seam doesn't even show.  The gold metallic pebbles don't shine in the photo, but they are a real WOW factor.

TIP:  Keep your seam ripper, scissors and tweezers close at hand.  Don't be lazy and leave it if the quilt begins to scream at you.  The more you ignore the quilt's conversation the more ripping, or the less you will love your quilt.

I hate to rip as much as the next person, but I will continue to do so if it doesn't look right.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you perseverance to achieve your goals.

Ripping Orange

I told you about my tension troubles and the resulting need to rip.  The thread that needed to come out is all orange.  It was a tedious task and needed to be carefully done.  I am so glad that I had stitched the seams in the ditch.  I didn't have to worry about distortion.  I spent three evenings watching free Amazon Prime movies with an Ott-light glowing over the quilt on my lap.  The first two movies were very enjoyable.  The third I was glad to shut off when the last stitch came out, I don't intend to watch the rest of it.  I am now off and stitching again and this time the tension is right and it looks like it is supposed to look.

Before sitting down to sew, I got down on the floor and pulled up all the loose thread flying around so it won't wrap around the vacuum cleaner brush.

The ironing board is a trap for all things extraneous.  Note to self:  Do something about it!

Dinner is left-overs.  Can't let them go to waste.

A little bit of housecleaning.  Not much.  I don't want to get addicted.

Keep the brain creating.  Photoshop has a new Technical Preview so I slowed down briefly to learn how to use it.  This could be a real time usurper, but I may be able to translate it to quilts or quilting in some form or another.

Butterfly Mandala

Physical Therapy is helping a bum arm.  Hiking helps to restore my whole body. I am accomplishing all kinds of dumb stuff that has been sitting around for weeks.

Mailed a quilt off to hang in the Utah Quilt and Sewing Marketplace Show.  It is a non-juried show, but the quilts are judged and ribbons and prizes awarded.  We'll see how it goes first weekend in May in Sandy, UT.  If you go to the show, say "Hi" to my quilt.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you time to get lots done and have fun.

PS.  Photo from last week's hike.

Mills Lake, Rocky Mountain NP

PSUtah Quilting & Sewing Marketplace

The Thing About Thread

I cannot offer a master class on thread.  If I have questions I turn to Superior threads and their great chart.  Of course it is only for Superior threads, which are excellent threads.  I have one store an hour away that carries some of their threads, but I often have to order from the company.  They have thread cards with actual samples so you can accurately judge colors, for a price of course.  However, I also use threads that are more available in the stores.  In the end you have to choose what you like and what will look best on your quilt.

On my current quilt I am using Isacord (polyester).  I was stitching away having a great time and very pleased with the results using Isacord on top and Superior Bottom Line in the bobbin.  When I had a thread that wouldn't pull to the top, I turned the quilt over and almost cried:  the tension was wacko.  I had those little thread pokies on every sharp turn of my feathers, and the micro-stippling (silk and Bottom Line) looked like a starry sky on the back because there were so many pokies that were long. This happens when the upper tension is too loose so the bobbin pulls the upper thread visibly to the back.  I tightened the tension and played with it a bit on my sample scrap, but it didn't help.  Re-threading the machine and changing the needle was no help either.  Next I spoke to my professional quilter daughter who suggested I put cotton in the bobbin.  So I put the quilt away for 24 hours!

Thread pokies on the back of the quilt. Anathema to judges.

Next day, fresh and ready to tackle the problem I ripped out the stippling and used Aurafil cotton thread top and bottom.  Not only was normal tension fine, it looked so much better.  The stippling texture is more visible now than it was with silk on top and I really like the way it looks both front and back, even though it is black on black on the front.

The tiny feathers were next.  The front looked fine, but the back was too sloppy to suit me.  I still want to use Isacord because I love the sheen, so I decided to use it both top and bottom.  Beautiful!  I'll have to do some ripping, but it will be worth it.

Quilt back.  Stippling redone and good.
Feather imperfections circled in white:  pokie, bump, loop.

TIP:  This is strictly my own opinion.  I was told by my machine dealer that Bottom Line has a little elasticity and when it relaxes after being stretched in the stitching process it puts too much tension on the top thread and pulls it through.  I haven't talked to the Superior Thread company, but if I use Bottom Line again I will do a more thorough test run before stitching my quilt.  Isacord is not a Superior brand thread and my machine is clearly unhappy when I try to match it with Bottom Line.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you no tension mismatches, no bumps, loops or pokies.

Excitement

Excitement:  "A feeling of great enthusiasm and eagerness." (from my Mac dictionary).

If you are a quilter or creator you are very familiar with this feeling.  Starting a new project.  Designing a new project.  Starting a new portion of a project.  Rejecting a failed project and, yes, starting all over from scratch.  A cleaned up sewing room.  I could go on and on.  lf you are a passionate artist you know what I am talking about.

After spending a week sewing with pencil and tracing paper, I was finally ready and excited to start sewing with a needle.  A poor start meant a few ripped stitches instead of an eraser, but once I got going I was thrilled to see my designs come to life.  So exciting!  This quilt will be a palette for quilting and will be heavily stitched.  It will have very little puff, but lots of texture.  It will be one of those "cardboard" quilts, but my piecing design does not lend itself to big, soft, quilted puffs.

The start.  Pinwheel star waiting for thread so not done yet.

TIP:  Practice your quilting for 15 minutes if you haven't done it for awhile.  Keep a scrap sandwich for this purpose, knowing that it only works if you use it for some practice.  Do as I say, not as I did!  I made a mistake early on, but only needed to rip out a couple of inches so it wasn't a big deal...this time.

It is truly exciting to see the designs come to life under the needle.  It was even exciting to take down the card table on which I did my drawing.  Now I have some breathing space around me.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you time to spend with something exciting.