First Steps to Digitizing Long Arm Designs

Vinegar Fizz

A little restaurant at the Las Vegas Wynn, Parasol Up Parasol Down, has an intriguing draw. As you watch from the balcony, decorated parasols creep both up and down in rhythm while suspended from the ceiling. It's mesmerizing and calming--a change from the typical Vegas scene of lights and noise. I had the same sensation both designing this geometric pattern, and watching it stitch out. 

Digital design is a seductive blending of creativity, software design, and physical mechanics, and my tools to battle the dreaded meander. There are moments and quilts that a meander satisfies, but it takes such little extra effort to use a decorative edge-to-edge pattern. 

Long Arming Christmas Quilts

"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"

While most people spent the last months of 2019 thinking about how to decorate their homes for the holidays, my decorating thoughts have been all about how to finish my customers' holiday quilts! Stacks of quilts big and small passed through my studio these past 2 months. I felt like the Head Elf after so many marathon sessions, and all--but my own--were finished as promised. You know how the cobbler's children always go without shoes. Mine will get finished, but perhaps not in time for Christmas this year.

Would you like to see some of the Lovelies I've been working on?

Roll of Quilts & Shredding Thread

Fresh Off the Longarm

Things have really been moo-ving around here since I hung out my shingle as a longarm quilter. I'm learning there is a fine line between busy and swamped, and that can change in a breath if I'm not careful. With Christmas around the corner, I'm in the swamped camp with most other quilters. Time management is important, but I'm enjoying the pace. 

Blog posts have been few and far between, but I have dog sitting duty today, and thought I'd show you some of the fabulous quilts by customers brought to me for quilting. 

Update: 1930's Depression Era Quilting

 Quilting Revision

Imagine this: You're laying in bed in the middle of the night wondering if you should have added more quilting to a project. The batting package said, Quilt up to 8-10" apart. You wonder, "In every direction or does it count if there's 2" and then a channel?" The dog whines. You let the dog out, and you---dumb, dumb, dumb, you check your phone. And someone on your quilting list says, "I wonder if she put enough quilting around those plates?" That is cause for a hot flash, and you are wide awake, sister! Not to mention the quilt has already traveled half an hour back to the store for pick up for binding. Now aren't you glad this isn't you, but me?

Longarming a 1930's Dresden Plate Quilt

"Oh, What Shall I Quilt on Monday?"

Just a tiny tongue-in-cheek, but not really true in this case. I just actively began taking in outside quilting. Not enough to be bombarded, but figuring 15-20 hours a week would be a nice pace for me. It's been most enjoyable so far, and I've met some talented quilters. But the person who pieced this quilt top is gone, and she or he left behind a legacy for future generations. Lucky me, I was asked to finish it.

Fall Themed Charity Quilts

All the Colors of Fall Fabrics

The charity quilt tops I've pulled to quilt recently definitely have fall vibrations. I'm drawn to these earth tones! Rich burgundies, greens, and golds are mainstays of our fall palettes.

Machine Pieced Hexies Progress

The Final (Organic) Layout

In my free sewing time, I'm following along with Mary Huey's Scrappy Hexagon Quilt. Her method allows for chain piecing these bad boy angles, and makes it easy to whip up a crazy, difficult quilt in no time. (It's kind of like the magic of having an Instant Pot, ya know?) Last week's post had us laying out the sets we'd made. Groups of 4, 3's, and a few 2's. Then the border or edge pieces were cut, and the whole shebang laid out as one quilt. 

Hex, Hexe, Hexie: What's the Link?

Hex, Hexe, Hexie: What's the Link?

My brain always itches to know the whats and hows and whys when I see possible connections--especially in the quilt world. This one didn't fail me either. There is one. I'll get to that in a minute. 

Vintage Feathered Star Scrap Quilt

Clean and Fresh

A friend of mine has a passion for antiques of all kinds. He's always on the trail for interesting textiles worth saving too. So when he called me about a local quilt he'd found, I first asked what the pattern was. He hadn't a clue. When I finally saw it the next day, he asked me. I hadn't a clue either. It was so scrappy, and so dirty, it was was hard to see the pattern. We could make out a star here and there, but what were the alternate blocks?

Official Start of Fall Sewing

Two Friends and One Heavenly Afternoon

Yesterday was the first official weekly meet up of the season in my studio. (I cleaned for TWO days! It was a great summer surrounded with my boxes of sewing stuff, but I buckled down for a serious cleaning at last.) Scraps still haven't been sorted, but they are in boxes at last. Out of sight, out of mind for now. Instead, we hit the stash for a quick strip quilt, and some satisfying sewing.