Hip, Hip...

HOORAY!!!



This is cause for celebration! My Squiggy is back on the frame! I took the machine in for a cleaning and servicing in November and he has been sitting in my family room ever since. I have been too busy piecing and working on other things to even think about quilting.

During the Friday Night Sew In that is in 2 days, I really wanted to start quilting on my cousin's quilt so that I can work on the binding and hopefully get it done quickly. But I needed to be able to test out the machine to make sure that the tension is right.

When I was at work, I thought about trying the machine out tonight while I worked a little on laundry, but then when I got home from work, I wasn't feeling so hot. After a few minutes of down time, a quick conversation on the phone with mom and a short IM'ing session with Regina, I decided that I was almost desperate for clean clothes and that working on the quilting was the logical thing to do.

I loaded up a charity quilt, pink Lava thread in the top and a pink Bottom Line in the bobbin and I went to town! Squiggy was purring!!! I haven't heard him sound like that in a long time! No issues with tension or the bobbin so I got this baby done quickly!





I didn't take my camera with me to the basement so the first picture in this post is from my phone. I also wasn't able to get a picture of Maisy, my faithful quilting companion, watching my every move of the couch. She did appreciate the quilt once I set it down to get a picture.





I was afraid yesterday and today that I was going to need to get to bed early both evenings to make up for lost sleep on Sunday and Monday, but I feel like I powered through and I have been quite happy with the things that I have gotten done. I still have quite a bit to do before Christmas, but I think that I can get it done. And if I can't, then the pieces will be wrapped up to prove that work has been done and then everything will be brought back home to work on it. :)

I also feel like I am back with the blogging! I have taken a few pictures in the last week that I haven't shared yet. There has been lots going on! Be patient and I will show it all in the next couple of days! :)

Quilting!

I have been holding on to quilts from Regina and Shellie for a while because I just haven't been in the mood to quilt anything. Last month, I received my copy of the Pajama Quilter Rethreaded and the companion workbook and I have been looking at the workbook thinking of what I could use on either of these quilts.

Last week, Amy and I were chatting and thinking that we needed to designate a weekend as a quilting weekend and this turned out to be the weekend for that. With that in mind, I picked up 2 Kid Komfort kits at the Guild meeting on the 2nd to test out my machine, Squiggy, and see how it was running and quilting.

I also asked Amy and Amy S. about how they quilt and it turns out that they both float their battings and tops and I decided to try that out. It seems like it would make the process of loading a quilt for quilting much easier and quicker.

It DOES!!

Last night after I woke up from my nap, I loaded this quilt onto the frame and got it quilted in just about an hour which included the time it took to clean up the machine and quilting area and oil the machine.





Squiggy sounds a little like an antique car engine putting along, but the stitches look great and I didn't have any issues with thread breakage.

I decided to load the other quilt on the frame and give it a go even though it was 11 PM. Unfortunately, the top thread broke twice in about 3 minutes and I gave up and went to bed. I finished it up this morning.





I started out trying to quilt the wonky stars a la the Pajama Quilter's new workbook, but they ended up looking too wonky for my taste so I switched to regular stars.

Whoa this picture came out way too blue! The color is more like the first 2 pictures.

And finally, I let Maisy lay on the quilt once I folded it up a little. Nemo fabric is on the back. She is looking a little sheepish because I shooed her off both of the quilts when I was trying to take pictures.



Now, I am off to try my hand at pantos again. I have the perfect one to use on Regina's quilt, but I want to test it out before using it on a good quilt. Luckily, I found a lot of fabric to make more Project Linus quilts!

Just like Fred and Ginger!

After a very exciting and laugh filled dentist appointment, I started warming up dinner while I loaded another quilt onto Lenny, the quilting frame. I got the 60" x 70" quilt loaded and the frame prepared in about 45 minutes.

After eating and testing the tension with a few small adjustments, Squiggy and I were off and quilting! I used a Star Brand olive green variegated on the top and Bottom Line on the bottom. I even used the same needle that I used on the animal quilt that I quilted on Saturday.

The whole quilt was a dream! Squiggy and I were like 1 unit moving across the floor! Like Fred and Ginger!! And the result is fantastic!!! No thread breaks! Minor tension adjustments after several rows and it is now perfect!





This quilt was quilted for a gal that I used to work with. I hope she likes it!!

Maisy says,

"Fred and WHO???"

I know, Maisy... I had to google them, too! lol

The Good, the Bad and the Evil

Friday night, I spent some time bonding with my quilting frame, Lenny, and machine, Squiggy. (Those names still crack me up!!) After working on the comfort quilt and all of the problems that I encountered, I really needed time to just fiddle with the frame and the machine and the thread and everything to find the right combination. I had picked up some top stitch needles on the recommendation of my very good buddy, Michelle. I was trying to stick with the needles that the manual said to use. I mean, why would they tell you to use one specific type of needle if you need to use another one?

The Good - So I had 2 different sizes of needles and a Kid Komfort charity quilt that I loaded onto the frame. I was very aware of how I was loading the fabric and batting since I had some issues with this on the last quilt. Everything went fine and I was ready to start sewing. The new needles work great! I was able to use up some bobbins that were left over from other quilts to free them up for new quilts.

Another good thing was that if I have a good bobbin in the machine, I can use the Connecting Threads thread that I bought without having thread breaks. Woo hoo!! This is very good since I have so much of this thread! I will just have to deal with the excess lint, but I'm OK with that!

The Bad - I started having a couple of spots with skipped stitches on the last thing I quilted. It wasn't too big of a deal and I just went back over the spots again before I removed it from the frame. Also, I still can't use the humongous cones of glow in the dark thread that I won at the quilt retreat in April. I'm think that these might go into the 1,000th post giveaway...

And the Evil - I'm still having bobbin issues. When I bought the machine, it came with like 5 bobbins. Of course, this is just not enough! I have since bought the 'correct' bobbins like 5 different times and only a couple of times have they actually been the right bobbins. Because of this, some of the bobbins have gotten mixed up and I can't tell which bobbin is right just by looking at them. Sometimes I can tell by putting them into the bobbin case, but not always then either. So I keep working on separating the good from the bad.

It will be great knowing that the Connecting Threads Thread will work with a good bobbin. I'm actually very happy about that!

OK, so here is what I did on Friday!

The Kid Komfort quilt



Close up - trust me, these stitches look great in person!



And the place mats. These will be a cinch to bind, now!



As long as I had put off trouble shooting the problems, this was not as much of a chore as I thought it was going to be. I'm so happy that I was able to quilt and move along on these projects! But the machine still needs a cleaning and I will add it to my list of things to do in the New Year!

Finishes and 799th Post

Well, I got Squiggy, the quilting machine, working again. Or working well enough to quilt the comfort quilt. I got the machine off the frame and brought it upstairs to get a really good look at it and I cleaned out everything that I could see. I ended up taking it back downstairs and loading it onto the frame to see what would happen. Turns out that it was quilting well enough for me to quilt the entire quilt. Yahoo!!

Here is the quilt laying on my bed. Now that it is quilted, I just need to trim it up, attach the binding to the front and mail it off to it's owner!





Sunday, after I was having trouble with the quilting, Max was very nervous so I spent the day doing hand work, watching TV and holding him and Maisy. They were quite happy! I worked on the binding on the Storm at Sea quilt - only have about 36" more to go and then the label. We enjoyed laying under that quilt so it will be nice to have it all finished! I also worked on my granny squares for the afghan. They are coming together very quickly!

And I finished the knitted baby cap. It was very easy to do with the double pointed needles and I'm thinking that I will like this method for making socks!




And I couldn't help this. I would like to introduce you to...



Gansta Max! Isn't he cute?!? ;)

This is my 799th post. I'm thinking that since tomorrow is December and the holidays are upon us, that this isn't the best time for a giveaway. And since I have gotten the last 100 posts up rather quickly that it won't be too long until I get to 1,000. Perhaps I will start making a couple of extra things when I make something - wallets, hot pads, coasters, dish cloths, etc - and all of that would make a really nice giveaway. You can wait a couple or three months for that, right?

6 days....wooo!

And only 4 more days of working at the real job. One Saturday at the shop. A few more sleeps. And then the fun begins!! Woo hoo!! ***

Tonight, I quilted another of Regina's quilts. I used an Essentials by Connecting Threads thread on the top. I had bobbin issues again. I am seriously thinking that the Essentials thread is just crap! Sometimes it works and is great. Sometimes, I spend 3+ hours quilting a lap quilt. Just ridiculous. The quilt looks great though! Although now that it is off the frame, I have found some eyelashing on the back. :(





I have been keeping track of the threads that I use, but I can't seem to figure out the exact combination that works wonderfully!

*** Are you sick of hearing about the retreat and the weekend of fun yet?

January Accomplishments

With the Waun-A-Quilt challenge, I really got a lot done! I have also been doing what I can to fit quilting in at any given time - at work during lunch, in the mornings before getting ready for work and, even when I get home from work around 8 and am very tired, I usually have binding that I can sit and work on. It would have been interesting to see how much time I accumulated this month while quilting.

1. Finished the binding and attached the label to the red and cream log cabin
2. Made a rice bag to help in healing me of my Cold That Would Not Leave.
3. Finished the binding on the green and orange table topper which I still need to ship off
4. Worked a little more on the purple Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin
5. Began tracking my net fabric used - to date it is 18.02
6. Quilted and bound 3 Kid Komforts quilt for the Guild
7. Took a machine applique class and loved it! Now, I have to finish a sample for the shop...
8. Made 8 pillowcases entirely from stash!
9. Completed the Cafe au Lait in Every Pot quilt which included finishing the top, quilting, binding and adding the label! Have I mentioned how much I love having Lenny and Squiggy, the machine frame and Mega Quilter? giggle
10. Made 24 criss cross coasters
11. Finished three 6.5" blocks and one 12.5" blocks for the Thimbleberries Club
12. Helped Linda quilt a Nickel quilt on Lenny and Squiggy
13. Made a top for a shop sample
14. Worked on the final pieced border for my Milky Way quilt - more than halfway done! woo hoo!
15. Made 4 coffee placemats
16. Quilted and attached the binding on Lover's Lane. I also have the label ready to be hand sewn down, too.
17. Made 4 blocks for the Teal and Brown $2 a block BOM

Wow! That is a lot!

Wait a minute... I feel like I'm missing something here....

Oh, yeah! I beat Jen in the untweaked version of Waun-A-Quilt! Woo hoo!! But we were even in the tweaked version, so I am still calling it a tie! :)

OK, I am off to try and finish my Milky Way top tonight! I don't have too much farther to go!

TGIF! and goals

I'm so happy that it's Friday! And I am home from work! And I can sew! And I have no plans for Sunday which means that I could quilt Wagon Wheels with Lenny and Squiggy. Have I mentioned lately how lucky I am to have my quilting frame and quilting machine? No? Well, I am!

Anyway, Jen and I are winding down on our Waun-A-Quilt Challenge and I am in the lead! Check out Jen's latest post on our standings! You can also see the latest quilt that her and I quilted together. Well, OK, I wasn't actually there to move the machine around, but I did tell her what color thread and what design to do, so technically I did help. :)

And since I did so well with listing my goals last weekend, I figured that I would do it again for this weekend.

1. Finish shop sample
2. Square up, attach binding and begin hand stitching on Lover's Lane
3. Complete 4 blocks for the 2BB BOM
4. Piece backing for Wagon Wheels
5. Begin final border for Milky Way
6. Quilt a charity quilt

Now, I better get started on that list!

Lots of loops

With a little help from my quilting buddy....



I finished the quilting on Lover's Lane! Man, it was rough! It felt like it took forever! I spent about 30 minutes Sunday night and again on Monday night and I didn't feel like I had made a dent.

The weather seemed to work in my favor. They did an early release since the freezing rain started around 3 so I left work at 4:30 and got home around 5:45. I took the dogs out and ate a quick meal and got back to it. Three hours later....

I think it looks awesome!





And as always...



Doggie approved!

I used Hobbs 80/20 for the batting, a light pink Bottom Line thread for the bobbin (I think I went through 4 bobbins!!) and a pink and brown variegated Lava thread. I think it looks awesome! Wait - did I already say that? :-D

Quilty Sunday

Linda asked if she could use Lenny and Squiggy to quilt a nickel quilt on Sunday. When she got here, I had to hurry and finish the Chicken quilt so we could load her quilt. While she worked, I worked on the binding.

Here is a picture of how I was working on the binding.



And here is Linda's quilt quilted.





And it was doggie approved!



I think that Linda was pleased with how quickly she got this quilted. And I know that me and the ninjas will be very happy to have her back to quilt some more!

Quality time with Lenny and Squiggy

Last night and today, I spent some quality time in the basement with Lenny and Squiggy. Now, for those new to my blog, Lenny is the quilt frame and Squiggy is the Viking Mega Quilter. Laughing, are you? Can you really say that you don't name your machines? They are major parts of the process and are going to be around for a while. Hey, men name their cars ...

Anyway, I spent yesterday morning before work loading the Chicken quilt onto the frame.



Once I got home, I was able to get about half of it quilted before I couldn't stand any longer. Today, I had to get it finished. Linda wanted to quilt a Nickel Quilt so I had to work hard to get it done. I think it looks great!



And it's already puppy approved!



A close up.



After this, we were able to get Linda's quilt loaded and she got started on quilting and I attached the binding to the quilt and started the hand stitching part. It's going to be a big job!

Thursday Waun-A-Quilt Update

First things first - here are the standing for the challenge between me and Jen.

Me - 7920.8
Jen - 7918.4

That's right! I am in the lead! Woo hoo!! I'm sure this will change real soon, but I'm happy to post that I'm in the lead right now!

OK, onto the pictures.

I have done a bit of sewing this week. I had a quilt on the frame ready to be quilted. Then, I had some major issues with the bobbin thread constantly breaking. I think that I have determined that I had 2 different types of bobbins. I received 4 with the Mega Quilter, Squiggy, and I got another 6 or 7 from the shop where I bought the machine and frame, Lenny. Then, I bought 30 from eBay. The problem is that some of the bobbins that I have used recently are slightly different. I guess that using bobbins that were smidgen too big tweaked the bobbin's tension and everything was out of whack. I spent some time on Monday night trying to get things working, but I gave up. Last night, I was finally able to get Squiggy working well enough to get the Kid Komfort quilt done and off the frame. But there was a lot of irritation and a few curses. I was very upset!



I practiced with a fairly dense stipple because that is what I want to do on the Chicken quilt. Except for the tension issues, I think it turned out well. I used a Superior Lava variegated pink on top and various Bottom Lines on the bottom.



Once I was done with the quilting, I worked on a couple of coasters - I Love Lucy fabric and some Califon.



And tonight, I had my first meeting of the Thimbleberries Club at the shop. For you non-quilters, Thimbleberries is a line of fabrics that has a country/rustic feel to it. I had a good time, but I didn't get a lot finished because I wasn't used to the format. I did get to use the Eleanor Burns flying geese ruler and my geese turned out marvelously! I think I have a new tool!



I should be able to get the rest of this block and the other 3 put together this weekend so expect more pictures.

Oh, and I took my bobbins and the case with me because I was sure that there would be ladies there who could help with the tension issue. We fiddled with the case and bobbins and wasted a lot of thread by pulling it through and having it break. When I got home, I loaded some muslin on the frame and tested it out and it works great again. And I realized that it was the 6 or 7 bobbins that I got from the shop that were bad. It's a good thing that I didn't pay for them! I should have realized when the sales lady was trying to get me to buy regular sewing machine needles for the Mega Quilter when it takes HLx5 needles, or something like that, that are more industrial needles. Sheesh! Well, it's working and that is what counts!

Very traumatic evening - Real Quilter

With another finish thrown in!

Last night started out pretty well. I was productive in getting the charity quilt finished quickly and all running smoothly with Squiggy, the Mega Quilter. The frame was holding up nicely, too. I got everything prepped and started loading the t-shirt quilt onto Lenny, the frame. I had to take a short break and iron out the backing, but it wasn't anything major.

I decided on a black and white variegated Lava thread for the top and a grey Bottom Line for the bobbins and I wound 2 and a partial bobbins. I say a partial because I was trying to wind the bobbins on my Sidewinder, but I was having issues with the cone and the Sidewinder so I gave up and just wound the 2 full bobbins on Squiggy.

I started quilting and I was a little nervous about the bulk of the t-shirts and sweatshirts and the interfacing being a problem with the quilting, but the first few passes were as smooth as a baby's bottom. And I was listening to the iPod since it was fixed and just quilting away like there was no tomorrow!

Now, *insert several ominous tones here* this is where the story goes downhill for our heroine.

At one point, I had to rip some stitches out. Not a big deal, but I couldn't get the bobbin thread to come through to the top of the quilt. I walked around to the back of Lenny, the frame and with my LARGE scissors, I snipped the bobbin thread. I was quite proud of myself as I lowered the scissors and examined my work. Then ... I closed the scissors to lock them....



Apparently, the scissors are very sharp because I didn't feel very much resistance at all when I was closing them. Drat! (Not really what I said, but this is a mostly PG story.) No big deal though, the quilting was going well and I was happy to be able to be quilting again so I just grabbed another pair of headphones and moved along.

Until....




I am still really not sure what happened. I think that I blocked it out like the people who don't remember large chunks of time when they are in an accident or attacked. I do not hold Squiggy responsible for my injuries though. I feel that must be said!

Anyway, I was smoothing something out on the quilt top and my finger just didn't move fast enough. I do not know if the needle went from the top of the finger nail through to the bottom or if it just got a couple of 'bites' out of the fleshy part of my finger, but there was blood. Buckets of blood! OK, it wasn't buckets, but it did fill up a napkin quite well.

I sent Jen a text and she called me right back to ask how it happened and if it was OK and if I had to pull thread out of the wounds. (FYI - I did not.) I told her how I was telling her how Brenda from my sorority told me that you aren't a real quilter until you sew through a finger and my response was - if being a 'real' quilter meant that you had to be a dumb @$$, I was OK with being a fake quilter! So, I am now a 'real' quilter. yippee. (Can you sense my enthusiasm?)

OK, back to the quilting, I had to clean the quilt up a little, but luckily, the fabric was already red and it hadn't started to really bleed until I pulled my hand back to look at it. I finished up the quilting without any more incidents, cleaned up and went to bed!

Another quilt finished!

I am so happy to have a functioning frame and machine again! I offered to quilt a t-shirt quilt for my best friend, Mary, at the shop, but I had a problem. I had a charity quilt loaded on the frame that needed to be quilted first. I had made a couple of passes on Sunday morning to make sure that the brain on the speed control was working properly and I was going to finish it up on Sunday evening when I got back from working at the shop.

I hit a snag. I woke up on Sunday with a bit of a tickle in my throat and chest. I sneezed quite a bit at work and, when I got home, I promptly fell asleep. I woke up around 7:30 congested. It was awful! Well, not really, but I didn't feel like dragging myself to the basement that night. So, I ate a little something, let the dogs out and went to bed.

Today, I didn't feel that awful and I got a good night's sleep last night so I planned to finish the charity quilt, load the t-shirt quilt and quilt it tonight. After all, my iPod is fully functioning again so I could listen to a book while FMQ'ing!

In the past, I have had some spatial issues with the frame and stippling. I would run out of room and end up with a long straight line that didn't fit with a stipple pattern. Since I want to do a stipple on the t-shirt quilt and I want to master this simple design, I tried something new.

I had seen a suggestion on the DVDs that I got with the frame on setting up and using the frame and machine. There was a tip to mark the quilt with something so that you would see how much room was left in the area where you are quilting. I thought it was a silly tip for someone who had no experience, but I filed it away in my head for a rainy day. Well, I remembered it while I was thinking about my issues with running out of room.

To finish this quilt, I got my roll of painter's tape and marked off the quilting area each time I advanced the quilt. I also didn't advance so far each time so that I could sort of overlap my rows so that it didn't look like each pass was separate. Now, I don't think that this quilt would win any awards, but I think it looks awesome! Some kid is going to love it!

Here is the finished charity quilt for the Guild.




Now, bring on the t-shirt quilt!

It works!!

This morning, before I headed off to work, I was able to hook the brain back up to Squiggy, the Mega Quilter, and test it out to see how the speed control did. It was great! I didn't even have to adjust the tension at all!





I'm so happy! Now, I just have to get this charity quilt done so that I can quilt a t-shirt quilt for a buddy at the shop.