My Adventures in Long Arm Quilting

When we first moved into our current house, I scoffed at the fact that it had an automatic garage door opener. My contention was that I'd lived my entire life without this superfluous bit of technology and I didn't think I needed it now. I was wrong. A fact that became incredibly apparent to me the first time it poured down rain and I didn't have to get drenched in the process of opening the garage.
Well, I'm here to eat a bit of humble pie as regards long arm quilting machines. I can't tell you how many times I went to Quilt Festival and laughed at the vendors selling these machines. "Why on earth would you need this machine?" I argued. I can quilt anything on my trusty sewing machine. Sure it might take me a little longer and maybe it will be a little more cumbersome, but the net effect is the same, right? Wrong.
Over the past 3 days, I have machine quilted 2 very large quilts on a rented long arm machine and I can proudly proclaim that I'm a different person. It's like that scene in the Ten Commandments where Charleton Heston/Moses descends the mountain after his encounter with the burning bush and his face has completely changed. I am a new woman. A new long arm machine loving woman.


Although both quilts took me about 5 hours a piece to quilt, that is a fraction of the time they would have taken on a standard sewing machine.


Add to that the fact that there is no basting involved. No moving furniture so that I can attempt to smoothly layout the backing and batting and then spend the next three hours scooting around on my bottom basting the quilt.


And the piece de resistance, no puckering in back. As long as you carefully wind the backing on to the machine, you will have a perfectly smooth back.
This is, without a doubt, the greatest thing since sliced bread and way cooler than the garage door opener.

The Last Seam

First things first. I have to thank all of you who wrote such nice, heart warming comments to me about the Quilting Arts article. It's been wonderful to see my work in print, but it's beyond great to be able to share it with others and to feel their enthusiasm and support. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Yep! It's been sewn(visual evidence provided below).


And here it is all laid out on my bed.


Well maybe not all laid out because this is king size and our bed is a common double, but you get the picture. I had a minor panic attack earlier in the day when I seemed to have mislaid a couple of blocks, but, after some well chosen curse words (the kind I tell my kids not to use), I found the missing pieces and finished the sewing.


I purchased the backing fabric a week or so ago and the other day bought the batting. I ended up buying batting that was sized as "generous queen", but I'm having second thoughts and may run to the store to purchase a certified king size batting.


Sunday I'm quilting this on a rented long arm. Monday, I'll finish the binding. And then it will just be a matter of mailing it to it's new home. I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Cover Girl

I've never been a cover girl before and I guess technically I'm still not, but can I fudge it a little now that my quilt is on the cover of the December/January issue of Quilting Arts Magazine?


See. There are my little twinkle circles.
A couple of months ago the editor, Pokey Bolton, contacted me and asked me if I had any ideas for articles. The first thing that came to mind was to write about the process I use to make my twinkle circles. I've had a lot of folks ask me about this and it's a technique that I've turned to off and on for several years, but recently I've used it a lot on commercial fabric. The technique itself is not new or exclusive to me, but I felt like I had a perspective on it that I wanted to share.


I wrote about the process and included a few examples of finished work. I even got to include some of my process shots. For some strange reason I really liked these photos. Not because they're particularly good images, but rather because they were taken in my dye studio. When I first saw the pictures I called one of my girls over to look at the pictures. "Look,"I said,"in the background you can see our door and, way over in the corner, almost out of the frame, you can make out the handle of that broom we never seem to throw out." No one else in my family got a kick out of these pictures, but I did.
One of the best parts of writing this article was the writing itself. I was frankly taken aback by how much I enjoyed putting pen to paper or more accurately digit to keyboard. I was also a little surprised that I could put together coherent sentences. Having spent the better part of 17 years speaking primarily to children I'm shocked that I didn't describe at least one thing as "so cool" or pepper my text with the word "freaking".
Another amazing highlight was finding out that my quilt was going to be on the cover. When I went to quilt festival in Houston, I stopped by the Quilting Arts booth. I knew I would get a chance to see a copy of Stitch and I thought I might have an opportunity to meet some of the folks who worked on the magazine. Thankfully they were all wearing name tags, so I approached Pokey Bolton, introduced myself and was very warmly greeted. Then she told me the big news. I was floored. It has taken the most amazing amount of willpower not to talk about it, but once my copies came in the mail I knew that the magazine would be on the newsstands very soon.


I won't deny that I'm prone to hyperbole but this is...so freaking cool!

Just a few more

I had to move the furniture and stand on a step ladder to take this photo, but I managed to get the entirety of the twinkle quilt in this shot. That's no mean feat when you factor in that I have ten foot ceilings. Just positioning the top row of blocks requires that I stand on the top rung of my step ladder, stretch out as far as my 5'3" frame will allow me, slap the block on to the felt wall and smooth it out with a ruler. I just plain can't reach the top. All the edge blocks are just pinned onto a corner of the felt board. This baby is big. But boy am I happy with how it has come together. As of this writing I have about 40 more circles to make. That means I've already made 714.
On the one hand I can't believe I said I would make something so labor intensive, but on the other hand I'm so glad I did. While it's nice to make small, quick pieces there's something deeply satisfying about working on a piece that feels expansive and ambitious. I usually don't have a problem sending my work on to new homes, but I'll be a little sad to see this piece go. I know I can make another, but for now I also know that this is probably the best quilt I've ever made. That is if all goes well with the quilting. I'm pretty optimistic about that as I've done the training on a long arm machine and set up an appointment to come in and quilt.
For now I have the last of the circles and some piecing left. Though there too I'm glad I didn't just make a pile of circles, but pieced periodically as I dyed. It gave me the opportunity to see the quilt top come together and I don't have a huge, daunting task waiting.
I'm planning more pictures when the top is completed and, of course, a few more shots once it's all completed.
So, stay tuned...

Winners and More

Wow! There are a lot of you interested in Stitch. I had a lot of fun reading your comments and was frankly kind of surprised by how many of you couldn't find the magazine locally.
Anyway, courtesy of www.random.org, we have two winners:

Jeni said...

Me, me, pick me! Love your blog and that mag looks great. :-)

November 14, 2008 2:37:00 PM CST

Micheala said...

Beautiful sweater! I once started knitting myself a vest (I was probably 11 or 12, by the time I finished it was too small already. Here goes my knitting.

November 14, 2008 4:31:00 PM CST

Jeni and Michaela: Email me your addresses and I'll get your magazines to you ASAP. My email is malka@stitchindye.com

Other than reading your comments, or should I say in between reading your comments, I've been finishing up a few projects.
I finished knitting the second sleeve on my February Lady Sweater and it's now blocking. I hope to attach the buttons tomorrow and have pictures of the completed cardigan in a few days. I also made some pillow covers for a wonderful customer. I've mentioned before that she has quite the amazing collection of Oillily fabrics and I've made several items from that collection before. These are the latest.


I especially like the pieced backs on these pillow covers and the little embroidered Oillily ladybug.

Sweater Update and Giveaway

I don't write a lot about knitting. That's primarily because I don't do all that much knitting. But I like to knit and I like wearing and giving knitted items and I like to use knitting as a distraction from what I really should be doing. So, there's been some knitting going on here.
In the heat of the summer I bought some yarn to make the February Lady Sweater and oftentimes that's where the project ends. This time though things seem( I say cautiously) different. Hey, don't take my word for it. I have evidence.


I have one sleeve to finish and then it's ready to be blocked. I've already bought the buttons.


If you live in Austin or are visiting and want to be amazed, startled, brought to your knees by beautiful buttons(and who doesn't want to be brought to their knees by buttons), then you've got to stop by Silk Road . They have these amazing antique display cases filled with buttons unlike any you've ever seen. Seriously, you're not going to run into buttons like these at Joann's. Go ahead, buy a plane ticket and come into to town to eat Tex-Mex at Guerro's and buy buttons at Silk Road.
Before you do either of those things though, leave a comment and I'll enter you in my giveaway of these:


I got three complimentary copies of Stitch. Impatience led me to buy a copy at the store and my Mom only needs one to add to her collection of everything I've done since second grade, so that leaves me with two extra. And who better to share them with than you. Any comments between now(11:33 CST) and Sunday at 6:00pm CST will be entered in the drawing. I'll announce the winners on Monday.
Happy Weekending!

Stitch

I couldn't help myself. I didn't go there planning to buy it, but it just happened.
I was in the bookstore the other day and browsing the magazines when I saw a copy of Quilting Arts Stitch. I already mentioned that I had a design in the premiere issue of this magazine and, in fact, I'd seen the magazine at Quilt Festival. I resisted buying a copy then because I knew that as a contributor I would get a few complimentary copies along with my quilt when it was returned. But something about it staring at me on the magazine rack got the better of me and before I knew it I was buying it.


I'm not going to lie to you, I think the magazine looks fabulous and not just because I happen to have a design included. I'm especially in love with the feature on modern skirts and am planning to make at least two of the designs. By the way, the magazine includes the patterns for the skirts so you don't have to purchase anything additional.


My quilt had a lovely spot on the contents page as well as being part of a feature on patchwork alongside several other terrific projects.
I had written some incredibly lengthy instructions which they managed to condense into something a lot more understandable and drawn up quite a few sets of templates. It's very complicated to explain to someone how to do something improvisationally in a way that allows them to repeat it.


The quilt that I sent to Stitch was a re-creation of a quilt I made a while back.

The original was smaller than this version and featured exclusively hand dyed fabrics. Also the green and black checkered sections were made with discharged cottons. In the remake I pieced the checkered sections so that the quilt could be made by others.
Both versions were inspired by a wonderful book that I've owned for many years called Traditional Indian Textiles . If you can flip through this book and not be amazed by the fiber goodness coming out of the Indian subcontinent then you're probably unconscious.


Here's a view of the traditional Indian chakla or quilt that inspired my chakla.
Oh, so beautiful!