We'll Probably Never See This Again!

I needed some pictures of my sewing setup and table placement for Craftsy, so I had to clean everything off to take the pictures. You don't even want to know what the rest of the room looks like! The above is how I set it up when I want to do large quilts --- need a lot of empty space so those quilts bank up against the walls as I sew them.


Looks like this when I get a big quilt coming through....


For smaller quilts, I condense the space so that the quilt doesn't lay out flat; I still want it "bunching up" against my barriers, the pretty boxes and the hard cover to my sewing machine.


This is what that setup looks like in use with a lap size quilt.

So now everything is all neat and pretty -- any bets on how long it will stay that way?

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Location:Palmdale CA

It's a Wrap!

Finishing the Craftsy taping with mixed feelings -- on the one hand, it was going so well, I didn't want it to end; but on the other hand, we needed to get the work done and get on to the next project in our lives!

A big thanks to Tiffany, the makeup artist who did her magic so I wouldn't break the camera....I know, old joke.....

It was fun seeing my name on the door of my very own dressing room -- star, no less!

And the room itself was adorable, even with all of my "stuff" thrown all over it. The floor was the absolute worst, open suitcases with quilt and clothing spilling out of them, so I just didn't go there with the camera.

Meant to get a picture of the crew members, but we finished all the shots, cleaned up the mess in a tornado of activity and I was back in my hotel this afternoon for a nap!

I have a 9am date with a shuttle driver who will take me to the Denver airport to meet my good friend Southwest Airlines.

Adventures to be continued.....

More Fun with Craftsy and Something I Haven't Seen in a LONG Time!

Day 2 of our class shoot went very well and the time just flew by. My producer JC and camera people Rob and Dana are just awesome to work with and so good at their jobs. One of the best outcomes is being able to brainstorm with them and coming up with new ways to present my teaching material. Their questions and suggestions have encouraged me to examine the way I say things and we've come up with some great ideas!

And look! Look! Look! Rain! You probably all know that California is in a severe drought condition, nowhere more so than the desert area where I live. It rained SO hard and I wanted to go out and run in it, but the hair and makeup person probably would not have looked kindly on this sort of behavior on my part. This was taken looking out the glass door of the Craftsy studio.

Tomorrow's our last day; just a couple of sections to go and I'm on my way back home to sunny, dry California.....

Why Exactly Am I in Denver, You Ask?

After posting a couple of locally colorful photos of downtown Denver on Facebook yesterday, several people e-mailed, texted or called to ask what I was doing there -- was I teaching for a guild? A quilt shop? A sewing machine dealer? I was being a little secretive about this trip instead of coming right out and saying what I was doing.

Well, I'm here taping a class for Craftsy! This was my first of three days of the shoot and it is going very well. The Craftsy people are knowledgeable, easy to work with and fun! I can't ask for more than that....

So after the day's work, I changed to sneakers, ate some lobster and shrimp enchiladas (YUM!) at Rock Bottom Brewery and then walked the 15 block promenade up down and all around in a big oval.

I took some photos of the promenade while I was walking around:

This one was taken about 7:40pm, still pretty light outside but cloudy. The temperature was perfect for walking.

Then as it started to get darker all the lights went on down the whole 15 block length of the promenade. It's really pretty!

Now I'll get a good night's sleep and have lots of energy for Day 2 of my Craftsy class shoot!

Good friends, food and fireworks -- all good ways to celebrate the birth of our country! Inspires me to show one more picture of a quilt I quilted earlier this year to benefit a Salt Lake City charity:


Or, since that picture was taken pre-quilting, maybe more than one:


Enjoy your long weekend, everyone!

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Location:Happy 4th!

Starting Dawna's Quilt on the BERNINA 780

Pretty much all of the machine quilting I do starts with straight stitching to nail down everything and get the quilt stable. I do all of my ditch stitching with monofilament thread so that it can't be seen -- that's the whole point of stitching in the ditch, right? So you can't see it? If I wanted those stitches to be seen, I would be stitching a few threads away from the ditch, not right in it.


The monofilament that I'm using for this quilt is Transfil by Mettler. It comes in clear and smoke. I use clear probably 90% of the time, but once in a while I'll be working on a predominantly dark quilt and I'll pull out the smoke.


First change that I make to the machine is to change the throat plate from a 9mm (zigzag) plate to a 0mm (straight stitch) plate. This is easy on this machine. All I have to do is press both thumbs down on that round circle at the upper right hand corner of the plate and it pops right off.



And the new one snaps right on!


Second order of business is to tell the machine that I have changed the plate. Once I have selected the 0mm plate, the machine will not allow me to stitch in anything but a straight line -- no zigzag, no decorative stitches, no broken needles because I forgot what plate I had on! Very very helpful for this kind of stitching!


I have already tested out the stitch lengths and tensions that I want to use for my ditch stitching. The easiest way for me to access these is to choose the stitch library. That will show me the last 15 stitches I have used. The stitch library is accessed by touching the bottom icon, the one that looks like a stack of books.


And there are the two stitches I am going to use, #1 and #2, complete with the tension settings appropriate for the Transfil in the top of the machine and the Mettler silk finish (100% cotton) in the bobbin. My top tension setting for these two threads is 3.0 -- so now I'm ready to sew!

The reason I use two stitches is so that I can toggle between #2, which is set at stitch length .8mm, and #1, which is set at 2.5mm. I do small securing stitches at the shorter length and the rest of the stitching using the longer stitch length. Setting it up this way and toggling between the two means that I don't have to constantly adjust the stitch length to start and stop each line of stitching.

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Location:Palmdale CA

Happy Dance!! Got a Mettler Box Today!

I get all excited when the UPS guy brings a box with this label!





This is my first order of the large cones, so can't wait to unpack it...





3000 yard cones, 2 to a box, of the 60 wt. silk finish cotton that I piece with....





...and one box of two 2000 yard cones of the 50 wt. silk finish cotton in one of my favorite colors, cream #703. I'll be using that in the bobbin of the next quilt I'm quilting for myself and possibly for some of the thread in the top of the machine as well. I have to decide whether I want the silk finish look or a shinier look like Poly Sheen would give me.

My friend Tiffany Hayes, of Needle in a Hayes Stack, did the hand appliqued blocks for me. You'll see a lot more of this quilt when I get to the actual quilting.





Lastly, the five colors of 50 wt. silk finish cotton in the small spools that I was running out of. So nice to have everything topped off!

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Location:Palmdale CA

Won't This Be Perfect for Travel?

Forget where I saw this, but decided I had to share the idea. I always carry my earrings around all jumbled together in a small ZipLock bag. Every time I want a pair, I have to dump them all out and pick through them to find the two that match -- instant solution! Love it!

And don't you keep the extra buttons that come with jackets, shirts, etc.? Perfect use for them -- I usually lose them by the time I need them anyway.....

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Location:Palmdale CA

Next Project Up.......

Continuing with my determined plan of attack of "One for Them and One for Me", the next quilt that I pulled from my stack to quilt was this beautifully pieced basket quilt belonging to my friend and local quilt shop owner and BERNINA dealer, Dawna Harrison. I believe this one is the longest in-my-possession-but-not-quilted-yet, as Dawna gave it to me in 2006! No excuses


....

This quilt has been folded up for a while, so I opened it up on my work tables to let the wrinkles ease out. The backing fabric is one of the coordinates from the same fabric line as the top. I had started it using a dark blue in the bobbin, but didn't like it. I didn't get too far, but gave it back to Dawna for her opinion; a friend of ours did the unsewing and Dawna gave it back to me for another try. This time I picked a green that goes really well with the backing fabric; it's Mettler Silk Finish (100% cotton) 50 wt. in color 903.

Now to get everything set up:


First of all, since Dawna IS my local BERNINA dealer, I set up my BERNNA 780 in my cabinet. I have ordered an insert from Dreamworld so that my surface will be level with my drop down cabinet space, but since it isn't here yet (no fault to DreamWorld; I just ordered it a couple of days ago and it is Memorial Day weekend) I'll work over the tray that came with the machine.


For the ditch work, I am using Mettler's Transfil nylon monofilament thread in the top of the machine and the cotton in the bobbin. To minimize the possible "polka dots" of green fabric to the top of the quilt, I have reduced the top tension. Most monofilaments work best with a top tension between 3.0 and 3.5. I chose 3.0 from the above "test". The second thing I did to minimize polka dots was to change to a smaller needle; the sample above was stitched using a Schmetz Jeans/Denim (I'm using Warm & Natural 100% cotton batting), size 70/10.


This is a picture of Dawna's shop, Bolts in the Bathtub. I ran over there to purchase a straight stitch throat plate for the machine; this plate will give me the best quality stitches with the least "polka dot" potential. Bolts is located in Lancaster CA about 10 miles from my house -- convenient, huh?


While I was there she told me about a trunk show collection she's getting into the shop next month; I really liked the quilt above because there is lots of space for killer quilting! Can't wait to get the pattern -- I really need another PHD!

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Location:Palmdale CA

Some Whole Cloth Quilts from HMQS

Rather than piecing or applique, my passion has always been for the actual quilting of the layers of a quilt together. So one of the first exhibits of interest for me were the whole cloth quilts.





The detail of the horses, feathers and other trapunto work in this quilt is gorgeous!














The size of the quilts isn't noted on the cards accompanying each quilt, but this one is easily queen size and was done on a domestic machine by an Australian lady. Had to get pictures of some of that detail work.








This quilt was entered in the Traditional Custom category as, by virtue of the fabrics pieced to give the creme brulee coloration to this quilt, it is not technically a whole cloth. But it is still stitched in that whole cloth style. I thought it was one of the prettiest quilts in the show.

Every year at HMQS, each teacher is given a ribbon for a Teacher's Choice award. Every year I agonize over finding just the right quilt to pin mine on. I want it to be a stellar example of machine quilting and I prefer that the quilting be done on a domestic machine rather than a longarm. Go ahead and tell me I'm biased -- I won't deny it!


This is the quilt that I chose this year and that's the black and white Teacher's Choice ribbon that I got to pin on it.







The entire quilt is done with thread -- I loved everything about it, the design, the colors, the workmanship.....Congratulations, Jennifer, on a stunning entry in this year's show!

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Location:Salt Lake City UT