Vacation, Day 1 -- Palmdale CA to St. George UT

Dan and I left yesterday around 1 in the afternoon and drove the first leg of our trip, Palmdale to Mesquite NV, to have dinner with my friend Dawn. From 2000 until she moved to Mesquite two years ago, Dawn spent one day a week getting my customer quilt tops ready for me to machine quilt. So she sewed backing fabrics, did a LOT of pinning, did the binding if the customer required it -- in other words, everything except the actual machine quilting.

We passed through Las Vegas around 5 and I took pictures of some of the landmark casinos. Dan and I don't really like to gamble, so on the rare occasions we go to Las Vegas, it is for a totally different reason, such as when we went a few years ago so that he could drive a formula one race car on a track!

Mandalay Bay was one of our favorite hotels because there were really good restaurants, including a small shop that was nothing but chocolate desserts -- YUM!

We stayed at the Luxor on that trip -- you can barely see the top of it over the cars in this picture. Look at the sky -- the weather was absolutely clear and beautiful, the downside being that it was around 112!

You can see Excalibur in the background of this picture.....

...and New York New York with the big roller coaster here.

Caesar's Palace is one of the last big "distinctive architecture" casinos as you leave the strip. Mesquite is about an hour drive from Las Vegas; we hadn't visited Dawn before this, so she gave us a tour of the house and then we went out for sushi. Her home has beautiful desert views out almost all of the windows, but again, the drawback was that it was 115 and she said it doesn't cool down a whole lot at night. YIKES!

After dinner, we drove to St. George and stayed the night, then were ready to start Day 2!

Tension Settings for the Bernina 830

I've been asked by several people to send them a list of the tension settings that have worked for me while quilting with various threads on the Bernina 830 machine. So here goes....

All of the quilts worked on had Warm & Natural batting in them. Tensions could change if you are using a different batting, but these #s are a good place to start.

I have had great success using the Mettler Silk Finish 100% Cotton 50 weight thread in the bobbin with the various threads that I use. I have used poly and other threads in the bobbin, but not been as happy. I am currently testing Invisifil from the WonderFil thread company as a bobbin thread and have used it in a couple of quilts; it is working well and blends in nicely.

The first thread listed will be the one threaded through the top of the machine, the bobbin thread is in parentheses. The number will be the tension and the Auto or Manual refers to the needle threading method.

First, two water soluble threads used in trapunto by machine:

Vanish Extra from Superior Threads (Mettler Silk Finish 100 Cotton 50 wt) 2.0 Auto

Wash-A-Way from YLI (Mettler Silk Finish) 1.5 Auto

Next, a few monofilaments:
Wonder from YLI (Mettler Silk Finish) 2.0 Auto sometimes, but not consistently

MonoPoly from Superior (Mettler Silk Finish) 1.25 Manual (worked best with the thread net covering the spool)

Sew Art (Mettler Silk Finish) 2.0 Auto

Sulky (Mettler Silk Finish) 1.0 Manual

Jenny Haskins (Superior King Tut) 2.0 Auto

Invisifil (Mettler Silk Finish) 2.0 Manual
Invisifil is not technically a monofilament, but it comes in 30 colors and blends in beautifully without the shine of a monofilament thread.

And, finally, some of the decorative threads:
Glitter by Superior (Mettler Silk Finish) 1.25 Manual

Mettler metallic (Mettler Silk Finish) 2.0 Manual

Sulky rayon (Mettler Silk Finish) 3.0 Auto

830 stitchers: Please share your settings in the comments to increase everybody's knowledge of what works best....

Floral Visions -- First Block

Dawna called me last week to see what I was doing on Monday, her day off from Bolts in the Bathtub. I had been to the store to purchase my fabrics and threads for the Floral Visions quilt with a two-fold purpose in mind. One: I will get more comfortable with the machine embroidery process; Two: I have not been happy with the way most of the machine embroidered quilts are quilted and would like to quilt one "properly" so that it hangs well.

Feel free to comment on this, but my observations have been that the quilting on most of these quilts skirts around the edges of the embroidered motifs and then stipples everything down around it, probably to minimize any puckering caused by the embroidery itself. The combination of heavily quilted areas with very lightly(or unquilted) areas causes the quilt to buckle and hang poorly.

I absolutely love the Master Hooper and I have one for each of the two brands of machine that I use for embroidery. It has a weighted base and a clip designed for the brand of machine you use. You clip the bottom part of the hoop into the base, place the top part of the hoop on your fabric and then move fabric/top of hoop to the base/bottom, fit it all into place and tighten the hoop down. What I like about it is that the base is very heavy, so your hoop isn't scooting all around when you're trying to get it settled and tighten.

Hooped with the edges rolled and pinned so they won't flop over and get in the way -- has that ever happened to you?

Starting the first color -- we're working on a Bernina 830 with the jumbo hoop...

Second color is a really pretty gold/yellow; I picked the colors out of the wallpaper border at the top of some of the rooms of my house. When we bought our house seven years ago, it was in the process of being built, so we had choices to make as far as cabinetry, carpet, tile, etc. We took a piece of that wallpaper with us and coordinated all of the other interior colors with it.

Love the plum/purple with the yellow.....

My first finished block! The surprising thing to me was how long it took to embroider -- it was an eight thread change design that took almost three hours. At one point, we were discussing stabilizers and whether what we were using was going to be enough to keep the block from puckering. Dawna said "Oh, if you don't like it, you can use it as a pillow and stitch out another one!" I don't think so! It gave me a new respect for the time and dedication it takes to produce one of these quilts!

I also decided I really like the jumbo hoop, which is a Bernina 830 exclusive, and the fact that I can stitch out one of these blocks without having to re-hoop. Can't wait to get the stabilizer off my block and see how it looks!

Dawna's Kitties & Ribbons Quilt

This is another one of those quilts-in-the-making that I have had around forever. Dawna Harrison brought it to me in January of 2006 -- I'm not the speedy choice to get your quilts done! I've been home a lot this summer, though, so am trying to catch up on the backlog.

Dawna is teaching a class at her shop, Bolts in the Bathtub, that uses this pattern. The quilt pattern is called Red & Butter.

Of course, Dawna and I both liked it because of the whole pink and black color scheme. Dawna loves kitties and found this focus fabric that incorporated some of her favorite colors, too.

For all of the decorative stitching, I used a pink Glitter from Superior Threads in the top of the machine and Mettler Silk Finish 100% Cotton thread in color #803 in the bobbin.

Tried a new stencil for the border; I'm not sure, but I may have purchased this at the quilt show in Chicago in May from the Golden Threads booth.

Here's the back of the quilt with the feather stencil; loved the heart print! Dawna was happy to get the quilt just in time to show it at her Moda University class yesterday afternoon....

Skein -- Pasadena CA

Friday was a shopping day with my friend Tina in Pasadena -- We went to the Coach store, then to Cache where I found an adorable black & white print jersey summer dress, a cute little boutique called Gossip that had trendy and inexpensive clothes, DSW for shoes and then to the Yardhouse for lunch.

Tina has been taking knitting lessons and making scarves and socks and enjoying it a lot, so we went to Skein where she buys yarn and patterns and takes her classes. Skein is located at 1101 E. Walnut Street in Pasadena (626-577-2035).

Susan Adams is the person that has been teaching Tina her knitting skills and she showed us a few projects that she was working on. You can take either group or individual lessons with Susan right here at the store. If knitting is one of your interests, you might want to visit her blog. She says she isn't good about keeping up with it, but I thought it was fun to read and had some interesting links. The link to her blog is http://unraveledgal.blogspot.com. Another blog that Susan recommended is http://brooklyntweed.net/blog/ I could spend hours on that one.....

In what seems like a past life, I used to be an avid knitter -- I learned when I was about 8 years old and by high school, I could do fisherman's knits and eyelet patterns and made a couple of attempts at multi-color knitting, although that was never my favorite. I still have a lot of sweaters I made years and years ago, but they keep forever in the cedar chest.

So it was a lot of fun wandering around the store and looking at all the colorful yarns. I looked at the scarf kits and all the books and felt a little nostalgic for what I totally turned my back on 20 years ago when I learned to quilt. Quilting became my passion and knitting was one of the things that sort of fell by the wayside.

So I bought the yarns to make a scarf -- it's kind of a wide scarf with big needles and should go pretty fast. The patterns utilizes a "yarn over" technique so that your loops are really big -- that makes it even go faster. The yarns are gorgeous and I'm rationalizing this by thinking that whatever is left over I can put in with my embellishment yarns!

Bourbon Peach Cobbler -- Amazing!

This is what I'm bringing to a potluck at my friend Mikey's tonight -- fresh peaches, 1/2 lb. butter, bourbon, sugar -- what's not to love? I just took it out of the oven and the whole house smells wonderful. Makes baking worth it, even when it's 100 degrees outside!

I've had this issue (it's the current one on the newsstands now, so you can still grab it!) for a few weeks now and this is the third time I have made this recipe.

It's that good!

More -- Much More! -- About the New Zealand Hoffman Challenge

Earlier this year, I wrote a couple of posts featuring last year's New Zealand Hoffman Challenge. I ran into it, totally by accident, when my husband and I and our goddaughter, Destiny, took an Australia/New Zealand cruise and stopped in Blenheim, home of The Quilter's Barn.

If you didn't see the pictures of these great challenge quilts, here are the links. For Part 1, click here and for Part 2, click here.

Since then, Juliet Fitness, one of the entrants, has e-mailed me, filling me in on a lot more about the Hoffman challenge, New Zealand style. Her quilt, "The Joy of Living" is the second quilt in Part 1 of my post. About the challenge, Juliet says:

"Here in NZ it has been going annually since 1993, organised initially by a quilt shop (originally Grandmother's Garden in Hamilton), a break in 2002 when there was no organiser before Catlin Quilts of Owaka, South Island, picked up the job, and now organised byNeedle n' Thread in Geraldine, in the South Island.

"The NZ rules are that it must NOT be square or rectangular, but must fit within a metre square, hence all the interesting shapes that you saw. There has to be a recognisable amount of the challenge fabric (not just the binding). All the entries are displayed in the shop that organises it, and shoppers there can choose a viewer's choice. The quilts are judged and usually about 20 are selected as finalists to travel the country for the next year."

Much to my happy surprise (don't we all love to get gifts? and aren't quilters wonderful, sharing people?) in my mail this morning was a copy of the April 2010 issue of New Zealand Quilter with an article called "Hearty Hoffmans" about this year's challenge. Thank you, Juliet! Juliet also e-mailed me some photos so that we all will know more about this event.



This was the Hoffman challenge fabric. I thought it was interesting when Juliet said that she had entered in every Hoffman challenge except for 1995 when she was moving households and 2004 when she didn't like the fabric!

"He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" by Juliet Fitness. In Juliet's words:

"I have been a finalist every time except for 1994, 1997 (2 entries) and 2006 when mine was a bit controversial but ending up selling while all entries were on display at Catlin Quilts. In 2008 I finally won my first prize (Merit) in the challenge and that quilt also sold. This year was my best effort yet, winning Best Contemporary....for my winning quilt 'He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not'."

Here's a detail shot -- look at those teeny tiny, beautifully executed points!

"I specialise in paper-foundation piecing, especially the New York Beauty block, and extreme spikes!! I teach classes on this here in Auckland and at national symposia."

Juliet was kind enough to send along a few more pictures of quilts she has made. The above is called "Merino Muster - Don't Forget the Dog". We were told that there were 100 times more sheep in New Zealand than humans and we were able to see a demonstration of sheep herding by what looked like border collies, so this fabric made me laugh. This quilt will be shown in World Quilt & Textile and will be touring the US for a few months.

A detail of Merino Muster -- Juliet said that this quilt uses lots of New Zealand fabrics.


"Illuminated French Curves" is my personal favorite; the brights on black just make the picture glow -- would love to see it in person! That's not gonna happen, as this quilt was an entry in the National Association of New Zealand Quilters (NANZQ) biennial challenge last year, won Merit Innovative and was bought by a visitor from the UK.

Guess I'll just have to be happy with the photos -- here is an excellent detail photo. Juliet says that she loves piecing more than quilting, but after 27 years she is getting better at the quilting. She admits to being a competition junkie, having been in over 70 competitions, with a few prizes under her belt.

Thank you so much, Juliet, for educating us all about the challenge and sharing your quilts!

Patchwork Penguin -- Tujunga CA

Yikes -- when I logged in to start this post, the date of last post was July 4! Seriously falling down on the job here. We finished jury deliberations late on the 7th; it took me two days to recover and then I taught for the San Fernando Valley Quilt Association over the weekend and did a lecture last night. What a great group of ladies~

Both workshops were Introduction to Machine Quilting. The first was held at the Patchwork Penguin, located at 6245 Foothill Boulevard in Tujunga (phone: 818-248-7390). I had taught there for the Glendale Quilt Guild a couple of years ago when Crissa DuCharme, owner, was in a different building. I'm not quite sure how to describe it -- in her new location, the shop just has a warmer feeling to it, with lots of quilts on display and, of course, penguins!


The pink and white batik penguin family is adorable -- and, look, a crossing sign!

In the very front of the store by the door, there is a display case entirely filled with penguins of every size and description....

But, of course, we want to see the quilts and fabrics -- the red/green/white watermelon log cabin is fun!

Behind the back row of quilts is the large classroom....

My favorite -- polka dots! Loved all the colorful polka dot fabrics and the striped binding and inner border!


Guild members setting up for class -- this classroom is large enough for 20 students with their machines and quilting "stuff".

On Sunday, the same class was held for the guild at the Japanese-American Center in Arleta. This is another very large venue -- we had 23 workshop participants plus me with plenty of room to spread out.

A big Thank You to the San Fernando Valley Quilt Association members for inviting me to their guild!

Happy Anniversary at the Parkside Grill

Dan and I celebrated our anniversary last night by having dinner in Pasadena at the Parkside Grill. We went there last year, too -- not quite as romantic as our 20th, which was spent sipping champagne at the ballet in St. Petersburg, but yummy just the same.

They gave us a card, seating at a beautiful table overlooking the restaurant, and fantastic food. We started with an interesting oval flatbread with melty cheese, sliced pears and chives. I think that would be a really good starter for one of our gourmet dinners and I think it could be done on the grill.

We ordered what I call the Carnivore Specials -- Dan had a NY steak and I had a ribeye, half of which I took home. I'll do something with it for dinner tonight; maybe a stroganoff sort of thing?

We were given a complimentary Dulce de Leche cupcake along with the dessert menu. Our server assured us that since it was complimentary, it didn't count as dessert -- guess that means the calories don't count either?

Dan is much more restrained than I am when it comes to dessert; he usually orders sorbet, as he did last night. On the other hand, if creme brulee isn't on the menu, I order whatever sounds like the most fun!

Last night, it was a S'mores variation: There were two S'mores with creme anglais on one side of the plate and raspberry coulis on the other,. In each pool, there was a round graham cracker with a layer of melted chocolate and a handmade marshmallow. It looked like the marshmallow had been toasted with a kitchen torch and then dusted with powdered sugar. It was so rich and sweet that I could only eat about half of it -- this would be a perfect shared dessert.

With our check arrived a beautiful bouquet of flowers with the little tubes on the stems to keep them fresh until we got them home and could put them in water. Loved the colors and thought they went perfectly in my tall pottery coffee cup!

So that's how Dan and I celebrated another year (it's 23 for us) of experiences, memories and love! Can't wait to see what the next year brings!

Quilters Treasure's 2010 Challenge

I've been on jury duty for the last couple of weeks and go back into court on Tuesday for what looks like another week, so not much exciting has been going on around here. If I'm not in court, I'm catching up on all the things that need to be done.

So I was looking at pictures that were still on my SD card from the HMQS show in Salt Lake City in May and saw that there were pictures from a challenge that I had not posted. There are enough of them that I will do them in two posts:

The theme of the 2010 Quilters Treasure quilts is "What Memories Are Made Of". I didn't photograph every one, but some were so outstanding that they had to be shared. From the wording on some of the artist statements pinned to the quilts, the red fabric was the challenge....

Third Place: "Circling the Drain" by Barbara Daly Blanchard of Mendenhall PA reflects the importance of daily newspapers in her childhood. She ends her statement by saying, "How long before what is 'black and white and red all over' is nothing more than a memory?"



Best Traditional: "Crossroads (2)" by Tone Haugen-Cogburn of Maryville TN was inspired by the red challenge fabric. "This is an original design of white, black, grays blocks with red crosses, which is machine quilted and hand embroidery."

Honorable Mention: "Marbles" by Kate Chepeleff of Norwood NY was inspired by Cheryl Phillips' book "Circle A Round". Kate used a circle framing technique.

Best Machine Quilting: "The Lily Vow" by Megan Farrell of Chicago IL, represented her memories of the stargazer lilies given to her by her husband-to-be when they were first dating. She carried them down the aisle and they are still very important in her life and memories.

Best Pictorial Quilt: "Old Oak Tree" by Gayle Shelton of Bridgeport TX, depicts a big oak tree by a stream in autumn. This is an original design using raw edge applique and the "snippets" technique.

Best Use of Color: "Fall Celebration" by Judy Steward of Hewitt TX is an original design based on her photograph of a leaf. "Eight fall colored fabrics were machine appliqued to give the leaf a dimensional effect. Machine quilting in the background portrays the wind and other falling leaves. The unusual texture on the hand dyed background fabric was accomplished by using a salt technique."

There are a few more quilts to share in my next post -- what a fun challenge!