Let's Talk Quilting

As my husband sailed the English Channel last week, I spent many happy hours in my studio. Organizing....you know rearranging things endlessly in a rather compulsive obsessive manner, but hey it works for me. 

Last Saturday, five of us fellow quilters went to a quilt show here in town. We had a great time....lot's of fun and laughter. Something that surprised me was the amount of quilts in the show that were quilted by someone other than the "quilter".  Is it the trend that more and more quilters are outsourcing the actual quilting? Our machines are getting fancier and yet.......someone else is doing the quilting.

Obviously this is a personal choice....neither right or wrong just personal. For me, I wouldn't be able to give up creative control. My question is what are the major roadblocks that stand in the way of quilting your quilts....if that is something that you actually want to do?

I decided my long arm had been sitting idle for far to long.  I am so addicted to Quilt As You Go that I have not really pushed myself in the long arm department.

There's nothing like a pool table to measure that monster roll of quilt batting!!! 

 It had been so long since I loaded a quilt, I really had to think.

 

A little wonky but hey, I like that "organic" look. 

For me, I hate loading the quilt and piecing the large back. I let that become a roadblock for using the long arm....plus the fact it was being repaired didn't help. The longer I put it off the harder it became to get at. Oh, and did I mention that a quilting frame can easily become piled high with fabric and works in progress....sort of like a treadmill, need I say more!! 

One good thing....I've lost 25 lbs since the last time I used the frame, so much easier to get around to the back of the frame....it used to be a bit more of a squeeze  Seriously, the frame takes up most of the room.

What are your quilting road blocks? Let's talk quilting.

Update: Thanks for all your fabulous comments so far. My plan is to write more "Let's Talk" type blog posts in the future.  In order to promote discussion I will be replying directly on the blog rather than with individual emails, whenever "Let's Talk is part of the title.

Thanks again
Marianne

Long arm....Partially Fixed

The long arm is partially fixed....I have speed control again.

Unfortunately the stitch regulator is not working now, not that I use it much, but it would be nice to have everything up and running properly. 

 I thought I would just take it for a little test drive.

For the upcoming week, I have a few projects, I would like to tackle.

1. Curtains I promised to finish for my little grandson....he's almost five months old, yikes!!!
2. My Free Bee block for September.
3. Finish testing a pattern for Cheryl 
4. Pick out fabrics, for a baby quilt, for my little Autumn Claire.

So time to focus....no more putting up design walls, for the moment that is. Oh, and did you notice the mending didn't even make the list. 

So...I thought I'd Fire Up The Longarm

That was several hours ago......

 My long-arm machine has been languishing in the back room, for way to long, since I have a tendency to get so involved in QAYG projects. I've been wanting to play a little more on the long-arm, without committing to a full quilt. I have done full sized quilts but am really just wanting to experiment a bit.

So out came the books...

One of the books mentioned quilting smaller pieces such as wall hangings on the long arm. 

That got me thinking. 

 

I dusted off the machine.....

 Found several meters of sale fabric, in the stash, for backing...

Used a little sticky back Velcro.... 

 Cut some batting the same width as the fabric...gotta love that pool table, for jobs like this.

I put a little basting spray on a square of fabric...all ready to play. The backing fabric and batting are 45" wide so I could even play with some small type baby quilts with out having to reload the frame.

I was in a pretty good frame of mind, pardon the pun, until I turned the machine on....TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES.

SEVERAL HOURS LATER.....I think I need an EXPERT and and CHOCOLATE, lots of chocolate!!!!

Fired up the Long Arm

I'm still recovering from my holiday (that doesn't sound quite right, does it) so I didn't get much done in the quilting world last week, but I did manage to fire up the long arm and help fellow Blockhead (Judy) with her quilt.....such lovely colours.

Would you just look at that concentration. It took the thread breaking, multiple times, before we clued into changing the needle. We're just a little slower some days.....remember I'm still in holiday mode.



You can see all is well , her smile says it all!

Circle Quilt 2009

Circle Quilt 2009, originally uploaded by MariQuilts.

I woke up to the most incredible sunrise this morning. I ran to get my camera so I could photograph this quilt with the sunrise as the backdrop, but the battery was dead. Since I had taken the quilt off the wall I thought I may as well take another few shots of it once the battery was recharged. Later I realized I was so busy racing around I didn't get to enjoy the sunrise, that was my loss.