Stuffs...

I headed out to a shop in the city and picked up a few yards of fabric and a new bag pattern...The Shopper. I can't wait to make this awesome bag! It's huge and will be so great to carry all those big items. I also picked up a little valentine wall hanging and my saturday block for the month.

Who knew??

Who knew you could quilt a quilt on the longarm using muslin instead of batting!!! As per my clients very adamant request, I reluctantly tried it and without too much difficulty I managed to quilt the beast. I say beast because this quilt was made out of flannel, top and bottom and was 116in square and weighed a darn ton. I had to get DH to come down to the studio and help me fold it when I'd finished. I can't imagine what it would have weighed had I quilted it with batting instead. For the quilting, I did a freehand loose meander all over and outlined each appliqued heart with a squiggly line. I hope the client likes it and appreciates how much I fretted over her quilt. I'm hoping this was the first and the last time for a muslin middle as it was difficult to try to work in any fullness with no batting to soak it up in.

KLUNK!!!!!!!

My very first broken needle!! I couldn't believe the sound that it made when it broke! I nearly shot through the roof, I was so scared! :O I was quilting a customer quilt, flannel pieced and some of the seams intersections were all pressed to one side and there was a mountain of fabric under there. I'm actually surprised now that I think about it that I didn't break more than one needle on that quilt. First things first, I checked the quilt and as my luck would have it...no hole, I then went over my baby (Miss Millie), put in a new needle and checked all her parts and to my surprise she was good also!!! I was able to continue quilting, and get it completed for my deadline...phew!!!

Foundation by the Yard...part 2

Alright so here's the scoop... The quilt in the previous post is made using "Foundation by the Yard". Same idea as "Foundation Piecing" or "Paper Piecing" except the foundation by the yard is printed on a heavy muslin fabric and is left in the quilt instead of torn off like the paper versions.

The panel is cut up into the individual blocks and borders, which are sewn using the same techniques as foundation piecing. Sounds great...right???

Hmmm...not so much!! Why, you might ask??? Well, the best way I can describe it is to compare it with a printed panel. Great idea if you leave the panel and quilt it as is but try and cut the panel apart and sew together using your own design and you soon find out that the panel fabric is not square nor printed square. That's enough to drive a quilter crazy!

So after you get all your blocks pieced and your border strips pieced and go to put it together, you soon find out that each block is not perfectly square, and to set it together with another one, the printed lines don't match up. You can't even square up the blocks on your own as some are made completely wonky and you'll cut off or sew off your points. I tell you this thing drove me nuts and if I hadn't been commissioned by the LQS to make it, I would have pitched this thing in the garbage long ago! So, if your thinking Foundation by the Yard sounds like a great idea....DON'T DO IT!!!!!