Quilter's Technical Jargon

As I un-scrunched over Terpsichore to come up for a breath of fresh air and to uncross my eyes a few minutes ago I heard myself chanting under my breath, "this is NOT easy!"

It made me realize that there is a pretty long list of classifications for the degree of difficulty for machine quilting. It can get really complicated if you're using a wooly thread or a metallic (most classifications start with four letter words in those categories), but for reasonably straightforward quilting, here are a few of the categories:

IN MY SLEEP

NO PROBLEM

NOT HARD

and the one that provoked this blog post, NOT EASY

I'm quite sure you all feel terribly well educated now.  My pleasure.

Leftovers!

Front and back of the same quilt. The fabrics were just leftovers from another quilt which is still in piecing mode. Not sure really how that happened, this quilt is already in use the other is still waiting on...oh right. That's how it happened. The other quilt is still waiting on some applique!

This was my first attempt to quilt the heck out of a quilt just for the doodling fun. It worked better than I'd expected. The pictures were taken right after the quilting was finished. I bound it in plain black by rolling the back over to the front.

Learning to Blend Patterns

Sometimes I really do think I do my best work when I'm experimenting. Babs, thanks again for letting me quilt as desired!

Making Lemonade

Not long ago several of my quilting friends gathered at my house to sew and chat. We do this regularly. At one point a few of them expressed interest in how Terpsichore does her work so we trooped upstairs and had a go. I loaded a couple of pieces of non-descript neutral fabric and a piece of batting. Darcy chose thread colors (pink and red) and I demonstrated the basic functions of the machine by drawing a triple heart outline. Each of the others took a turn making hearts too. It was fun. Everyone caught on quickly and enjoyed the lesson. Later that day when everyone else went home I looked at what we'd done and decided not to throw away the "scratch quilt" but rather turn it into a little donation item.

This post is mostly for Darcy, Suzette, and my Mom. Here's what we made gang! It will be donated to project Linus through one of our local quilt guilds. Thanks for helping me make it!

Interrim Report

I almost - I did say almost - feel guilty about how quickly I'm getting through my stack of sandwiches. So far I have quilted nine projects, and the next one to be loaded up is an actual customer quilt. I haven't chosen anything difficult for this one; I will stick with things I've already tried.


I did find, however, that I chose the wrong model of machine. I got the Optimum Plus from Gammill, and should have gotten the one that comes with eight extra hours in a day. I have since gone back to the site to see if I can get an upgrade, but I don't see the machine listed. Weird, huh. So if anyone wants to come over and do my washing, ironing, yard work and dirty dishes, just let me know.

First Real Quilt

Alright, here it is. Please be kind as this was my first real quilt on the gammill, but do leave me your comments or suggestions. It is a split nine patch arranged in a lightning bolt pattern, made for my youngest daughter. I quilted each bolt with a different pattern - horses, fancy flowers, hot air balloons and such - and freehand swirls around the border. I was braver than smart using bright green thread on the back. Each and every single misplaced stitch jumps up and yells, "SEE ME?" but my daughter is a kind and forgiving person so I don't think she'll mind.


It was really fun to use the laser (which arrived in the mail yesterday!) instead of marking directly on the quilt. I still shake my head in wonder at how much faster this process is than the more traditional method of machine quilting. Each motif would generally take me between fifteen minutes and half an hour to complete that way and it would have to stretch over about a week for a small quilt or more like a month for one this size. This quilt took two days to finish and I only worked on it in half hour increments scattered throughout those two days. Maybe six hours total.


To those of you who are already long arm quilters, did you get frazzled pretty fast while you were learning? I feel like my brain is full or something after about half an hour. Sometimes I find myself gripping the handles as though they're the only thing keeping me from falling off a cliff. Is this just newbie-itis?

OFG Goes Domestic

It's fun, it's easy, it's like getting away with writing on the walls. I've been having so much fun with it that my OFG wanted to give it a whirl. Here he is, quilting his heart out. He made a very nice go at that top border. Swirls and stars he put in. I tried to get a shot of his work, but the light was bad for it. I'll do a close up of it when this quilt comes off the machine. His work looked every bit as smooth as mine did and he had no problems with the controls. Now I'm the first to admit that my OFG is a very bright fella, but I think anyone would pick this up pretty quickly. So for those of you who are waiting around just because you're afraid it will be too tricky to use, no more excuses!

I promised a show and tell post, but I'm still working on it. Stay tuned.



EDIT: OFG=Orange Fuzzy Guy

It's HERE

Steven (stephen?) the delivery guy set the whole thing up without breaking or scratching and explained all the basics for me. He knew what he was doing and didn't waste any time. The whole thing was done in just under three hours. Thanks Steven!

I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon playing and write a show and tell entry tonight or tomorrow morning.

STir cRaZy

I'n going nuts. Twenty-two hours until the delivery guy gets here and my sewing room is just this huge void space right now. Everything has been put away until the machine is set up and then I'll redesign the room around it. Until then there's not a single project I can work on. BAD strategy. I've come upstairs to read weblogs, check email and review tomorrow's weather forecast about two dozen times since I woke at 3:30 this morning (don't even ask) and I've practically worn a trench in the floor between the sewing room and the front door making sure there's a clear path (we're kinda messy around here) for the delivery guy.

I tried picking up a couple of my favorite quilting books to flip through. Ha. That just made me antsier. I straightened up my stash a week or two ago right before I took pictures for a recent blog article so that doesn't need to be done. I suppose I could resort to something like actual work, but I'd be so distracted I'd probably sand my hand or lop off a finger.

Bookstore...maybe I'll go rumage around in a bookstore...