Diamonds look terrific, but ruler work needed

     On September 6th, I was supposed to take a ruler class with Kim Werth of Rochester at my Nolting dealer. Why? Because I stink at them. I don't know how to cleanly quilt holding onto a slippery ruler with one hand and moving a big longarm with the other. If I make the plastic ruler sticky, it doesn't move well. When quilting on the diagonal, you have to use a ruler. Didn't know that when I bought a longarm. I do all hand guided quilting and am not changing. However, Kim postponed the class because her father suddenly passed away the day before.
    Instead of the class, I went to cardiac rehab as usual. What wasn't usual is that the treadmill I was on with just a couple of minutes left-the motor exploded with sparks, pops, a couple flames. None of us were injured, but it did me in for the rest of the day- I was useless. I thought at first it was gunfire due to the flashes and loud pops as I dove off the moving belt. I am glad I was not electrocuted!
    The last quilt I did with rulers, a 3 dudes design from strips the Quiltdiva Julie sent me, is all on the diagonal, which I love, but needed rulers to quilt it. The diamonds are lovely, quilting- well, I tried. It is all bound and ready for referral to fly out the door.
UPDATE: The quilt package is made is going out the door to a man who has young children and is gravely ill with cancer. The referral came from a friend who is the 4th grade teacher of the man's oldest child. I had an extra block that I used for the tote bag that holds the quilt and goodies.

Presto Change O, different quilt

      One of the quilts I worked on the retreat was one from QuiltDiva Julie. She gave me two that used the same rail fence type pattern. I did make the first one according to plan, but when I started sewing the second one, I got fidgety. I looked and thought and rembered the 3 Dudes quilt from MSQC I made long ago. It would lend itself perfectly with no waste.
     I started with the same rail fence blocks, Light Dark Light Dark Light and Dark Light Dark Light Dark, but then I placed them right sides together and sewed all around them. Then I cut them diagonally from corner to corner twice.

      Pretty dynamic for some brown and neutral stips, huh? It excited me.

Sewn quilt, it did get a border to make it wider (shown another day)- no fabric wasted from what Julie sent me!

Some tops out for sun

     I am not sure if I posted the whole You've Got Mail all quilted. It is ready to go. It is the time of the year that the sun is lower in the sky and leaves shadows on the area where I photo the quilts. The white areas are all white.

    The exploding squares pattern is back and this time I used 4" squares to start out and used 4 total squares instead of the 3 when I start with a 6" center. This needs a back and quilting yet.

    The 3 Dudes quilt is also back. This time I used alternating white strips in the strip sets. I don't really like it as well. There is going to have to be some serious quilting on this to make me like it better.

All sewn up!

    Circle Dance is hanging by threads no more. It is all sewn together. It needs to be pressed and assessed to see if I botched any seams. Thanks to Wanda, I learned to pleat up the rows that were not being sewn with safety pins. That helped a lot to handle all the chain pieced rows. I did pin every intersection of seam and circle, right through the seam, yet many of them still moved. GRR! 
    Now to choose the backing. I looked at some wide backings, but there is not a lot of choice. I have to stick to something not real feminine as it is for my daughter and her husband. I looked online an shot a few links to Ria so she could think what she wants. Boy, queen size is big when you do mostly lap size. I could not find a place to take a decent photo so it all could show or get decent light. It is sideways in the photo, the top is to the left.

  Another finish is a kid's comfort quilt, done in the 3 dudes pattern. I only had a small number of kid strips, so I had to add lots of borders. I FMQ on the Bailey and did a slate pattern in the yellow and a sunshine in the blue border which from some reason, has a moire pattern in the photo. Both designs were from Leah Day's list. Now onto the backs from the quilts I made at QBL.

Star and Slate design

Free motion kind of follows the blocks

The back in flannel for snuggling

The Front

A few finishes

    This week seems like less ripping out or malfunctioning. I was able to finish the 3 Dudes comfort quilt and another Exploding Square one. I sewed more One block wonders blocks. Twenty five to go yet. Packing for a quilt workshop at Hudson River Art Workshops coming up with Rayna Gillman. I admire her work so much and it is my birthday present to myself as it is a big birthday. I want to learn from her to do more improv. I like the improv the best. I love to treadle crumb blocks and strips. I want to be much better at designing these.
    All these quilts are comfort quilts, waiting for a name to go out in its tote. All sewn on vintage Singers, pieced on a 15, FMQ on a 301.

Kids prints center, Disappearing Nine patch. Basted now, needs FMQ

Another Exploding Squares all done

3 Dudes design, all done

It's kid stuff!

     My mom finished sewing strips I gave her from jellyrollfabric.net/  One set of the blocks is the pattern from there, diagonal variations. I cut the animal skins jelly roll in half the long way and paired it with a greys roll and a white on white roll. This will make two comfort quilts. After I cut the tube, they really need squaring up, so I have to trim all 58 blocks to 8". Then I will have two quilts, 5 blocks by 6 blocks. Then add borders. These could be for a child or a man, I think.

Blocks cut from a tube of strips

     The next quilt I forgot to photo while on the design wall. I labeled the block numbers and took it down before I remembered. These blocks are 12.5" each and are made from 5" squares. I only used kid fabric in four squares so I could stretch the kid fabric I have.

    The next quilt is from strips again. It is the 3 Dudes pattern. I only had enough strips to have them sewn in groups of 4. This makes for small blocks. I think I will sew the 4 as shown and put sashing in between so I can get a decent size lap quilt.

Four blocks cut from one set of squares

One of the squares, another one sewn with stripes in the opposite direction

Surprises and Finishes

    By mentioning surprises, I don't mean the weather- it's winter, it's Buffalo, I accept that. The first couple days of the new year brought some unexpected big delights. First, Quilting by the Lake, a program from the Schweinfurth Museum in Auburn, NY with extraordinary teachers, called me and offered me a 5 day scholarship for classes in July!! By July, I thought I could have scrapped up enough to take a 2 day class with Victoria Findlay Wolfe, but never 5 days there. What it would have cost for an entire 2 days, I can stay all 5! Just the lodging to come up with, and if I had a room mate, it could be even cheaper. So, there is still room for her classes or others, so maybe think about coming. I love scraps and colors and Victoria is a master with both. I never win anything and wow, here it is.
  Second, I have a good friend who is a fantastically talented jeweler. She is an art teacher and a Roycroft artisan jeweler. In the mail, I got a pair of silver angel earring with glass beads that are just terrific. I can't take a picture of myself with my camera and I have a stupid phone, so have to get someone else to photo them for me.
  In the cleaning department, I finished the Kenmore and it is ready to go home. I was going to deliver it at the quilt guild meeting tonight, but it got weather cancelled. It is pretty spiffy and sews up a storm.

In its zipper case, ready to be used. Power cords and pedal in made bag.

    On the vintage machine forums, it has been mentioned about using TR3 resin glaze to polish paint and Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish for metal. Wow, great stuff. I picked up some last week at Pep Boys and used it on an old 66 treadle both the paint and metal. I also shined up my new 15. I used cotton balls just like the forum people said. The old 66 was a real wreck. All the metal was rusted. I read about using cider vinegar to soak the metal. In a bucket, I piled all the metal pieces in with the cider vinegar, and in 24 hours, I could not believe it was all gone. Now with the Mother's, I can restore the shine.

Left side, 1/4 of it polished, rest with rust removed

Right edge with polish after rust removal

Top with TR3 and cotton balls

What the black surface looks like without polish

Great Products

     Comfort Quilt finish- orange jelly roll strips from http://www.jellyrollfabric.net/ and Liz has a great sale right now. I just bought some animal skin prints, plain white, and some gray/blacks. The pattern is the 3 Dudes quilt from Missouri Star Quilt company except I used 6 strips cut into blocks instead of 4. I auditioned colors to make the orange pop and be happy. I never decide my borders or binding fabric until the quilt is pieced because I can make better choices to highlight the center.

Auditioning for the border

Ready for basting and backing

     Another Comfort Quilt, the 4 patch B&W leader and ender, is all quilted and bound. The backing donated by Esta is a lot of fun.

Detail

Back

Detail

Finished Quilt

   Wow, that was a lot to get through, but I hate taking pictures off the camera, naming them, putting them in folders, so I tend to do it all at the same time. I did not photo my machine disasters lately, so I won't be sharing those!

Blocks, blocks!

     My mom can sew straight lines, though not a quilter, but garment sewer. For the comfort quilts, I have asked her to sew strips and squares. The exploding squares quilts have light center and dark center blocks. I cut, press, and sort them. I just got back a lot of them. I had to mark and cut them open, press. When pressed here, I probably have enough to make at least 2 quilts. Recognize any fabric donated, Vicki? 
 

Mixed light centers and dark center blocks

Light center blocks

Dark center blocks

I also used one jelly roll in orange brights from http://www.jellyrollfabric.net/ to make 3 Dudes quilt blocks (6 strips sewn together WOF, cut into 12 1/2" squares, one put on top going the opposite way from the bottom one, sew all 4 sides, cut diagonally twice). Here they are on the wall, have to organize them before sewing together.

  

    I used the left overs from the Exploding Squares Blocks to sew up some piano keys strips that I will use later in a border somewhere.

That Magic Moment

    Don't leave me out here by myself, but there comes a point in creating a quilt that it becomes a quilt- not a collection of fabrics, batting and thread- but a cohesive whole thing- an object who is more than the sum of its parts. It moves differently and feels different. This usually happens at some point when the binding is being sewn on. It starts to drape differently going through the machine and has a different kind of body- sort of sculptural. It is the magic moment. Today, sewing the 3 dudes quilt binding, it happened when I was sewing the binding, when I was sewing on the front, catching the back of the binding, about 8 inches into it. I just stop and marvel. No matter what the front looks like, now it is a quilt. Awesome.
   Pieced on a Singer 301, quilted on another 301, binding sewn on a Singer 401.
   All I have left is to put the pockets on the tote bag and pack it. I will wash both the quilt and the bag, then sew the pockets on as the bag really shrinks and would pucker the pockets. The clean quilt, bag, book and card will be put in a plastic bag, waiting to be given to the recipient.

Borders quilted with Squiggle Square, courtesy The Inbox Jaunt

Flip side, Back corner

Back of quilt, fabric donated by Esta