The Good, the Bad and the Fun.....!

Penelope and I continue to have fun play dates.

I finished quilting my dd's winter quilt, which I thought turned out nice, that is, until I washed it!

I used The Tuscany Collection 100% wool batting by Hobbs. It is developed with Harriet Hargraves for "Discriminating Quilters". It specifically states that it "is made with the very best super wash wool, which eliminates most or all of the shrinkage. It is then carded and resin bonded to help retard bearding." Now keep that in mind for the next photo.

I purposely did not re-size the photo because I wanted you to see the results.

After completing the binding, I put it in the washing machine. When I pulled it out, it was covered with balls of wool - beading. Where in the heck did it come out of? Okay, so I stick it in the dryer thinking that it's going to take that stuff off. It did some of it, but not all of it. I did use the "cotton picker" for a bit and gave up!

Notice the beading, the shrinkage? It was dried on low heat. After seeing the results, I decided to read the instructions, "it is recommended to dry this quilt flat. When drying flat, block and square the quilt on an absorbent surface, such as towels. The use of a fan oscillating over the surface will speed up the drying process considerable". Now, who has the space to leave a quilt in the middle of the room to dry? Not me! Oh, and let's not forget the towels and oscillating fan. I wish this had been written on the front of the package and not on the reverse where I have no access, unless I rip open the packaging and turn the paper around! I am fuming....!!!!!!! I'm thinking that quilt needs to be picked and redone! I think the expression "I'm spitting bullets" is appropriate here! lol

What infuriates me the most is that I have another quilt using Hobbs wool batting, not the Tuscany Collection, that hasn't been washed yet because I still need to quilt the inner border. Anyone have room for me to dry a quilt?

On a much happier note, I shall be leaving Thursday morning for a bus trip with my guild, Champlain Valley Quiltler's Guild, to see the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza XV show in Harrisburgh, Pennsylvania. Friday will be spent at the show. Saturday, we'll be shop hopping all day. Many of the places I have never been! Sunday we'll be leaving for home. I'm really looking forward to this. I've never been to a show in PA. I'm making sure I bring my camera! ;o) I'm telling you, this year I have been the travelling quilting fool! lol

Hope you are all having a wonderful week! Thanks for stopping by!

Note: The issue was not with the batting but with my inexperience using a longarm. I had the quilt much to taut on the longarm. Once I washed the quilt, the quilt top sprung back to its original size forcing the batting to migrate out of the quilt. Lesson learned!

Summer has finally arrived....!

I do hope you have all been enjoying the summer. Here, it's been a wet summer for us this year. Only since last week have we been having some sunny days. I did go sailing on Saturday. It was such a perfect windy day!

On the quilting front, I finished Pine Grove. It was quite the experience to complete this project on the longarm. I'm glad it's done!

At last, I have a quilt off that long UFO 2007 list. That's the list I had compiled for Stashbuster. Of course, I never reached my goal before the year was up, Queen I became! Oh well.... c'est la vie.

I'm still enjoying some play dates with Penelope! I've been working on some charity quilts that I obtained from the guild. I just finished one that had machine embroidered squares. Hum.... it's not as easy as I would have thought!

With the bedroom renovations mostly completed, Stephen managed to finish the sewing desk he designed for Bernina 180. I do like the way it turned out! It's sweet to have a nice sewing space! Hum.... more drawers to fill! ;o)

Thanks for stopping by! Keep well everyone!

I've been plugging away.....!

Penelope and I have had a few play dates. I've enjoyed doing some free-form on Pine Grove. It's almost quilted, all I have are the setting triangles. I haven't decided how I shall approach those. Until then......

I finished the center block of Sprig Rose by Lorraine Hofmann. Funny how a picture can distort the colours. The fabrics are a tad darker than in the photograph. Hum....

I do like the way it turned out. I'm not sure how I want to proceed for the borders. So, I'm putting this project aside for a bit until an inspiration comes along. Until then, I'll work on finishing Market Day by Whimsical.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. Thank you for stopping by!

Just quilt it....!

Thank you for all your support regarding machine quilting. It's so different doing it on a long arm compared to a domestic sewing machine (DSM). So I took your advise and.....

Just did it! lol

It took me a while to figure out that there was a much simpler way of doing what I wanted to do. I guess I had to take the long way before I arrived at a short cut.

I'm using my laser light on top of my machine and following my pattern. Much simpler and it's coming out much better.

There was the issue of some dragging, which I felt caused me to have jerky movements. I had read a thread on MQResource and thought perhaps my channel locks had been improperly adjusted, thus causing the drag.

I phoned APQS to talk about my channel locks. For one, I thought the command buttons had been mixed up. Bob was kind enough to explain to me why it was set up that way. Duh! (palm to forehead) Okay, it all makes sense to me now! lol Regarding the drag/jerky movement, he kindly said that I needed more practice. Fair enough!

This morning I had a "light bulb" moment regarding the drag, raise my hopping foot! Well, it worked, no more drag. So Bob, next I call about a drag, just tell me to raise my hopping foot! ROFLOL Of course he didn't know I had played with it and it was no longer to the manufacture setting. And yes, I still need more practice! By the way, great customer service from APQS. I have nothing but praise for this company.

While attempting to gather up the courage to quilt on the long arm, I worked on the center block of Sprig Rose.

I love the way it turned out. I need to square it and attached the saw tooth border. Perhaps tonight! For now, I'm machine quilting Pine Grove on the long arm! ;o)

Thanks for stopping by every one and for your kind words of encouragement.

Have a great day!

Wow..... August already!

I do hope that everyone is having a wonderful summer. Here, it has been buzzing with activities.

On the quilting front, I had to put Market Day on hold due to a discrepancy in the pattern instructions. The cutting instruction and the template were off by 1/4 inch. Hum... which one is right?

I did check on their web site, Oops section, for possible corrections, but it wasn't mentioned. Strange, the book has been published for quite some time. So, I wrote to the designer Terri for clarification.

Note: Terri did write back and the template is not the correct measurement. She will post the correction on her website.

Until I receive an answer ........

I started a new machine applique project called Sprig Rose, designed by Lorraine Hofmann.

I belong to a Primitive Folk Art group and this is one of the projects that the group is working on. This happens to be part of the center block.

On the long arm front, I loaded Pine Tree Grove. I started machine quilting this quilt on my DSM. It's been sitting in my quilting closet, waiting for me to pick it up again. Yesterday, I had the "bright?!?!" idea of completing it on the longarm. I haven't done anything except stare at it.

You know how they say that you "shouldn't" switch machines in between piecing a quilt, well I wonder if this applies to machine quilting. So, until I feel confident that I'm doing the "right" thing, I'll just continue staring at it! lol

The blocks are basted and some of the sashing has been quilted. It's the setting triangles and borders that bother me. Oh well, I'll continue to think about it! lol

I'm off to quilt! Have a great day every one. Thank you so much for stopping by!