Ping: Edna Pearl

Just fine, thank you! The only progress I have made this week is cutting muslin "Wild Goose" triangles to reinforce the lighter-weight shirt fabrics, cutting sample triangles from the shirts selected for each of the six grandchildren, pinning the sample triangles to muslin strips so the client can see how the different patterns look together, and gathering 1/4 yards of Kona cotton in various colors for the client to choose from for background triangles and borders and sashing. (The colors are a no-brainer, IMHO, but the client needs to be involved.)

The next step is to wash all the new fabric and make some miniquilts with all these samples and swatches, machine-quilt them in a couple of simple quilting patterns (lines, grids, meanders), then launder them repeatedly to see how the different weight fabrics interact. This will give the client an idea of what quilting she wants done, as well.

I have also found a machine-embroiderer who can do exactly what we want by way of embroidering her husband's name and birthdate in a long row on the bottom border of each quilt, using something called a "continuous hoop" that she only recently acquired and took a workshop on. I discovered her selling monogrammed items at a wonderful weekly market-show here in town, so I got to meet her in person and see her equipment and skills right on the spot. I was having trouble finding someone who could do this in one long strip/border; it's obviously more complicated than we thought it would be and requires special equipment.

In the meantime, I have almost finished machine-quilting a bed-size quilt that was taking up space in my SM area. I was eager to do this to see if I could develop enough confidence in my machine-quilting skills to offer them to the client as an alternative to outsourcing to a long-arm quilter. (The long-arm quilter would definitely have problems with buttons and might have problems with other shirt features, which I would be able to cope with on my own machine with no problem, if I just have some skills and confidence.) I am glad to report that I was fairly pleased with my FMQ'ing this week. I did a simple, looping, flower motif on each of the 12" Churn Dash blocks in this bed-size quilt, and got a lot of good practice. I learned the very valuable lesson that my machine does not quilt well with a full bobbin. Most of the quilting on a couple of blocks had to be rabbit-stitched, where I had changed the bobbin. I will finish these blocks and a few areas of loose quilting stitches (an inch here and there that I'm not happy with).

The client is still very excited and easy to deal with, and has written me two checks totalling about $500 so far. We'll have a third meeting this week to review swatches and colors and pull a couple more shirts from her stash. Because work will slow down while I prepare and abuse :-) ome mini-quilts using samples of the shirt fabric, I plan to start cutting a full-size St. Louis block soon, on which I will hone my machine quilting skills. (I found the coolest fabric for backing today -- a fairly small print of music staffs! It looks like herringbone from a distance.)

And I will continue to cut up the shirts I am sure we will use (e.g., the ones with fabrics I feel confident about using for geese). This is easy, boring work I do in front of the television at a reduced hourly rate.

I've also embellished about a dozen 12" blocks for a crazy quilt. It's fun! I also traced an antique design for some crewel-work I plan to do on velvet soon. I also have a simple cross-stitch project in its early stages.

ep

I love your enthusiasm EP! I'm rather in awe of your dedication to detail and for taking on such a project. You have so much confindence though, I'm sure you will do a bang up job of it! Please post your progress as you go along with this, would you? I find it VERY interesting and fun to follow. Thanks so much for answering my post. Donna

I am enjoying your adventure too, EP, and hope that you will continue to keep us sharing it with you. I did notice your: Maybe I've mentioned this to you before but since we have a couple of thousand lurkers here, I'll say it again. Many SMs prefer a slowly wound bobbin. It has to do with the tension of the wound on thread or the moon. Also, just a stingy drop of Sewers Aid on each bobbin will make it very happy and cooperative. I think it is a silicone and absolutely magic. Think of it as fine Scotch whiskey for bobbins. Polly

I love your enthusiasm EP! I'm rather in awe of your dedication to detail and for taking on such a project. You have so much confindence though, I'm sure you will do a bang up job of it! Please post your progress as you go along with this, would you? I find it VERY interesting and fun to follow. Thanks so much for answering my post. Donna

I got out my Sewers Aid, looked at the bobbin and thought 'where do I put it so that not just tiny bits of the thread get it?' Last time I used it I saturated a tiny bit of batting in it, fixed the batting to the top of the machine and ran the thread through it. But that was the top thread - I gave up on the bottom!

Sally at the Seaside ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk

Polly Esther wrote:

Just put a stingy drop on the thread on the bobbin, Sally. You don't want to sog the whole thing; a wee little drop does wonders. Trust me. Polly (my mama always said Never trust anybody who says 'trust me'.)

I am enjoying EP's journey too. I remember bobbin winding info from the classes for my Bernina in '85 (they were wonderful and extensive) The teacher said high speed winding stretches the thread and you should not go pedal to the medal when winding. The new Janome here has one speed. It is pretty fast so I start it and stop it several times when winding each bobbin. I wonder why they didn't take that into consideration when they set the machine up? Taria

So glad to hear the shirt quilt project is going so well, EP! I'm also glad to hear that I'm not the only one who has several projects going at once. :-)

Any chance of a picture of your newly FM quilted Churn Dash?

Michelle in Nevada

You know how I am. Sorry! I actually do have a list of all the needlework projects around here that I want to photograph and post to Facebook. I do feel very gratified when people say they like what I've made. I'll get around to buying a disposable camera soon.

I'm not really very pleased with the color arrangements on the Churn Dash. I am sometimes surprised by how these lovely old patchwork patterns interact. I got lucky with my first Shoo Fly (the taffeta and satin quilt top I still haven't layered and quilted). But I would have liked my results better on the Churn Dash if I had chosen just one dominant, dark-value color for the ChurnDash blocks, with a neutral background and alternating neutral blocks. And it would have looked great to assemble the blocks on the diagonal.

But it's a good quilt and I think a friend of mine will like it.

I feel more confident about the St. Louis block I'm designing. I've looked at enough pictures of various St. Louis blocks to know that I want two dark and a medium color-value, pieced adjacent. An interesting rhythm appears this way. I'm learning :-)

ep

What part of the bobbin do you put it on? Or part of the holder? Does it make a difference if it's a vertical or a horizontal bobbin?

Allison

Polly Esther wrote:

I've been up to no good and just now saw your question, Allison. Put a stingy smidge of silicone on the thread. Doesn't matter if the bobbin goes in horizontal, vertical or tilted. It's sort of like waxing your floors and then sliding across in sock feet. Wheeeeee. Polly