Sunday April 3, 2016

Bev's quilt

On this one we used 9 oz poly and Superior Thread's Monofilament.

Shirl Williams quilt was an edge to edge  design. I tried using one of Superior Thread's Rainbow threads and I could not get my long arm to sew with it at all. It broke the thread about every 12 inches.  I switched to Magnifico and still had issues but I could get half way across a run before it broke. I had a couple of runs with out any breaks. I was very frustrated. I have had tension issues, on my Innova,  off on and on for a couple of years. This causing me to take twice as long (or more) on each job than I should have to. I end up picking out and re-stitching. While Dave and I were up in SLC last month, we stopped by the Innova shop (Quilts on the Corner in Sandy). I picked up all new thread guides, needle plate (throat plate) and a new check spring. I called ABM to find out what size allen wrench it took loosen the tension assembly so it could be removed and we could get the old check spring out and the new check spring in. I had never changed my check spring and it defiantly needed to be replaced. I was told that as much as I use my machine I probably should change the check spring every six months and that you should normally change them once a year. I know the check spring is important, but did  not realize that they needed to be changed that often and I sold the machines when I worked for Let's Quilt here in St. George.  Anyway.... ABM has technicians that are available to answer questions and walk the customer through problems.  When I talked to Michael he told me to call him back before we did anything, after we had removed the old check spring. Well..... we did not call him back and managed to not get the check spring seated correctly. So when I started adjusting the spring it wound back on it's self.  I sprung the check spring. I was like a slinky that had been pulled and would not longer work. Michael suggested that I get a new tension assembly. I decided to do that. I called Quits on the Corner  and ordered a the new precision tension assembly, 5 of their special red bobbins and 3 extra check springs. We got the new assembly installed and did the adjustments as well as we could. I really have loved my Innova, but I sure wish we had a service person in St. George. I would like to have my machine tuned up, the table leveled and all those kind of things yearly, even if I have had no problems.  The machine is to heavy for me to lift and carry to my car to make the track to Sandy, Utah. I don't like doing the fixes myself and my husband really does not like to do it. 

 I have actually decided if I don't quit having tension issues, I will not be quilting for clients very often. It is just to stressful for the money I make. I am not going to invest in another long arm either (I am entering daily for the APQS long arm give away...... it would be wonderful to win it). 

After having the issues I did with Shirl's quilt, I loaded a baby quite of my own, used Permacore in the bobbin as well as the top and it quilted fine..... I quilted fast too.  The next client quilt is a Judy Nehmire quilt pattern pieced by Patti V.. It is a red and white quilt, wonderfully  constructed. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have any issues with the thread on this one.  

Now it is late, I need to go to the APQS website and make my daily entry into their contest and then hit the sack! This next week is a full week. We will be having two different groups of visitors. I am looking forward to that!

Happy Quilting to you all!

March 25, 2016

Another month is just about over. This month I have been having issues with my Innova long arm again. We have decided it probably is my check spring. I, being the mechanical genius I am, have not changed the check spring in all the years I have been using my long arm. I have quilted a lot of quilts. I have "checked" the check spring, but have never replaced it. I recently was given a Merit Award at the  Utah Women's Art Exhibition 2016 for my piece "Delicate Arch #1"  . While in SLC to receive the award and attended the opening Art show, went to our area Innova dealer. I purchased a check spring (should have picked up 3 or 4 since they were only$3 each), thread guides and a needle plate (throat plate).  My husband and I got the old check spring removed, but did not get the new one seated properly in the tension assembly. When I started to adjust the check spring, the spring wound back on itself and ruined that spring. After talking to ABM (who are always there to help if you call) decided I would order a there high performance tension assembly. It came yesterday and I am putting off putting it in. I am afraid I will mess it up. The older I get the less confident I feel about doing things like this. If I can't get my husband to do it for me in a bit, I will have to do it myself. I wish he liked doing stuff like that, but he doesn't. Right now I am putting it off. I guess I should go and get busy though....... I have client work that needs to be done and the days are go by so quickly it is scary. Wish me luck!
Here are the latest client quilts I have done.

February 2016

February is about over. February has been a very busy month. I had a lot of work, meetings and attended our Dixie Quilt Guild annual retreat.  I was sick last year and missed the retreat. I had so much fun catching up with friends I have talked to in what seems like forever. Our guild is so large it is hard to even say Hi to everyone!  

I have had a couple of really great things happen this month. I sold my first wall hanging. The piece "Flat Pass #1" is in it's new home in KY. My aunt purchased it for my cousin and his wife.  I also got news that the piece entitled "Delicate Arch #1" has been awarded the Merit Award at Utah Woman Artists Exhibition 2016! The art show is at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center  in West Valley, Utah. The awards will be at 6:30 March 10.  The show runs through April.  Just a little more than a     month. 

The weather was so nice today. I worked outside in my yard for a while. I sure get tired faster than I used too!I love being outside though. I need to get tomatoes planted in a couple of pots soon. 

Here are the quilts I have quilted recently....... fun quilts. 

                                                           RuthAnn's quilt

Laura's Quilt

Nancy's Quilt

Phillis's quilt 

Kate's Quilt

Marie's Quilt

January 23, 2016

I keep saying I can't believe how fast the time is going buy.... I really can't believe it. Christmas 2105 has come and gone. Candice, Season, Micah, Dave, me and all of our dogs had a great Christmas. We missed Megan and Patrick very much and hope to see them later in the year.  Dave and I went out and cut our Christmas tree and I do believe it was the best tree we have ever had. It was not dry when I finally. I love pinion pine! We made a very quick trip to Moab and went to visit my Aunt Vera who lives on the Funk farm in the Dove Creek, Colorado area.
I have been busy. I have finished 2 art quilts and am working on a 3rd. The quilting is almost done on it. I have the binding picked out and will hopefully have it sewn on tomorrow.

                                                                      Flat Pass #2

Behind the Rocks # 2

These pieces are both done from water color paintings I have done a long time ago.  My Aunt called and asked if I had an work that I though my cousin and his wife might like for Christmas. I had them look at some of my previous work and Dan chose 3 different scenes. One of which was Flat Pass.  One was a watercolor of the La Sal Mtns in more of a winter scene and the third was a view from inside of Wilson Arch, located south of Moab.  The Wilson Arch piece is the one I am working on now. I have not started one of the La Sal Mtns. yet, but I have an idea of what I am going to do. I plan on painting the basic fabric for that piece tomorrow.

I am keeping busy with client work too. I finished 2 quilts for Bev Nelson and one for Brenda Jones.

Brenda's Lone star

One of Bev's quilts

Megan and Patrick are engaged. Patrick purposed on New Year's Eve. We are happy about that, but don't know when they are planning on getting married. 

My goal for this next year is to get photos of my pieces on a web site. It is possible I will be a visiting artist for a month in the Moab Gallery! I am very excited about that. I would be so great to sell a piece of my art work, either a quilt or one of my paintings. I also am going to do more painting this year. I plan on joining the Watercolor society here in ST. George. I belonged in Salt Lake City when we lived there, but just haven't had time to add one more thing here.  So many things to do and so very little time!

That just about covers everything so until next posting..... Happy Quilting!

December 16....Marie's quilt

It has been a while since I have written on my blog. Christmas is just around the corner!

Dave and I went to Moab for a short visit the first part of December. I had a client's quilt to deliver and needed to get Christmas gifts taken to Moab. We stayed at our friend's home and had such a great time. It was so good to laugh and relax.

I finished Marie Wheeler's second quilt.  This one took me a while to decide how to quilt the larger blocks. Marie fussy cut the fabric to create the large blocks and I did not want to do anything that covered them up, so decided to stitch around the design. We used Hobbs 80/20 batting and Superior Threads Magnifico on the top and in the bobbin. 

Janice Howick's quilt.

It appears winter is truly here. I am not a fan of cold weather.  Me and my old bones much prefer  warmer weather.  I have actually spent a lot of time working on my own stuff lately. I usually have a bunch of client's work to do. I did not take quilts while I having issues with my Innova, but it seems to be resolved now. I have not been really, really excited about quilting. Working with the issues the machine had made quilting not fun at all. I was constantly picking our and re-sewing. 

I finished the quilt in the photos last week. It belongs to Janice H. last week.  She did a wonderful job piecing.  First I ditched around all the pieces. I had a hard time deciding just what design to put around the blocks.  I stitched 1/4 inch around each block and around the small blacks.  I connected the small blocks to the large blocks with a 1/4 in line. I also stitched a 1/4 in line in the background around the border. Once all this was done, I filled the background in with a swirly design. I had planned to do a scroll in the border, but it just didn't look right. I ended up doing even piano keys around the outside edge. That tied it all together. Janice picked it up and was very pleased with it. I still have one small wall table runner to complete for her. She plans on entering it into a show. I am still thinking about how to stitch it to add to her design. 

I worked on a quilt for my niece and her husband. I was intended to be her wedding quilt. It has taken me a long time to finish it. I will post photos of it in my next posting.

I have been trying to finish up some of my own projects. I don't have another other client pieces in hand right now.  I do have three that are coming, but nothing but the small table runner in hand right now. I will have to add material to the edges on her backing material to load it onto my long arm. 

I started another art quilt last night..... couldn't go to sleep so I worked on it. I plan on it being my entry for our Dixie Quilt Guild challenge. I ran out of glue. I am appliquéing onto a confetti background.  I have been using red felt as my foundation for building the pieces. I like the way it is working. I will need to add a layer of batting and a nice backing though. I hope to get it finished this afternoon.  I would like to get a few outside paintings done. But..... it has been to cold for me. It is amazing how acclimated I have become to the heat. Any temp lower than 70 feel down right cold to me! When we first moved here, eleven years ago, 70 was short weather. Now 70 is long pants and 65 is fleece and sweats! 

I need to get busy, it is already after 9! Until next time.

Happy Quilting!

Sat Oct 24, 2015

 Another week has gone by. I was busy continually, but did not seem to accomplish all that much. I did a lot of cleaning and working in the yard. Doing stuff that really needs to be done.

I am currently working on a twin size quilt for a client and fellow quilt guild member. She provided her own batting. I think it is bamboo. I really don't like it. It is to sticky. I think it would be great if you were hand quilting. I have only used it twice and have not had that great of luck either time. It is expensive and touted as being a green product. Bamboo might be renewable and quickly renewable, but I don't think the process it takes to take the pieces of bamboo and make it into batting is that great. I have not only read a small bit about the process, have done no research on it myself. What I have heard might not be correct. If I choose to purchase that type of batting, I would do some research on how it is produced before the fibers get to the place that makes them into batting. Besides....it is expensive and I don't like the way the batting sticks to the fabric. It is to easy to get folds in the batting.

This past week I filled an order for "It's Sew Moab" quilt shop for 20 of my Red Cactus patterns. That was my first wall hanging pattern and has sold the best. Eye lash yarn is used to make the spines on the cactus. I include 8 yards of the yarn in each pattern. Debra sells a lot of my patterns. Currently I don't have them in any other stores and I haven't set up a on-line store either. If I do that I will need to have the patterns printed at a print shop. I guess I should expand. I just don't enjoy that part of the business. I like coming up with ideas and getting them market ready. After I get them that far, I am ready to move on to the next project. The older I get the less time I have to devote to anything else and I spend lots of time just thinking.

I need to get an art quilt finished, photo it and get it ready to enter into the SAQA contest for our region. The theme is "Above and Beyond".  I though and though about what to do and decided I would do a piece showing that talked about my friends. It is painted on white muslin. It depicts a Raven and some Bluebirds. The Raven is attaching one of the Bluebirds. The other six blue birds are coming to the one's rescue.  I though I  would title it "Friend's go Above and Beyond". I need to get it bound and get a photo taken of it. I am not a big contest enterer. But I  would really like to get my art work out in the world and sell some of it. I know If I want anyone to look at it, I have to show it.  I will post a photo of it next week. I though I had a photo of how it looked as I started it, but I can't find it on this computer.

It is close to 11 a.m. I guess I ought to get myself ready for my day. I am very slow starting today. I worked in the yard yesterday and am kind of sore.

Until next week I wish you Happy Quilting!