Lemon Tree Tales

Panel Baby Quilt

The other day my friend let me use her Innova longarm quilting machine while I tried out some free-motion quilting (FMQ) on a panel baby quilt. After four hours of quilting I'm very glad that I didn't go with the Innova longarm. It's just not my cup of tea. A family friend had a baby that was born just a little bit too early. Soon he'll be allowed to come home and Steve and I wanted to give him a welcome home quilt. It was hard finding minkee in the nearby quilt shops so Steve picked one out that matched while he was on a business trip. Didn't he do well?

 

I used the print to guide my FMQ ... a bit of piano key in the two borders, faux applique around the animals and background fills. It was a lot of fun. I'll have to get some more panels so that I can make more baby quilts and practice my FMQ at the same time.

 

 

The polka dot minkee is sooooo soft and the quilting adds some interesting textures.

 

Since this little quilt is destined to be washed a gazillion times in hot water I opted to machine stitch the binding on both sides. For the final stitching I chose a decorative feather stitch in a turquoise Aurifil thread. It adds just that little extra bit of detail. Next time I'll stitch it from the front so that I can choose the same line for it. Regardless I think the new mom will be happy with this gift. Here's to a quick homecoming!

Longarm Quilting Machine is on its way

After a year of renting time on the Gammill longarm quilting machine and spending some serious time in hands-on research I have finally decided what machine to order. Earlier this week I ordered an APQS Freedom 26" longarm as well as the IntelliQuilter (IQ) robotics system to go with it. Oh my goodness this is so exciting. There's quite a few things that I need to do to get ready for its arrival. First on the list is to switch out the master bedroom for the empty spare room. Freddie is coming with a 12' table that just won't fit in the spare room. It's too small by just a few inches, darn! Luckily Steve is a great guy and has agreed that it can live in the master bedroom. Yay!

It sounds like Freddie will be here for a couple weeks before the IQ can be installed so I'll probably pick up at least one paper pantograph pattern so that I can work on some charity quilts while waiting for the robotics. I do want to improve my free-motion quilting (FMQ) skills as well so that will be time well spent.

It's going to be fantastic being able to quilt at home. This won't be just for my own quilts. It's just too big of an investment for that luxury. I've been looking for something to do as a home-based business since I stopped working as a swimwear designer. But the business couldn't be just anything. It needed to be something that my creative skills and eye for design would work as bonuses. Of course I have known about quilting machines since I was a 13-year old visiting my aunt in Springfield, MO. She took me to a company that made stretched longarm machines. I even tried one out. However, until last year when I was doing more FMQ on my DSM (domestic sewing machine) it wasn't a contender for a business. Then I spent quite a bit of rental time quilting those charity quilts and the one for my nephew. Oh my goodness was I hooked. To see a lovely pieced top become a quilt in such a relatively short time was such a great feeling. It felt like a light going off in my head .. of course, quilting at home was the perfect home-based business for me to go into. So I do hope that you're getting those quilt tops ready that you have been waiting to get quilted. I would be happy to turn those tops into fantastic quilts for you.

Poptop Doll Class

It finally happened .. Monday was my very first time teaching a doll making class. As far as I know there aren't any other doll classes in the area so I opted to teach a beginner doll by Julie McCullough of Magic Threads called Poptop. Originally I had a second student enrolled but she had to cancel last week so it was only the one student and me. The interstate was briefly closed due to ice and snow otherwise my friend would have attended as well.

My student, Gloria, did a bang up job on sewing a doll for the first time. She wanted to make one for her granddaughter. We spent about six hours and at the end she had a doll that was almost finished. She'll stuff the second arm and leg at home and finish up the hand sewing parts. But the skirt is very close to done. I like how she cut the sashing with the chevron print going the other direction. It adds a little subtle detail. She said that she's going to make more dolls for her other granddaughters. Isn't that sweet?! That's what doll making is all about ... the joy and sharing of dolly smiles.

 

These Poptop dolls are my two sample dolls plus the red demo doll that I used to demonstrate how to sew and stuff the doll during the class. I really like this pattern because the dolls have that little touch of whimsy to them. Can't you see them sitting in the bookshelves of a girl's room?

 

It was a lot of fun teaching the class and I'm very glad that I tried it. But I don't think that I'll do a second one. The sewing machine shop just wasn't able to sign up people even though they said that there was a lot of interest. If you don't require students to sign up and pay at least a deposit prior to class, it's too easy for them to not show up the day of the class. So for all of the pre-work that I did: sewing two sample dolls, writing and printing out supply list class fliers for the shop, pre-sewing the demo doll parts, making kits for the students (pre cut skin tone fabrics, beads, etc), ordering patterns for the students from online shops, and writing out a check list of how to teach the doll ... for all of that work I earned a whopping $35. Supposedly the student who cancelled wants to come in and buy the pattern that I ordered for her. So until then, I'm also out an additional $10 for her copy of the pattern. (I was afraid that students would show up without a pattern if I left it up to them to order one.) Maybe next time I can find out if the designer offers the pattern wholesale and then leave it up to the store to order them in.

Yes, it was a learning experience for me. But I'm not willing to spend that much of my time for so little money. Unless the sewing machine shop changes their class policy to include a minimum number of paying students for classes, then I'll have to kindly step away. It also didn't help that the sewing machine shop's website listed the class incorrectly. They mentioned it properly in their newsletter but that wouldn't help if you were to check out the website. We had to re-schedule the class because a day before the first class date no one had signed up yet.

I'd rather have a doll making day with my friend at one of our houses than do this again. However, if I had more students and made a bit more money then it would probably be worth it.

So for those of you who have taught classes, what are your policies for signing up students? What's the minimum number of students to make it work for you? And do you teach patterns from other designers, or are you only teaching items or projects that you've come up with? Do you offer kits? Any suggestions for making this a more successful outcome the next time?

Meander Quilting

Another charity sampler quilt was completed with an allover meander quilting pattern on the longarm. Meander is a nice pattern to use when you just want something done quickly. There were too many colors going on for anything else to really show up well. This way it just gives a bit of texture and will be a warm quilt to hand out to a local charity. I chose a mid-tone rose colored cotton thread to complement the pink sashing and the burgandy border.

The burgundy rose fabric is a poly blend from the 80s from the Peter Pan company. Remember them? It's pretty but it really needed a sharp needle when I hand stitched the matching binding on it. That's it for charity quilts for right now. Next on the list is to work on a baby quilt for a friend's baby boy and then get back to the piecing on the Fractured quilt. Hmm, I think that I may do a panel quilt with a minkee backing for the baby quilt. It just needs to be a fun quilt to drag around on the ground, nothing fancy.

So what are you working on this week? Any exciting projects?

Steve's new vest

Steve's new vest is officially complete! I'm pretty happy with it even though there's some adjustments that I'll make to the next vest. The Italian wool from Britex was marvelous to work with but the silk was a bear. It slipped while I was cutting it, while pinning it and while sewing it. Perhaps next time I'll reserve it just for the vest back and find something else to line the interior. I started out with McCall's 2447 but in the end had so many pattern corrections that I would have been better off just taking measurements and drafting the pattern from scratch. I now have my pattern making reference guide from college so I'll have a refresher if I opt to do that next time.

Steve likes it and that's what is most important. Doesn't he look great in that blue?! What a sweetie to pose for me even though he needed to get going for a business meeting.

The changes I want to make are to take in the darts at the bottom so that it tucks in toward the waistband a bit more. I'll also lengthen the darts by an inch or so. Not sure how they got so low in the first place. Also I'll add more length to the center back but the length in the front is very good. Finally I think that I'll widen the shoulders a bit to keep it a bit more in proportion. I like the 5-buttons very much and will maintain that in the future. Finally I may change the back belt into a back elastic tunnel. I think I'd like it to be sewn out of the front fabric, a contrast for added detail. Ultimately this one just needs a really good press and it'll look a bit better in the front. My iron isn't the greatest at giving good steam.

The major problem I had in the end was that my trusty Bernina Aurora 440 had a major hiccup with making buttonholes. They used to work brilliantly but somewhere between then and now my buttonhole foot died. The machine repair shop re-calibrated it and managed to get it to work for them but when I got home it said "nay, nay" and wouldn't sew the second side parallel to the first. Hopefully it can be warrantied but if not I'll have to order an expensive replacement foot. This is the first time something hasn't functioned on my Bernina. Other than that it's been a dream machine. Fortunately my sewing repair shop let me come in and use one of their floor model Berninas to sew my buttonholes. Less than fifteen minutes later and I was home sewing on the buttons. Et voila', a vest is created. So what are you sewing this week? Also do you have any tips for sewing silk?

Quilt of Valor blocks

A friend from back east is attending MQX New England and was making blocks for their Quilt of Valor (QOV) block drive. She asked if any people were interested in helping her out so I said yes. I chose the easiest of the three blocks to chain piece, the Mississippi block courtesy of Marcia Hohn from Quilter's Cache.

Here's one 12" block. I opted to sew them up using a navy/white star print, a red ditzy, and a variety of cream, tans from my stash. A lot of the tan fabrics were striped so I played with the direction of them to create a subtle additional pattern.

 

And here's a very fuzzy phone picture of all 12 blocks before I packed them up and mailed them out. Hopefully the organizers at MQX get a LOT of blocks for this very worthwhile cause.

 

It's nice to sew for a cause. Now it's back to some more of my projects on the never-ending to-do list. Do you think that the elves come out at night and add more to the list? It certainly seems that way.