Happy Halloween!

Well quilters, in case you were wondering what 300 little bags of gummi goodness looks like, here is what it looks like:
We make these up for the little kids who do a main street parade of trick-or-treating so they don't have to do it in the dark and cold. It's fun to see their costumes.

And as promised, here is my done over studio...All that's left to be done is get me (Erik has one, but sometimes we're both in the room working) a short swivel chair (I have a tall one that I use when I paint at my easel or draw on my cutting table) and cut a hole in my desk for my sewing machine to sit in. I've been perusing different sewing cabinets but I love love love my giant executive's desk and I can't bear to part with it. So. I'm trying to find some generous soul with a jig-saw to cut me a whole. My dad might have one, so I've got to check on that.
My favorite new addition right now is my design wall.
And for those of you who haven't met her yet, that's Elli. She was my mom's black lab, but my mom was trying to find a new home for her unsuccessfully when Siri died. We were planning on getting another dog at some point, maybe not so soon, but we thought what the heck, and adopted Elli. She's a good shop dog and loves all the different people coming in.

Spooky quilting!

The internet is driving me crazy...

My connection at the shop today has been so slow it's maddening, so I will try to load pictures of my latest endeavors, but I make no promises.
This is something I worked on a little this weekend. Still pondering the blocks. Going to change a block or two...It's Cheryl Whittmeyer's "Buttonholes". My new design wall has made life so much easier for quilts like this. My cats can't even knock the blocks off! Thwarted, cats!
This is my (finally) finished (aka--finished top) lime green batik quilt from the book French Braid Quilts...They are so much fun to make. This bad boy is 98"x110, if I remember correctly.

My last picture won't upload so you'll have to wait on the edge of your seat for that on Friday. Nothing like the suspense of a quilt, eh? I'm also busily making a polar bear quilt that will incorporate some of my photos from my trip to Churchill. So look for pictures of that soon.
Happy quilting all!

Studio rearranging

Hello dear quilters, sorry I didn't post on Tuesday. I went up to Billings to present at a high school career fair that they told me was Tuesday, but alas, it was Wednesday. So I did my errands in Billings and drove down again on Wednesday only to have to rush back to Livingston that afternoon. Anyway, I'm sick of driving.
In my evenings, I was busily completely rearranging my studio. I've been having terrible back and neck troubles and sewing has become agony for me, so I'm trying to improve the ergonomics and work-flow of my studio. I spend a lot of hours there, and I'd rather if they were a little less painful. Needless to say, I haven't done any sewing since I've been dragging furniture to and fro, trying to find a reasonable way to store my stash that doesn't involve 60 lb tubs of fabric. I find often that the task of pulling out that tub and digging into its depths instantly kills my motivation for a project. I practically need scuba gear to get to the bottom of my stash.
So I've been relocating all my fabric to smaller compartments and moving my notions, stabilizers, and other random crap to shelves and what not to open up my smaller spaces for fabric.
Tuesday I should have pictures of the new improved, now with work triangle, studio.
Happy weekend quilting!

Too busy to quilt :(

Well dear quilters, the last few days have run me ragged and by the time I get home in the evening I can barely figure out how to take my shoes off (and they're slip ons!), let alone do anything productive in the studio.
Hopefully this weekend I'll do something fun that I can report on Tuesday.
Happy quilting!

Bobbin quilting

Well, when I was up at retreat, I was pondering how to quilt a table runner that I used some of Valeri Wells large funky prints in and on the back when it occurred to me that using the large flower motifs as a quilting pattern was an excellent idea. Then it occurred to me that it would also make using fun, sparkly bobbin thread super easy as I would be working from the back anyway.
So the image above is the back of the table runner but what I was looking at while I quilted. I used silvery gray Brytes, #1149 Silver Dollar. I used a #100/16 Schmetz topstitch needle and Dream Green batting (100% recycled plastic bottles and its awesome to quilt with). The only adjustment I made was my top tension which I cranked up to 8.8 on my machine (tension strengths vary by machine), a Janome 10,000. I did it all free motion with my Quilt halo and Supreme Slider. In my bobbin I used Superior Threads Halo--a sparkly decorative thread made for bobbin work, couching, and serging. I used #755 Bluebell. If you haven't done bobbin work before, Halo is great way to start because you don't have to tinker with your bobbin tension, you just tighten up your top.
I really like how it turned out. Unfortunately the sparkliness doesn't show in the photograph.
Here's another flower:
Happy quilting!

Magic!

Well, dear quilters, blogger isn't behaving, so forgive the formatting. I'm demonstrating how to glue for a perfect miter. Start out like you would any miter, mark a quarter inch from the corners of your tops and sew to that point exactly (I like to shrink my stitch length). Make sure you backstitch or lockstitch so it's secure. Once you've done that, lay the corner to be mitered on your ironing board like shown below.



Make sure the side piece is really going straight up. Then fold the top piece back at a 45 degree angle, matching your points if you've got multiple borders. Give it a healthy shot of Best Press and iron by setting: do not rub your iron back and forth, you'll distort the corner.
Peel your nice crisp fold back and run a very thin line of Elmer's School Glue (I prefer the gel, but any ol' elmer's SCHOOL glue will work--not Glue-All, be careful, they look similar).
Next lay it back where it was, careful to realign your fold, but also make sure that the top strip lines up perfectly with the bottom strip (this ensures a nice 45 degree angle). Iron. Yes, heat set the glue. Again, don't rub it around, just set. Once the glue is dry, it will hold really well. Take it to your iron fold your quilt so the outside is going up in a 45 degree angle and sew from your border attaching stitching right off the edge. Use that great crease as your line.
You should end up with stitching that looks like the stitching above (I've already trimmed to a quarter inch above.) Trim to a quarter inch past your stitching and then press your miter to either side.
Voila! A beautiful foolproof miter. Happy quilting!

Too tired to think...

LTQ's fall quilt retreat was this past weekend.  It was very eventful to say the least, and while we had a good time ultimately, it really wore me out.  So I'll try to have an interesting blog on Friday.

Happy Quilting!