Blogging about Quilting

So.... I've been really bad about posting. Between my posts on Facebook and About.com, I post every day, and I forget this blog. It was my intention to post about what I am working on. The first post was actually an audition piece for About.com to become their writer for machine quilting (alas, I didn't make it through the first round!).

In the spirit of this blog's intention, I'll mention what I've been working on.

Last weekend, I finally started putting together the green quilt. This is a quilt for which I asked everyone I know to send me green fabrics. The quilt is a pattern by Bonnie Hunter (My Blue Heaven) and was made for Joe's daughter Claire for her 22nd birthday. When I finally got around to sewing all the blocks together, it quickly became evident that this would be a ginormous quilt, so I decided to only use half the blocks and make two quilts.

Here is the finished product:

It has more than 200 green fabrics in it. Claire loved it.

I went downstairs to the studio last night to work on the second quilt only to find that one of my kitties had peed on the remaining blocks (yep... I can be a neglectful cat mom and forget to change the litter box and then they pee on something). Luckily, I am an expert in washing cat pee out of things, so I washed the blocks and you'd never know now. But, in the meantime, I hauled out the one quilt top I didn't finish at the AZ retreat in Feb. I was working on it the last day when I realized that hadn't cut enough fabric to finish the last two blocks.

So, last night, I took everything out, found the instructions, and cut the fabric I needed to finish the last two blocks. Then, I started putting together the quilt... and realized that I HAD made enough of block 4 (the quilt has 4 block styles), but that I had put them in the pile with Block 1 <sigh>. I now have two extra blocks. I got about 3/4 of the top put together.

I have a busy week this week with school stuff so I'm not sure how much quilting I'll get done (and I have school in person on Friday and Saturday and Mother's Day with Joe's Mom in Philly on Sunday), but I also need to get two Round Robin rows done this week! Yikes! Sure wish I didn't have to work!

~Patti

Friday!

So, it's Friday. Yay! Means I get to spend time with Joe and do some quilting. My class at Joann's went well, although it was tough having a deaf student. She can't watch me demo and watch the interpreter's hands, so everything took twice as long. Met some nice ladies, though!

Half my HACC students didn't bother to prep for class, so I let everyone go early last night. Got a couple more string blocks done and the Feb Block party blocks done for About.com. One week until the Arizona retreat!

Joe and I are doing couples yoga and massage classes tomorrow, so no quilting for me then. But, I'll get some done on Sunday. It might even be warm enough to take down the Christmas lights and decorations outside!

Teaching Again!

I'm excited to say that I'm teaching quilting again... at Joann's in Frederick. Tonight is my first class there. I think it will be different than when I taught in Columbia because in Frederick, there is no closed classroom.... it's open to the rest of the store. We'll see how I like that! I don't particularly like the nights chosen for the classes this quarter, but I didn't get to pick them. Hopefully, I will have some input next quarter!

What am I sewing this week? On Sunday, I played along with About.com's string quilting project. I managed to make 88 string blocks. Last night, I sewed them together, and I have the start of two tops. My goal is three quilts. I have a long way to go! I will buy more muslin for foundations at Joann's tonight. I will also buy some floral fat quarters (florals are NOT my thing, but they are used in this month's Block Party on About.com).

Neatly starting and stopping free motion machine quilting

Neatly starting and stopping free-motion machine quilting is something everyone should learn how to do. I sew on a high-end computerized machine, and when I was a novice free-motion machine quilter, I thought, “My machine has a “fix” button to tie threads when starting and stopping, I’ll just use that!” Well, I ended up with knots on the back of my quilt everywhere I started and stopped… you could feel and see them.

Next, I tried the automatic cutter on my machine. That worked great… no knots; however, then I had to clip all of those threads on the back of the quilt… hundreds of them! (The machine leaves about a ½” “tail” of thread when it cuts.) And, sometimes those tails would get tangled in the quilting, making them hard or impossible to cut.

This tutorial will show you how to stop and start your quilting while cutting the threads as you go. The end result will be that once you have finished machine quilting, you won’t have any threads to cut!

Starting quilting:

1. When you begin free-motion quilting, you will use the hand wheel or, if your machine has this function, tap the foot pedal once to bring the needle down and then up one time. Bringing the needle down and then up again once will allow it to catch the bobbin thread and bring it to the top. (Figure 1)



Figure 1. Bobbin thread drawn to top

2. Once both threads are on top of the quilt, grab them both with your left hand and hold them taut. (Figure 2)
   



Figure 2. Holding both top and bobbin threads

3. Begin free-motion quilting by taking 5 or 6 very small stitches in place at the beginning.
4. Stop and cut the loose threads you are holding in your hand close to the quilt top. (Figure 3)
   



Figure 3. Cutting threads before beginning to stitch

5. Continue free-motion quilting until you need to stop.

Stopping quilting:

1. When you get to where you want to stop, again take 5 or 6 very small stitches in place.
2. Stop the machine with the needle in the up position.
3. Grab the top thread and pull it out and inch or so with your left hand (you may have to release the tension if it is set very tight). (Figure 4)
   



Figure 4. Holding thread loop

4. While holding onto the loop of thread you grabbed in step 3, use the hand wheel or tap the foot pedal to lower and raise the needle once. The needle should be in the up position again.
   



Figure 5. Bobbin thread pulled to the top

5. Pull on the loop you are holding so that it brings the bobbin thread to the top of the quilt. (Figure 5)
   



Figure 6. Cutting threads when finished quilting

6. Cut both the top and bobbin threads close to the quilt top. (Figure 6)