The challenge for me while quilting this absolutely adorable Funky Farm Swap quilt, was making sure I didn't over-quilt it. And within that challenge was the ever-present goal of making sure the quilting enhanced where it should've, and detracted where it should've. 

In my mind, I set the quilting density according to the bumblebee sashing. I knew I didn't want to quilt anything in that sashing because it would've pulled in all of the blocks and puckered them in unpredictable ways. Which would've caused me to have to do much heavier quilting in the blocks to compensate. The goal for my customer was to keep this quilt soft and cuddly for the new baby boy it will spend its life with. And in my world that means minimal quilting.

There were several different block makers represented in this quilt, so I had to be sure I didn't alter the intent of their particular blocks. There were several different styles of applique and embroidery, as well as feathers, a fabric yo-yo, and a small pillow. The main theme was homespun and whimsical. And so I set out to quilt it that way.

Those hilarious dancing cows were so cute, so I only outlined them with clear thread. The red sashing that surrounds the cow block is unevenly sized. The 2 vertical sides didn't need any quilting at all (except SID). But the top and bottom did, so using an orange cotton thread I quilted "moo" several times across each one:

All of the SID and all of the outlining were quilted using YLI clear nylon thread on top with YLI Soft Touch white cotton thread in the bobbin. This nylon thread was getting tangled every so often, so I turned the spool upside-down. I never had another tangle after that:

After the SID and outlining were complete, the fun began! I chose exclusively cotton threads for all of the decorative quilting designs used to finish the quilt. It was fun, but here is what that looked like in real life:

Luckily I didn't need to iron anything....

In order to keep organized while I worked through the quilt, I separated out each spool that I actually used to quilt the different blocks, and matched them up with the bobbin I used as well. This had to be done in case I needed to go back and fix something:

Which thankfully I didn't have to do! 

: )

To make a long story short, here are the quilts I've finished this week:

And here is the adorable Funky Farm Swap quilt that is going on today:

This really large, really pretty sunflower quilt is done! My choice for the pantograph was a pattern by Beany Girl Quilts called "Velvet Queen":

At 11" I knew it would be the perfect fit for these large black borders, and I love how it turned out:

I began the first border by centering the design to fit, and miraculously the flowers were centered in the border at the end as well:

I used Glide 40 wt. polyester thread on top in a color called "Prickly Pear", with Magna-Soft poly 40 wt. prewound bobbins. The bobbins got tight when they were about half-empty for some reason, so I started a new bobbin on each row just to be sure I was getting the very best tension throughout. I also soaked them in thread lubricant, which made them pull out of the bobbin smoother. 

This quilt had a beautiful panel in the center, surrounded by borders, and then surrounded by pieced blocks. Sometimes this can cause a center panel to get blousy. As you can see in the picture below, there are several inches of extra fabric in the center panel:

I did the usual pin/starch/steam trick, and the panel began to behave:

It stitched out very nicely. However because the black fabric was larger than the rust-colored border around it, the black fabric poofed up at the seams like this:

So I did something a bit unconventional for a pantograph quilt. I stitched-in-the-ditch just around the black to secure it all down and make it look more pleasing:

As I headed into the studio today, I was excited to begin this cute child's quilt using one of my favorite gender-neutral pantographs called "Check & Chase:

I loaded up some perfectly golden Aurifil cotton 40 wt. thread in the top and in the bobbin. I stitched 3 or 4 rows that looked really really good on top. I looked under periodically to be sure the tension was looking good. 

As fate would have it, those were the only spots that looked good. When I rolled the quilt enough to see the entire backing area, there were loops everywhere. And not the "10% discount" loops. The "time to skin a quilt" loops. So, what I accomplished in quilting for one hour I unaccomplished in the next four.

Here is a glimpse of how to skin a quilt. It was a long and tedious process:

Again, I wondered how this applied to the blessing I'd prayed for at the start of this cute little quilt. And again, a small voice reminded me that I had a lot to be thankful for:

* I had loaded the quilt shortways (57") instead of longways (79") for the first time in a long time. 

* I had only quilted 3 or 4 rows before I discovered the unusually-elusive intermittent tension problem. 

* I had a lot to think about, which I didn't realize until I had to spend so much time thinking.

With the quilt fully skinned, and the millions of thread shreds finally picked out, I was determined to win the battle with my thread choice. I made a few tweaks and began again starting out with a half-row. Instead of continuing with the next full row, I stopped and rolled the quilt all the way until I could see the entire stitched half-row. It was 99% perfect with only one loop. 

The tweaks I made included lubing the thread and bobbin heavily, and loosening the bobbin thread. 

Since the most productive part of my day was spent being unproductive, I had to close it all down at 4 p.m. and leave it for Monday morning. By then my fingers should stop aching. And that slice on my thumb won't be so tender, either. Which, by the way, was well worth it. I'm thanking my thumb tonight for being in the way of slicing my customer's fabric...

I hope your weekend was wonderful! Mine was productive in a different way than usual. I was able to rack up another unfinished project of mine which has been hiding away for a few years now. This was a very simple nine patch that I made up as I went, and then I added sashing.

It was made using the leftover hand-dyed fabrics I bought to make this quilt:

This quilt from the Strips & Curves book by Louisa Smith was a group effort by me & 3 fellow guild members from the Beach Cities Quilt Guild in Orange County, CA. The only trouble was that I was the only person who didn't own one single piece of brightly-colored fabric. So that meant I had to shop for fabric. (Heavens, no!) I found a beautiful stack of hand-dyes in the local quilt shop, which I used for my portion of this quilt. We named this quilt "Circle of Friends", and it won 1st place in the quilt show theme category the following year.

Which left me with a whole quilt's worth of extra hand-dyed fabric. So after moving up here to Another Planet, and becoming a very busy longarm quilter, I threw a nine-patch together hoping that one day I would put a big colorful border on it and make it something show-worthy. 

But I could not find anything I liked well enough. Every time I pulled the quilt out to work on it, I loved how simple it was just like this:

So instead of something amazing on the front, I'm using an amazing fabric on the back:

This gorgeous, large-scale fabric is from Terrie Mangat of Free Spirit fabrics. The fabric line is called "The Bee's Knees". The quality is amazing, the colors are amazing, and on the back of a simple hand-dyed nine-patch is where it desperately wanted to be.

Also, I'm using bamboo batting. It is actually a 50/50 blend with organic cotton. This batting is so soft and luxurious! 

Today I'll be finishing up the quilting on this nine patch, which is only stitch-in-the-ditch. I want the batting to remain soft and drapey when I'm done so the best way to accomplish that is to do minimal quilting. I did not want to do a pantograph because I felt it would look too chaotic. 

On another note, I usually do not sew. I piece, but I do not like to sew. I received these chairs from Overstock.com on Friday and as nice as they are they were a bit too formal and contemporary for my home, not to mention they are considerably more olive-colored than this picture shows:

So I rummaged through my stash of household treasures and found one very large, used and laundered drop cloth from the Home Depot to make the main slipcovers for the chairs. Then, I gathered up some antique lace I've been saving from old dresses and pillow cases and such. I didn't have enough of any one type of antique lace to make the chairs identical. But that's the way I like things around here. At the end of Saturday, this is what emerged from my studio:

I still can't believe I actually made these. I love them! I'm glad I got it out of my system, though, and now I'm back to quilts....

This is my own quilt! Finished in my studio! I did a freehand all-over feathery flower design on it because I rarely get to do that dense of a design on my customer quilts. I began last night and finished this afternoon. It was quite therapeutic to be doing my own quilt, and refreshingly stress-free to not care if it didn't come out perfectly. In fact, I didn't even tie and bury any of my threads. I just snipped 'em! Woohoo!

In the past few years I've begun so many of my own projects. Before I became a longarm quilter, I always finished one project before I moved on to the next. And then I became that fragmented person I thought I'd never be. In my project box are about 6 or 7 unfinished quilts in various stages of incompletion. According to my spellchecker, that is actually a word.

Anyway, most days I look over at my Unfinished Projects Bin with a quivering lip.

And then yesterday something wonderfully unexpected happened: I ran out of customer batting! So I just had to do the responsible thing and begin to finish something. Anything.

This Log Cabin quilt was the result of teaching my first quilting class last year. Since I only had one student, I didn't want to stand around and give orders. So the logical thing in my mind was to sew along with her. The downside is that I inadvertently increased the contents of my Unfinished Projects Bin.

But, the upside is that I finally got to play in my studio today! And this is what came out:

I can tell I am in dire need of more practice. But the fun of it was so distracting that I didn't even care if the motifs weren't as smooth or perfectly-spaced as I would've liked. 

By the end of the day, I had already gotten the backing pieced for the next unfinished project. Which I hope to finish over the weekend.

This very pretty customer quilt was finished yesterday, and I love how the Camellias look on it:

The thread color is so perfect, that I keep looking at it and smiling. I ordered 2 spools of that specific color from Fil-Tec this week so I can be sure to always have it on hand. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

This pretty quilt was finished this morning, and I'm happy that I took the time to center the pantograph design so that it runs down the center like this:

Here is the perfect Glide 40 wt. polyester thread that was used on this quilt, Tabriz Orchid:

After finishing that quilt, I racked up this very beautiful, somewhat-shimmery quilt in creams, tans, browns and blacks. What I love about these colors is that they are used as florals. It's such an interesting contrast. The fabrics are absolutely elegant. 

So I wanted to choose a pantograph design that picked up on the feminine quality of the fabrics, but had a bit of elegance. I chose "Camellias - Large" by Irene Steele of Timeless Quilting Designs:

The texture is amazing. I centered this design also, so that the camellias would run down the very center of the quilt:

This one even centered itself within the block:

Which doesn't always happen, but it can't be helped. I do love how the thread looks on the black fabric:

And speaking of the thread, I chose Glide 40 wt., again, and found the perfect match for the darker goldish-tans in the fabric - "Khaki" #24525:

I just can't say enough about this thread. Not only is the color exactly what this quilt needed - I wanted it to show up in those wide open light areas of the quilt. But the tension is a perfect fit every time. As with the Tabriz Orchid thread from the previous quilt, I paired this Khaki thread with The Bobbin Line 60 wt. polyester thread from Fil-Tec. This time in Light Tan, which I wound myself. They do offer prewounds in this color now, but I had already purchased an entire cone so I couldn't justify it. If you are a longarm quilter, you know I tried to!

If you order from Fil-Tec as a member, their prices are amazing. However, there is a $35 minimum order and the shipping is UPS only and runs me over $13 per order. I ordered as much as I could get away with today. It's all worth it, in my opinion. I'm really excited to bring more of this thread into my studio!