Wide backings for quilts are the way to go!

I have always been a proponent of using wide backings for quilts.  In fact, I have LOTS of 118″ wide fabric and some 108″ wide fabric in stock for my customers’ quilts.  Attempting to sew through multiple layers of seams can wreak havoc on my longarm quilting machine, so these wide backs make my job a lot easier and does less damage to my machine.  I just read this article on another blog that I thought was worth sharing.  She mentions how it really is cheaper (and it is, trust me!) to use wide backs than it is to buy regular width fabric and then piece it.  She even has measurements of how much fabric you will need.  I have to disagree with her on the amount, though, as I cannot get a quilt backing with only 1 inch.  I need a minimum of 4 inches extra on EACH side – see the tab above marked “Batting and Backing.”  Check out her blog post here.

Disclaimer: I did not make these rules.

Rules of the refrigerator

1. Do not put anything on The Rule Maker’s side area of the refrigerator.  His area includes the shelf where the blue pitcher resides.  If you put stuff on that shelf, it will be removed by The Rule Maker, regardless of the fact that the area under the ice maker houses only Spicy V-8 (because that’s where it goes) and the rest of the refrigerator is crammed full.
   
2. The only thing the large glass bowl with the blue lid sitting under the milk is allowed to be used for is The Rule Maker’s Famous Salsa.  No.  Matter.  What!  Do not try to sneak a use for it with something else; this will upset the goodwill of The Salsa Bowl’s master to the point where he will be pacing in circles near the refrigerator and will eventually find another container for the perpetrator substance and will replace it with The Rule Maker’s Famous Salsa.  The Salsa Bowl will always live in the spot where it is in this picture.  If we have too much milk, no matter.  It can find another place or rest on top of The Salsa Bowl.  If there is room elsewhere in the refrigerator, something else can go there, but The Salsa Bowl cannot.  
3. Do not poke fun at The Rule Maker or the rules of the refrigerator or His rules.  This will lead to an unpleasant ending. 

Finito

/fəˈnētō/Adjective; meaning “Finished.”

I am finally done with the quilt.  Frida, my longarm quilting machine, is taking a much needed rest before I can go back and check the timing on her; a task I never look forward to doing.  You need a micro-magnifying glass to do it, and I can’t see squat anyhow.  So… I am working on Home Improvement projects this week and will get around to “massaging” Frida and giving her a check-up when I am done with the other things I’ve been neglecting around my house. 

In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures of the customer quilt I just finished. 

A close-up of the lanterns…

And, the various handicapped and overweight insects…

 

Of course, all I could think to put on the leaves were inchworms, so I snuck a couple of animals peeking over the leaves.

 

My New Best Friends

Ever have one of those projects that no matter what you did, things were not going to work out?  This latest customer quilt has been my latest challenge.  It seems like no matter what I do, I can’t get the mojo flowing with my quilting.  My thread keeps breaking, I’ve gone through 5 needles, my machine has a mind of its own and tries to go one way when I am trying to move it another.  I swear, it’s as if I am arm wrestling it – I’ve gotten bad headaches from wrestling with it.  So, my thread art has turned out to be CRAP!  You can’t even tell what some of the drawings are. They say that is you are having a bad day at quilting, to just stop and walk away and come back to it fresh the next day.  Well, you can only do that so many times before you decide you’ve got to get the quilt done and back to the quilt’s owner.

The customer wanted the leaves to extend out into the green and black borders, so I thought an insect would be cute here.  This is supposed to be a fly.  It looks like a tangled mess to me.  So, I will be ripping that out with one of my new best friends.  The other insects look like they need to go to Weight Watchers, but because I have already spent over 30 hours on this quilt, they are just going to have to content eating on the fabric leaves of this quilt.  I feel like I have failed this customer because so much of the quilting looks like scribbling.

One of the things that happened while I was working on this was I ran the needle through my finger.  It’s healing nicely now, but it sure hurt when it happened.  And, no, I did not get blood on the customer’s quilt.  I jerked my finger out from the needle before it had a chance to drip – that was the first thing I thought about before I felt the pain.  OW!

I was trying to sew a circle into the green square with this itty bitty template.  Can you see how the finger got caught?

After my finger got caught I immediately ordered a different circle template made by the Gadget Girls.  It has 3 different sizes of circles and looks like this.  I thought it was a bit expensive, but after hurting my finger and the frustration I got from making twisted, wonky circles around that little disc, the cost was worth it for this new “friend” (tool).  You can find them  here.

And, as you can see, I have much more room to grip onto the template without my fingers getting in the way.  I LOVE this template!

This is about as close as I was able to get to a perfect circle on this quilt, with my machine fighting me like it was.

But, I have a few threads to pick out (along with that stupid looking fly in the first picture), so I will be using this new tool.  I love my little blue seam ripper that is about 3 inches long, if that.  It has a tiny piercing point that slides nicely under the thread.  But, it is small for my big hands.  I found this one made by Dritz at my local Wal-Mart for $3.97.  It’s got the small point, but the handle is bigger than my little blue one and is also ergonomic to fit well into the palm of my hand.  I think it is my new best friend.

With this tale of woe, please don’t misunderstand me.  I believe that in every good or bad thing that happens, there is a lesson.  Although I struggled with this quilt (and I’m not done yet… but almost!), I found out about a better tool and better way of doing things with the circle template.  I also learned that less is more.  Less is many times better than more.  I should have left the fly out of that area.  I also found that when I quilted pebbles into the green squares (which you don’t see, because I picked the stitching out with that “picking” tool shown above), it made the quilt look even messier.  And, with each quilt I work on, this one included, I find things that I like to do with quilting and new ways to approach quilting.  So, even with a punctured finger and a mad quilting machine… it’s all good.  I think when I’m done with this quilt, it’s time to give my machine a good cleaning and check her timing.

Free Blog Graphics

Ever hear of the Graphics Fairy?  She offers free vintage graphics of all kinds at http://www.graphicsfairy-diy.com/ and http://www.graphicsfairy-diy.com/.

Well, now you can also get free blog graphics at http://the-blog-fairy.blogspot.com/.  She will even show you how to load the graphics if you have Blogger.  Did you notice the theme on my blog changed?  She just started this, so she doesn’t have much yet, but I’m sure she will soon.

You can also get free backgrounds for your blog from the Graphics Fairy at http://www.backgroundfairy.com/.  She does have more to choose from right now, but she’s been at it awhile.  Head on over to take a look!

The REAL cost of machine quilting

The REAL cost of machine quilting

I’ll pass on the cheese with this whine

Warning!  I’m having a bit of a pity party right now, so if you would rather surround yourself with positive vibes, please do not continue reading beyond this point.