No more walking

After spending 120 hours quilting one large project, I kept the momentum going. When I ran out of bobbin thread on the bed quilt, I switched to another ufo.

quilting another ufo

Then this thread started running low. I diverted my attention to problem areas. Plenty of bad stitches to redo which slowed my progress while I await more thread.  Here's an area that developed tucks and creases:

unstitched quilting to smooth it out

Quilting lines run on the bias in this area. More basting. Will it behave now?

basted grid

Predicting problems elsewhere, I added more basting there too.  That's when the walking foot fell apart. Spring unsprung!

. . . couldn't put it back together again 

The dealer/repairman had reassembled one for someone else before, but it was fussy and fiddly work. This time they're ordering a new foot. No charge but no walking foot for at least a week. Fortunately threads arrived. Back to fmq on the bed quilt. Saved from housework.

Quilt as desired

Are you someone who can be ready for a trip at the drop of a hat? Then return home and jump right back into your routine without much jet lag? I am envious because that's certainly not true for me. Out of state trips always knocks me out for a week.

This two-week trip was wonderful despite a couple of hiccups. I re-connected with a long time (not old) good friend near Detroit. Together we took a short trip to Toronto. Then I'm at the Crow Timber Barn for a workshop - Machine Quilting: Inspiration, Design, Critique with Sandra Ciolino. I'll save the hiccups for another time and get down to what you really want to know about - the workshop.

iso right thread color & weight for Golden Sol

Sandy, our fearless leader (she prefers facilitator), not only quilts beautifully, she's a great teacher! Communicative, structured, generous, caring, attentive, open, non-threatening, organized and more. The qualities you wished all your teachers had. She deserves lots of credit for setting up an environment for everyone to thrive. What a difference five days made!

We were a small group of seven with not a bad apple in the bunch! Couldn't ask for a better group of people!

Machine quilting wise, each of us started in a different place - from little to some experience. But that was okay. Sandy gave each individual plenty of attention and guidance from wherever we were. Nudged and nursed us along until we were quilting with confidence.

We were also diverse stylistically. I expected more Nancy Crow students since it was at the Barn. Instead three had never taken any workshop with her and two had taken only one workshop. So we had a diverse range of quilt tops to critique.

The critiques were a fabulous learning experience. These were not a show-and-tell what's-good-what's-not likes-dislikes kind of free-for-all. Sandy provided a timed 5-step structure adapted and revised from Art + Quilt: Design Principles and Creativity Exercises by Lyric Kinard. Of course everyone wanted to know how to quilt their tops - our reason for being there.

The critique structure really worked and we really got into the swing of it. Sandy even joked she'll packaged us up and take us on the road! I got some helpful feedback and am no longer stymied by my larger tops.

The very first exercise was another fabulous learning experience. It made us take the plunge. Jump off the cliff. But in a non-threatening way. It opened up options. Very freeing. We learned there are no rules for thread color, thread weight and stitch lines. Sure, fiddle with the thread tension until that works. Otherwise, quilt as desired! 

I've heard that many times but was clueless as to what that meant. Now I know. There is no one way, no perfect way. Explore, experiment, play. Trust your instincts as an artist and quilt as desired.

With inadequate choice of threads, I didn't get far on the circle with straight lines shown at the top. So I started on these two small black and white compositions in the workshop:

geometric stitches with white, variegated white, variegated gray and black

organic stitches with contrasting variegated thread

A lot of intensive quilting. Geometric stitches requires focus whereas organic stitches flow more. By late morning Friday, I could only doodle:

stitcher doodles 

more stitcher doodles

Many thanks to Nancy Crow for going forth with the workshop despite our small group. Without your faith, this enriching experience would not have happened. When she offers this workshop again, go for it! You won't find a better teacher than Sandy nor a better facility than the Barn.

Apropos, Perfect Happiness was the title of Robert Genn's Tuesday Twice-Weekly Letter, which led with this quote from Winston Churchill: "The way to be happy is to find something that requires the kind of perfection that's impossible to achieve and spend the rest of your life trying to achieve it." Read the rest of it here. 

Challenge of twins

I've been spending time with the twins.  In a recent post I described the birth of non-identical twins in response to a group challenge. Now they've been pieced:

non-identical twins pieced

And I'm in the middle of quilting it. Of course I am fmq'ing as part of my quest.

I started by quilting along lines of the bolder prints: 

follow the print lines 1

follow the print lines 2

Then mimicked other prints:

pebbles on dots

double e's on ribbons

Those were the obvious ones. Remaining prints are more subtle and I stretched to come up with a quilting motifs:

T's

roses on floral print

Then quilted their polar twins in a similar fashion:

T's

extended print lines

Or close cousins:

marbles

e's

wiggly grid lines

Or distant cousins:

flowers on a string

With three more sets of twins to quilt, I have a week and a half to finish before my mini-group meeting.

Because these filler designs are so varied, I have doubts about this approach. The quilting will not make it more cohesive. What the hey! - it's a worthwhile experiment and experience. It will be perfectly okay when it's done. 

Audience with the Queen

Not Elizabeth. Not Latifah. I'm off to see the Queen of Quilting, Jill Schumacher!

Tomorrow is the beginning of a three-day quilting retreat at a not-so-local quilt shop, Always Quilting, a 45-minute drive away (In commute traffic?! Don't count on it!). They're providing breakfast, lunch and dinner, so I'll be machine quilting all day and into the night. The machine quilting gods should grant me better stitches after this!

Meanwhile I am not putting all my faith in the gods, I am continuing on my own fmq quest. Not only have I been making samples of Leah Day's beginner-intermediate fillers, I am fmq'ing two fillers onto this ufo.

12x12 ufo from machine quilting workshop

One filler, Leah Day's Matrix, in three samples.

three Matrix samples

The top one in turquoise is from a couple of years ago. The other two just recently. 


I cheated on the larger scaled one by stitching each line from back to front. Result: smoother stitches. It's really tempting to turn a piece and very easy for small ones. 


The smaller scaled one provides a more honest appraisal. No turning. Result: wobbly lines. Really shows I need more practice stitching in other directions. Still it's an improvement from the very first sample. So it is true . . . practice practice practice! 


The second filler is the popular pebbling pattern. 

pebbling sample

I took an hour to stitch this. Of course Leah's was faster and more beautiful. 


Here's the UFO stitched with the two fillers plus a bonus. 

quilted ufo

I went micro! Those small tight spaces screamed for tiny stitches. You can see how much smaller I quilted in this side by side comparison.

samples with quilted ufo

It was good practice for this next UFO. 

18x18 ufo from machine quilting workshop

The markings are barely visible. It's essentially the same pattern with additional long feathers on each side. And better fabric instead of muslin. 


I'll quilt this later. Right now I am getting ready to meet the Queen.

How do you do . . . ?

Update:
For another perspective on Sandy Ciolino's machine quilting workshop, see this post by Annette Guerrero. Annette was already an accomplished quilter when she took Sandy's workshop. What could be better than endorsement from another quilter?!


My apologies if you've seen the rest of this post before. Due to technical difficulties and user error, the rest of this post was temporarily un-published.

How do you do IT? Machine quilting I mean.

quilting Orange Rhyme

So many decisions. What designs/patterns/motifs to quilt? where to apply it?
Quilting to stand out or blend in? contrast or complement the quilt top?
And thread: color, solid or variegated, weight, fiber type.
Let's not even get into batting.
Use the walking foot? or are you comfortable with free-motion?
Quilt on a home machine? or on a mid or long arm? 
Do your own quilting? or have someone else do it? 

I've pinned my hopes on getting answers from Sandra Palmer Ciolino. She's teaching a one-week machine quilting workshop at the Crow Barn in October. 

I've already taken a basic introductory class, and a two-day workshop with Sue Nickels. I've followed Leah Day, Heather Thomas and Angela Walters online. I've stitched up many samples from The Free Motion Quilting Project. 

beginner designs

But I still don't get it - I have not mastered free motion quilting. Okay, admittedly I haven't practiced consistently. Yes, I know, practice, practice, practice! Two to three hours a day for beginners; more if not particularly gifted. Yep, that's me. 

the only finished project with fmq

My last quilt was intensely stitched with a walking foot.

lines up to 3/16" apart

Sure wasn't much fun getting the bulky thing to turn around under the machine arm. Free-motion would be the ticket to avoid that. Someone said, "don't let your skills limit what you can create". So my goal is to master fmq. 


A whole cloth quilt is not for me. Instead a perspective that'll work with abstract improvisational compositions. In time I may figure this out but I'm impatient. If fmq will never be my thing, then I want to find out soon. 

Sandy is a fabulous machine quilter using her domestic sewing machine. Check out her gallery of recent work on her website. I've heard much praise for her last workshop. She has quilted for Nancy Crow - that's alone is quite an endorsement. Plus she's a sweetheart to boot. 

There's room in the workshop. I'm hoping it'd be a go. Worst case scenario, it won't and might not be offered again. So won't you join me in Ohio for the workshop? Would be good for you. But really - full disclosure here - I'm asking in my own self interest.

New center



re-quilted center



Compare this to before. Less thread contrast. Repeated lines stitched elsewhere. No more doubts. About the quilting anyway. Ready to move on to squaring, facing, and sleeve.

Questionable center

I've finished quilting the piece I started here and here half a year ago. Saved the center for last.

I'm very happy with the quilting everywhere but the center. Is it the quilt lines or thread color? Or both? So I'm setting it aside. Allow time and distance for a fresh view. Or a clue to redo.

Backward progress

Steps backwards to move forward.

Heat wave

The 3-day weekend was HOT HOT HOT! Walnut Creek – only 15 miles more inland - hit a record breaking 108°! Oakland was cooler yet too hot to be out. I retreated into the cave, aka studio.

And finished quilting another sandwich. Or so I thought. A decision made in the heat of the moment didn't look so hot. Blame it on the weather. The first tentative quilt lines looked good. But finished, not so. I'm learning. 

Unstitched and stitched. Now it's on the design wall as I contemplate whether to stitch more, stitch less or face & finish it.

Waiting for directions

No impetus like having guests to get cleaning. I made up for deferred housekeeping. In a few rooms at least.

With children I would feel obligated to set a good example. But I don't have any. So having people over is my incentive. At least once in a while. The house appreciates it too.

Before and after, betwixt and between, I quilted. And quilted. And quilted. More quilting begets faster stitching and better turns. It's about half done and up on the design wall.

I'm looking, listening, waiting for the quilt to tell me what's next. 

Intentional intensity

I've been quilting. Not as in designing or piecing. As in stitching quilt lines.

Intended lines about 3/16" apart. An hour to stitch a 3" wide swath. Five hours to exhaust a 100-meter spool of thread. Very intensive.

Only an hour at a spell. Maybe 25% quilted after eleven hours. 

 

An adjustment. No change in intention. A change in intensity.

Under the needle

I've been sewing with my Janome sitting atop the Gidget 2 table. Works for piecing. But when machine basting the sandwich, I discovered how much more bulk and weight I had to carry. Never mind the extra bulk and weight already around the middle.

It was time to really make use of the table I got last year. Fiddled with the platform height adjustment for an hour. Not because it was difficult. Because this older woman doesn't get up from the floor so easily. Because this finicky woman was re-engineering the height adjustment mechanism. After adding a second table in back for more support, I was set up.

I've mapped out quilting lines with pencil and paper. I've tested tension with small samples. I got into the groove of fmq. I was ready to start. This will be a lap quilt, so no heavy quilting. A couple of hours, right?

The first block: uneven stitches and uneven tension. > !@#$%^&*()_+! < Unstitched the rest of the first hour.

Off with the fmq foot! On with the walking foot! Oooh! Aaah! Sooo much better! Less fighting. Less tension. Another hour. I've quilted 5 of the 15 blocks. Called it a night, laid my gloves down and let the quilt be.

Decompression Friday

Dog tired from the work week and home alone, I ate dinner in front of the tv. Wound embroidery floss around floss bobbins and re-ordered my solids fabric deck value scale back to hue groups. Decompression activities.

I did have one moment of creative productivity. Figured out quilting lines for the twisted log cabin for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

Made it to the camera repair shop Saturday. Wouldn't you know  - the camera's flash worked very ably there. It's still working now. Go figure.

30-day countdown

The pressure is on. I entered Neutra House in EBHQ's quilt show, Voices in Cloth, happening April 10th and 11th. That means turning in the quilt on April 3. I have 30 days to finish it. Trying to avoid coming down to the very last minute.

This quilt will roughly measure 3'x3'. So it’s not huge - only about 15"x36" bigger than the first. But that extra size has made a difference. More surface to cover. More weight to push around.

To figure out the white quilting lines, I first drew onto tracing paper covering the quilt. I was too close or it was too big. Couldn't see the whole thing.

My art instructors were right: start with a thumbnail sketch. Then not too much time spent if it doesn't work out. I am sketching again with a 4"x4" photo.

My goal for the week: make a satisfactory sketch and sew those white lines. Then facing, sleeve and label left. The end seems so close. Musn't think that. I do tend to procrastinate. Then rush to finish it in time. Uh, uh! Not this time! I want to finish with time to spare.

Talking quilt

My quilt for EBHQ's biannual show, Voices in Cloth, has proceeded in jerks and stops. The top was on my design wall for a month before I reworked it. Then another month as I wondered how to quilt it. I posted about it here and here and here. Still undecided about that, I went ahead and sandwiched and basted it. Then it spoke to me.

From it's inception, it had a landscape orientation. I've turned it and looked again. Nope, landscape. But with the basting stitches, it spoke loud and clear: turn me! Even my quilt group heard it. Now it has a portrait orientation. Here it is on the right with only basting stitches.

The same thing happened with my first quilt, Straight Talk. I am amazed by the power of stitch lines.

Now it looks like a modernist building. An abstracted façade of with walls, overhangs, recesses and reveals. So along that theme I've added a 2x4 grid in brown then a 4x8 grid in teal. I do like my quilt lines to show but both grids are subtle. Well, they are background. Here it is on the left with brown and teal quilting lines. 

Next will be a heavy white thread that would stand out. The white reflects the exterior color common to modernist buildings. To pay homage to Richard Neutra (pronounced NOI-tra), a California Modernist architect, I am researching his buildings to cull design elements and sketch the quilt lines.

It's an architectural tradition to name a building after the client. Well, he can't be anyone's client anymore. Nevertheless I've named this quilt Neutra House.