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.

Intense swirls & pebbles

It has been a nose-to-the-grindstone kind of month. Back to quilting the bed quilt. I want to finish and gift it before winter.

Swirls and pebbles à la Angela Walters

There's a reason for those gaps. Filling it completely with swirls and pebbles was so intense. Turning out lovely. But makes me want to tear out the quilting elsewhere.

Holiday hand stitches

packages prepared: rolled up quilts and tool box

Holidays meant a few days away from home and a few days without the sewing machine. So I prepared for a few days of hand stitching to finish bindings on four small pieces.

four bindings ready for hand stitching

The largest is 21" square, smallest 16" square. At two minutes per inch - not counting time fiddling with the miter corners - I filled many hours with stitching. This tortoise was happily productive. The result: four finished ufos - not counting sleeves and labels. 

front corners of the four finished pieces

For this one I cut the binding strips on the bias to curve around the corners. 

And the other three? I'll post them after my next critique group meeting. 

After three weeks & three days

I've fmq'd every day for three weeks. Then this weekend, three days more fmq in a workshop with Jill Schumacher, Quiltmaker to the Queen. These are accomplishment from that workshop:

Ohio Star fmq'd in the ditch with monofilament thread

two continuous fmq motifs

another version of feathered wreath

mini whole cloth quilt with trapunto

stitched sample of new filler design, an adaptation of a sashiko pattern

This workshop has a more traditional quilting perspective. Nevertheless, I've learned a lot though I'm still unsure how to quilt my own work.

I've gained two new ufos. The above filler pattern, 7 Treasures of Buddha, may be used in the gridded areas of the trapunto quilt. I prefer to not mark quilts nor use stencils, so I'm looking at Leah Day's 365 filler designs to finish the Ohio Star.

These additional hours of practice practice practice have given me dose of fmq confidence, though I won't become quiltmaker to any royalty any time soon.

Note: 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?!

Old new tried & true

With long term intensive projects at work and at home, 2011 doesn't look promising for studio time  Work means much frustration. Home means much disruption. So what about artistic goals for 2011? They're less concrete, more nebulous, reflecting the state of affairs - guidelines.

Something old, something new,

Something tried, something true.

Old. During studio clean up, I unearthed many ufo(ld)s. I will not finish them all nor are all of them worth finishing. More workshops mean more ufos. So I will finish at least one for the EBHQ's biannual show in 2012.
New. I may not have time in the studio, but creativity doesn't take a break. I have ideas and am itching to start new work.
Tried. Something I've done before – like redoing an exercise from a workshop. Or someone else has done before -  maybe even adopt a pattern.
True. I feel the emergence of a series.

What else is store for 2011? Three week-long workshops. End of February: Indianola, WA for Nancy Crow's Lines, Curves, Shapes & Figure-Ground Composition, Part II. Mid May: Crow Barn for Dorothy Caldwell's Human Marks. End of September: Crow Barn again for Nancy Crow's Lines/Curves/Circles, & Figure-Ground. I am backing out of Carol Soderlund's Layers upon Layers in October since I haven't dyed a thing since last fall's True Colors and probably won't.

I know, I know. At some point I must stop taking workshops and develop what I know. While I am still earning a paycheck, I will continue taking workshops. Until retirement rolls around in a few years. Where I started almost four years ago seem light years away. Even if I haven't made many tops, haven't redone workshop exercises multiple times – all is not lost. Everything is starting to meld and jell. A little voice is speaking up.

UFOs to finish

Cynthia Wenslow commented in response to Kathy Loomis' post: Something else to think about, Elena... do you really need to finish *all* your UFOs? Perhaps you learned what you needed to with however much you accomplished on them and can just let them go as part of your learning process. Not everything needs to be "finished" to be valid. Good question and good points, Cynthia.

Some of my older ufos have value. Sentimental, like my very first quilt top or like the one from my very first Nancy Crow workshop. Then there is the one I want to free motion quilt for the first time. I want to finish these. They'd ingrain the quilting sandwich process and provide more experience with effects of quilt lines.

These three are foremost in my mind, so I'll make a list of steps for each like Kathy suggested (after I finish Neutra House for the guild show). The other ufos can wait. Because they were more of a struggle to begin with and promise more of a struggle to finish. Or because they are of an approach I do not wish to pursue further. Part of my learning process, like you say Cynthia. So they may wait a long time.