What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

This week I got down to putting together some class specs and requirements. It has been a while since I came up with “lesson plans” so I struggled with the discipline. I usually aim to plan more than is required which is what most primary school teachers do to keep the fast workers occupied. I will be teaching my Northern Lights improv curves class in Glasgow next month but I decided to add another element which is improv bridges. I am experimenting with machine appliqué methods. The original class was just free-cut strips but I decided to give the pupils ...

The good news is that I will announce all the NEW classes/clubs I'll be running in the fall. I will try putting them on ONE page so you can print them out. That's a job for later today, and if that fails, I'll make a separate blog post so it's all in one spot! Feels good to get that done! Watch for that tomorrow!!!!

I think I should throw in a free class on how to take pictures with your cell phone! Do people realize that we are no longer buying/leasing cell phones but ...

There must have been some residue from the solar flares the previous day -- yep, more technical issues! But I worked around them. 

First, DH came to get his keyboard back! What??? No, that was the keyboard from the computer he uses every day. He was just loaning it to me for the evening. OH! But he happened to have a wireless keyboard to his other computer (yep -- we are NOT just one computer per family member!). So I had the joy of installing that, which was easy. 

However, it didn't work. Then I noticed THREE large white buttons. Apparently ...

 AHA --- I'm not the only Harry Potter fan out there! Let's face it --- those books introduced many young people to the joy of reading, and if they loved it, then who are we to take that away from them! I'm not usually a big fan of rereading a book, but after 20 years, I've totally forgotten the stories! It's like reading a new book! I finished the second book yesterday, and now I want to watch the movie, but I had no time last night. Perhaps tonight. 

And the big question is -- should you watch ...

Almost my whole week was spent stitching around a seemingly never ending supply of circles. Some of the circle-squares had 8 processes – reverse appliqué circles, stick silver lame to reverse (some with ricrac), blanket stitch around the silver circles, sew in thread tails, cut and heat press coloured and metallic rings, zig-zag or triple stitch around the coloured rings, sew in thread tails, stitch around the big zig-zag rings twice with silver thread, kantha-style stitching around many circles. Finally they can be carefully pressed and trimmed, then pieced together. 

The next dilemma is whether to add blue sashing as “punctuation ...

I decided that since I only officially had one customer quilt to do last week, I would crack on with making progress on my circles. I finished all of the machine stitching but the large zigzags did not seem very stable to me. I had reduced the tension substantially so the bobbin thread would not show on top. I decided that the answer was to secure the zigzag stitches with a double trip around each circle edge with silver thread. The process for each circle square is quite long-winded and I wonder if anyone will even notice. It took almost ...

I took Nessie to the beach at Stonehaven on Bank Holiday Monday. It was busy with volunteers doing a beach clean-up operation. The tide was out but it was pouring with rain and pretty breezy. I had decided to leave Nessie’s raincoat at home so we both got soaked. At home the wild cherry trees are already dropping their blossom. Because it has been so damp and grey I had not even noticed that they actually had any flowers. In Norwich Nella has been experiencing thunderstorms and heavy rain and so far does not believe that Norfolk is one ...

I made the long solo trip back from Norfolk on Monday, helped along by a packet of M&S giant chocolate buttons. I unloaded the car but still have not unpacked. Before I left I had prepared a customer quilt with a tight deadline so I had to get straight on with it the next day. It was a hexagon quilt that 2 sisters had completed for their 92 year old Mother. The layout was unusual because instead of a simple flower-garden layout, it had random patches of colour as it was actually a herbaceous border, which I thought was ...

The trouble with having a phobia about Maths is that I can waste a lot off time trying to work out a simple problem. I wanted to cut out a lot of concentric circles in t-shirt vinyl that were either ¼” or ½” wide but I had to convert them to decimals and factor in gaps. Long story short – I tried to come up with a new set of circles, even though I already had a perfectly good set of circles because as usual, I was over complicating matters. I eventually spent a whole day cutting out a life-time supply ...

As well as dealing with admin and having the girls home for part of this week, I got a customer quilt done, joined the Caravan Club, and worked on sample blocks for the quilt that I might make next. 

I am still not set on exactly what it will entail. I think it will probably feature silver only centre circles. I have not yet decided whether to stick to one size or whether to make smaller 4-patches. I don’t know whether to keep complementary colours for each block or allow a rainbow of coloured rings. I could also stack ...

There was a major Bernina Q-matic update out this week so I sorted out the latest version onto my system as soon as it came out. I walked a pupil through the same process but we ran into some difficulties, despite following the instructions. The issue turned out to be that you have to use an under 8GB usb stick which nobody has these days. We figured it out in the end. It looks like there are quite a few changes which I will have to get to know and possibly make some instructional videos to explain them. 

I had ...

Happy Monday!!  Just when I thought my design wall couldn't get any more colorful, well I just added another layer!!  The Queen of the Nile from Pride and Joy Quilting is a new guest on the design wall as we gets started, just completely smitten with her!

I think I need a bigger design wall!!

But alas there is some custom quilting that must be done and it's a great wintery day to get that started.   But I will have the queen of the Nile peeking over my should as I quilt.

Did I tell you about my ...

I bought a cheap, short step-ladder which was white. It was important to me that it should co-ordinate with my newly painted trolley so I painted it matt black to match – 3 coats so far. The trolley will be on show at the exhibition (Scottish Quilt Show) whereas the ladder does not need to be. It will enable me to hang the quilts, after which I could put it in my car or I could use it as a chair. I think I have assembled everything that I need now and I have made prompt cards for my talk on ...

What would you do with 2 weeks to go until an exhibition? Tackle the jobs that need doing OR suddenly decide that you need to make 12+m of over-the-top bunting to hang across the front of the stand? I had a few blocks left from Rainbow Warliors that I sewed together, some leftover squares that I screen-printed, some sequins and pompoms that I attached to bells nylon thread and then I “had to” make about 20 large pompoms from wool! The resulting bunting echoes the theme of Rainbow Warliors and is fabulous but worryingly heavy. I have visions of ...

December started with a flurry of activity. On Monday I went to Glasgow for Freya’s Masters graduation. The university looks rather like Hogwarts – all Freya needed was a cat and a pointy hat to look like Prof. Minerva McGonagall. It was a proud day – she worked hard on her Masters for two years as well as coping with a full-time job and covid restrictions that affected her studies.

I had two customer quilts on the go this week and since they were Christmas themed, I decided to put on some festive tunes and do some gift wrapping.  I knotted ...

 I finished Jeanne's little quilt. It is super sweet with the rainbow position nine patches and the background to match as it travel around the circle.  The pattern is Rainbow Nest by Editya Sitar.

The quilting...that's the part I love!  Lets start with the batting an the thread.  Two layers of batting, Quilters Dream 80/20 under Wool.  Look at that Applique, it has such definition with the two layer.  Almost looks like trapunto doesn't it?  Thread, well you know I like to use a lot of thread.  So I use Glide 60 wt top and ...

November may be a bit dreary at times but it tends to be busy as Quilters want projects done in time for Christmas. I will be going to Norfolk for a week or so in December so I need to get all of the jobs done by then. Apart from going out to collect a second-hand mini Dyson hoover from a Facebook Marketplace seller, I have pretty much been in my workshop getting stuff done. 

Using zips to attach quilts on the longarm means I can get the next quilt ready to go and if someone comes in with a ...

There goes another week! Admittedly, most days are the same these days. The unseasonably warm autumn weather seems to be finished – there was a bit of a storm midweek which blew off the last of the leaves off the cherry trees which are now bare for winter. I was trying to make a video but the rain was hammering loudly on my workshop’s tin roof.

I did a couple of customer quilts, using a favourite pattern, “Stacked Snails” which looks like a modern Baptist Fan.

I came up with another project on the L890 overlocker / coverstitch machine. I fed ...

There are two possibilities as to why I have been keeping busy so lately. Either I am getting everything done so I can have lots more time to create OR I am procrastinating – Big Time. I suspect it is a bit of both…

I spent a lot of time in my workshop, possibly because it is fractionally warmer out there than in an old house with heating that is not working. I managed to make headway with several customer quilts so there are none waiting to be done when I go down to Norfolk for Nella’s birthday ...

My house is 230 years old and is built from granite blocks that have been covered up with an ugly concrete render. When we moved in 20 years ago there was a tiny damp patch near the back door but now there are several quite serious damp areas, not helped by the fact that old field drains run under the house. It was my mission this week to tidy out the worst cupboards and wipe down the mould. Obviously, everything snowballed and I ended up having a full-blown deep clean. I can’t remember when that ...