The Most Important Part of Machine Quilting...

The most important part of machine quilting is the basting. Repeat after me: The Most Important Part of Machine Quilting is the Basting.

For 20 years I pin basted. I would put on a movie and place a safety pin every 4 inches across the entire surface of the quilt sandwich. I actually enjoyed this process and found it relaxing. It worked fairly well to stabilize the 3 layers of the quilt sandwich and I was satisfied with the results. The only drawback was removing the safety pins as I quilted. Many times I would nearly run over the top of them if I was concentrating on my stitching, and not so much on the pins coming along into the path of the needle.

Thanks to Patsy Thompson I now use Basting Spray. After watching one of her DVD's I decided to give spray basting a try. That was 2 years ago and I haven't gone back to pin basting yet.

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Basting spray can be found at your local quilt shop, fabric stores and department stores. One can will do several large quilts. The most important part of using basting spray is.......shaking the can very well for at least 2 minutes! If it isn't shaken well, the adhesive will not stick and your quilt sandwich will come apart.........ask me how I know this? So......shake it well......until you feel like you are shaking pudding. You will be amazed at how well this holds the layers together......it really works!

The second most important thing is to spray baste outdoors. The fumes can be a bit overwhelming. I suggest a warm day with no wind. If spraying indoors, the adhesive can travel through the air and land on your........sewing machine.........not good. I try to keep my basting to outdoors when possible. On rainy days, the garage is a good location to spray baste, or a covered patio area.

For a large quilt I set up 2 of these banquet tables to support most of the quilt. Today I am preparing a 40 x 40 inch wall quilt, so I only needed one table. Layer the quilt sandwich, shake the can very well, and spray each layer individually, press the next layer on top, spray it, then press the final quilt top layer down. The quilt sandwich will stick together immediately.......providing you have shaken the can of baste spray very well. The first time you do this it is good to have a friend help you. I can now baste a king size quilt by myself without any problems.

Now that the quilt sandwich is basted, the next thing I do is spray my quilting surface with Silicone Spray. I love this product. It makes the surface so slippery, the quilt sandwich just glides across the tables like it's on ice skates.

I use several tables in front and beside my sewing machine to fully support the quilt sandwich, and all of these are sprayed with silicone. It will not harm your tables, I even spray it on the bed of my sewing machine. It will not harm your machine. The silicone dries immediately and you can get right to work machine quilting.

My quilt sandwich is in place, it is fully supported by the tables, it doesn't hang off the edge, I am now ready to get to work.

Free Motion or Darning Feet.........which one to choose? This one came with my machine. It is a large plastic, oval shaped foot. It does a good job, but I cannot do precision work with it, as it doesn't allow me to see intricate details very well.

This darning foot is a small circle and works very well. I purchased it when I realized the first darning foot obstructed my view.

This has become my very favorite foot for free-motion quilting. It is a circle with a bite out of the side. See how good my view is as I look down through the foot. I can do very detailed and precise quilting and see just exactly where the needle is going. I love this foot!

I have basted, prepared my work surface with silicone, chosen the darning foot........all I need now are my favorite tunes on the stereo and 12 hours to get this baby quilted!

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Everything is Better when it is Quilted,

LuAnn

Pepper Dish is Quilted

I spent 12 hours yesterday free-motion quilting the Pepper Dish Quilt. I am leaving next week on a road trip, and I want to take this along to do the handwork while I am traveling. Most of my bindings, hanging sleeves and labels are sewn on while we are traveling along at 55 mph.

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After the machine quilting was complete, I blocked the quilt top and hung it up on the design wall too cool off a bit. I will square up the edges later. This was a good time for a photo session.

Unfortunately, I had a piece of thread jam between my tension discs and I tried to remove it but it broke off.......I was not happy.......and neither was my machine. The tension was never quite right after that and I was having a lot of thread breakage, which I never have with my Bernina. It is off to the repair shop this week.

Overall I am happy with the machine quilting. The feather was a good choice for the curvy border. I kept the thread colors low contrast so they would blend and not draw too much attention away from the quilt top itself. There are a lot of different fabrics in this quilt, and I didn't want the thread colors competing with them.

If you look closely, you can see where Judy Neimeyer, the pattern designer, has signed my quilt. I made this quilt top in a 3 day workshop with Judy in Idaho in 2006.

When my repaired and freshly cleaned Bernina comes back from the shop I plan to rip out a few stitches on this and fix all the places where the tension was poor. Normally I wouldn't go to this extreme, but I plan to show this quilt and I need it to be the best it can be.

I added this photo to show you just what flash photography can do to a quilt. It completely bleaches all the color out of it and distorts the color. In this photo the green border appears blue, and the gold background looks pale grayish yellow. When photographing your quilts.....turn the flash OFF on your camera. Lighting from the sides is best when shooting indoors. On a non-windy and overcast day, outdoor photography is my favorite.

p.s. To see more Pepper Dish Click HERE

To see more Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

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May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn

Easily Distracted...

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Birds That Sing: By Penny Mattson

The sunshine was too much to resist, so I threw on my work clothes and went outside to finish painting the birdhouse I started last week. The second coat of white paint went on quickly.

I also painted the post that the birdhouse will be mounted on.

While the paint was drying I grabbed the camera to capture the flowering cherry tree just beginning to bloom. The tiny white blooms look like popcorn popping out all over the branches.

Close Up shot of the popcorn popping

I looked down to see the periwinkels blooming. They are a beautiful shade of blue.

I decided to mow the lawn while I continued to wait for the paint to dry. This is my trusty Craftsman aka Craftsgirl mower. We have a very large yard and this riding mower has mowed every inch of it for 19 years.

Craftsgirl has seen lots and lots of miles. Both my boys learned to drive on her. She no longer has headlights and she has lots of battle scars, but she starts when you turn the key and hums right along.

Unfortunately, this is the final resting place for Craftsgirl.........she fell apart while I was mowing today. We nearly made it over the whole lawn, and the steering column came apart and the mower deck fell apart. Brad, her chief mechanic, warned me last month that she wouldn't make it much longer.......but that didn't make it any easier when it finally happened.

Here she is resting quietly under the apple tree.....no headlights, her mower blade sitting on top of the hood, lots of rust from her battle scars, a torn seat that carried me many miles of mowing. I will miss you old girl.

While parked under the apple tree I looked up and noticed the sweet, little, pink buds. The promise of sweet, juicy apples later this year.

I looked down and noticed something embedded into the yard. I kicked the grass away with my foot and unearthed the old Pitcher's Mound my kids used throughout their childhood. I had been mowing over that for years and forgot it was there.

This was just the distraction I needed...

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May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn

A Little Chicken Inspiration...

We have new baby chicks at our house and they have inspired me to pull this landscape quilt out of the mothballs and finish it up. This is a piece I started in a Joyce Becker Luscious Landscapes Class. If you ever get the opportunity to take one of Joyce's classes, don't miss it. Her landscape quilts and techniques are in a class all their own.

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I found some fabric in the cupboard that resembles barn boards. I think it would frame this piece perfectly, and look just like a wooden frame around the quilt. I will miter the border corners to complete the affect.

The roses you see on the quilt are all individually put on there. I could not find the fabric I needed, so I cut out roses and put them on one by one. The barn door is not wooden fabric, I sliced up gray fabric, added shading and made the door from scratch. The rock wall is a piece of landscaping fabric, and saved me lots of time, it gave me the exact look I wanted on the barn wall. The chickens are cut from commercial fabric, and will eventually be covered with thread as I machine quilt.

New Baby Chicks at our house. We picked them up at the feed store today.

We have raised laying hens for 20 years, and I still find the new babies delightful.

This is Gunnr's first experience with baby chicks. Until now, all he has seen is grown hens that lay eggs in the hen house. This baby bird business is all new to him!

We opened the box and there they are.......little cotton balls with legs.

First baby out of the box is a Rhode Island Red. She will begin to lay beautiful brown eggs for us in September when she is 5 months old.

Brad built a brooder box 4 feet wide and 8 feet long and 4 feet tall. The chicks will live in here all summer until they are grown and can live in the hen house with the mature chickens. We keep the brooder box on the patio behind our house, so we can keep a close eye on the new babies.

Lots of peeping going on right now. These little cotton balls with legs are darting back and forth here and there checking out their new home.

They eventually settled down and enjoyed the warmth from the heat lamp hanging above.

I see we have a babysitter for the new babies. Gunnr quietly whimpers out of concern and keeps a steady watch on them.

We will all enjoy watching the new chicks grow into big, beautiful hens.

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p.s. To see more Chickens Click HERE

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn

Fairy Business Isn't For Sissies...

I have had this image of my niece since last year. I have been saving it for something special. The look on her face speaks volumes.

At first I thought about printing it on fabric and then painting over the background. I also wanted to add fairy wings to go with the wand and a crystal ball.

My inspiration kicked into high gear today and I spent the day manipulating this photo, the old fashioned way........no photoshop was used at all.

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This is the original image

Monarch Butterfly Wings Clip Art

Crystal Ball Clip Art

I printed the original image, then cut out my niece, taped the butterfly wings to her back, then taped on the crystal ball. All done manually w/ scissors & tape. No computer enhancement was used. I have photoshop......and maybe I will have the time to learn to use it in my next life!

I raise flowers and enjoy photographing them. I enlarged this pansy image to 8x10 and printed it out.

I placed the taped together image on top of the pansy image.

I remember the day I took this sunflower photo......the sky was such a gorgeous blue.

I printed it out 8x10.

I placed the taped image on top of the sunflower.

The yellow background really works.

This is a climbing rose on our patio.

I printed it out 8x10

Again, here is the taped image on top of the pink rose.

I like all 3 designs.

Here they are printed onto fabric w/words added at the bottom:

All 3 images are on cloth and ready for borders and quilting. It will be fun to stitch each one differently and see how they turn out. I will post the completed quilts when they are done.

p.s. To see the completed quilt CLICK HERE

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Remember........

This Fairy Business Isn't For Sissies,

LuAnn