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Today, I found this post that I had started on February 19, but never finished it! but, better late than never... This week I had the time to quilt my off center logcabin quilt. It's not bound yet, but it is quilted!  I started this quilt in November 2014 at a quilting retreat with the goal of trying out a new ruler. I started by making the nine blocks that are yellow and white. It didn't seem very big, so I decided to make more blocks. I didn't have that many yellow fabrics left, so that's when I pulled out the blue fabrics.  when I finally completed all the blocks, and sewed the top together, I really liked the way it looked. I knew that the large white spaces would have to have some special quilting in them to enhance the design. I spent many nights trying out ideas in my head while waiting to fall asleep.  On Monday when I loaded the quilt, the only plan I was sure of was that I wanted to stitch in the ditch and echo stitch the seams where the white and colored sections met. After that, I decided to stitch feathered wreaths surrounded by stipple quilting in the white areas. I just used a blue wash away marker and some round rulers to mark the center vein of the wreath, and where the outside limit would be. then, I spent some happy hours stitching wreaths.  I love doing feathered wreaths. This is an overall view,  Note, April 24,
well, this quilt has been bound now, in turquoise fabric, and even washed to get more crinkly! I have also explored feathers much more since then, but I am still pretty happy on how this quilt turned out!
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Over the past month, I have had some quiet time to really concentrate on doing some quilting. In the past I have done quite a lot of free motion quilting on my home sewing machine, but I knew that when I got the longarm machine, more things would be possible. Fortunately I have quite a stack of projects ready to practice on! One quilt I did last week was this hexagon one. I had room left at the bottom with extra batting and backing so I was able to add a table runner and some placemats. they were great as a space to try out some all over free motion patterns. Yesterday I started this off center log cabin, and I marked circles using a wash away marker in the large white areas to help the placement of the feathered wreaths. I got almost half way done yesterday so I am looking forward to working on it more today,
I must say, it is really exciting to try out some of these ideas! This past month has been full of getting things organized. I have been tweaking where things are in the studio, assembling shelving and chairs, and doing a little bit of painting here and there. We should even have signage installed soon! Our big news is that we will soon have another longarm machine to keep our Lucey company!!! hooray! yes, she is getting a twin sister, Lucey II. It should be here within the next week, so I am looking forward to getting it set up. Then, you and a friend can come to quilt together at the same time!  Also, I have been working on the website, so that it explains more of what we offer you in terms of services. It seems that so much of what I do these days involves websites, I realize that it's probably the same for you too. While we were part of the shop at Periwinkle, we started as a place to rent time on a longarm machine for you to quilt your projects. This continues to be our focus, but now that we are in a dedicated space, we have broadened what we can do. So, we have three main offerings. The first two are to help quilters finish their quilts more easily, especially those big ones that are difficult to do on your home sewing machine. 1. Machine rentals -- we can train you how to use the longarm machine (new class times) and have it available for you to rent on an hourly basis so that you can quilt your project. This is great for when you want to do your own quilt from start to finish so that it is all your own creation. learn more here You can even book a session online with the calendar, here 2. Longarm quilting services --- we can quilt your quilt for you. This is for when you want your project to get done and either don't have the time or inclination to do it yourself. Sometimes it might be a gift you want to have done by a certain date, or it is a big quilt, but you don't really want to tackle it yourself. Whatever the reason, we can do it for you. learn more here 3. and finally, for people who just don't want to make the quilt themself, we have finished quilts available to purchase. This is a work in progress. We will add to it slowly but surely. Right now we have some quilted items in the studio, but not up on the website, since the photography has been a bit of a challenge for me! The other thing I have been working on is stitching out samples of all the pantographs that we have available for renters to use, or for people to choose to have stitched on their quilts. The samples are about 15" x 20" so that you can see what the panto looks like without having to unroll it, since sometimes it is hard to see the actual scale of the design. This has been a fun project for me to do, since I am learning a lot as I go! It has been fun to interact with the people who have come in for rentals, I always like to see their projects and how they think about quilting on them.
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AuthorMichelle Archives
May 2017
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