Hand pieced by deceased Andrea Gordy & finished by Sharon Stoehr to be raffled with proceeds going to her parish. The quilt is here & I will be longarming it by myself this year. Aug 07: Began a dialogue with Vicki about the need for a quilt to raffle at the fall festival. Time constraints led to brainstorming in all directions with none looking very promising. The quilt planned for the raffle needed work and time was not cooperating. Did I have anything that would serve the purpose? Hmmm. Several brainstorming emails later, the dialogue switched over to Sharon ...
Aug 12: I got this news from Sharon after several days of silence. "On Thursday I received a God Blessing! I went up to Mount Airy for a Bernina meeting.at Creative Sewing and brought the quilt with me. I showed it to the ladies and one suggested to take off the two sides with sashing and then cut the tips off and put a cranberry border the same width as the sashing all around and then an outside border. I bought a cranberry fabric that will work. Then I went down the block to a shop called Fabric Managerae, which carries a lot of older fabrics. After looking all over the store and not finding what I needed I headed towards the door and something made me stop and look at a low rack near the register and there it was the exact fabric a large floral that is in the quilt!!! I bought all that was on the bolt a little over 4 yards, just enough or more to finish the quilt! I still can't believe it!" Aug 22: Spent hours today talking over the flaws / quirks in the hand-pieced quilt and how best to longarm it. EQ7 rendition and lots of overlays followed. From the get go, Sharon loved the Leafy Swirls pattern. It is not as consistent as other options but it is just so beautiful. So all these images are us trying to find a way to go over everything. I'll clean it all up once decisions are made. Aug 23: Sharon has finished all her piecing. Trimming threads. Aug 28: The quilt is here. After consider a number of patterns, Sharon opted for Holly's Hearts using a shade of white that matches the background. Sep 02: Setup & quilting. Sep 03: Quilted.
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WOW! The rich fabrics in this Take 5 quilt are so stunning, so regal yet equally soft & inviting. Perfect contrasts. A winner! Aug 24: The quilt arrived. The fabric samples Dorothy sent some time ago do not do it justice but I can use them to test thread colors. She decided on Cardinals in the Pines while still piecing. Setting up.
Aug 25: Finished setup process. Quilting. Every photo has a different coloring so let me just say this quilt is very dark except for the cream & tan. Aug 16: First contact. Quote settled. Suggested a few patterns.
Aug 21: Quilt top and backing arrived. Now that I see what is on the quilt, I spent the late afternoon and evening searching for patterns & suggesting threads. Amy has chosen "Earth Movers" & Magnifico 2058 Sundrenched. Aug 22: IQ is programmed. Quilt is loaded & ready to baste ... tomorrow. Aug 23: Fixed a sneaky little open seam while basting. Now quilting. And finished. Will ship tomorrow. Aug 24: My photos are blurry this morning & these are the best ones. Sorry about that. If I turn up the lights, the quilting doesn't show. Will try to photograph on my work table before I box this up. I can tell Dyann is a natural quilter because this is her first. Being Irish, I love the greens! Hmmm. That gives me an idea. Wonder if Dyann would go for shamrocks instead of bubbles. Nope. Aug 16: First Contact
Aug 20: Phone chat. Even though it is a 2+ hour mountain miles drive from Asheville to here, Dyann couldn't resist accepting my invitation to join me in quilting this beauty. Aug 21: Did a rough EQ7 rendition so I can make overlays to give Dyann an idea of how her bubbles (and my shamrocks) will look. Aug 22:Oh well, bubbles it is. See why I don't choose? LOL Sep 04: Came across another bubbles panto & Dyann prefers it. All set for tomorrow. Sep 05: Expecting Dyann & hubby, Bill, bright and early. Construction made it not so early. Started at 9:30. Quilted by 2:15. Wonderful day! This is a set of quilts for twins born last December. I bought the one on the right made by Pam Miller using Zig Zag quilt pattern by Sweetwater. I made the one on the left using Crumbs by Me and My Sister Designs.The fabrics are A Stitch in Color by Moda. May-Jun: Learned a medical professional had twins last December. Been thinking about a pair of quilts for the babies ever since. Didn't ask if they were boys. girls or one of each so I want something that works for both and that they won't outgrow.
Aug 16: Fell in love with the perfect quilt for this purpose in the local quilt shop. It was immaculately pieced by Pam Miller who works there. For sale? How much? Oh yes! The shop was closing early & I had already spotted another pattern I could make. The staff helped collect fat quarters and coordinating solids from the same fabric collection used in Pam's quilt. I think that is the fastest I ever planned & purchased fabric for a whole quilt plan. HA! TIme to get to work. These fabrics quite simply make me feel happy. And these quilts will never be outgrown. Aug 17-19: So many possibilities. I have changed these around over and over for three days now. Should I perhaps change my logo from The Smilin' Quilter to The eQuilter? Can you tell I have taken a break from any sewing? Down to two choices so I will wait until the center is done to see how it looks then. Aug 20: Got the main section of the quilt cut out. Aug 23: Selected Fast Splash for the pattern & did overlays for both quilts for comparisons. Aug 26: Back to piecing after doing a couple of partner quilts. Sewing the strips today that will make the blocks. Aug 27: Made the 9 patch blocks. Ready to assemble the rows which are done diagonally from top right to lower left. Aug 28: The main section of the top is together. Aug 29: Added corners. Time to decide on borders. Added a 2" blue border to seal the outer triangles. Will finish with blue binding. Aug 30: Quilting. Quilted. Trimmed the border down to 1" and attached binding. Aug 31: Re-did the binding on Pam's quilt. Sep 01: Binding complete on crumbs quilt. Sep 03: Quilts were hand delivered to a gracious dad. Got to see photos of the 9 month old boys, equally adorable but not identical. Janet, a local gal, called today. Tomorrow we will do this quilt she made for her daughter. Aug 07: Janet and hubby, Ron, just dropped off the quilt. Threads & pattern are selected.
Aug 08: Loaded thread, cut batting and pressed backing & top while waiting for Janet & Ron to get here. IQ is programmed. Just got a call that Janet is delayed until noon so I am going to load and go ahead with the quilting in the interim 2 hours. Janet got here on schedule & we hit the ground running. And quilted! Janet mentioned while we were working that these are fabrics used in her daughter's childhood dresses. She bought enough then to make this quilt now. Mary Bucy lives nearby so I have invited her to come help with her silk quilt. Our date is for Friday, Aug 09, 2013. !! I love the colors !! Aug 04: First contact with Mary by email then phone. Aug 09: Mary is here. We have prepped the top & back, chosen thread, programmed IQ, loaded the quilt and basted the top and sides. We were all ready to quilt but something seams off when I aligned to the center. To test my second attempt before quilting, I entered preview mode. All I got was obstruction error after obstruction error. IQ does NOT like something somewhere. We worked on several resolutions, everything I could think of, with no luck. Finally Mary headed home & I have documented my issues and contacted IQ for support. Such is longarming sometimes. I have managed to take apart and put back together with great frustration every bolt and screw on the drive roller. I will test again tomorrow to see if I have things lined up for proper sewing. Aug 10: All testing failed & all further attempts to get things aligned failed. After sending more pictures to Zoltan, IQ's creator, he said, "The whole bracket is now very much out of alignment, and because of the the stripped screws it cannot be adjusted. The best way to solve the problem is to send you a new X-motor bracket that is set close to the optimal alignment. I will send it today." He did.
Aug 12: New x-motor bracket expected today. Arrived but still having issues. Aug 13: While waiting on IQ support, I kept reading and re-reading online support help. I made a few software parameter adjustments & am now back in business. Not totally comfortable with my settings because one is at the max but at least I am quilting. Row 3 has tension issues but Mary & I decided to leave bad enough alone since the fabric is silk. Row 4 was good. Row 5 has those obstructions errors again over and over. Back to waiting for help from IQ support after making another plea for help. Aug 14: Received a video instruction on how to properly adjust my x-motor from my IQ dealer. Waiting for clarification about how to tweak the software changes I made yesterday. This is hope on the horizon. Well, the directions on the video were backwards as to which screws to turn which direction but the technique was critical. Once I got things screwed the right direction, all was quickly well. Quilting again. Quilted. All's well that ends well. I do believe these fabrics are from Moda's Christmas Spirit collection. The fabric is a brushed cotton with a flannel feel to it. I love the warmth of this quilt, not just from the flannel on top and back & the thick cotton batting we will use, but the color choices which will show up better when I snap close-ups while quilting. Jul 22: First contact about this quilt
Aug 03: Quilt arrived. We'll be using Dream Cotton batting and reusing the Christian Series pantographs by Ellen Munnich. Thread to be determined. Originally we thought cream but I am not so sure now. Aug 04: Loaded. Working on IQ layout. Aug 05: Started the day early with a false start. Knowing Dorothy wanted the thread to show I stopped for her to consider other options. I am posting one image of the original choice. The rest of the images are the final choice. Hmmm, the new selection has a sheen but it still gets buried deep into fabric so there is little showiness. Quilted. Will take final pictures & ship tomorrow. |
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