© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 14 comments
Post categories: Favorites, Featured, Quilting, Shows & Contests
Tags: AQS, creative spirit, embellishments, quilt shows, workshops

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I ordered a couple of small things from the lovely Mai who sells her hand made items on Etsy, but I call this “gifts from Japan” because I received so much more than just the things I ordered! It was all so beautifully packaged, and even the envelope was hand made from recycled Japanese catalog pages!

And just look inside! (...)
Read the rest of Gifts from Japan (222 words)

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post categories: Creativity, Favorites, Featured
Tags: fun, handwork, Japan, Japanese, Sarubobo

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Sue asked:

I just can’t seem to get the right speed when I machine quilt. I wish I could afford a sewing machine with a stitch regulator but that won’t be for a long time.
How do I ensure the length of the stitches stays consistent?

I know that this is something many quilters struggle with, and it’s not easy by any means. Getting it right is a combination of many things, and it may be worth it to go back to ground zero and begin learning a few things again to get it right. Try the following:

Start with some machine-guided quilting, with a walking foot attachment or dual feed feature on your sewing machine. Set the stitch length for an average length, not too long, not too short. Quilt some straight lines on a practice sandwich that’s about 12″ x 24″, using a medium speed on the machine. As you quilt these lines:

• Keep your speed consistent. When you stop to reposition your hands on the quilt and then restart, try to continue at the same speed you were going before. Listening to the pitch of the motor will help, as will being aware of the pressure of your foot on the pedal on the floor.
• Listen to the sounds of the machine. Listen the sounds that the machine makes as it’s making a stitch. Try to identify one particular sound and concentrate on the rhythm of that repetitive sound.
• Concentrate on how fast your hands are moving as you’re guiding the quilt sandwich through the machine. Remember you’re just guiding, and letting the machine have the speed control.
• Notice the combination of things happening. When does the quilt sandwich move forward in relation to when the needle is moving up or down? When does it move forward in relation to that one particular sound that you’re listening for when it makes a stitch?

Try to connect these things all together, and memorize them. You need to develop these skills into habits, so that they are a part of you and you can duplicate them over and over again. The machine is just that, a machine, and everything moves in a synchronized way automatically, but this is what you should try to imitate when you are controlling the speed and movement during free motion quilting.

I’ve always likened machine quilting to driving. When you drive, you don’t think, you just do. If a car or an animal darts out in front of you, you don’t think about putting your foot on the brake, you just do it because it’s a habit and an automatic reaction. Develop your machine quilting skills to this level, and you will see improvement and success.

I also call this “being ONE with your machine.” Knowing how it sounds when it’s running well, knowing exactly how much pressure to put on the pedal to take just one stitch or sew at a certain speed, and being so in tune with your machine that you can tell the moment it runs out of bobbin thread because it sounds different as it sews. Knowing your machine this well is an important part of producing the kind of machine quilting that I know you want. Once you get to know the machine this well, you can match your rhythm to its rhythm and work with it instead of against it. It’s a little be mystical maybe, but you’ll know when you’re “in the zone.”

Once you’ve practiced quilting these straight lines and you are really in tune with your machine, try some free motion quilting. Lower the feed dogs, attach a darning or free motion foot and start with a new practice quilt sandwich. Quilt a few straight lines, top to bottom, just as you did on the other quilt sandwich. Try to run the machine at the same medium speed and move the quilt sandwich at the same rate as it was when the machine was in control, and see if you can make stitches that are consistent in length and about the same size as the machine guided stitching.

Keep quilting at that same medium speed, but throw in some curves and zigzags. Once you’ve got the rhythm, guard it carefully! What I mean is, make sure your environment is conducive to keeping it. Cut out distractions and interruptions if at all possible, because every interruption means you have to get back into the zone and find that rhythm again, and your stitches may be wobbly until you do.

Practice free motion quilting at this speed until it feels easy and you don’t have to think about it. It may take a long time! I quilted for years at that one special speed and rhythm, until I needed to learn another for a different technique! Don’t get me wrong, I probably didn’t need to quilt at that one speed for years, I just didn’t know I could do anything else and get the results I wanted, and I hadn’t run into a reason to try until I wanted to quilt small stippling and other background designs where the stitches must be smaller and the machine must go faster or it just doesn’t work.

The point is, once you really own that speed and rhythm and can duplicate it on demand, it becomes much easier to speed up or slow down to do different types of quilting and still keep a consistent stitch length. Try these tips, and let me know how it goes!

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments
Post categories: Favorites, Featured, Quilting, Tips
Tags: free motion, free motion quilting, machine quilting

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

opening

eating

enjoying

smiling

napping

wishing

wondering

believing

From our family to you and yours,
Merry Christmas!

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 7 comments
Post categories: Cats, Favorites, Life, Quilting
Tags: Christmas, fun, holidays, kids

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Well, I’ve got a news flash for you: it’s not you or your sewing skills, it’s the math. And I don’t mean that you or the pattern designer have miscalculated the cutting sizes either. What I mean is that mathematically, when you calculate the size of square to cut for a certain finished size of half-square or quarter-square triangle, you won’t get a size that’s rotary cutter friendly. It’s some algebraic formula like Asquared+Bsquared=Csquaredyaddayadda, and I did actually do the math a couple of years back though I don’t remember the formula at the moment.

This whole issue can be proven with graph paper as well. Try this: draw HST#1 with 2″ straight sides on graph paper, and then add 1/4″ seam allowances all the way around. Then draw HST#2 at the universally accepted cut size, with 2 7/8″ straight sides (the formula to determine the cut size for a HST is finished size + 7/8″). Measure the straight sides on the HST#1, which should be 2 7/8″, but they’re not. Sure, it’s not THAT far off, but when a block contains 8 or 16 HST’s, or when those HST’s are supposed to fit together with a 2 1/2″ square patch, this can cause issues down the road.

The bias edge across the middle of the HST adds its own measure of instability and inaccuracy, and it all equals wonkyness that’s not likely to be the right size in the end. What to do? I’ve gotten to the point where I cut large and trim down after the HST’s or QST’s are sewn, so that I know I’m getting the right size and everything is really square. I use the formula, then add 1/2″ or 3/4″ to the squares when I cut them. I dislike doing this for two reasons: one, it’s an extra step, and in multiples no less, since how many quilts need just one or two HST’s or QST’s, and two, it’s a fabric waster which is really not okay. There is a silver lining though (see, I can find one in this morass!): when you trim the HST’s or QST’s down to size, you’re trimming away the “dog ears” at the same time, so that’s a bonus.

Some patterns these days may just tell you to do that from the beginning, cut large and trim to the right size after piecing, but I’m basing all this on my personal experience with patterns and books, which is probably old since I don’t generally buy patterns or make quilts out of books anymore, preferring to tumble over the cliff of my own creativity into the scrappy mess of UFO’s and failed fabric experiments at the bottom. When I was buying books and patterns a few years ago, patterns were written based on cutting the “exact” size you need, and expecting the HST’s and QST’s to be the right size in the end and they never were, and the edges were curvy and wonky in the bargain.

So what’s your solution to the HST and QST finished size/cutting size quandary? Do you have these issues with patterns these days? Do you cut bigger and trim, or just deal with the fallout on the fly when piecing blocks?

Edit: Crazy Accuracy Freak Girl wrote this while I was having breakfast. I try to keep her penned up and away from the blog, but sometimes she sneaks out and adds her two cents…or two dollars, as the case may be. Thanks for putting up with her.—Nadine

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 20 comments
Post categories: Favorites, Musings, Patterns, Quilting, Tips
Tags: accuracy, design, fabric, Patterns, rotary cutting

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

…there were only two lonely categories for traditional quilts, one for appliquéd quilts and one for pieced quilts…

The entry form wasn’t there yet, but I looked at the page with the winning quilts from the 2007 show, and I was quite surprised when the categories for art quilts just went on and on and on, in multiple (but seemingly) minuscule variations for different sizes, types, and styles, and then way down at the bottom, there were only two lonely categories for traditional quilts, one for appliquéd quilts and one for pieced quilts which were not even further divided into “small” and “large.”

I didn’t enter the IQA show last year, but seeing the winners page reminded me that I’d been meaning to go on about this very issue for quite some time, ever since I read Paula’s post that referred to Jeanna Kimball’s post about judging the Houston Show in late September, 2007. Jeanna Kimball is a traditional quilter, obviously a good one since she’s out there judging, and she made some interesting observations about the number of traditional quilts that were entered in the Houston show:

One element of the contest, however, surprised me a great deal—I still can’t get over it. The last time I paid attention to quilt contests, the categories with the most quilts seemed to be traditional quilts.

It is not so any longer. The entries have dropped so low in traditional pieced and traditional appliqué that there is only one category for each—no longer are there two categories with one being large quilts and the other being small. What happened!? Where are all of the traditional quilts?

I have to second that question, but I’m afraid I know what happened to the traditional quilts. The quilters who enter the larger shows have discovered that traditional doesn’t win big. Oh sure, if you have the best traditional quilt in the show, you get the first place award in the traditional category, but when was the last time a quilt from the traditional category was awarded “Best of Show” with the big money attached? Truthfully, I don’t know the answer to that, but I’ve watched (and entered) the major shows since 2001, and my overall feeling about it just from what I’ve seen and experienced is that it’s been many years. (...)
Read the rest of Quilt shows and the fall of traditional quilting (1,633 words)

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 10 comments
Post categories: Favorites, Musings, Quilting, Shows & Contests
Tags: contests, Houston, Paducah, quilt shows, show quilts, winners

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

This quilt carries many memories with it; not surprising considering it’s older than my youngest daughter. I spent a lot of time sifting through them as I finished it up. The pattern is from the May, 1994 issue of McCall’s Quilting, the first quilting magazine issue I ever bought, even before I was “a quilter.” I can’t lay my hands on it right at the moment, but I do still have that magazine. I know I have it somewhere, because there’s another quilt in it that I’ve always wanted to make, and beside that you all know I’m a confirmed packrat. The fabric is my absolute favorite fabric of all time, a Christmas print from VIP Fabrics. I had to have my mom search out more of it for me and ship it over, and I ended up with a total of 18 yards of the stuff, 13-14 of which went into this quilt in one place or another. (I still have the rest, wonder where it’ll end up?) This was the first block I made (you can see all these pics bigger if you click, but beware, they’re big files!):

This wonderful kaleidoscopic effect is just so stunning in this fabric. Every single plate in this quilt is slightly different. I cut a total of 364 (or was it 384?) petals the old fashioned way, by hand with a template. I took my first appliqué stitches on these plates, sad as they were! Too big, too far apart, using the wrong weight and color of thread, (...)
Read the rest of The quiet, the memories and the quilting (993 words)

© Nadine for DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Blog, 2007. | Permalink | No comment
Post categories: Favorites, Musings, Quilting
Tags: appliqué, fabric, finishing, friends, machine quilting, quilt days, UFO's

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh