I Quilt

Gemma who blogs over at Pretty Bobbins is starting up a new weekly linky party and I'm just going to share her words about it:

This linky is for you if you like to quilt, if you love to quilt, if you’re just dipping your toe into the (quilting) water, if you have a domestic or long arm machine and if you want to learn and share your quilting journey.  I want to emphasize that there is no need to share a finished project and please don’t be scared to join in if you’re a total newbie.  All I ask is that you talk about your quilting process.

I think that covers most of us! So I am definitely going to be checking out the links each Thursday and I hope that you will too if you are interested in learning more about about quilting. And some weeks I hope to share what I've learned about about quilting too.

I can honestly say that I LOVE to walking foot quilt on my Juki 2010Q aka Mr. Juki. This machine is designed for quilting with a large throat. Look at how much more room there is (especially heightwise!)

 than there is on my Pfaff Quiltstyle.

The largest UFO I finished on my Pfaff was Pink, White & Black Strings. It measured 48" by 72" and literally got stuck in my machine twice - so stuck that I had to clip my threads and work it out through the back of the machine! And I can't tell you how many times I would catch the quilt top on the presser foot lever which lifted towards the throat.

But what do I love about walking foot quilting itself? I love how it accents the quilt but allows the fabrics to shine.

I also love how it can echo a design element to add a little bit of interest and emphasize some details of the pattern.

I love making waves with my walking foot too!

Or just lines of pretty thread.

But maybe most of all, I love my walking foot because it helps me get quilts DONE!

I look forward to adding FMQ to my skill set as well as hand quilting during 2014. I would love to be able to choose the quilting style that best suits each quilt and the time I have available to finish it. But I'll always be in awe of my walking foot for getting me through my Year of FINISH!

Sunday was Funday

Tucker and I had a great time playing around in the quilting room yesterday. He seems to like the new cutting table almost as much as I do and even had a little nap on the corner I wasn't using.

Then he fiercely guarded my rainbow stash drawers while my husband and I were moving some furniture around. Note the common thread of laying on fabric in any form!

His last bit of assistance involved testing to see if my sewing table extension supports 16 lbs. of solid cat... it did!

I brought two UFOs to flimsy stage yesterday - this is Kitchen Sink Strings...

and Scrappy Summertime from the book "Quilts from the Heart" by Karin Renald.

I even brought out my Pfaff for her specialty which is adding borders. Pfanny (decided she needs a name now that I have Mr. Juki and Julia!) allows me to add borders or sew long seams with very little pinning and no measuring because of her IDT (built in walking foot). No wavy borders when Pfanny is on the job!

And yes, I had to do an all points search for her manual since I could NOT remember how to thread her! Since all of the UFOs left on my Q2 Goals list involve adding borders or long seams my goal today is to move each of them to the next stage - flimsy. Then I'll be all set for a sandwiching & quilting marathon... I'm still hoping to get my 4 UFO finishes in for June. How can it be almost the end of June already?

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday@Patchwork Times.

Thursday Thoughts

Handmade for Newtown wrapped up last week and raised over $5,000! My Super Bright Strings quilt was auctioned off for $143. I gave it a last once-over with the lint roller, wrapped it up in tissue paper with a bow made of selvages and mailed it off yesterday to a very kind-hearted new owner.

I've had these cute bags from Debbie from A Quilter's Table on my Make Someday List and was excited to read about the Triple Zip Along which is getting underway on Monday, January 28th. I've got my fabric picked out and zippers ordered!  It's not too late in join the fun.

                                                  

Beth who blogs at Quilting Hottie Haven is launching a month long UFO event called Drop and Give me Twenty (DaGMT 2013) complete with prizes. Click HERE to read all about it.  First, you must make a pledge...

I, Deb who is the not-so-proud owner of a Fab UFO Collection, am joining Quilting Hottie Haven's second annual DaGMT event, and pledge to quilt for 2 hours every day of the month of February, 2013. In doing so I hope to finish 10 UFOs (to be listed on my sidebar Feb. 1st but you can get a sneak peak at my selection pool HERE) and I think Beth Helfter is brilliant for coming up with this concept and inspiring me to join.
Did you notice how I added my January Goals to my sidebar as a constant guilt inducing tactic gentle reminder? Considering I had company for the 1st week followed by a week of a sick son and problems with new sewing machine deliveries I'm not doing so bad. I'm heading down the homestretch on the binding for Shabby Roses (goal 3) and I'll be quilting my Valentine's Day table runner today (goal 7).  FMQ practice sessions (goal 9) are ongoing and I'll be heading back to Christmas over the weekend to work on goals 1 & 2.
We braved our absolutely frigid weather to see Life of Pi on Monday night. I love a movie that really makes you think after leaving the theater, which Life of Pi certainly did, but the thing I enjoyed the most about the movie was the amazing cinematography. I found myself gasping several times at the sheer beauty on the screen. I'm starting to think I should go see it again! Tucker is getting tired of being called "Richard Parker" by all of us.
I have my Juki set up on my sewing table and my Pfaff set up on my spare folding table which are both out in the middle of my quilting room right now. When I walked in yesterday I could not stop looking at the insane difference in height of these machines! Check this out.

I'm using my 6.5" square ruler in these pics. See the peek of my Valentines Day runner ready to be sandwiched back there? With no more wavy edges thanks to the IDF on my Pfaff!

Isn't it amazing? Just a few well placed inches makes all the difference in the world!  Not to mention the design for quilting... see the presser foot on the Juki completely behind the machine? On the Pfaff it's harder to see behind the 6" vertical line on the right. When you raise it goes sideways up into the arm space. I can't tell you how many times I've caught it on the quilt and had it slam down.

Making Headway on Imperfect

In my Thursday Thoughts post last week I mentioned my new mantra "Finished imperfectly is better than unfinished perfectly". If I knew how to make a blog button I'd make one! I think I'm going to need it...

Imperfect Test Case #1:

Thursday night I pulled out my Valentine's Day Table Runner UFO, assessed where it had been left and quickly finished piecing the heart section. I gave it a good press and added the background fabric border and the pink border. 

After easy sewing and a quick press I laid it out on my table to admire it. Yikes! How many waves can you count? I pressed it again and just made it worse so I set it aside (my normal reaction to imperfect!). At least I didn't stuff it into the garbage like I used to - thanks again Mom for all of those projects you rescued for me!

On the Threadbias board you can flag a project as "being in distress" so I uploaded my pics yesterday and asked for advice. I quickly received several answers and one of them gave me an "A-ha Moment" with the mention of uneven feed. 

I have sewed on my Pfaff for 10+ years. The IDT (built in walking foot) has taught me to rarely pin, rarely measure and I NEVER have waves. And, to make it even worse I just take it for granted! To get the same results on my Juki 2010Q I must pin and must measure my borders. Lesson learned along with a renewed wave of love for my Pfaff.  

Regarding imperfect... I can't live with this! I've started in with the seam ripper and will finish the piecing on my Pfaff.

Imperfect Test Case #2:

Friday night I went downstairs to pull batting for another Warm Wishes quilt and found I was out of Warm & White. But, I had read a blog about fusible batting that day which had reminded me that I had some June Tailor laying around that I'd bought on sale a while back. Let's try it!

The quilt top fused perfectly and I was pretty darn excited thinking I have 2 large bags to use up. The backing didn't fuse quite so well so I added some pins around the edges and scattered across the middle. Again, nothing unusual. I started to quilt it and the top looked fantastic! I peeked at the back. EEK! I frogged one row and tried it again with the same result. 

By this time I was frustrated and fighting my natural urge to set it aside. I forced myself to just keep going and finish the vertical grid. I knew going horizontal with anything would be a total disaster. Then inspiration... how about doing some walking foot wavy lines down the middle of the blocks? And, how about just making them random? How bad can it be?

As it turns not... THIS is imperfect that I CAN live with! I think after washing it will be even better. I did purposely sew one tuck along the left side to gather some fullness and that's just the way it's going to stay. I see that I have the animals upside down in my pic - how fitting is that?  But, look at the pretty top!

I see more walking foot curves in my future!  Fast, easy and fun. And, I'm batting .500 on "Finished imperfectly is better than unfinished perfectly". That's a whole lot better than having 2 projects stuffed in the garbage!

A BIG Week Ahead!

I have always been a one sewing machine girl. I learned to sew on my Mom's Elna so when I bought my 1st machine after I got married it was an easy choice to buy an Elna. This was in 1984.  

It wasn't until I took a beginning quilting class in the winter of 2002 that I started getting the itch for a new machine that was quilt friendly. Once again, my Pfaff was an easy choice. One of my aunts who was an avid quilter raved about hers, I had a local dealer 20 minutes away and I was able to test drive it. Total love at first sight! The IDT is so amazing and I just love piecing on this machine. 

This fall as I dove into actually finishing quilts (meaning quilting them!) I had my first Day of Discontent with my Pfaff while working on Pink, White & Black Strings in early November. I was so immersed in shoving that quilt through my machine that I was startled to look up and see my husband home from work and peeking around the doorway. "I thought you could pay someone to do that for you?" he said. Obviously my frustration was written all over my face! After a short discussion, he sweetly suggested that I should look into a new machine BEFORE I had a chance to tell him that I was already dreaming about one. Love him!

Next step was a LOT of reading on blogs, on quilting boards and sewing/quilting sites. The local dealer where I bought my Pfaff closed a few years back. After about a week of this I was leaning toward a Janome Horizon. Big investment but a lot of machine and a HUGE harp. But the more I read the more I kept being drawn to the Juki TL2010q.

The TL2010q is a semi industrial machine and is straight stitch only. It's designed for quilting and can be used on a quilting frame which is a nice option to have down the road. Of course I have to learn to FMQ first!  

It's a big decision to choose a new machine to invest in. The good news is that most quilters fall in love with whichever machine they choose and it's really a personal thing. I chose not to look at a new Pfaff because of a persistent opinion out there in CyberLand that the newer models were lacking the quality of the older ones. And, no matter what other machines I considered... the Juki TL2010q just stood out to me. 

I'm a person who starts out my decision making process by absorbing a LOT of information, thinking it over, reading some more but often in the end I make the decision based on intuition. It just feels right!

Then, the last week of December when I was quite set with my plan this machine suddenly caught my eye.

This is a Juki HZL F600 featuring loads of decorative stitches, free arm breakdown and several of the same features that drew me to the 2010q like a thread cutter and knee lift. I'm wanting to do more applique and the blanket stitch looks amazing! Oh boy... now what to do?

The Juki HZL F600 is due to arrive tomorrow and the Juki TL2010q on Wednesday. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Early Birthday to me! I am so excited I can hardly stand it.