Christmas Stars Quilt...

When Paul & Trinity were here for Thanksgiving, I gifted them with the Christmas quilt that she had "hinted" for last year!  :D

I named it "Christmas Stars".  I designed it myself on EQ7, made it scrappy, and free-motion quilted it on my Juki TL 2000Qi...

99" x 99"

in the making...

The middle border was done with 4 different free-handed Christmas tree designs...but for some reason, I don't have a picture of the 4th design.  

The outer border was done in free-handed feathers...my first ever without using a stencil!!!  I'm pretty happy with them!!  :)

I had fun making it and they were quite pleased with it...so all-in-all...it went well!!!  


Loretta

The Quilt That Almost Wasn't...

This past weekend, I FINALLY decided what design I was going to quilt on the Christmas Stars quilt and started quilting it.  However, my thread kept breaking frequently.  ARGH!!!!  I re-threaded the machine till I was blue in the face and changed my needle 3-4 times...you know...the basics of what to do when your upper thread breaks.  

I googled "upper thread breaking" for my particular machine and I saw where some people had to use a size 16 topstitch needle in this machine when using thicker thread.  (I'm using Sulky 30 wt. cotton...this is the first time I've used a thread this thick.)  I didn't have a "topstitch" needle, but I did have a 16 "jeans/denim" needle.  Tried that.  Still breakage.  :(

I also saw that you should loosen the tension with thicker thread, so tried that as far as I dared...still breakage!  

Okay...so now I'm about to throw this quilt in the back of the cupboard and forget about it!  Double ARGH!!!  

Then today I received an email from Superior Threads and in it they mentioned that they had a troubleshooting guide.  I went to their site and pulled up this guide.   Before I discarded the idea of finishing this quilt...or running out to Walmart for topstitch needles...or abandoning this thread and buying something else to use...I decided to follow their suggestion and loosen the tension all the way to "0" and gradually tighten it back up from there.

GUESS WHAT???  It WORKED!!!  I usually sew on this machine with the tension around "3" on Juki's scale of 1-4.  But at 1.5 I was no longer seeing the top thread on the back of the quilt sandwich and my thread is NO LONGER BREAKING!!!   In my timidity, I just hadn't loosened the tension enough before!

It is a pleasure to machine quilt once more and this quilt WILL get done!!!  I had originally hoped to enter it into the quilt show next year (borrowing it back from its recipient after Christmas), but there are too many issues with the stitching from where I was having trouble with the thread/tension, so I'm just going to have to do another quilt to enter!  ;)

My machine quilting still isn't very good, but it is getting better and I'm glad I did take the time a few months ago to practice practice practice!  It definitely made a difference.

"Done is better than perfect!"  Though it's not "done" yet...it is well on it's way to being so!  :)

This past Monday was the grand opening of the new Hobby Lobby store in Morgantown, WV.  Guess who was in attendance?  My good friend (and neighbor), Kathy, joined me.  Though neither one of spent very much there that day, I know I WILL be going back in the future!  It's nice to finally have one in our area!

We spent the rest of the day together going to ACMoore and then out to eat and had a great time together!  It's always nice to spend some relaxed time with a good friend who "gets" you!  

Loretta

More Quilting Going On...

I've been making more selvage blocks over the last couple of weeks, but instead of making them so scrappy as I had started out, I decided I wanted a more "controlled scrappy" look.  I decided to use a blue calico and a white-on-white for the star points and background.  The center of the stars are the scrappy blocks made with the selvages.  

The blue and white fabrics are from my stash, so no wallets were harmed in the making of these blocks!  :D

I have 27 blocks finished right now and many, many, many more selvage centers that still to have star points added to them.  The blocks are 8" finished.  I don't know how big the quilt will be...but basically, it will be as big as I have blocks for when I'm done!  I have used all the selvages with wording/number/dots from my selvage basket.  The only selvages I have left now are the ones that have no white at all or only plain white with fabric, but no words, numbers, or dots.  I plan on using all of those selvages to try my hand at fabric-covered clothesline bowls.  


My "Christmas Stars" quilt is sandwiched and ready for me to start machine quilting on it.  I have to figure out if I'm going to try some sort of design in the body of it or just do meandering in the body and then a design in the borders.  Still thinking on these things...waiting for the quilt to speak to me and tell me what it wants!  :D

Loretta

Christmas Stars...

Quote for the Day:

“Christmas doesn't come from a store, 

maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more....” 

~ Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

A little birdie told me last year that she'd like a Christmas quilt, so for the past month or so, I've been working on a Christmas quilt that I designed myself in EQ7.  I am happy to announce that the last of the three borders are now on the quilt and it is ready to be sandwiched and quilted.  It ended up 100" x 100"!  Whew!...it's gonna be FUN trying to quilt it on my little domestic sewing machine!   :(

So here's pics of the scrappy "Christmas Stars" quilt top...

Even the THREE borders are scrappy!!!

I need to either purchase a king-sized batting for it or piece one from the batting pieces I have on hand.  I also need to piece together a backing for it.  THEN I will get it sandwiched and start the quilting on it.

Loretta