Most of the quilt tops I work on are easily quilted -- not all are quilts from Hell. But three problems occur more often to make the quilting more difficult.
One is the border that ruffles and waves because it was cut larger than the inner top. As the borders are sewn to the top, the quilter eases them in. Everything looks ok, but when the quilt is pinned to a frame, it's more obvious, and the fullness of the borders makes for problem quilting. Even with huge amounts of pinning, tucks and pleats usually occur.
The second is the border that is too small for the inner top, In this case the inner top has been eased in as the border and top were sewn together. It's like a cup, the borders are taut and the inner top bags down. Again, careful pinning and sometimes fluffy batting can abate the problem but even so there usually are some areas of pleats and overlaps as the quilting continues. I have even had to take a quilt off half-way through quilting and ask the customer for help.
A third problem arises when the quilt is not square -- I have had up to a difference of several inches on both sides. This makes it tough to put a pantograph on evenly, and usually if I am aware of it, I recommend having it done free hand so that it won't be so obvious. (By the way, the backing should also be square. As parallelogram backings roll onto the bar, as much as a foot in width can be lost.) Squaring up a quilt should also elimate the hour glass shape many quilts acquire with the top and bottom being several inches wider than the middle.
I know no one wants to hear it (including me sometimes), but careful measurement would probably eliminate all three problems. Measuring an inner top in three places, cutting borders to one's unique quilt top and not to what the pattern says, and squaring up quilts and backings would make any quilter's life easier.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
No Problem
I just finished a quilt from Hell. It wasn't badly made or ugly, but let's just say the quilting has not gone well.
First, I quilted the wrong top and sent it off to the wrong customer who had a friend picking it up. How can that happen? Picture a 400 square foot shop with 5 tables, a longarm (5'x12"), and approximately 25 quilts waiting to be quilted plus lots of other stuff. Two quilts came in the same day and I must have switched the paper work. Oops! Not a big deal, she's bringing it back, but now I am behind as I have the original top to quilt quickly before she returns to pick it up.
It's a t-shirt quilt, shouldn't be a big deal, I have quilted these for this customer before and she does nice work. However, from row one, it's a nightmare. One problem is variegated thread on top which changes it's weight as the color variations occur. Another problem is the backing -- perfectly good muslin but the thread count must be about 2000 as the brand new needle wants to skitter across it and create what's called needle deflection. Third problem, it's a t-shirt quilt --I know I said no problem, but when the machine travels from the t-shirt fabrics to the thinner cotton fabric to the plastic type designs, all of this creates uneven tension, and no matter how carefully I watch for issues, there's a lot of start and stop, and taking out of rows, and repairing of spots, etc. I worked an extra 2-1/2 hours at the shop and went straight to Kai's baseball game which went long. It was fun and they won but I didn't get home until almost 9 pm.
The quilt went home with me to allow me to take out a row of stitching while I watched the last hour of American Idol (Adam should have won.) When I brought it back in this morning, I put the row of freehand peacock feathers back in, and checked over the back carefully to find and repair any other dropped stitches. I have declared it finished. Guess what? The customer through no fault of her own -- she's also having a bad day --cannot come to pick it up until next week.
That's ok. It's done.
First, I quilted the wrong top and sent it off to the wrong customer who had a friend picking it up. How can that happen? Picture a 400 square foot shop with 5 tables, a longarm (5'x12"), and approximately 25 quilts waiting to be quilted plus lots of other stuff. Two quilts came in the same day and I must have switched the paper work. Oops! Not a big deal, she's bringing it back, but now I am behind as I have the original top to quilt quickly before she returns to pick it up.
It's a t-shirt quilt, shouldn't be a big deal, I have quilted these for this customer before and she does nice work. However, from row one, it's a nightmare. One problem is variegated thread on top which changes it's weight as the color variations occur. Another problem is the backing -- perfectly good muslin but the thread count must be about 2000 as the brand new needle wants to skitter across it and create what's called needle deflection. Third problem, it's a t-shirt quilt --I know I said no problem, but when the machine travels from the t-shirt fabrics to the thinner cotton fabric to the plastic type designs, all of this creates uneven tension, and no matter how carefully I watch for issues, there's a lot of start and stop, and taking out of rows, and repairing of spots, etc. I worked an extra 2-1/2 hours at the shop and went straight to Kai's baseball game which went long. It was fun and they won but I didn't get home until almost 9 pm.
The quilt went home with me to allow me to take out a row of stitching while I watched the last hour of American Idol (Adam should have won.) When I brought it back in this morning, I put the row of freehand peacock feathers back in, and checked over the back carefully to find and repair any other dropped stitches. I have declared it finished. Guess what? The customer through no fault of her own -- she's also having a bad day --cannot come to pick it up until next week.
That's ok. It's done.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Paint Samples
After writing about the re-do of the kitchen, I was remembering the many other painting projects that my daughters and I have done. Having lived in our house for over thirty years, we have painted every room twice or more. Joe always has said he is a great painter and has a lot of experience, and yet every project in our own home found him having something else to do and somewhere else to be. But Laura and Lisa have always helped, even when they were toddlers. Since I am not the neatest painter, there was always paint landing places it shouldn't. If I ran out of paint or wanted to match it, all I had to do was take them with me to the store. And when asked what color I needed, I could just point to their heads where inevitably a streak of mauve or hunter green or bright pink would contrast with their dark brown hair. They were convenient paint samples when someone asked what color I had painted the bed room or living room this time.
Paint washes out more easily now than it did back in the olden days but it still can be stubborn. Sitting next to Lisa in church on Mother's Day morning, I almost lost it when I glanced over and saw a small streak of light blue gleaming in her hair. I just needed someone to ask what color I painted the kitchen this time.
Paint washes out more easily now than it did back in the olden days but it still can be stubborn. Sitting next to Lisa in church on Mother's Day morning, I almost lost it when I glanced over and saw a small streak of light blue gleaming in her hair. I just needed someone to ask what color I painted the kitchen this time.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Tin and Champagne for Mother's Day!
Mother's Day weekend was warm and fuzzy as usual. My daughters and their families always go out of their way to make it meaningful and fun with cards and handmade gifts from grandchildren, hugs and kisses and lots of love.
This time my younger daughter Lisa gave me a rather untraditional gift -- free labor and supplies to finish the kitchen that I tore up a year and a half ago. My small galley kitchen has been through several looks and was due for a major re-do from its green and mauve wallpaper to its green and mauve paint and stencilled cabinets. Having had all the floors redone with a laminate oak, it was time. I tore the reachable parts of the wallpaper down, cleaned the cabinets thoroughly to ready them for painting, and replaced two of the major appliances and then stalled out! Part of the pantry area got primed but mauve and dark green paint still showed through the open gally kitchen.
Now a year and a half later, Lisa announced we were finishing up. We purchased light blue for the walls, apple green for the cupboard doors and some of the woodwork, and tin look-alike panels for the back splash. We also, of course, purchased everything we needed to do the project as well -- it only took three trips to Lowes -- not too bad. After all, it took us three trips to two grocery stores to get everything for our afternoon dinner on Mother's Day.
After our Saturday morning visit to Lowes, we stopped at Kai's baseball game to catch an inning or two, then went home to paint. Approximately seven hours later, we had painted the cupboard doors, the basement door, and woodwork with two coats of apple green, and all the walls with the light blue. We decided it was easier to paint two coats of the blue over the wallpaper than to try to take it down. We went more with a Trading Spaces approach than HGTV with our painting!
We knew the challenge all along would be the tin panels: Lisa had watched it applied on HGTV several times and we had written directions to use as a last resort. How hard could it be? The first surprise was how difficult it was to cut. I had brought home a rotary cutter and mat and was disappointed it didn't even make a dent. This stuff isn't real tin but it's certainly as sturdy. We went to utility knife and the only scissors I had which are actually paper scissors I let Kai and Quinn use when they want to do projects. After trying to measure and mark it, we did read the two sets of directions carefully and discovered a method that worked. We dry fit every piece before going to bed. After a shower, I felt human enough to fall into my bed and was sound asleep by midnight in spite of aching knees and feet.
Bright and early Sunday morning, we were at 8:30 am mass to watch Kai serve. We stopped at Lowes and the grocery store (our third trips) on the way home. Since it was Mother's Day, Lisa had volunteered to prepare all the food except for what Jason would be grilling. We had two hours to prep all the food in my torn up kitchen and be at Laura's by noon. We arrived at 12:15 with hors d'vours and a crustless quiche straight from the oven. While the grill sizzled, everyone relaxed over great food and lemon granita champaigne cocktails. As always, it was lovely.
By 3:30, Lisa and I were back in my kitchen, glueing the panels to the wall. We had dry fit everything the night before; this should be the easy part. And it would have been, except we forgot to cut an opening for one of the electrical outlets and had to cut that piece of tin with glue already on it. Lisa's hands were so sore at this point from cutting the tin and squeezing out the glue, it was not an easy task. She did it though and the tin panels are finished and are brilliant!
I love the re-do and am so grateful to Lisa for inspiring me to finish and carrying the major load of the work. It makes me want to re-do the rest of the house. Are you reading this, Lisa?
This time my younger daughter Lisa gave me a rather untraditional gift -- free labor and supplies to finish the kitchen that I tore up a year and a half ago. My small galley kitchen has been through several looks and was due for a major re-do from its green and mauve wallpaper to its green and mauve paint and stencilled cabinets. Having had all the floors redone with a laminate oak, it was time. I tore the reachable parts of the wallpaper down, cleaned the cabinets thoroughly to ready them for painting, and replaced two of the major appliances and then stalled out! Part of the pantry area got primed but mauve and dark green paint still showed through the open gally kitchen.
Now a year and a half later, Lisa announced we were finishing up. We purchased light blue for the walls, apple green for the cupboard doors and some of the woodwork, and tin look-alike panels for the back splash. We also, of course, purchased everything we needed to do the project as well -- it only took three trips to Lowes -- not too bad. After all, it took us three trips to two grocery stores to get everything for our afternoon dinner on Mother's Day.
After our Saturday morning visit to Lowes, we stopped at Kai's baseball game to catch an inning or two, then went home to paint. Approximately seven hours later, we had painted the cupboard doors, the basement door, and woodwork with two coats of apple green, and all the walls with the light blue. We decided it was easier to paint two coats of the blue over the wallpaper than to try to take it down. We went more with a Trading Spaces approach than HGTV with our painting!
We knew the challenge all along would be the tin panels: Lisa had watched it applied on HGTV several times and we had written directions to use as a last resort. How hard could it be? The first surprise was how difficult it was to cut. I had brought home a rotary cutter and mat and was disappointed it didn't even make a dent. This stuff isn't real tin but it's certainly as sturdy. We went to utility knife and the only scissors I had which are actually paper scissors I let Kai and Quinn use when they want to do projects. After trying to measure and mark it, we did read the two sets of directions carefully and discovered a method that worked. We dry fit every piece before going to bed. After a shower, I felt human enough to fall into my bed and was sound asleep by midnight in spite of aching knees and feet.
Bright and early Sunday morning, we were at 8:30 am mass to watch Kai serve. We stopped at Lowes and the grocery store (our third trips) on the way home. Since it was Mother's Day, Lisa had volunteered to prepare all the food except for what Jason would be grilling. We had two hours to prep all the food in my torn up kitchen and be at Laura's by noon. We arrived at 12:15 with hors d'vours and a crustless quiche straight from the oven. While the grill sizzled, everyone relaxed over great food and lemon granita champaigne cocktails. As always, it was lovely.
By 3:30, Lisa and I were back in my kitchen, glueing the panels to the wall. We had dry fit everything the night before; this should be the easy part. And it would have been, except we forgot to cut an opening for one of the electrical outlets and had to cut that piece of tin with glue already on it. Lisa's hands were so sore at this point from cutting the tin and squeezing out the glue, it was not an easy task. She did it though and the tin panels are finished and are brilliant!
I love the re-do and am so grateful to Lisa for inspiring me to finish and carrying the major load of the work. It makes me want to re-do the rest of the house. Are you reading this, Lisa?
Friday, May 8, 2009
Notes to Me
In my purse is a small blue notebook of lined paper; it's a Mary Englebreit product which proclaims "Queen of Everything," on the cover. When it's totally filled up, I will pitch it in a drawer and find another small notebook. I've gone through tons of these, most not as nice as the one I am currently carrying. It's not a diary, it's not a journal, it's just a place to scribble notes that seem important at the time. I keep notes on quilts I want to make, fabrics needed, grocery lists, recipes from novels I am reading, lists of books I want from the library, general to do lists, weekly menus (ha, that never works), Christmas gift lists, notes from meetings. And that's just what's in the current notebook.
Every now and then there's a work of art. Kai when he was younger and now Quinn often wanted something to write on and knew I always had a notebook and writing utensils. Maybe it's from being an English teacher for 30 some years, but I do always have those things in my purse. Their scribbles, pictures, first attempts at writing their names intersperse my more serious note-taking. Looking back through a notebook for something I know I wrote down, I love the surprise of finding their entries even if I don't find that important information I was looking for.
Every now and then there's a work of art. Kai when he was younger and now Quinn often wanted something to write on and knew I always had a notebook and writing utensils. Maybe it's from being an English teacher for 30 some years, but I do always have those things in my purse. Their scribbles, pictures, first attempts at writing their names intersperse my more serious note-taking. Looking back through a notebook for something I know I wrote down, I love the surprise of finding their entries even if I don't find that important information I was looking for.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
By Appointment Only
At the beginning of each month, I make up a calendar for Joe so he will know the important things in his life, like when I am not cooking dinner, when I will not be home for the evening, when I will not be home for Kai to get off the bus after school. Now, these don't seem too difficult to me but inevitably, even though he has it on a color coded calendar which is lying on his table, he questions me almost daily. Our conversations are amazingly consistent.
"What are we having for dinner?"
"I won't be home; I have a meeting."
"Oh."
"Where are you going now?"
"I have a meeting."
"Where?"
My answers vary between two churches and the shop.
"Oh."
"On your way home, can you stop at Krogers?"
"No, I won't be right home tonight; I have Friday Night Free for All. You need to be there for Kai."
"Oh."
Because of these conversations, I am amazed he can keep track of his substitute teaching days and doctor's appointments. Actually, he has missed a few doctor's appointments, but never a teaching day. It's all me, of course. He has selective memory when it comes to me, as do most husbands; he only remembers what he wants.
Of course, I make the calendar for myself as well. I tend to scribble on it extra information and events as the month progresses, and it becomes even more important to me, helping me remember when quilts are due to be collected or when Lisa is coming to dinner or just that I need to stop at Kroger on the way home.
Joe folds his calendar twice and puts it on one of his two "tables." Joe's tables are not meant for me to clean, and when I do, he gets all huffy about where did I put all his stuff. One table is next to the couch in the living room and the other next to his bed. Both have basically the same stuff, which usually consists of outdated advertisements, the past month's Church newsletters, various pens, crossword puzzle books, newspapers folded to the crossword puzzle, library books (always mysteries and paperbacks because they aren't as heavy to hold up when reading in bed), and other mysterious pieces of folded paper that seem to have no purpose. The table in the bedroom also has a flashlight, a penknife, a phone, and other useless small objects left by the grandchildren. All of their McDonald's and Burger King prizes seem to end up there. Among this detritus is the folded calendar. No wonder when he asks me a question, I have stopped saying, "Did you look at the calendar?"
"What are we having for dinner?"
"I won't be home; I have a meeting."
"Oh."
"Where are you going now?"
"I have a meeting."
"Where?"
My answers vary between two churches and the shop.
"Oh."
"On your way home, can you stop at Krogers?"
"No, I won't be right home tonight; I have Friday Night Free for All. You need to be there for Kai."
"Oh."
Because of these conversations, I am amazed he can keep track of his substitute teaching days and doctor's appointments. Actually, he has missed a few doctor's appointments, but never a teaching day. It's all me, of course. He has selective memory when it comes to me, as do most husbands; he only remembers what he wants.
Of course, I make the calendar for myself as well. I tend to scribble on it extra information and events as the month progresses, and it becomes even more important to me, helping me remember when quilts are due to be collected or when Lisa is coming to dinner or just that I need to stop at Kroger on the way home.
Joe folds his calendar twice and puts it on one of his two "tables." Joe's tables are not meant for me to clean, and when I do, he gets all huffy about where did I put all his stuff. One table is next to the couch in the living room and the other next to his bed. Both have basically the same stuff, which usually consists of outdated advertisements, the past month's Church newsletters, various pens, crossword puzzle books, newspapers folded to the crossword puzzle, library books (always mysteries and paperbacks because they aren't as heavy to hold up when reading in bed), and other mysterious pieces of folded paper that seem to have no purpose. The table in the bedroom also has a flashlight, a penknife, a phone, and other useless small objects left by the grandchildren. All of their McDonald's and Burger King prizes seem to end up there. Among this detritus is the folded calendar. No wonder when he asks me a question, I have stopped saying, "Did you look at the calendar?"
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