How it's done

Here is how I deal with the fabric warts (thick seam intersections) of a double sided quilt. Using my hands.... one on the bottom and one on the top.... I feel for where the intersections are underneath that may cause a problem. I then mark it with quilter's chalk on the top. Like this.



When doing the stitching of the design I carefully avoid those marks. In the picture above I have stitched the feather spine. In the picture below I've stitched the feather plumes.

Another picture of how I avoided the marks. Can you see how the plumes are just a tiny bit odd shaped? A necessary step to avoid the fabric warts underneath.

On the blocks I did the same thing except I used a blue marker because of the lighter color fabrics. In some places I had to get very close to the warts. I was very careful and went slow. A stitch regulated machine helps but if you don't have one you will need to slow your speed down to almost a crawl when you near a mark.

Ok, let's talk about the oddities of stitching the designs. True there are places where the design is not quite right. You will see it because you have your nose a few inches away from the quilt. You need to be this close in order to see the stitching your machine does. But.... WHO is going to have their nose that near the quilt after it comes off the machine?

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Most people view a quilt from a standing distance. A quilter views it from about 6 inches away. Most people will see the overall design but the quilter sees the individual sections. Only another machine quilter (or a contest judge) will be able to spot the oddities. Hopefully they will ask you why you did that and you can teach them this technique too.

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I'm often asked why I so freely share my quilting knowledge when so many others charge for it. It all started with my grandmother. I spent many days with her when I was a child. She said the way a person lives forever is by how much others remember us and how much of ourselves we leave behind when we die. If we pass our knowledge to our children who pass it to their children who pass it to their children and so forth.... a part of us lives forever. People may not remember the person but they will remember the knowledge gained. So that's what I'm doing when I teach others the techniques I've learned. I'm helping someone from my past live forever while adding little pieces of myself too. Make sense?

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Enough deep thought for today. I have a doctor appointment this morning and need to get ready. Doctor appointments usually take several hours because I go to a clinic. The economy has many more people going to clinics these days. More people mean longer wait times.

Issue quilt - pieced backing

Yesterday, I didn't show pictures of the top of this difficult quilt. I knew I was going to work on it so I saved the pictures for today's post. I'm sorry, I should have explained that yesterday. It's a sampler quilt. See the on point setting? I've got it stabilized and started the quilting.

Here I've chalk marked where a feather spine will be. As you can see, there are multiple seams coming together in some of the blocks. (no way to see where the fabric warts are on the back)

This is the pattern photo of the quilt. I hope you can see the feather design in the photo. Notice the feather style? I think you can click on the picture to make it larger.

Here you can see I've started working some of the feathers. This is the setting triangles. I changed the feather. It's a branching feather instead of a single feather. Branching fills the space nicer. It still has the type plumes as the original quilt.

This is the starting corner. I also finished the feather on the outside border.

This customer does not want an overall theme. She wants it finished as closely as I can manage to match the original quilt. I told the customer that the backing will have tucks. It's unavoidable. She doesn't mind. I did tell her how to avoid this problem in the future. Want to know what it is? Ok, I'll explain it.

If the backing squares have not been made then simply sew your pieces to a "leave in" non-sticky stabilizer. The kind that doesn't need to be removed. Use squares of stabilizer as a foundation to sew your scrap fabric to it. Do a sew and flip like you would do with paper piecing. The stabilizer prevents the bias of the fabric from stretching no matter which direction the bias goes. Be sure to press very well each time you sew a new piece into the block. Pressing is the key.

If the squares are leftovers from other projects then you should use an "iron-on" stabilizer. Press the stabilizer to each of the blocks and trim away the excess carefully before sewing the blocks together. Again, pressing is the key. Press the blocks very carefully before adding the stabilizer. You want to press out any fullness before adding the stabilizer.

Simple huh? Bet you didn't think of it. (wink) Yes, the stabilizer does add an extra layer of fabric to deal with but it's much better than trying to avoid tucks in the backing.

I usually don't quilt on Sunday. I have three appointments this week. I quilted yesterday to get some of the work done that I won't be able to do in the next few days. Tomorrow I'll show you how I avoid running over fabric warts and breaking needles when doing this type quilt. Providing nothing happens to take me away from the quilting machine.

Now if only, if only I could get blogger to stop messing with the spacing in my posts.... sigh.

Got something to show you

I was playing around for a few minutes during lunch break. I thought I would make another video and put it here. I think I may have to make myself some scripts to follow in the future. It's hard to work the camera and talk at the same time. I forget what I intended to say.

What I was trying to explain is that when doing heavy quilting it's necessary to skip around to different areas. If you quilt heavily all in one area before moving on to the next area you will get a wavyness and sagging. In order to get a nice even quilt at the end you have to skip to the sagging area and quilt next. Then look for the next sagging area and move there to quilt.

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Well, time for me to get back to work..... enjoy.

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AIG? I understand it all a little better


This is the current quilt. I got the stitch in the ditch around the stars finished. I did figure out a design to do and got started on it.

I had the tv on all day listening to the testimony of Mr. Liddy before congress. I must say I have a much deeper respect for Mr. Liddy. I didn't know he was a volunteer. Volunteers don't get paid to do a job. Mr. Liddy gets no compensation to run AIG except for one dollar per year. He was drafted (asked) to become a volunteer and said yes. Volunteers are under no obligation to stay as a volunteer.

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Here's what I understand from what I heard during the testimony. Hmmm..... let me put it this way. Suppose I was a quilt shop owner with 5 employees. I tell all the employees that the shop will be closing in 3 months because sales have fallen so much. I've done a really bad job of running my shop. I made a lot of bad decisions and now everyone must pay the price of those bad decisions.

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Hmm..... all the employees know the shop is closing so there's nothing to keep them from just quitting to go work someplace else leaving me with all the work to close the shop. I could hire some temporary employees who don't know the business but I'd rather have the experienced people. Get the idea so far? Ok.

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So... suppose I tell my employees that if they will stay with me until each department of the store closes I will give them an extra thousand dollars. I tell one employee I need her to stay until all the notions are sold. I tell another employee I need him to stay until all the storage rooms are empty. I tell another employee I need them to stay until all the books are sold. As each department is closed I will give them their bonus. This bonus has nothing to do with how well the job is done.... only that they stay until the job is finished.

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The employees want some kind of assurance that I will actually pay this bonus at the end. What's to keep me from saying I will pay the bonus just to keep them working but not pay it later? I write out a contract with them. Everybody signs it and we are all working to close the shop. Again, it's not based on performance but simply to retain the employee until his part is finished. (Performance bonus versus retention bonus)

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Ok, the employee who sells books does get them all sold in about two weeks so her part of the contract is fullfilled and she leaves. She earned her bonus. The next person empties out the stock room in about 4 weeks so his part of the agreement is done and he leaves. He earned his bonus. The other employees are still working with me to close the shop and earning theirs.

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Still following me? Ok. Suppose I meet a really nice person who I'm sure can help me keep my shop open. This person has the knowledge and experience that is needed to turn things around for me. I know this because I've seen other quilt shops stay open and become very successful with this person's help. I ask this person if he will help me but I can't afford to pay him. To my surprise the person says sure I'll help you. Just pay me one dollar.

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This person.... let's call him Mr. Smith.... goes over my books and comes up with a plan. Mr. Smith says that if I get a loan to buy different stuff he is absolutely sure my shop will stay open. He is absolutely sure it will be better than it was before. He shows me how I can use the loan to phase out some departments of my shop, start other departments, and repay my loan with the profits I will earn.

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So I get a loan from some friends, start buying new stuff, and reorganizing my shop. But wait.... I still have to pay the two employees their retention bonuses and pay the ones who are still with me too. It's a legal contract and right now I can't afford a court battle with lawyer fees, bad reputation, etc.

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So I pay the bonuses out of the loan I got from my friends. The friends find out about the bonuses and start screaming like crazy..... how could you pay bonuses when we loaned you the money to stay in business? Why would you pay bonuses when the employees did such a bad job at running the shop?

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They turn their anger onto Mr. Smith who is only trying to help me out. Some of the friends even threaten Mr. Smith. I wouldn't blame him if he just walked away because after all he's not getting paid to help me. Then the friends turn their anger toward the employees. They threaten to take legal action against the employees if they don't give the bonuses back. So the employees start giving back their bonuses because they are afraid of the mob mentality of my friends.

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My friends are very mad at me and Mr. Smith. They want heads to roll! The friends feel cheated and want some answers..... now! They call for Mr. Smith to come to a meeting with them where they can vent their anger over his bad decisions. Mr. Smith goes to the meeting. The friends spend the whole day venting their anger at Mr. Smith. Some know, but still don't understand, that he's not getting paid to turn my shop around. Others are truly interested in knowing what Mr. Smith believes is a good plan. At the end of the day Mr. Smith is still with me. He's still willing to help me turn my shop around.

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So that's my personal opinion and what I learned by listening to the testimoney of Mr. Liddy. He's doing his best to use his knowledge to turn AIG around.... and doing it for free. Yes, congress could fire him and choose another volunteer. But... who's going to volunteer to take over AIG after seeing the treatment that the first volunteer got? I think congress would do much better if they took the time to LISTEN more and vent less. I should do the same.

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Time for me to get to work.