I went to the LQS class yesterday. This is the room before everyone arrived. The quilts on display are all done by male quilters. It's been advertized in the local media. I was amazed at the hand quilting done on some of them.





So here I am working on my project.

The teacher was extremely patient with everyone. I do think the quilt shop could have been much more helpful to the teacher though. Julianne had a slide show demonstration which we couldn't see because of the overhead lights. The lights couldn't be turned off so we couldn't see what was projected. Also, I wasn't aware.... before the class.... that Julianne had fabrics for sale. The quilt shop should have told everyone fabrics would be available during class. Several bought fabrics a few days before the class.

I took fabrics from my stash and now I understand I will need to take a class on choosing fabric "values" if I'm going to be doing portraits. It will be easier if I order fabrics from Julianne, which I plan to do from now on.

I also realized it will be easier to order patterns from Julianne too. But my desire is really to learn to do my own patterns. I like the idea of viewing different images of a photo and choosing how it will be created in fabric. The cropping out of backgrounds and putting in new ones and changing compositions appeals to me. But... learning photoshop is like getting a college degree in one day. It could be done if the person is smart enough.... but very frustrating for someone like me who isn't. Yup, it will be much easier to let Julianne do the patterns for me and well worth the cost!

Here's what I mean about the values. You see what I see? The colors don't blend together close enough. I have too much contrast between colors.

Even from a distance the light is much too light. The hairline is too choppy and not defined with the right fabric. It would look better if it blended a little better.

Even from a distance the values don't blend together enough. Notice the difference in the way the two pictures blend fabrics? The girl above is fabrics I chose, the girl below came in a pre-made practice kit from another portrait quilt teacher.... Margaret Buckleu.

Here they are from a further distance. Still too much contrast.

Julianne also asked if someone went home and did thread play on their portraits would they send her a picture of it to see. Well, I didn't say it but that's what I had in mind. I would love to combine stitching threads with the fabric to create portraits. I'm not sure thread play would work though. Why? Let me see if I can explain my thoughts.

There are 6 layers to the pattern. In some areas that's 6 layers of fabric plus 6 layers of fusible web glue that are sitting on top of each other. Add to that a background layer of fabric and batting and backing. Threadplay is usually done by sewing very fast and moving the piece around to get the effects. That's a lot of layers to be sewing through at a fast pace. I'll probably try the thread play anyway.... some time in the future.... just to satisfy my curiosity. Maybe after Christmas rush is over?

Now to the differences in how the two techniques are done. I love both techniques but I know there are people waiting for me to tell what I've learned.

Julianne's method:

Each layer is done in order from 1 through 6.

No light box is required. Each layer progresses from darkest to lightest.

Each layer uses the previous layer as the guide for placement of pieces.

Each layer is cut out as it's being worked.

Each layer is ironed on before you start the next one.

This method is very easy to do. She does all the hard "thinking" for you when she creates your pattern. In other words... you won't be saying to yourself.... now where should this piece be placed?

The drawbacks to this method? The paper patterns use a dotted design on the paper to trace and cut. Visually I kept loosing where I should be tracing. Also the stiffness of many layers on top of each other. This is not a problem though if you plan to put your finished portrait in a picture frame.

Margaret's method:

It requires a lightbox or else skill at understanding where to place the pieces. I used the original picture to help with my placements.

All pieces are cut out before putting any of it together. She recomends putting the pieces of each layer into a separate plastic bag until everything is cut out.

The pieces to trace are done in solid black which made it easier for me to visually see what the actual pieces are and what was not.

The layers don't go in number order and not necessarily all pieces of one layer at the same time. Although with practice this won't be too difficult.

What I found was that with this method, one layer will lay on top of another but the two combined layers don't line up in the same spot on the layers underneath. This creates a much thinner finished composite. In no one spot are there more than two layers of fabric.

Did I explain that right? I tried explaining it yesterday to Julianne and didn't have any more success than I'm having now. It's kind of something you have to actually do in order to understand it.

The drawback to this method? The cutting out of extremely tiny pieces and rembering where they should be placed and figuring out in what order. Also remembering what the tiny slivers of fabric were in the pattern. What might look like a highlight for the hair could actually be a highlight for the clothing etc.

Well, that's what I've learned so far. I love the ease of one method and the thinness of the other method. I don't know if I've helped myself or simply created more heartache. My desire to create portrait quilts is even stronger now. Gaining more knowledge about creating these makes it very hard for me to concentrate on machine quilting for others.

Hard as it will be for me..... the portraits will be put into a ufo bag for after Christmas rush is over. My customers come my own work, always. They are my friends and I don't want to disappoint a friend.

As my friend Dawn would say about me..... you can see the object of your journey just ahead, you only need to find the path around all the boulders laying in the way. So with that said, I'm off to do some quilting before I leave for guild meeting.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I got several suggestions for classes in my email and I appreciate them all. Several people sent comments but your "no comment reply" is turned on so I couldn't email you to ask for more details. Now that I have an idea about what classes to do; I can work on details of how to present them.

But first here is today's finished quilt. It worked out really, really nice.


Here is another picture of this quilt. Sorry it's blurry.


Here is a close up of one of the blocks. As you can see the stitching is hard to see from the front.


So I'll show you the stitching from the back. I did line dancing on the blocks.


A leaf design on the sashing, le lace on the inside border, and a leaf design on the outside border.


Another picture of the sashing and the circles done on the inside block frame.


I had fun doing those freehand circles. I tried several different ways of creating circles just so I could record them in my sketch book for the future.


When I looked at the quilt through the camera I realized it was perfect as the basis for my Saturday class. I lay it on the table and drew some of the blocks on paper to be used in the class.


Speaking of the classes at the shop. What I said in my post yesterday sounded like the owner didn't want to replace the old machine. That was wrong. I guess I was just in a pity me mood. I need to work on myself to stay out of those moods! Or at the very least keep myself from telling the world what type mood I'm in.

The shop owner does want to get a new machine. I believe between the two of us we will get one but just not right away. One reason I stayed several days in Paducah was to check out several machines and pick up information packets to give to the shop owner. We haven't had a chance to get together since I got back. First because she had other time commitments and then when she was ready to get together I got sick.

The shop classes started a couple of years ago with me doing a simple demonstration to show what is possible to do with a household machine on a Hinterberg frame. Everything I can do with a Gammill machine can be done with a household machine. It just has to be done differently. The demonstrations expanded to actual classes because so many were buying machines and frames then standing there in front of their machine saying..... now what?

I WANT people to buy machines and get excited about doing machine quilting. I want others to know how I feel when I see a stitching design done on a top. Hmmm..... maybe I'm not explaining this well enough. Ok, you know how it is when you go to a quilt show or a guild meeting or a fabric shop and see a new piecing design that excites you so much that you want to make one yourself? So you start looking for classes or books to learn how it is made. Then you are so happy about learning and making one yourself that you show it to everyone else. Well that's how I am about machine quilting. I see new stitching techniques or designs that get me excited enough to want to learn them...... then show everyone else what I did. The trouble is that when I want to show someone else.... I'm in the studio alone. No one to see it. This blog is the next best thing to having people around.

I can't tell you how many times I try a new stitching design.... it works out perfectly..... I stand there saying..... Oooooo that's fantastic, you guys outa try this..... but there is no one there to hear me. So I keep my excitement for a time when I can share it with others.

There are new people reading my blog that may not know my history of machine quilting so I'll tell you about it. For over 20 years I used a Singer upholstery machine rigged up to a table and track system to do machine quilting. I could only quilt 5 inches of space with each pass over the quilt before advancing. I was still able to do very large 15 or 20 inch designs in spite of the 5 inch limitations.

I own a Gammill machine because the Singer machine just wasn't right for my business anymore. I was constantly having to load it into a car to make an all day trip out of town to get it re timed and tuned up. It was wore out from all the years of work. When the trips out of town began being a monthly trip I decided it was time to quit the business or get a new machine. To make a story shorter..... I got a Gammill. I don't have a Gammill because its large enough to do big designs. I have it because it's sturdy enough to run for hours and hours to do what I want it to do. To be honest any of the larger sturdy machine would have been adequate. Whether it be an A1, Prodigy, or any other of the major brands.

BUT... if a person is only planning to quilt their own tops then an industrial machine is not really needed. If someone wanted only to do a few tops as a spare income then a smaller machine is fine too. It really is possible to do the same things I do with my Gammill on a smaller machine. The machine you buy should fit the type of work you plan to do.

On my trip to Paducah I looked specifically for affordable machines for those people who want only to do their own tops. I looked for machines that could be used to create the ART of machine quilting without taking out a second mortgage to own it.

Ok, I've rambled on long enough. I have to finish making paper copies of the class materials for Saturday. It won't be the same as actually using a machine. BUT.... it's a start.

I had Jewell sitting on the cutting table while I did some pinning. She was cooing and making happy sounds which I naturally had to investigate what had her so occupied.


It had to be this..... She starred at it and cooed at it. YUP, I think I have a future quilter.


I have a quilt on the machine that is going to take more than one day to finish. Not an overly large quilt but lots of small designs.

I tried going around the blog ring yesterday but the new changes are not very friendly. I liked it better when there was a members list to choose from. I could look at 5 or 6 and come back the next day to look at the next 5 or 6. The way it is now I must flip through the ring one at a time starting from the first one in the ring. It takes my computer 3 and a half minutes to simply go from one to the next without even reading. If I'm trying to get to blog member number 11.... that's more than 30 minutes just to get there. If I must flip through 60 or 70 members to get to the next one to be read.... I'll practically spend the whole day just getting to the right blog. It must be even harder for those who have dial up computers. Maybe ring surf should have listened to the saying...... if it ain't broke.... don't fix it!

So what do I do now? I can't spend hours getting to the next blog to read each morning. I can't bookmark all of the members on my computer. It may be just as hard for the other members to get to my blog too. I guess for now I'll have to stop reading and hope it is only temporary. Maybe if many people stop ring surfing.... the owners will take the hint and put it back the way it was.

Creative Sunday

No finished quilt today. It's turning out to be a more than one day quilt. It has very friendly borders (wave a lot) and the batting is Sew Perfect brand which does not want to behave for machine quilting. I did get the outside borders done and its all stabilized. I should be able to finish it today.


I seem to have had lady luck on my side yesterday. I was quilting along all day without a single thread break until near the end of the day. The thread broke.....so naturally.....I first check to see what may have caused the break. Sometimes the thread will come off the cone and somehow get caught on the back side handle. I always look there first before pulling extra thread to re thread the needle. Look what I saw....


The thread break had occurred just as the cone ran out of thread. This is the very tail end of an empty cone. I didn't have to go through the whole process of re threading along the thread path and re checking tension. All I had to do was put on a fresh cone, tie on, and pull through the guides to the needle. I sure wish lady luck would be with me when I pick my next lottery numbers!

Sunday is usually a day of rest for me and for spending time with my daughter. She and I went out for some baby stuff shopping. We kept having to find a place for a bathroom break. My daughter said it felt like every five minutes the baby was taking it's little hands (or feet) and beating on her bladder like it was a drum or something. Thunk.......thunk........thunk, thunk, .........thunk.....thunk.....(more urgent) thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, its time to go NOW! All I could do was giggle and say.....I remember baby girl, you did the same thing. Now its payback time.

We finally got through some shopping then stopped for Chinese food. She is craving crab legs. Then, naturally, eating makes her sleepy so she brought me home early.

I had some extra time so I decided to work on a new design wall idea I've had for a few days. I wrote all about it on my other blog. I think it is soooo neat and time saving. I wonder why I didn't think of it before?

Blog labels

Oh how marvelous! I learned something new for my blog today. How to separate the labels and or titles so that similar posts are together. This is great! Now I can put all my helpful hints together in one place for my customers to come back time after time to review them.

Oh! and the techniques I use for creating quick quilts. Like the 10-2-? or 8-2-2 quilts.

Oh my! and another thing, I can put organizing ideas in one place too. The possibilities are almost endless. Now why didn't I learn this before? A senior brain takes longer to learn new things I guess.

Hmm...now let me think....this creates a dilemma for me. Do I create a second blog just for quilting hints, organizing, and techniques (that are my own creation) or go back and change all the past posts and keep them all in one blog?

I will give myself some time to mull over the situation before deciding to make drastic changes. This is one more thing to write on my to do list for the new year. The list is getting pretty long.