Please, Oh please...send me some easier quilts!

My back aches. My left hand is throbbing from the excess of ruler work. My neck needs a brace (and about 18 uninterrupted hours in bed-ha!). You get the picture. I am 14 hours into the 2nd Stars for a New Day miniature in 2 weeks. The end is joyfully in sight, which is good. The deadline for entering this into MQX is looming at 5 days away, and the client really wants/needs to have it done. Her's just happened to be the 2nd one I quilted by the random nature of it being on the bottom on the hanger. I don't want her to miss her MQX experience and debut because I was having technical glitches.
By technical, I mean for some reason, this is the quilt that just about would not allow me to quilt it. I did the 1st of these rather seam-heavy, double-batted quilts without so much as a broken thread. It was completely smooth sailing. Then, between the two mini-monsters, I stitched a lap quilt (albeit a pantograph), and had no issues with th stitching. It looks great. Then as soon as I started this quilt, it was as though the voodoo curse of the quilt was in place. The thread broke about 15 times in my first hour of stitching. This is immensely annoying to have to pick out the stitches in order to knot and burry every break! I got to practice all kinds of vulgarities and obscenities though while the kids were at school. Fun being able to vent one's frustration without having to softly mutter nice things in a growly voice. I asked plenty of great quilters for advice on this problem, but all indicators were that it had come out of timing. I couldn't sew right to left OR bottom to top, whatsoever. Freaky. But, off on another quilt sandwich, it sewed like a dream in any direction. More Freaky.

OK, so it is something about this particular quilt that is causing the problems. Maybe the thickness is slightly different/more than the 1st quilt. Or maybe the white-on-white fabric is part of it (more problems on this). Either way, I have to do customs, and I have 2 king sized ones next in line. My guess is it is a combination of thickness and thickness. The quilting on the center of the feathered star broke 4 times. There is a LOT of bulk here.

You can see from the pictures that I am getting it quited. I have slowed my stitching down to a practical crawl speed to avoid the breaks. It's annoying...there are times on straight sections that you just want to zoom. I have not done those 3-hour stars (between the feathers),and I am really dreading them. I must formulate a good plan for how to do them without to much screaming. You may also notice that I have stitched the sections of this quilt differently than the first quilt. It's not been easy, because I like certain motifs. I have not been able to do the cross-hatching whatsoever on this quilt, which frustrates me. It is so lovely and versatile. Hopefully it will be equally as impressive as the other quilt. Nobody wants to think that they got the less desireable quilt. And hopefully I meet the Tuesday deadline!

Oh gosh golly... I just spoke with the owner of the quilt. She's so sweet to call, but she was concerned that the quilt is getting my body & may sanity. I feel bad...The quilt is coming along lovely, rest assured. And I will make it through the process fine as well. I'd rather have a challenging day quilting a custom any day of the week than be stuck with only an endless pile of pantographs! I just don't want to do another miniature for a while :-) I love your quilt; your technique is amazing. Thanks for bringing the quilt, and thanks for caring.

Finished Stars for a New Day #1

Yup, you read that right. #1. There's a number two coming up in a few days. I'm allowing my very sore left hand to rest in a wrist brace until at least Wednesday before I tackle the next one. Remember, this quilt is in miniature -- only 44" or so square, so accuracy is a must. I outline quilted nearly every shape - all in fact except the row of stars on point...what the client refers to as her "3-hour stars". There was just no way they were getting completely outlined. Let's be real-
I spent 17 hours quilting this mini-beast, after one of the borders was removed and flipped on account of it being accidentally inverted. Not bad on my 15 hour estimate I'd say, considering this is my first miniature. I love how it turned out. The texture is just delicious. It has a QD wool batt over Hobbs 80/20. As an aside, I dislike the QD wool as compared to the Hobbs Tuscany. It seems tougher, rougher. In the end, I'm not sure the difference is discernable though. Top threads are all coordinating Superior So Fine, with Bottomline bobbins. I'm not really sure if these are actually CW repros or not, but the fabrics just did not scream out for bolder colors or shiny threads. JMHO there.

The outer border is a departure for me. It's almost got an Aztek feel, but these axisymmetrical stars stumped my sense of design. I didn't want to just micro stipple around them. This next picture is about my favorite. The long sweeping feathers flank the more simply quilted 3-hour stars. Thise are about the best back-tracking feathers I think I have sewn. It's just a nice juxtaposition of simple straight cross-hatching with the graceful curves of the feathers. That is what quilt design is all about. Variety, simplicity, repetition. Move the eyes constantly, but allow them to settle for a second or two, here and there.

I still cannot believe that this feathered star is only 7" square. And it is totally outline stitched. Those little triangles are tinier than my fingernails. I actually had to rip out one corner of the curved cross-hatching because it had the wrong number of curves. Kinda maddening.

The front is subtle with matching threads for the most part. It's all about the immaculate piecing. The quilting is not for show, but rather to add a dimension. But from the back...

Here, it is all about the stitching designs. And it is fun. It moves, and is playful. It's all I hoped it would be.

Let's hope that number 2 goes faster, and with as few issues as this one had. I plan to use some different motifs so that these 2 friends have similar yet not identical miniature quilts.

Now, off to think about a couple simpler quilts before I dive into this insanity for 5 days.

Small

As you can see from the 6" square, this is one very tiny feathered star. Despite the size, she probably kept more of the triangle tips than I would have on a full size star! It's practically unimaginable that such a small unit can be constructed, and have it look so amazing. Just doing the outline/ditch quilting is a challenge because the thickness of the thread can make the triangle look like the tip was pieced off! It keeps me on my toes because I don't want to be the reason it looks anything but perfect.
I am about 9-10 hours into the quilting on this (see last post to get the entire quilt's view). I have done most of the ivory stitching - just the last half of the outer border remains I think. I have some spaces to stitch with another color, and (sigh) some more outline quilting of all the minute, narrow borders. The client has given me the carte blanche to "get carried away" so I will probably add a good bit of detail to the star tomorrow~

I'll leave you with a peek at the quilt, as seen from laying on your back under the frame. Interesting, eh?

Custom Insanity

And I mean that in only the best way. You all know that I adore custom work over a mundane pantograph any day. So I had 2 clients over on Friday to drop off not one, but two of these truly gorgeous quilts. This is the first of them - it is Sue Garman's "Stars for a New Day" pattern. I love custom work. I REALLY love it when the piecing is so completely and absolutely perfectly done. You have to hunt really hard to find a tipped triangle or anything out of square. I saw the back of the quilt as she was removing it from the hanger, noticing how perfect it was pressed. I just knew the front would be eye-popping. And wait just a moment, if you really want to drop your jaw, listen to this. The regular design for this quilt is for an 85" square quilt. This one is done in miniature - it's only 44" square!
Yea, I know...Holy Tasmanian devil, can she piece, or what?! I love this row of stars on point. They are only about 2-1/2" square, and she called them her "3-hour stars", since each took 3 hours to make. This was a project she and her friend (you'll see that quilt next week probably) stitched over the last year. They drove from New Hampshire so I could get to quilt them.

I started the quilt yesterday. Things on tiny scale make challenges for the quilting - like where do I put that "bang"? I have a couple places in mind for some feathering and curved cross-hatching, but the quilt will be a LOT of SID and micro quilting to make elements pop. The first thing I unfortunately encountered as I had it all loaded, and had the top border mostly quilted, was that the first long side of the outer border was reversed. UGH! It would have made the quilting in the 4 corners not symmetrical. Since it was an outer border, and since I had not stitched any on it yet, I offered to fix it (not at my cost mind you), and she agreed. Two hours later I was back loading it and quilting. This row of stars is a little odd to design for since they are offset every other star, but this is what I came up with. It was not my plan to SID all 76 of these stars, but I think this will look best in the end.

And if you don't really have a good grip as to the size of these pieces, look at this...The stars barely measure 2". I initially thought I might be able to feather the white around the geese, but after seeing this first hand, I realized immediately that was nuts.

This is my week's project. It is fun and doable. I'd be dying from the ruler work if it were any larger!