Handi Quilter Retreat, Installment #1

So this was my big, fun weekend away to Utah, to attend a Handi Quilter My Story Retreat. Myself and 16 others were selected from over 170 others to become the faces & stories of HQ's 2011 advertising campaign. We all wrote and submitted our quilting story that brought us to becomming an owner of a Handi Quilter machine, and then HQ did the rest. We were a tremendously diverse group, as they'd aim for in an advertising campaign - each person selected because they help to fill a demographic...we come from all corners of the USA and one gal was from Canada. We are a full range of ages. There are "chosen ones" for each of the longarm machines that HQ sells. There are quilters who are seasoned and then those that may have not really ever used a longarm before. It was really quite surprisingly a diverse, yet tight group by the end of 2 and a half days.
We all met at the hotel in the afternoon before our first scheduled dinner. It was fun getting to know what each did. Brenda Groelz, director of marketing and Mark Hyland, CEO, joined us for dinner. Mark is quite a charismatic character, sharing his almost outrageous story of how he was brought to HQ nearly 5 years ago. Brenda has been there a few years, but is the former editor of Quiltmaker magazine. She has a tremendous eye for what she does, and is so well regarded.

The following morning (after getting nearly no sleep for a 2nd night), we all got up and went by shuttle to the Handi Quilter office. It's unassuming from the outside (above), but inside is a mecca of cloth, inspiration and greatness. Here is a picture of all of us as we entered the company for the first time. Can't you just feel the excitement?!! As we went in the doors, everyone in the company (most of their 50 employees) lined the staircase, and showered down cans of silly string (not directly on us mind you!). Balloons were everywhere for a truly festive feeling. A different HQ employee presented each of us with a bag, containing the first of many fantastic gifties. This bag had a sample quilting of each of our names (part of what they do to test-run each machine before it ships), goodies from Moda including a layer cake, jelly roll and charp square pack, and a few other odds & ends. It would have been great if we only got that much stuff. As you'll see as I post about this trip this week, we were showered with wonderful goodies. They truly see us as part of their family.

In their 2-story entryway was a large banner with all of our pictures. It brought tears to my eyes to see my daughter Sophie up there larger than life. I was really starting to miss her by then. Above the banner are many great quilter's sayings. These sayings are stenciled over every window and door in the facility. It's just so fantastic and warm. My favorite was in the studio, "Blessed are the children of quilters for they shall inherit the quilts". Just awesome.

First off, we got a tour of the space where the machines are assembled. Individual parts are manufactured wherever the highest quality per cost can be obtained. It's really cool to see a flank of Avante machines all sitting there with half their guts assembled. Gotta love the engineering side of it all. We learned about how they burn in and test each machine. Below is the CEO Mark showing us the type stitching that is done to fully test the machines.

There's so much to share about this fantastic journey I have been on, but I think I will break it into installments so that I don't have to write 10 tons today. I took a redeye home last night and am kind of whipped & whooped today. Stay tuned...

More Doodles

A sneak peek at my weekend...

quilting

silence

no-whining

camaraderie

good food (maybe wine too)

shopping (one can dream!)

no quilting deadlines

longarm maching education

a few photographs & videos

smiles

I can hardly wait!

And I am still frantically scrapping in my spent mind for what my "tip" will be to present to the retreat & HQ. What do I do that is unique from others that makes it a better thing?? What little aspect of my quilting routine would help others if it were known?? Maybe it's my red glittered shoes (just kidding) or the plush foam squares I lined my studio with (seriously, they are heavenly to stand on for several hours). I'm leaning towards something else, but it's pretty lame too (gulp!). So I am dabbling in the angle that the one thing that makes my quilting nicer is how I approach the general design of it. Not always, but sometimes! I have been doodling a lot this week, and may try to incorporate them into my videotaped "tip"

Unless I chicken out and go for the red sparkled shoes approach. Afterall, I am not Ms. Quilt Whisperer by a long shot, and these are really fancy shoes!

Have a fantastic weekend and I'll hopefully be back Wednesday.

T minus 2 and much more

I am leaving for the HQ quilting retreat in just 2 days. I should be frantically busy, but oddly I am not. I need to get off my duff and at least make a list of things not to forget so that I don't arrive without something like undies or other pertinent items. I seem too obsessed with getting one last quilt on the frame, which Lord knows, doesn't stand an ice cube's chance of being finished before noon Saturday!

I have two tasks that I know I will have to do while at HandiQuilter. One is to have a "bio" or "My quilting story" taped for their website. It will be done in front of a quilt that I made. I am using this one, finished recently. I'm not really sure what my story will be, but that part I can wing I think. The other thing that they will be doing which I know of for certain is taping each of us giving our "quilting tips". This one haunts me. I do what works for me, and seriously, not much of it seems all that original. But becuase I really love to custom quilt much (MUCH) more than I like to do edge-to-edge patterns, I think I may use the following as my tip to newer quilters. I'd suggest to them to draw and doodle constantly. I have a notebook in the car. I doodle quilting designs when my kids are at appointments. I look for usable patterns most anywhere. People that don't know what to quilt, haven't opened their eyes fully. Just last night I was sitting where Sophie takes dance. There is this chair, covered with what is probably a sheet from 1975. It is a hideous paisley print. At least to some, it is hideous. To me it was magical. It had so many great quilting swirls and feathers. I stared at it for 45 minutes (yes, the one time I had a needle and thread in my possession, but not a pen and paper!). After the kiddos went to be, I tried to recreate it. I drew this to the half-way point and then manipulated it within software. I don't know that I'd quilt every detail, but it's the type inspiration I love.
As promised, here's a couple quilts finished recently. This is a client's quilt, done in really pretty fallish colors. She wanted a light-custom. The border has a faked-out double feather/leaf pattern. If it were not for the darn Rainbow's thread I used, this entire quilt would have been very fast to do. I had to sew at a snail's pace because the thread kept wanting to shread, and I couldn't figure out why! Super slow, all was mostly fine.



I did a continuous leaf & swirl pattern in the tan part of the logs and a modified feather circle in the colored part. The threads, 2 different ones, were both Rainbows. The one for the colored blocks is one I use on batiks often, as it has many deep jewel tones. It was perfect here.



Back in early August, my aunt from CT brought me several of her quilts for quilting. I'm onto #2 (#3 is loaded up next). She's a prolific quilter, but this top is one she found at a garage sale! It has pretty soft pink and mauve tones. I couldn't quite "whisper" a good custom out of the heavily printed, geometric top, so I did the Splash panto. I like this one, despite it being rather time consuming. It's dense and has many, many scrolls! It makes a supple, soft quilt though!

I'm not sure if I will get to posting again before I go, but I want to leave you with one last bit of info. If you like to machine quilt, either by longarm or domestic, and you'd like more training on quilt design, then this is for you. I'm talking about the Quilt Whispering class that Carla Barrett teaches. I took this class in January of this year on MQResource.com. Carla has separated from that site now and has her own entity. It runs for 3 weeks, with lessons daily. About 1/4 of the lessons are on machine. Most of them are conceptual, and done on paper. It was a fantastic class. She helps decode the best designs for a unique quilt. Remember this quilt?...She assisted with the design of it, and it later went on to win Rookie of the Year at MQX. You'll love the class. So, go check it out... www.quiltwhisper.com. Her website is here too... http://featheredfibers.wordpress.com/

Whatcha waiting for?? Go check it out!

Tuesdays are Just For Me

Greetings Tuesday quilters! It's a nice, sunny 60F day here today-hardly a good day to sew, but I think I will manage. I am sort of in a wind down mode with customer quilting this week, not wanting to start anything that I might have to leave on the frame over the long weekend since I will be away 4 days. I just cannot 100% trust that my other half won't accidentally leave the studio/basement door open, allowing my cat access to her forbidden land. Besides, I am leaving the machine open so that upon my return I can get going with a custom quilt for a Folsom California guild. The backing fabric has been reordered, so it may still be a few days.

I had been working on two commission quilts, but the owner of one of them (partial top shown on the left) pulled the plug on her's recently. All it lacks is the brown borders. You see, the quilt below was the "inspiration" quilt. It's just not the right size for her. And I am supposed to make her one in this same spirit, same fabric lines, etc. The word "similar" appeared in the contract, as did the names of the Freespirit Annabella and Treetop Fancy fabric lines. She was made aware that both lines are out of print, and finding exact fabrics is hard. I did have some of them still, and did locate a few, some of which were not in the original, but still that coordinated. Out of courtesy, I sent her a picture of where I was. And she flipped. She thinks it is completely different, in design and fabric. She wants her money back, which is definitely not happening. I am livid over her attitude. I think this may be the end of my making commisisons without 100% payment up front. The kicker her is that I will have a tough time selling her's beause it is a sideways twin - 65"x85", and because the birds & butterflies are fussy cut, it will only work as a lap quilt or in an eclectic fashion on a twin or day bed. If you know of anyone that might like this quilt finished, do send them my way!




I am spending a couple days this week doing a quilt for my aunt, and the rest of the time laying low, working on my own tops. Here's my Stonehenge fabrics top, designed to look like a mosaic floor. This afternoon, I will add the next border. It's not laying 100% smoothely, thanks to that rosette (no great surprise here!), but I truly suspect that I can quilt it into submission.
And the other quilt on my docket... After losing the pattern in EQ7, and really hating how my ribbon row was not matching up well, and then ordering more of both batiks (yes, there are several colors of taupe there, despite the picture)...I redid the border. I have about half of the ribbons appliqued on. I also have finished the next border, with the "stained glass" panels. This row will be heavily appliqued with more grape vines. Then a scallop border will be cut.

It has lotsa room for fun & fancy quilting. I can hardly wait to start that design. Nothing fancy with the stained glass insertions here - just trying to pop some purple into the quilt.

Time for me to get to work now!

Chores in Preparation

My weeks have been a blur lately. I can hardly believe it is now October. Everywhere I turn, there are things tugging at me, taking me away from my quilting. It's only going to continue as the next 9 months pass. You see, we have been silently gearing up for a full downstair's renovation. For a few years it was just me talking about wanting it. Then my husband has managed to get onboard. Last month we refinanced what was left on our house loan, taking out a chunk of change for this renovation. Reconcilliation on his part: It is finally going to happen. I spent a few weeks playing with the plan for the remodel. This week I actually met with the builder. Many of you don't know that 19 years ago, at the ripe old age of 24, I designed and built my first house. I have a lot of "hands-on" in my blood. I "needed" to think out the design before meeting the builder. We have this dysfunctionally small eat-in-breakfast area, very small kitchen and small dining area. Considering that the house is 2300 square feet, these are unusually small. If we didn't love our neighborhood and yard and upstairs rooms, we'd probably think about a new house, but moving does not seem practical now. And keeping the house in showing shape with 3 kids looks like an impossible task.

The renovation will involve 3 of the 5 downstairs rooms. The back wall of the house will bump out only 6 ft, adding 200 square feet, but the overall layout of the kitchen will be drastically improved. The downside to this bump is that my beloved back gardens and patio will be in a shambles for a while. Five years ago, we (make that "I" mostly) put in this gorgeous paver walkway and patio. I dug for 6 weeks, to a depth 12" below the ground, then refilled it with gravel, sand and paver bricks. It's been lovely and functional. But the walkway on one side of the garage must move too. As do the gardens there to make room for the tractor that will dig the foundation. Here's what it looked like in about June...

It has 3 very large rhododendrons (about 5' tall in the ground) and 2 forsythia bushes, and countless perennials. It is lush and feels like a paradise...like a secret getaway. Well...the walkway is just about where the new wall of the house will be. And we plan to start the building in April, before the plants really show in the garden. So...we are digging up all of the ones that we want to keep this fall, before we have a frost. At about 3am this morning, my epiphany came that I really needed to not wait on digging them up. I'd do it today.

The above picture shows the back of the house. The deck will go. So will that bay window. I have the remains of a raised vegetable garden in the back of the backyard. It was very overgrown with weeds because I didn't use it this year. We cleaned it out this morning and it is the holding garden for whatever I dig out of the back garden. This actually worked out pretty well - just about enough room for what I wanted to keep. The resulting garden is unsigntly now. My husband gave up after taking out the 3 large rhodies, and so the forsythia bushes are still there. The ground is ugly, large holes there now. But mostly the plants I love are out. I took the lavendar, lillies, shasta daisies, irises, a few this-n-thats, and the Baptisia that once grew in my late grandfather's yard which is more than 55 years old. Here's my hope for the next spring/summer... condensed into a 6'x12' garden, but it is not gone. It is hard to dig these all up so far before I know we will see any tangible progress on the house, but it is truly step 1. Now I can go sew this month without this lingering over my head. And I can dream about things like granite countertops and the glass backsplash tiles! By November 1 we need to take up the very heavy patio sidewalk, but that is still 4 weeks away!!

And just so you don't think I haven't been quilting (in addition to all other of life's complications), here's a sneak peek at a customer quilt I will show later this week - very pretty fall-ish fabrics, and harder than necessary quilting using Rainbows thread. Life is never easy (pretty, but not easy!).

Friday Alas

Clearly this week has gotten the best of me. I have missed my weekly Tuesday post by 3 days, but that was partly because there was nothing but frustration to blog about. I have had fussing Thermo students and too much homework to grade! I had kid's afterschool events 2 days this week, and met with a builder for nearly 2 hours yesterday (we are remodeling the downstairs). I went to add the swag border on my grape applique quilt, to find that the corner blocks did not align very well. I then went to my EQ7 file to check if I used the right pattern, and the damn thing was an empty file! I just about croaked. OK, not really. I sputtered a TON of foul mouthed words, and threw the quilt into a heap on the table. And there it sat for several days. I since located a paper version of the swag pattern and am currently reworking the pattern so that I hand applique all the swags after the background is readded. Oh, and of course I discovered that I used the wrong fabrics on the inner border and it had to be redone, and naturally I did not have any left of one color, so more was ordered. Blah, blah, blah!... So today before I got a long-winded call from my son's school, I made one of the 16 backgrounds for the swags. Maybe I can get a few more done later-



I spent most of this week knocking off customer quilts. I am trying to clear a good chunk of my backlog before I take off for the HQ retreat in a week. Upon my return, I have a large custom quilt that must be quilted for the Folsom Quilt and Fiber Guild. It will be their raffle quilt.



The only thing I can really say I did is put the binding on this quilt. I chose a fun stripe, with hints of metallic. Now I need more TV stitching...

Here's one of the lap quilts finished for a client. It's already off enroute to Texas, probably due to arrive by Monday. It's a fun pattern I have not seen done before. The fabrics are lots of lovely shades of tan & taupe. I used the Plumage pattern.

...and a closeup,

This runner is from a local client. Actually, she has been a friend of my mom's since grade school, so basically family. She drops off runners every month or two for quilting.

Have a good weekend, and try to be more prolific than I have been this week!

The Princess of the Fair

We took the kids to the Fair yesterday. We went into the grandstand for what we thought was to just get some cash from the ATM, when they were just signing kids under 55lb for the Pedal Tractor Pull. My boys naturally flocked right to the line. Then Sophie decided she'd try too. Look who went home with the 20-41lb 1st prize?!! In all her glory, she won her first trophy (check out the tractor on it! ha ha) yesterday. She was less pleased that she didn't get either the pink or purple ribbon to go with it though!
The brothers were more than jealous, as one did get a purple (7th place) ribbon and the other really wanted a trophy, and not a 3rd place ribbon!

Holiday Stars

Thirteen hours later, my quilt for a guild show in October is finally done. This is also the quilt I will take with me to the HQ retreat in 2 weeks. Some of you may recognize these blocks from last year from the Row Robin swap. I think I have used maybe half of the blocks from that swap. The others were ones I made from the same fabrics.
I wanted to custom quilt this top as nicely and as creatively as I could. I made it a goal that my sashings would not be quilted in an ordinary or boring fashion. I guess you could say I really wanted to think outside the box a little bit. In the end, I absolutely LOVE how the sashing quilting brings another dimension to the quilt of otherwise ordinary star blocks.

There is a proverbial ton of pebbling in this quilt...more than a mile's worth of thread went into the pebbling (and other quilting). I think that the pebbling and circles in the sashings pulls the quilt together.

This was the first time (I think) that I have pebbled down the spines of the feathers. I am considering doing this for a much larger border soon (10"), so I thought I'd try it out on something of mine first. First off, I just LOVE these feathers too. Secondly, I have feathered so much on this quilt and the last one I did that I am starting to see definite improvements in my backtracking accuracy. Having 2 batts helps that as well. I added a layer of cheapo-Joann's thinnest polybatt over my usual 80/20 batting. I do notice that this quilt is not a lofty as the last one, which had wool as the top layer instead of the poly. But the added layer makes all of the quilting that much more visible. Here's some closer looks at the blocks...

There are several repeated blocks on the top, and I tried to quilt them the same to be a bit more cohesive on the sampler. Still, the quilting does vary a lot.

The lighter green fabric is very pretty on this one - it has a slight metallic sheen. I wish I had more of this fabric throughout.

These friendship star variants were made by me. Quick, easy and not too boring.

I like the look of the curved cross-hatching. I quilted that on several blocks like this.

Here's another block I made several of (I think most of them went into the table runners last year though!). I love the touch of magenta, and the quilting too is very pretty.

I actually nearly forgot about a horrible near-disaster I had on this quilt. I was stitching along, doing the circles using a template when all of a sudden plexi-glass went all over the place. Aw crap! I actually hit the template with the needle! Now I have inadvertently hit the hopper foot on the templates a time or two and chipped the edge of the templates, but this was a mess. My needle immediately broke in half and kept on stitching for about an inch and a half before my brain registered what was happening and I could stop the machine. After removing the well jammed needle half, I realized the gross damage that stitching with half a needle causes. Thank goodness this quilt is actually mine and not a customer's. It damaged both sides of the fabric. It is along a seamline, thankfully, and is much less visible because of that. I treated the area with "no fray" and will probably forget about it! It will just go down into my chronicles of Longarm Quilting Adventures.

Here's my favorite view...notice how the circle quilting forms the stars at the point where there might be a stone in the sashing? I love when motifs are hidden and unplanned, and then discovered when the quilt comes off the frame.

And lastly, a few pictures from the back...

I must get it bound in the next 2 weeks. UGH. So many things on my plate right now. Before my trip...I must quilt at least 3 customer quilts, two table runners and if time permits, one of my aunt's quilts too. AND...do a little fixit job to Primavera before it gets sent off next week. First though, dinner and the kitchen are calling me.

Go sew and have a good weekend.

Pinwheel Party

This is a sweetly colored Valentine's Day quilt made by one of my customers. It's the Pinwheel sampler from here. Many of the fabrics have the words "love" hearts on them. The owner wanted it to be warm, and to show the quilting definition. I suggested wool, which is delightful quilted, but this particular package of Hobbs Tuscany wool was disappointingly thin. Plus it only comes in a cream color, so I added a white muslin liner underneath the top. The white faric on the top of the quilt is not overly heavy so the ivory batt made the white look not bright. It, unfortunately, also makes any intrimmed threads or seams a touch visible too. That is just one of the reasons I truly hate working with whites. You have to get very good quality material and be ultra vigilant about pressing away from the white.
I think that the customer will be pleased with how the quilting shows. To offset the thinner wool, I added a layer of white Hobbs 80/20 underneath of it. This was to increase the weight/thickness, but also because the back of the quilt turned out to be half white too (and I didn't notice that initially. With the heavy quilting, the two layers don't seem overly bulky. The wool just gives fantastic definition to the feathers and pebbling. The thread is all Superior So Fine, 7 bobbins of it! That's 1750 yards to be exact! Here's some closer-up shots of several blocks...

And a look at the entire back. Yes, another pinwheel...

And a couple of my more favorite blocks from the backside.

dontcha just love the gentle ribboning around the pinwheel?

Aren't you ready to have a Pinwheel Party now?