Thoughts On Micro-Stippling

I'm micro stippling this quilt because the fabric begs for it, really, it does, and that is the only reason.  Pictures will follow next time, sorry.  I'm "micro-ing" the inner square of the Irish chain like quilt and leaving the house, which I fussy cut to be in the center of the square, free, to sort of puff out.  I may or may not trapunto.

The result is really more pleasing than I thought I could produce.  I seem to be keeping a very even look.  I'm managing to get about 1 1/5 diamonds done in a day and that is a rather large area of a freakin' huge quilt.  It does however make the quilt real flat, and the thread is a quilting thread weight, so that is part of it, but I did that because it is intended to receive actual use as a bed quilt. 

I'm sure this will remedy somewhat with the gorgeous texture I know it will have after I wash it.  And yes, this quilt needs to be washed after about 6-8 years sitting waiting for me to muster the courage to do it justice.  I am glad I waited now, because I have a lot more skill at machine quilting then I would have even just a year ago.  Partly due to watching You-tube, partly from just getting some more quilts through.  So I am just really proud of myself to be finishing it at last.

Micro-stippling is great for getting the frustration out that builds up when you care for two very young kids.  You can kinda just get mad at the empty space on the quilt and declare it will be destroyed with your meanders.  It harms nobody, and pleases the thread companies, and at the end of the game one may actually finished the UFO that has haunted them on the shelf for years.  Plus, it is something that actually shows, and it stays, read does not need to be re-wiped or moped again in a hour.

Micro-Stippling also is not great for people that like to finish all at once.  It is best done in small, do-able chunks, so as not to leave your shoulders and thumbs/forefingers about to fall off.  I'll admit to a couple mornings being super sore from it, ah, wait or was that lifting my 30lb. 1 year old?  Yes, 1, no longer a baby.  Awww.

I finally filled a bunch of bobbins up.  I'm using blendable variegated thread, but two different brands and two different color ways on top and bottom.  I have been changing my needle extremely frequently and using micro-tex sharps. 

I am also attacking, (since I'm on the subject) my bags of scraps in vacuum bags in the garage.  Every morning when I start the wash, I grab a few handfuls and bring them in to get ironed and cut out in strips, squares, or templates as appropriate.  This should create quite the scrap quilt.  And satisfaction that what previously took up a whole lotta room, will have been gone through.  Plus, I will have a quilt all cut and be ready to just sit down and piece it.  Yes, sometime in the future when I have some time to sit down and piece.  I guess one steals those moments while the dishes wait, and the kids watch Mighty Machines.  Sometimes I too, feel like I'm working hard doing mighty things, with my might machine.

Binding

This is how I did my binding last time.  Yup, rolled around a Dixie cup and the little scrap triangles stuffed inside the cup.  Nice, neat, and because the cup is waxed it removes really neat if you want.

I went on a binge ordering bobbins because I reached the point where I was unwinding bobbins by hand just to use them again because I was out.  So lets just say I am stocked up for awhile.  I like to wind a lot at a time of the same thread, especially piecing thread.  And then of course I am always using the opposite machine of what I already have a bobbin in such color wound for.

So here is the quilt that I bound with this binding:

Made as a house warming gift for Aunt Laura my sister-in-law.  The sage green exactly matches her wall, and I made the quilt before I saw the wall so it is happenstance.

Lesson learned quilting this quilt is that let yourself be free when you machine quilt.  The quilting went so fast, I was ultra relaxed about it and just did what came into my head, some loop de loops, some swirls, I just went with the fabric.

All the fabrics are from stash, even the backing was on-hand, so it felt really good to know that a whole quilt came out of my collection, and no it is not now just sitting on the shelf collecting dust, but out doing good service in the world.

Flannel "Gee's Bend" Quilt

"Mamma I'll help you bind it!"

Just fun to work with extra hi-loft! Warm, flannely, and the perfect project for Feb. to make me feel like I actually do accomplish something. I bound it in navy satin blanket binding because that's what I had and I wanted to finish.

It is amazing the transition from top, to quilted top. This quilt has simple fastly done quilting, and yet it took a, "I'm not sure I'm gonna pull this one off quilt" to a love it!

Just the right size for two little boys to fight over!

Christmas Sewing

Image: Of A Winter Beachwalk

The challenge of sewing with out either of my sewing machines, has become translated in the question of -What can I serge????

After some much needed time to myself, I made a runner which I serged with a rolled edge and some coordinating napkins. I have also been randomly serging scraps from the flannel bag aiming for another quilt for the boys room. One I want to tie with floss or yarn because when was the last time I have ever done that?

The serger is great for instant gratification. You can eliminate turning right side out if you want to. The feeling of just humming along puts one at ease and your stresses slide away tumbled beneath the threads of the loopers and the needles.

I think about the freedom sewing gives one to create the things their mind envisions. These kinds of creations can be achieved so speedily with the serger and I am so thankful for mine.

I bought some roses to lift the mood as the temperatures here reach down below freezing heartily. "Rosy Outlook", I kid you not their label read. I tried fabric, I tried walking around the nursery filling my paper sack with paperwhites to force for Christmas.

What it was that really cheered me up from the gloom that sneaks in with the tiredness new babies can cause mothers; was just about five minutes at my serger and coming out with a table runner ready for Christmas and it it not yet December.

I'm starting early this year. Last year it was so late when we got a tree due to friends and so many things going on. This year it is about being early and more prepared so things are ready and I can rest and enjoy.

I also finished cross stitching a stocking for my son, and have started on one for baby. I am so proud of the results I am producing on linen, that seems like a major victory after my first attempt seeming so difficult.
It is really true that once you start evolving to work with good materials you don't want to go back to what you were doing before.
The red tug heads out to meet a tanker, pushing past the grey water out to the sun behind the cottony clouds. I sit on the sofa and think about how nice it feels just to sit for awhile and watch the sea not sure which direction it would like to go.

My Sewing Machines Are At The Doctor

What does a girl do without her sewing machines? I wouldn't know, I'm facing new territory with them both in for redo at the same time! It's a hard feeling, knowing that you cannot sew. Thank God for repairmen. And yes it was way overdue.

I was free motion quilting, everything going along smashingly, and whack, it just died, stopped, hand wheel seized. Well the goal of finishing the quilt by Thanksgiving, is likely toast. Ah well, there is a method to all of this.

I have been considering getting a fast stitching machine, a 15-1600spm'er. I have yes been thinking on this lots lately. Hopefully my machines didn't hear me and and one decided to die or give up, or just got plain tired of making me happy. As if to say - oh you don't really want me, well, I'll show you!

Sewing machines have distinct personalities; some, one can live with, and some, one cannot. They have temperaments and little sticky stupid hills they want to die on to, and sometimes seem so much like people it is scary.

A sane person would use the time to clean the studio, rearrange, or maybe even cut fabric for a new quilt. I, the philosopher, will think on machines of course.

Do I want to get to know someone new? I imagine tackling a new machine is like dating again after a divorce, and a woman maybe just gets to the point where she just cannot handle men for a while. Or perhaps more like whiney kids, whom you love, but you're just not sure you want to be around them for the rest of the afternoon. So you dole out a fruit strips and pray that Thomas the Train can give you enough break just to gain your balance.

Or maybe the excitement of a new gadget just takes over? For such a creative type, I do love my machines. Strange. I keep waiting for that machine without buttons, some sort of holographic morph out of Star Trek (which yes I would never watch but my husband makes me) and I tell myself, yes that is when I will buy a new machine. A buttonless machine.

And maybe the man upstairs has other plans. I know the tool appears just as the teacher, when one is ready, when one demands good tools. We cling to old hairdryers yes don't we, when their are ceramic/inoic blasts of blissful dryers out there that give us the hairstyle of dreams, so why does sentiment cling like fuzz to the bobbin case of our insanity. Ah yeah?

I like using thread, I was doing so great, emptying spools on this quilt, and now perhaps I need time to think on its completion, and being machineless will give me that space.

Mmmm

When machine quilting a quilt sometime you just need an "M,M" break. My son loves MM's. And I suppose they do help ease the nervousness that arises with a blank surface to coat. I'm going fast and broad and a lot more spaced out on this one, and that sounds bad, but I really do mean the quilting style.

And as in potty training, just maybe those MM's will help with discipline. Yes, they do, and also the Thanksgiving deadline I have set. This throw quilt is purely made from stash, and a little wacky, but the tones and colors go.

With young children around who dump out toys as fast as you pick them up, and smear the floor to look worse than before you have just mopped it; I take a deep breath and am thankful that there is quilting to make one feel as if they have actually put down some sort of accomplishment for the day.

I've noticed as I quilt more quilts, I am learning to just go with the fabric. To loosen up and enjoy the way the fabric leads the needle into a free-form type pattern.

Speaking of dumping, I put baby (D de) in the toy wheelbarrow to shoot a pic, and brother comes over and dumps him out! No harm no foul, but it did make for some cute pics. I think being two years old is all about dumping out everything one can, and so maybe I should take a cue, because the only thing I dump out seems to be clean laundry.

During our "ride bike" session this afternoon I noticed the trees have lost most all there leaves. Poof! Just in the span of a flu, and they are almost all down. I was supposed to have the flu during the rain, not the sunshine as happened.

Winter is so near, but I am grateful for these last sunny days. Warm enough still to throw off the Crocs and dip toes in the water, yes, you heard right, even way up in the great North. Kids don't care, they just wear there shoes in, and sometimes I suppose we all just should, they dry anyway.

I think young children have a lot to teach about quilting:

Walk right into things

Throw a tantrum if things don't go your way

Dump everything out until you find what your looking for

Make up funny names so things don't get dull


Laugh like crazy when you mess up and it's just plain funny

Throw it in the garbage can, I mean, will you even miss it?

And diapers, sometimes, yes even those I imagine could be handy.

The MM's are gone. I feel better. I feel like I accomplished something that actually shows.

Some Small Good

The last of the sunny days peak out from winter which seems to loom so close to fall. Two boys grow, the elder picks flowers, small tender presents to rest on a baby's fist. Sickness has visited, and after a week of sick children, I too grace the couch while in my mind ideas flower, and doing the dishes looks so promising, because it means you are well enough to do them again. Oh to ride bikes again and search the neighborhood for flowers to give to mom!