Twin Quilts

I wasn't the only one of my LAMQG friends to have a baby last year. There was a bit of a baby epidemic in the Guild, but a few of my friends who were planning new additions to their families breathed a huge sigh of relief when I announced I was having twins. They thought that I took the bullet for the guild. So imagine her surprise when, Alissa, one of my best friends in the LAMQG had an ultrasound revealing identical twins. What are the chances? Two sets of spontaneous identical twins, in the same guild born pretty much exactly six months apart to extremely close friends!

Alissa has been working on this amazing twin sized, EPP Hexie quilt for her older daughter. It's still a WIP but it's intended for her daughter's "Big Girl" bed. She's been working on it a long while and it's amazing, but she, admittedly doesn't have the desire to replicate the process twice more for the twins. We knew that she would be getting a lot of baby quilts at her shower, so Liberty, Latifah and I banded together to make her two matching (but not identical) twin sized quilts for the twins. 

One morning, when my boys were still wee ones, we took a trip down to Anaheim to visit M and L Fabrics. I had not been introduced to this Fabric Wonderland until I was pregnant (thank you Liberty!) and it was then that we started a tradition we continued to honor on this shopping trip. Both Liberty and I spent a few years living in Chicago, and there is a Portillos in Anaheim, so we start out our shopping trip with lunch at this Chicago institution so we can muster up enough energy for our M and L excursion.

This particular trip was dedicated to buying fabrics for both of Alissa's quilts, including backing and binding. We decided on a bright, cheery color scheme focusing on hot pink and orange. We also raided our home stashes and then divided up the fabric three ways, between herself, Latifah and myself. The quilt Liberty finished was a wonky house quilt. We fussy cut "eye spy" doorways. Mine was a wonky log cabin quilt with fussy cut eye spy centers. The three of us shared fabrics and made blocks, Latifah made the labels and Liberty and I quilted and bound our respective quilts.

Liberty had her quilt finished in time for Alissa's baby shower. Since my boys were still very small at the time, and mu sewing time was limited I only had the top done, but we were able to present them to her. After the shower, I put the quilt to the side for a while. My basting space, aka dining room, was now the boys play room and I just had limited sewing time. I figured she didn't need the quilt right away. But finally, I was able to get it sandwiched, quilted, bound and home to my future daughter-in-laws. (Ha ha!)

I intended to stipple this quilt on my machine at home, but it's so heavy, my quilting table is small and I am out of practice so I ended up ripping out my first attempt and decided to straight-line quilt it instead.

If you know me, you know that I'm not partial to the color pink, but I do like hot pink. I actually ended up falling in love with this quilt. It's so bright and cheerful. I love the hot pink and orange combo. I think I might have to work with these colors again sometime soon.

You've Gotta' Have Heart

So I did finish another quilt this Summer. I've talked about my Cast B Family before. We traveled around the world together for a year when we were just a bunch of kids. Now, over 21 years later, they are still some of my best friends and truly my Family. Some of them live right down the street, while most of them live on the other side of the globe but we still keep in touch with each other on an almost daily basis and we get together as a group at least every third year, if not more often. 

Well, back in May we got quite a scare when one of our own had a heart attack on Mothers Day. Thankfully, her family found her in time and was able to save her life. But it was touch and go there for a while and we were rocked to our core. She lives all the way across the country, so I did the only thing I could think of to help. I made her a quilt. 

In secret, I reached out to our entire Cast and implored them all to send a piece of fabric with a message of hope and support for our Castmate. What filled my mailbox brought me to tears. Blocks of all different shapes and sizes with messages and pictures overflowing with love from four different continents decorated my design wall. If people felt like they couldn't get me their messages by the deadline I told them to tell me what they wanted to say and I printed their messages for them. 

Once all of the messages were in, I worked on the layout, housing all of the well wishes inside a heart. The layout was tricky because I was working with all different kinds of fabrics and all different sizes of blocks, but it was a fun puzzle to piece. And now that I think about it, it was actually good practice for my QuiltCon submission. So, in a way, I owe that to her! Since I had two infants and limited space and time, and I wanted this quilt to be big enough for her and her family to snuggle up under together, I decided to Long Arm it and booked a visit with Harley at Sew Modern. Generously, my husband watched the kids one Saturday afternoon so I could sneak away and quilt. 

It quilted up rather quickly. I think it only took two hours. I did a loose stipple and hid some hearts in the quilting as well as a secret message to her and her brave family. Then I bound it and sent it on it's way home with all the love and warmth of our Cast wrapped up with it. She is the heart of our Cast and part of my Family and I love her and am thankful for every breath she breathes. 

Learning to Long Arm

If you know me at all you know about my fear of free motion quilting. Thankfully, after taking Elizabeth Hartman's class at QuiltCon and then starting to practice my skills on charity quilts at home that fear has disappeared. Each quilt I work on now helps me gain more confidence and improve my skills. I actually really like free motion quilting now. But there was one more fear out there I needed to conquer: mastering the Long Arm. 

I had been putting off learning how to Long Arm until my free motion skills got better. Right now, I don't branch out much past a basic stipple. But my husband requested that I stipple the Scrappy Trout Along Quilt and I was faced with two options. Now this quilt is a King Sized monster. And it's super heavy thanks to all those seams. There was no way in hell I was going to attempt to quilt this one at home. I know better. Especially with my expanding belly, I knew that for me it would be a nightmare. So I could either send it out to a Long Armer to quilt for me. Or I could bite the bullet and do it myself. I debated vigorously between the two options and eventually decided that now is as good a time as any to teach this old dog a new trick. 

I signed up for a private lesson on Harley (the resident Long Arm at my favorite LQS, Sew Modern) with my friend Lisa. She taught me everything I needed to know from racking the quilt to threading the machine. I even brought a charity quilt with me for practice. I can't believe how intimidated I was by the Long Arm. I wish I had mustered up the courage earlier to take a lesson because it was so much fun and so much easier than I expected. Quilting on the Long Arm was so much easier and more fluid than trying to free motion on my home machine!

I used my lesson time to learn the basics, like racking my quilt, threading the machine, etc. And then I just practiced stippling. I wasn't ready to get too fancy and I just wanted to get the hang of the machine and how it flowed. Also, my husband requested that I stipple his Scrappy "Trout" Quilt so initially that's all I needed to know. I was able to stipple a small charity quilt on the long arm in about an hour, which was awesome. Now I'm addicted!.

So here's my advice to all you chickens, just like me, that are out there. Take a deep breath and just try the Long Arm. You will be so surprised at just how easy it actually is to work on one. I am mad it took me so long to muster up the courage. It's fun and it's super easy. You'll get the hang of it in no time and be kicking yourself, just like me, that you didn't try it sooner.

Free Motion Chicken No More

I know I've been neglecting my blog lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been sewing. I'm on a bit of a deadline with some custom orders that I can't show right now, so my AMH dress is halfway finished, as is a quilt I intended to enter into a couple quilt shows. I missed the entry deadline for one and am a couple days out on the deadline for the second, so I don't know if I'll finish in time. But before I got swamped I am happy to admit that I jumped a major hurdle in my quilting: I started to try free motion! DISCLAIMER: This post contains many pictures of my many mistakes. Nobody's perfect and we're always learning, right?

The first quilt I've EVER free motion quilted.

Yes, you heard me correctly. After taking Elizabeth's class at QuiltCon, I took the plunge at home and started trying to free motion a few quilts. They are FAR from perfect, but I think it's important to share the imperfections. I've been catching up on some charity quilts and decided these were the best projects to start honing my free motion skills. 

Not only am I finding free motion quilting to be fun, it's also fast. I can quilt an entire sandwich in much less time than straight lining it. That said, there is a definite learning curve and it's frustrating at times. But it's helping me get over my perfectionist attitude and I keep reminding myself that all my mistakes will come out in the wash. Quite literally. That's the great thing about quilting. So many of those little imperfections disappear when the quilt comes out of it's first wash all crinkly and cuddly. 

The second quilt I free motion quilted. See, it's slowly getting better.

So don't judge. And don't be afraid. You can see all of my many, many, many mistakes right here. I'm not embarrassed to show you. Free motion is a lesson in learning to let go. And with each quilt, I am getting in the to rhythm of free motion a little bit more. And I'm making mistakes a little bit less. I'm still backing myself into corners, and fumbling with uneven stitch length, but I'm learning and growing. I'm not going to give up on straight lining, oh no. That's still my favorite aesthetic, but I'm going to continue to hone my free motion skills. Expect to see a lot more around here in the near future.

QuiltCon Day Three Recap

The third day of QuiltCon was just as great as the first two. It was the morning after the 80s Dance Party and there was still residual Eighties paraphernalia lingering about. But today, I had a full-day workshop on Free Motion Quilting on you Home Machine with Elizabeth Hartman. If you know me at all, you probably know that I am a total chicken when it comes to free motion. Yes, I really love the aesthetic that straight-line stitching lends to quilts, but it's not always right for every project. And I am not ashamed to admit that it scares the living daylights out of me. As I mentioned before, I am not confident in my drawing skills and what is free motion if not drawing on quilts with thread. 

Goofing around on the walk to the Convention Center.

I had debated between taking Elizabeth's class and Angela Walters long arm class and at one point considered taking both. But ultimately I decided to try to crawl before I could walk. Plus, I am far more likely to use these skills on my machine at home than rent a long arm right now. I was excited and nervous walking into class. but I loved Elizabeth's teaching style and before long we were working on our own practice quilt sandwiches learning a variety of stitches, starting with stippling. Wanna know the best part? We all got to practice our sewing on brand new Janome Horizon machines!

My friend Jamie happens to be the fastest stippler in the west and I have always admired her skill but I have struggled with the curves. Well, okay, I've only tried free-motion twice before and probably only for two minutes each time before ducking right back into my comfort zone. I realize I can't hone my skills if I don't practice them so this class was the perfect way to force me to do so.

I had two big struggles. First, drawing myself into a corner that I couldn't get out without crossing. And secondly, the occasional sharp point would rear its ugly head. But after a bit I started to ease into it and feel a *little* more comfortable. Elizabeth would circulate the room giving each of us individual attention, support and guidance. It was great having her look over my shoulder and give me pointers along the way.

Occasionally Elizabeth would return to the front of the room and teach us a new design. First we started with the more curvy designs that were natural progressions off of basic stippling. While I was still getting backed into corners and would get a little scared I slowly started to feel more comfortable with some design and more frustrated with others. But then we started the more angular design. 

I'm a straight-line quilter so I thought that the more angular designs would be right up my alley. Boy, was I wrong. I struggled even more with the angular designs and my frustration built. Elizabeth actually come over and told me (and I know I wasn't the only one in class) to go and have a glass of wine at lunch. And she was dead serious. So I met Liberty and Nicole for lunch and had a beer-rita. 

The gorgeous Liberty and our beer-ritas.

Over lunch Liberty gave me a little pep talk to help ease my anxiety. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and tend to be my own worst enemy and during class I was the only one getting into my own way. One of the lessons I learn and re-learn constantly in quilting is to find beauty in the imperfections but I was struggling today. I am so thankful to have such amazing, supportive friends to help give me the kick in the pants I need to try and leave the perfectionist behind and let go. 

After lunch we practiced a little more before Elizabeth handed out fabrics for us to make design sample books. But as soon as I started on my first one I got frustrated again. She suggested that  move back to working on a larger quilt sandwich and practice more because it was easier to work on a larger project than a smaller one. So I made a new large quilt sandwich and continued to practice.

Ultimately I learned a lot from the class. And I am more confident that I was about my free motion skills. It just all comes down to practice, practice, practice. And then more practice. But at least now I am at least confident enough to start attempting free motion quilting on some of my charity quilts to try and master my skills. I'm going to start with stippling and work my way up.

After class, Liberty and I skipped Denyse Schmidt's key note lecture, and took advantage of the nearly empty vendor floor. It was the perfect opportunity for me to get a picture in front of my quilt. I felt weird doing it with people around. In fact, whenever I would walk through the quilt show I would hide my name tag so people couldn't identify me. 

My beautiful friend Jamie in front of the famous Austin "I Love You" graffiti.

A couple of us LAMQG ladies decided to explore South Congress for dinner so Liberty, Liz, Jenny, Jamie and I headed out there and started with drinks at Jenny's hotel where we met up with some of the hardworking QuiltCon organizers. Then we went out for pizza and it was so worth the wait. I have to say, one of the greatest things that happened at QuiltCon was just getting to know some of my guild friends even better. I felt like I really got to know my girlfriends on a deeper level and it was wonderful. Just little things like that made the whole weekend worth it.