Spending hours at a time quilting a quilt, gets one to thinking - at least it does for me. I have always had a very busy mind - and so the quiet of quilting is an unending trail of thoughts - connecting people, places and events together in a never ending story. And sometimes a story just needs to be told. I was given the great opportunity of teaching longarming at a local quilt store. I have always loved teaching - especially women. I taught skiing while living in Calgary and despite the cold temperatures, I loved seeing women accomplish things they never thought they could - even if they had to take two trips up and down the chair lift before I coaxed them off! I even learned to ski backwards so that I could brave the trail ahead of them and talk them through their fears. Teaching longarming was much the same - except the climate is much more temperate. I often marvelled at the creativity of the people - mostly women, who brought their quilt tops in to learn how to quilt them on a longarm. In most cases we use a computerized program and the machine does the quilting for them. They still have to learn how to load the quilt and learn how to choose just the right pattern for those quilts. Just learning the steps needed to get the program and the machine to run is a challenge. For most people the first visit can be a little overwhelming. But, when their eyes start to sparkle, I can tell that they have caught the bug of watching their quilt "come to life". One day I had one quilter come in who said she had many, many quilt tops that she wanted quilted and she wanted to get as many as she could done in the next few weeks and months. And so we began what would turn into many appointments. In the end, it was her teaching me a lesson I will not forget. While letting the machine do its work we often have time to talk - and as each lesson generally takes about four hours - we can cover a lot of territory if we connect. After her first quilt was done with the computer she asked about how she could move the machine to quilt by herself - without the help of the computer. Not many people want to step into that arena. Custom quiltng is something I specialize in - so I was very happy to help her begin - and that's when we really connected. Before we started her next quilt she mentioned she was quite warm and would I mind if she took off her wig. I then understood without even asking, why she had a sense of urgency to get her quilts completed. She then put on a ball cap and we started in on her next quilt. I stood behind her and helped guide her as she moved the machine, and after a few minutes I let her go by herself - and talked her through her anxiety. Like a first time skier, she gained a little more confidence the longer she worked at it. At the end of the small quilt - she looked up at me and beamed and exclaimed, "I did it". Her smile lit up the room - and in that moment I knew she wasn't thinking of her illness - she was focused on creating a thing of beauty. I have connected with many people over the years, but for some reason Denise's spirit captured my heart. Little did she know the confidence she gave me to keep moving through what at that time was a very dark period in my life. We ended up doing seven quilts together until one day she received a call while we were quilting from her Doctor who wanted to discuss the results of her recent CT scan. We hugged at the end of the session - and I wished her well. That was the last time I saw her.
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For many quilters - the joy is in the piecing. It's common to rush to get the first block finished - just to see what all the colours and patterns look like. More blocks, sporadic assembly, adding sashing and borders are often accomplished in random order. Excitement, minor adjustments on blocks and replacing one piece with another is all part of the process. What is harder to do - is to create the quilt with the quilting in mind. Quilters often love making quilts becuase of the colours and patterns that they create. But once the top is completed and they send it off to be quilted - they are not sure how they want it quilted! How do you breathe life into that lovely creation? Sometimes the easiest answer to the "how would you like it quilted?" question is to just say - "edge to edge is good". But after all that work creating wonderful patterns, why add quilting that takes away from the great designs you just completed? It's for this reason that I love custom quilting. It enhances the work of the piecing and makes the quilt come to life! Some of things to consider when piecing are:
The rule of thumb is step back 3 feet and look at your quilt. Likely as not you willnot see any errors. If you can see an error - grab a glass of wine and step back another 3 feet! You wouldn't want to spill that wine on the quilt now would you? Learn more about my quilting services here! Most folks don't know - that I was unceremoniously removed from a career I loved due to circumstances that I did not create - nor could I control. No, I wasn't unruly - but I have been known to to be determined. I'll follow the rules (if I have to), but it always helps to know why those rules are in place. I was disappointed to say the least to have to leave my career - but I am a woman of action - and so I switched gears, turned a corner and returned to a love of mine - quilting! Luckily - a door opened for me to start long-arm quilting. I did first make a purchase of a longarm quilting machine - but a store owner noticed my enthusiam and asked me to work a longarm in one of her stores for customers. I fell even more in love with quilting - very quickly. AND THEN COVID. Stores closed. Customers dried up. Now what? Well some folks know that I can be a bit of a risk taker. Sometimes it gets me into trouble. Other times it pays off - but I'm always willing to give something new a try! So, I decided to dive deeper into longarming - without the lessons. Sink or swim. And swim I have! I began watching videos and practicing - including doodling to get muscle memory for curves, feathers and other designs. I began also using rulers with my machine - curved ones, straight ones, combining them to make designs of all kinds. And then I saw it. A video where the operator of the longarm was using a curved ruler and then for the sake of speed - ditched the ruler and just began doing short curves - without any guides, lines or aids to keep the sewing even. Well I may be a little off my rack - but I decided to go rogue - and get Un-rulery! I ditched the slow curve ruler, and began focusing on where I wanted to sew (or go) instead of watching where I was going. And it paid off! Instead of traditional stitching in the ditch and following an exact line - I sew freehand and it has liberated me! Sewing outside the box you might say! Now most of my quilting is done without rulers - even a lot of straight lines! It has cut my quilting time in half - and the quilts I do now really end up looking quite spectacular! And so you can say - I am definitely "Un-Rulery" and well so are the quilts that come off my rack! With Hallowe'en coming - I thought I might add a little gore to the blog! Muuah-ha-ha-ha! This week I sold a queen sized quilt I had on the site - but the client wanted it increased to king size. Nooooo problemo..... Well it took a little blood, sweat and tears I must say. But in this case it is reversed. Tears, sweat and blood.
Next, came the re-attaching and the re-sewing of the binding. That's when I saw it. Noooo.....!!
Yeah. Well... I was feeling so confident about the out come of the alteration - until I saw it. (insert eye roll, expletives and stomping of feet here) Every 6-8 inches, here and there, I saw little brown marks. And some red ones. Then a big red blotch. NOOOOOOO! Blood. Spots Streaks. Blobs. From the hundreds of pins I added and pulled out while quilting or attaching pieces. I looked at my hands and - no, I wasn't bleeding. But apparently I had at some point. You know its kind of funny. I swear - ask me to test my blood sugar with a pin prick and you cannot MAKE me bleed. But I see a quilt and my blood starts a pumping! I don't notice that I prick my fingers, or hands, or crunch my knuckles. I don't even notice stubbed toes - but I see a quilt and I bleed. Without pin pricks. Or so it seems. I get so pre-occupied with what I love to do - pain and blood are not apparent. One example in point, a month ago, I was quilting and heard a bang and looked and saw the needle was broken. "Well darn it. How did I do that?" I began looking for the needle on the quilt to remove it before I changed the needle - but couldn't see it. Well you guessed it. Yeah. I found it. In my finger. No pain. But you shoud have seen me jump to remove my hand so I would not bleed on the quilt. (I hadn't) But what if I had? Would the quilt be ruined? All that work - and one small accident could ruin hours and hour of work! No. A vampire once told me to ward off vampires, use garlic. But to remove blood stains - use hydrogen peroxide. Apply with a Q-tip. Blot and it will dissappear. Like magic. Oh yeah baby! And so... I did. So there was just sweat and tears in this quilt! Removing the blood was actually very easy! My mom has often told me that any kind of creative needlework is "in my blood" - only that it skipped a generation. According to her she cannot sew to save her life! Little does she know the learning curve I have had. Oh the pain - and blood it it took to get here! (Pass the hydrogen peroxide!)
Points that don't meet - and colours that might not look just right might frustrate us - but as more and more squares sit side by side - the small "misses' dissappear into a much larger more beautiful collage.
Once a quilt top is completed, it of course needs to be quilted together with a batting and backing. But before I load a quilt on the longarm frame - I hang it up or lay it on the floor or a bed and take a photo of the quilt top - so that I can see the "story" it tells. Looking too closely at a quilt is like not seeing the forest for the trees. A photo really does give you the big picture. A quilt will reveal to you about how it should be quilted if you take a bit of time to look at it as a whole. As I start to think about the best way to highlight the pattern of the quilt, I load it on the frame and look a little closer at the blocks. And then I just start. I do not use a computer program but instead do what is called "free motion quilting". Quilt blocks speak with colour and pattern design. Some call for contemporary lines or geometric patterns while others call for swirls or feathers or a whimsical collection of many small patterns. Stitching sometimes may cover the entire block - or there may be several small patterns in parts of blocks to make a more integrated design. And I cannot count the number of times that once a quilt is done and I look at the back of the quilt where its easier to see the quilting I have done - there are happy coincidences - patterns that are now all together - that look absolutely stunning. But the happiest moment in quilting for me - is when I finish the quilting and start to remove it from the frame. Once the tension is released on the quilt - the quilting and the pattern comes together in a happy surprise. I know that this quilt will have a long life and be loved by someone. But for me - this is my happy place! |