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Friday, June 25, 2010

Another "Patchwork PDQ Quilt"

Here's another Quilt I made recently where I used the pattern "Patchwork PDQ" by Swirly Girls Designs. The panto is called "Climbing Rose" by Sophie Collier. Thought I'd show you beings it just came off the rack. Actually It's the first real Panto I've done using my new machine, A Gammill Premier Vision, it's really a sweet machine and very quiet too. I can actually hear the phone ring while I'm doing a panto.I loved my old machine,
and I'm adjusting to this one pretty well. This machine glides so much easier plus with so little noise I'm having to get used to the "new beat" so to speak. I'm very please with the tension also, I used DK Gold Thread on top and Cream on the bottom. I've been playing on muslin until now testing tension. My other machine produced good tension with little effort.I rarely use the same color of thread in both the top and bottom of the quilt so I need Very good tension. Tomorrow I will quilt one more scrappy sample quilt and then I'll be ready to start quilting the quilts I've made with the fabric from the Serifina Collection by Maywood Studio's. Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Patchwork PDQ Quilt

In an earlier post I said I'd received my order of the entire collection of "Serifina" by Maywood Studio's. I plan to sell kits and so far I've made 3 different sample quilts. This quilt utilizes the red fabrics in the collection. There are 3 color waves in the collection, red, green and black. Every piece is wonderful, the only thing that would make it better is if the collection was available in flannel. I love making Flannel Quilts.
The pattern I choose for this quilt is quickly becoming one of my all time favorites, it's fast, easy, scrappy, and fat-quarter friendly. You only need 12 fat-quarters to make this nice lap quilts. The pattern is called "Patchwork PDQ"
by Swirly Girls Designs.
Next time I'll show you the other 2 Quilts I've made using the green and red fabrics in the collection. I haven't used the black color wave yet, but think I'll again use Patchwork PDQ for the pattern, it'd sure make a great quilt for a girls college dorm. Until next time.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Mt. Hood is Glowing

It's 8:30pm and I can't sleep and I have to be to work at midnight, so I got up and looked out my front window. This is what I saw. Mt. Hood glowing a pale pink at sunset. I almost missed the shot looking for the camera. One of these days I need to buy a better camera, but I've said that for the last 35 years. Sorry I included the pole, but I'm in my jammies, I went outside to take this picture, I had to make it quick before the glow disappeared and before a car or two came by. The glow only lasts a few minutes.This view is why I call my quilting business"Cityview Quilting". I have unobstructive views(except for the darn pole)of Portland and Mount Hood right out my front windows. I'll show a picture of Portland glowing the next time I catch it. Just wanted to share this beautiful shot of Mt. Hood. Hope to get a few hours of sleep now. Oh by the way I've been busy making quilts and quilting. I have 6 quilts to share with you soon. The Safrina Collection by Maywood is so beautiful.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Yummy New Fabric Collection

New Fabric and patterns...Oh My What to Do?



The Fabric line is By Maywood, the Serifina Collection, yep I had to order all 23 pieces in the collection because I couldn't choose which to leave out. I'm not disappointed as every piece is yummy and wonderful. I hope to sell a bit of fabric and some kits along with doing my Longarm Quilting. I'm short of time but just had to show off my new fabric.
Thanks for stopping by.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Life's New Vision

Life seems to be filled with never ending challenges and obsticles these days. I certainly have lots of subjects to blog about but will stick to the arrival of my New Gammill Vision Longarm. She really is a beauty and stitches very nicely, we haven't bonded so to speak as she is a little stiffer (hasn't been broken in yet)than my other Premier. Although she runs very smooth and quiet and I do mean quiet, a few quirks have appeared, both I'm sure will be remedied by my dealer once he's back in town. Until then I'm just practicing away trying to loosen her up a bit...
The sole reason I traded my other perfect machine in on the New Vision was I really wanted the "Coast" feature on this machines Stitch Regulator. I really love to do custom quilting with lots of micro quilting and feathers. Well I'm not disappointed one bit I'm really liking the New Stitch Regulator. I just wish I'd remember to use the new tie off feature as that is really cool too.
There were a couple of features on the New Vision that actually I was alittle concerned about not knowing if it would end up being more of a pain than not. One was moving the computer head to the back..in order to do panto's etc. Well I've found so far I've never even needed to move it. I set it up in front and then the back handles respond to my settings. Even using the tie off feature at the end of a panto row..no problem. I always went around to the front of the machine anyways to advance the quilt so I just tie off then. 
The other feature I was concerned about was having the touch pad instead of buttons. I'm finding I needn't worried about that either,,to change settings and stitch lengths etc now seems actually faster and easier ..besides now I have way more controll over my speed settings and stitch lenghts.. it's heaven.
Another feature I'm loving is the "Basting Stitch" I've always stitched down the sides of my quilts...Now I can do a 1/2" to 1" baste stitch down the sides. This will remedie those edge situations where the customer wants to fold over the backing and use it for binding. Actually I can set the baste stitch up to 4" apart if I want. Anyway I'm beginning to Love this machine.
My other life story is that I'm back working full time at my old day job. I've been doing this since March now and is the reason I'm unable to post very often. My gung ho replacement up and walked out in March..now they aren't even looking for anybody and they think I want my job back...noway...but I do like the money. Not sure what I'll do yet..but this has really put a damper on me trying to promote my quilting business. But like everything else in life I'm pretty sure it will eventually resolve itself, and either way my path goes I will end up being the winner.
Thanks for stopping by.