Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Mt. Hood is Glowing
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.
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.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Miles of Practice and A New Vision
After finishing my last customer quilt a few weeks ago I decided to spend my free time practicing my freehand backfills. This seemed like a good idea beings I want to focus on Longarm custom quilting and I don't see a computerized system in my future anytime soon. All the white fabric hanging over my rack are filled with Freehand Micro quilting. All that work was also done on my "OLD MICHINE". Then My new much awaited Gammill Premier Vision arrived on Thursday, I really do and will soon love it I'm sure. But it's almost feels I'm starting from scratch. Now mine you according to the counter. I've only actually stitched for 23 minutes even though I've played with the machine for 2 days now. I think I've just been staring at it. Not that I'm glad business is slow, but I'm sure glad I'm not backed up with Customer Quilts and will have time to bond with my new machine.
I really feel the biggest thing that's throwing me off balance is the new machine is sooo quiet and smooth. My other Premier certainly wasn't loud at all compared to many LA's, but now I realize I depended and quilted to the beat of the nice rhythmic sound that it had. I'm missing the beat so to speak and my stitching isn't as pretty as before. It's funny how you suddenly find out that you were dependent on things you weren't even aware of. 
Who would have thought, I'd ever say I miss the noise. Good Grief I come home from my other job and all I want is peace a quiet. Guess the sound was music to my ears and I didn't even know it.
Now enough about the old, and in with the new. I really am thrilled with my new machine. So many new features but Those will have to wait for another post. No I didn't get the camera. I really like the New type off feature, I thought this was a feature I wouldn't ever use. Now it just dawned on me, Maybe the reason the machine has a radio is because the machine is so quiet and they knew we'd miss the noise, so they gave us a radio.
Thanks for tuning in.
I really feel the biggest thing that's throwing me off balance is the new machine is sooo quiet and smooth. My other Premier certainly wasn't loud at all compared to many LA's, but now I realize I depended and quilted to the beat of the nice rhythmic sound that it had. I'm missing the beat so to speak and my stitching isn't as pretty as before. It's funny how you suddenly find out that you were dependent on things you weren't even aware of. 
Who would have thought, I'd ever say I miss the noise. Good Grief I come home from my other job and all I want is peace a quiet. Guess the sound was music to my ears and I didn't even know it.
Now enough about the old, and in with the new. I really am thrilled with my new machine. So many new features but Those will have to wait for another post. No I didn't get the camera. I really like the New type off feature, I thought this was a feature I wouldn't ever use. Now it just dawned on me, Maybe the reason the machine has a radio is because the machine is so quiet and they knew we'd miss the noise, so they gave us a radio.
Thanks for tuning in.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
I'm So Sorry
I certainly didn't intend to be gone for so long. I'm so sorry I left my few followers with nothing better to look at this entire time but our utterly ugly cat. Please forgive me. There simply isn't enough hours in the day for all the irons I have in the fire right now.
So what have I been up too?
First off I'm back working at my old job, because my replacement only lasted 6 weeks. You'd think they could find someone especially now, but it's been almost 3 months now and no ones in site.
Since starting my quilting business recently I've done a few customer quilts also. I really love doing customer quilts but I admit it's been a slow start so far. But I really don't want to promote my quilting business until I go back to only working Part-Time at my other job.
Oh did I tell you I got an ipad? It is really so cool. I waste maga hours just reviewing apps at the itunes store. I'm looking for an app so that I can better organize my quilting pictures making it easier for my customers. I've also wasted many hours playing with all the photo altering apps. I really like sketching my quilting designs over a photo of the quilt before I quilt it. I just wished there was a better devise for drawing with,I use the POGO Pen now.
And lastly, I've been practicing quilting without having the stitch regulator on while I'm quilting. I told you earlier I really wanted to upgrade or trade my machine in for the New Gammill Vision because of the new stitch regulator it has. Well I'm trying to justify the cost of this and at the same time asking myself if I really need it in order to be able to quilt the beautiful custom fills I see on so many custom quilts. I keep telling myself I really don't need a new machine, because I could learn to quilt beautiful custom fills on my current machine if I'd just practice micro stippling for a couple hours a day. So that's also what I've been doing in my spare time lately. I actually am beginning to like what I see. I was going to show you a few pictures...but google isn't playing nice right now.
Thanks for stopping by
So what have I been up too?
First off I'm back working at my old job, because my replacement only lasted 6 weeks. You'd think they could find someone especially now, but it's been almost 3 months now and no ones in site.
Since starting my quilting business recently I've done a few customer quilts also. I really love doing customer quilts but I admit it's been a slow start so far. But I really don't want to promote my quilting business until I go back to only working Part-Time at my other job.
Oh did I tell you I got an ipad? It is really so cool. I waste maga hours just reviewing apps at the itunes store. I'm looking for an app so that I can better organize my quilting pictures making it easier for my customers. I've also wasted many hours playing with all the photo altering apps. I really like sketching my quilting designs over a photo of the quilt before I quilt it. I just wished there was a better devise for drawing with,I use the POGO Pen now.
And lastly, I've been practicing quilting without having the stitch regulator on while I'm quilting. I told you earlier I really wanted to upgrade or trade my machine in for the New Gammill Vision because of the new stitch regulator it has. Well I'm trying to justify the cost of this and at the same time asking myself if I really need it in order to be able to quilt the beautiful custom fills I see on so many custom quilts. I keep telling myself I really don't need a new machine, because I could learn to quilt beautiful custom fills on my current machine if I'd just practice micro stippling for a couple hours a day. So that's also what I've been doing in my spare time lately. I actually am beginning to like what I see. I was going to show you a few pictures...but google isn't playing nice right now.
Thanks for stopping by
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Happy Easter!
Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy Easter!
I also want to share my favorite Easter Candy with you. Our cat even likes em. Yep she openned up a package and took one bite out of every chick in the package the other night while we slept. Then she took every chick out of the package and lined them up on my sewing table. She was sitting there watching over them when I came into the room. Maybe I won't be able to share my "Peep" treats with you as blogger isn't being nice tonight, although they allowed the upload up the cat without a problem.
Thanks for stopping by.
Thanks for stopping by.
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