Field Trips in Fiber - Adventures in quilting, hand dyed fabric and fiber art.

Electric Quilt

No sewing yesterday but my upgrade for Electric Quilt 6 arrived at my door yesterday.  Hopefully I can get it installed this weekend and start playing with it.  I hear it is VERY different from version 5. 
Last night I had to get all of this stuff

into boxes so I can get it in the mail to Iraq today and Friday.  There are so many boxes that I can't get them all in one run to the post office!  Someday this may be a living/dining room again - maybe...

The Puffy Quilt is Done!

I feel like the Seinfeld episode on the puffy shirt!  I finished the quilting of Mom's puffy quilt last night.  There's nothing special about this quilt but it was fun to do and I really like the texture of the quilting pattern on the back of the quilt.  If my Aunt can't be warm under this quilt, she will never be warm!

I also got all of these in the mail yesterday.

It seems silly to be excited about new pins but when I was making the San Miguel jacket I realized that almost all of my pins were bent!  I went on an internet search for pins and found that they are hard to find in variety.  I finally found this site with an incredible variety of pins.  I think I ordered one of every size!  Now I'm tossing out ALL of my old pins and starting fresh.  Sometimes it's the little things that make us happy!

Happy Mailbox

Look what was in my mailbox yesterday from Lisa!

I also received two books that I ordered.  They are both design source books and I spent most of the evening looking through them.  I think they are going to be excellent resources.

Pattern Motifs
4000 Flower and Plant Motifs
both are by Graham Leslie McCallum

He also has 4000 Animal, Bird and Fish Motifs  which I may buy in my next book order.

Meanwhile, the flannel quilt is about 3/4 complete and I may be able to get it done this evening.

Easy Quilting - but FUN!

Although yesterday ended with a migraine, it was mostly productive.  I finished the binding on my Aunt's quilt!  All I have left to do is the hanging sleeve and label. 

I can't hand sew for hours on end so I took breaks to load and start quilting my Mom's Turning Twenty.  This is going to be one puffy quilt!  She made it of flannel and picked a flannel back as well.  My Mom is building a new house and will be living there with her sister.  Over the past few weeks we have determined that her sister is one of the coldest-natured people around.  So Mom decided that this would be a good quilt for her sister.  We selected Hobbs Cloud Loft for the batting.  If this quilt doesn't warm her, nothing will!  I was concerned that the thickness of the batting and 2 layers of flannel might cause some problems but it has been a breeze to quilt.  I just keep the quilt sandwich taught to keep from getting pleats.  She selected the panto Double Plume.  I don't have a lot of pantograph patterns but now that I have the hydraulic lift on Willie, I may invest in more.  The lift makes quilting from the back so much more comfortable - it was worth all the installation trouble!

Here are a couple of photos of the quilt in process:

From the back:

I try to always have a very wide backing so that I have room to test tension as I go along - you can see the patches in the first photo.  Now that I have a TOWA tension gauge I am having almost no tension problems.

It's so nice to do an easy project once in a while!  I started this Sunday afternoon and it's about half done.  The next quilt will also be an all-over but free-motion from the front. 

We have liftoff!

After many trials and lots of profanity, the hydraulic lift is finally installed on my APQS Willie.  I'm glad I have it but installing it was a bear.  The instructions that came with it are horrible.  APQS should be very embarrassed to send out these systems with the instructions that I have here.  Fortunately, APQS has a bulletin board and two wonderful people posted responses to my questions and I was able to get it done today.  In the hopes that I might help someone else, I have posted photos  of my installation with notes in my Webshots album.  I'm in love with my Willie again!

Meanwhile, I am also making good progress on the binding of my Aunt's quilt.  It's half done and I hope to have it done and photos posted by next weekend!