Finished and More

The king quilt with embrodiery is finished and delivered to Debbie Neubauer, the person who pieced this lovely quilt. What a great experience it has been to quilt Debbie’s quilt and she was gracious enough to let me take photos and post them here so that you could see her handiwork.

I also completed a cute monogramming project for another client. She had added ribbon trim to two towels for a new grandbaby and asked that I do the monogramming. The new baby’s middle name is Rose, so I decided that a monogram with a rose would be a great way to show off the new baby’s name. You will also see these posted today.

Next on my list is a lap quilt for a client in Colorado Springs and then 2 art quilts for ladies here in San Antonio. It is so much fun to have the opportunity to quilt different ways and have the challenge of deciding how best to get the “feel” the client wants for his/her quilt.

I am not going to be able to go to Houston for the Quilt Festival this year. My husband had to have spinal injections last week, so I decided it would be a good idea for me to stay close to home in case he needed to get back to his doctor. The injections have helped…any one who has ever had back or neck pain certainly knows how painful it can be.

Can you believe it is almost Halloween? I noticed that the Christmas decorations are already being displayed in the local department stores, so I will need to get my gift suggestions posted…stay tuned for ideas for holiday gift giving.

Back in the Saddle, Yet Again!

Well, the AC is fixed and the quilt has been turned FOR THE LAST TIME!!!I am so excited that I will be able to finish the king size quilt before the weekend and deliver it to the customer! Because each of the 500 smaller blocks had to be stitched in the ditch and then 1/4 inch stitched within the blocks (and some of the blocks had two rows of 1/4 inch stitching), this quilt took quite awhile to complete. However, the simpler quilting really made the embroidery blocks pop so it was worth the time and effort. The quilt has a folk feel to it and heavy quilting would not have been the way to go, although it might have been a little faster!

I think it is very important to look at the quilt and truly ask the client what is the “feel” they want for the quilt? Will it be for a show, a gift or for their own personal enjoyment? The answers to these questions certainly help the longarmer determine what would be the best route to go with the actual quilting that will take place. If a quilt is very busy (lots of fabric changes, etc), custom quilting would not be appropriate…an edge to edge design to give the quilt texture would be the best “recipe” for that type of quilt.

Diverted by the Compressor

Well, I had great hopes to finish the elusive king size quilt this weekend but, unfortunately, our air conditioner had other plans for me. The compressor passed on into AC heaven and, alas, took my well laid plans with it. Before I succumbed to the heat, I did get to finish the first two side borders, so, if we get the compressor today, I might be able to finish everything by the middle of the week. I share this simply because sometimes what we hope will be a deadline just doesn’t happen…certainly not because of laziness or lack of interest but because of physical restraints not under any human control.

Meanwhile, I am living like a character in Little House on Prairie…we are using a borrowed portable air conditioner (thank you, Lord!) and basically are living in the living area/kitchen of our townhouse. Our labradoodles are loving the close community…(they would love for us to be in their kennels with them I am certain), but sleeping on couches and chairs isn’t a particularly great way to prepare for an upcoming day of work. Nevertheless, in the humidity and heat, a little AC is better than NO AC!

Blogging with Community Education

Along with quilting and embroidery, I LOVE to teach. Last night I had the opportunity to teach a business blogging class through the North East ISD Community Education program. What a fantastic and interesting group of folks were in the class! Authors,a Golf Instructor, Travel Enthusiasts, a Home Improvement business owner and a professional photographer were part of the class and made for great questions and a great time for me. Next week, we will meet again and I am truly looking forward to visiting with them again.

Meanwhile, back at the studio, I have turned the lovely kingsized embroidered quilt so I can to the last borders so I am excited to be finishing it. I also have a cute embroidery order for a baby gift so I will upload photos of that when it is completed. It’s great to have so many varied projects to work on…that is the great thing about having both services available.

Quilting Weather!

After 59 straight days of 100+ degree weather, fall has finally come to San Antonio, Texas! We are having rain, which is liquid gold for us and the day’s high is to be 69 degrees. This virtually unheard of in September; are we in for a frigid winter in south Texas?

The great thing about cooler weather, for me at least, is that it is so much fun to be up in my studio quilting.  I have huge windows in my loft and it is “snuggly” to see the rain and the hear the hum of my machine as I move along the frame.  Don’t get me wrong…too much rain is not good for us south Texas residents as our soil doesn’t hold on to too much and then we have flooding BUT some rain is WONDERFUL and gives me a great excuse not to do any yard work!

I am still finding homes in my studio for my purchases at Innovations. I bought more Bottom Line BOBS, which I love as well as some Lava, both by Superior. I have used alot of King Tut but this will be my first experience with Lava; I think it will be lovely on a quilt that I am going to do for a customer that will be edge to edge (I have a king size quilt that I am still working on right now…I am almost ready to turn the quilt and do the last borders, so I am excited!)

I still work part time as a school librarian and our school is feeling the influx of the swine flu. I had a parent tell me this week that both of her children have had the flu, they were swobbed and the test was positive for H1N1, but the doctor did not send the samples on to the CDC…he believes any flu that is seen right now is the H1N1…interesting commentary. I hope all the kiddoes do okay and are well soon!

Back to San Antonio!

After having another fantastic Innovations conference, I am back in San Antonio. It is great to get back and get started on trying all the new techniques that I learned while at the conference

Actually, I got right back to work on Sunday (my flight back to San Antonio got in at 6:15 PM on Saturday). I am almost finished with a kingsize quilt with beautiful embroidery. My accident threw off my schedule somewhat, but I think I am back on to it now. I have a throw and two wall hangings to quilt, so I need to really get a move on!

I bought three lovely new pantographs while at the conference. Actually, I joined the Anne Bright Panto club since I bought the new pantos at her booth. They are really lovely and perfect for quilts that need edge to edge quilting.

One more note about Innovations: the people that I met were wonderful both in the classes that I taught and the classes in which I was a participant. I would highly recommend attending this conference…great fun and a great learning environment.

Innovations Day 2

What an awesome day! Today I got to teach some very wonderful and cute people how to create a business blog.What a treat! Later, I had the opportunity to have lunch with another APQS owner as well as her guild. You cannot imagine how much you can learn from an informal lunch with quilters from a different geographical area. I learned about the geograpical differences in Washington, current quilting trends, and who had been to Texas!  After lunch, I took a wonderful class on feathers from Elaine Huffman. If you have been following my blog, you will remember that Elaine is the author of a book called Bread and Butter Quilting and I am a great fan of her techniques. The finale for the day was a class with Sally Terry. Sally is not only a phenominal quilter, she is HILARIOUS and super talented. I loved her class, which is the first I have ever taken from her. She had some super designs to share as well as great tips for customer service.

After a lovely dinner at the Pacific Grill, next to my hotel, the Courtyard, I am sitting once again in front of my picture window watching the sunset over Mt. Rainier. How blessed I am! More tomorrow….

Innovations Day 1

Today was certainly a day for information overload, but in a GREAT way. This was my day to take classes all day and see how much I could learn and, in turn, provide new possibilities to my clients. The teachers that I had today were excellent: Sue Patten, an award winning quilt artist, Grace Anderson, an experienced quilter who shared her designs in a class called Echo Explosions, a class on quilting pantographs and, for the grand finale, a maintenance class for my APQS machine.

Taking classes always makes me rethink how I am doing things and reignites my imagination to other ways to approach machine quilting. I am hopeful that the new design techniques that I have learned today will be as exciting to you as they are to me and will add a new dimension to the quilting experience.

Tomorrow I will be teaching my first class and then have the opportunity to take additional classes for myself.  I am also having the opportunity to meet people from our APQS forum as well as friends that I made last year during Innovations. All in all, this is going to be a jam packed week not only for teaching but for learning.

Viewing Mt.Rainier

Greetings from Tacoma, WA! I am sitting in my hotel room with the most incredible view of Mt. Rainier that you could ever imagine. It is a beautiful sunny day here and I can also look over to an area with several slips and lovely sailboats. I love this part of the world…it is so beautiful.

I am a VERY fearful flyer…I had a bad experience over 20 years ago and I have never allowed myself to forget it.  With some of the recent events (the Hudson River splash down that saved lives after birds flew into the engines, blown fuselages, etc), I was more fearful than ever…almost to the point that I thought I couldn’t come to this event. Luckily, I have great friends who are supportive and a wonderful husband…they have “prayed” me through letting me know that I was in their thoughts and prayers throughout the day today as I flew from SA to Seattle.  The first leg of the flight was tough on me, but I have to say, as the day went on, I was more peaceful and was even able to relax a little bit on the 3 hr flight and listen to my iPod…this in itself is a miracle. My Point: Don’t underestimate the power of prayer…knowing that I was in people’s thoughts and prayers was very comforting.  Since I will be teaching again in April in Providence, RI, I have to have a victory over this tremendous fear and I think, thanks to God and my friends praying, I am well on my way.

Tomorrow I am taking a TON of classes and will report on what I learn later in the day. Thursday and Friday, I will be teaching my blogging classes and as well as taking classes for my own self edification.  Stay tuned…anything that I think is helpful, I will pass along.  I will also introduce my students to you…I had two really great classes last year and know they will be great this year, too.

Well, it is time for my teacher’s meeting so I will sign off for now. More tomorrw…

Innovations Tomorrow!

Tomorrow morning I will place my fear of flying sassy self on a plane and head to Tacoma, WA for the 2009 Innovations Machine Quilting Conference. I am teaching two classes, but I have also registered to take several classes. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn from some very talented machine quilters and I don’t want to miss it!

Please join me as I share my experiences, the classes attended and taught and, of course, the wonderful people that I will be sure to meet.  It’s going to be GREAT!