Beginner's Class

These past two weeks have flown by and I am exhausted. I have not made much progression my projects but I have made small strides towards starting the quilting business.

I went to the Beginning Long Arm Class with Patty Butcher of Katydids Quilting Studio. Tatianna went with me. When we got there Tatianna looked at the other participants, turned to me and said "I am the only one under fifty." She has to put up with me dragging her to all these things and often there is no one her age there.  Mostly it is because no twenty five year old can afford a long arm machine. But she is a good sport about it and we have a good time together. The other ladies really liked her as well. I don't think she felt too out of place.

The class was very informative. The first part dealt a lot with setting up a business. The other three women have actually started quilting for other people. They even set up their business licenses and everything. I am not even close to that yet.

Next we talked about batting, thread, needles and bobbins. Patty strongly suggested we have more than one bobbin case. In fact she suggested we have on for each type of bobbin we use.  But at the very least we should have a spare. I will need to order one or two. She also went over bobbin tension. She suggested a you tube video about tension. It is done by Jamie Wallen (You-Tube Video). I watched it and I really think it is a good resource. Everyone gets so worked up about tension. If you start out with the right bobbin tension adjusting the top tension will be a breeze.

She had several examples of batting.  And talked about the right side (dimples) and wrong side (pimples) of needle punched batting. Most batting is needle punched. Some batting it is easier to tell which is which. Patty gave us a tip for figuring it out. Take a needle and poke it through the batting. The side that it goes through easier is the right side and you want that facing the quilt top.

Patty also showed us several types of thread. I have Superior thread but I have heard good things about Glide and I think I might like to try that. Patty also said she like the thread she got from Connecting Threads. I used live in Vancouver, Washington, not far from the Connecting Threads store. I had been in the store but not for quilting supplies. I wasn't into quilting as much back then. I was doing tole painting at that time. Connecting threads had a sister company called the Artist's Club that sold decorative painting supplies. The two shared a store front at that time. This was over 12 years ago though so I don't know if they are still part of the same business. I have bought from them online though.

Patty also showed us the way she loads a quilt. She uses a snap system on the backing leader and the take up leader. I bought a set for my long arm. I just need to quilt the quilt on it before I can install them.

She also has changed out the tension clamps on her machines. She has OXO clamps on hers. They are much wider. She told us that if we were going to change the clamps out to make sure to get a bigger washer because the holes on the OXO clamps were bigger than the ones on the clamps that came with the machine. As I was wandering through the her studio I saw that Patty already had kits made up to make this change. So needless to say I bought those as well.

Patty showed us some free style quilting and ruler work. She showed us rulers that she felt were a good investment. She told us who made them and where we could buy them. She never once mentioned she had them there in the studio. I, of course, found them. The others also found things they wanted.

Patty was a little surprised that we were buying things. She never once tried to sell us anything. The improvements she made to her machines were not part of the class but we all asked about them. I love going to a class and not getting the hard sell. I also love some of things she had done in her studio set up. It gave me ideas for when I get to build my studio outside the house. That will have to wait a couple of years but I have plans and ideas.

The only down side was, we learned that the QuiltPath camp won't happen until March at the earliest and only if she can get enough women interested. That class is $500.00 dollars and runs over three days. It is however being offered online. I will have to look into that. It may be cheaper doing it online.

All in all it was a good learning experience. I got a lot of good information. I will definitely consider taking more classes. Right now, I am eager to start doing more custom work. I just need to find the time to do it.

Hopefully this week I will get more quilting done and have time to make the improvements to my machine.

Projects Nearing Completion and Projects Revisited

I honestly have not done very much this week. I have been feeling very tired. Well that is not totally true either. Tuesday I felt really good. I had slept most of Sunday and Monday while on a business trip with my husband. But I did put in some long hours this week and was wiped out by the time I got home from work.

While on the trip I did get the binding on the small around the rail fence quilt. I just need to put the label on it and it will be complete. That will make four quilts completed this year.

I have not started quilting the braid quilt yet. I had it on the machine, backing, top and batting, all set to start as soon as I wound some bobbins. But then we needed to move some stuff around, my husband and son were supposed to put a batting bar on my Millie. They asked us to clear out underneath Millie to make room for them to work. That was a couple of weeks ago. Anyway the roll of batting has been sitting on Millie's table, making it impossible to quilt. I am actually glad that I had the delay. You see I fold up the batting onto the machine to keep it off the floor. When I am not quilting I fold it up even more to keep the cat from attacking it. I notice one day that the middle part of the batting was not as wide as the ends. In fact it may not have been wide enough to go past the edges of the top. I decided to play it safe, I took the batting off and folded it neatly and then put it in a storage basket. I will take the time to measure and cut the batting accurately. Why set myself up for problems that can be avoided. I can us the small batt in another project down the road.

The good news is that the batting bar is now in place with the roll of batt on it. So this week I need to cut the right size batt and put it place on the machine.

Unfortunately, the process of getting the roll of batting on the bar was not without casualties. Remember last week, I said the design wall was flimsy and that when it got bumped blocks would fall off?

Yes, those are the blocks of my quilt all over the floor. Fortunately there were only about six rows left on the design wall. With the help of the picture I took for last week's post, I got the blocks back up in what I hope is close to the same order as before. I know it is not exact because I had done some tweaking of the design after I took the picture. Either way I will just have to live with the results.


While I didn't get any long arm work done. I have been working on the Christmas Lemonade quilt. (the blocks on the floor) I only have 3 more rows to stitch together and then add the borders, Then of course make the back. Soon it will be ready to go on the long arm. So I need to get the quilting done on the braid quilt.

With these two quilts coming to completion I got to thinking about where to put my focus next. I decided to revisit the Irish Chain quilt. If you recall I had made it too long and not a bed friendly size. I was going to leave it that way. I didn't have any more of the batik fabric to make the blocks and I didn't want to tear it apart. Well, I found some similar fabric on the Missouri Star Quilt Company website. I still didn't want to tear apart the top and re sew it but I came up with another plan. I ordered yard lengths of several colors that were similar to the batiks in the chain blocks. I still have plenty of the white fabric left. I decided to do put a row of flying geese blocks along each side of the chain. I plan to put a two inch border between the chain part and the geese. Then run the same border along the top, bottom and outer edges to tie it all together. That will make the quilt wide enough for a bed. So once the Christmas lemonade is done, I am returning to that project.

I also need to finish my Star quilt. That one is a lot farther away from being done. But I should be able to work on a block or two here and there in the evenings.

After that I really need to plan a quilt for my sister-in-law. (maybe before the star quilt) She has opened her home to two of my daughters and one of them brought a husband and two little children with her. Lynn has a family of her own to take care of. We owe her big time, even if it was her idea.

Then there is the quilt for my bother in-law. He sent my husband a picture of a quilt, asking if I could make one similar. Since he has employed my son last year, my youngest daughter this year as well as a son in-law. I need to try and do that quilt for him. I think he wants to donate it to a fund raising program.

Plus there is the flower quilt I want to do. The Minion wall hanging for my husband. The Grand Adventures quilt, the All Boxed In quilt, a pineapple quilt and so very many more. There is not enough time in my day to get all of these done. Sometimes I wish I was independently wealthy so I didn't have to work.  I could just sew and quilt all day, every day. The reality is I wouldn't though. I have too many interests for my own good.

But I am still working towards the quilt shop/business. My mood is so much better now that I have taken the attitude that my job is just a job and not a career. While I haven't made it to the tech to find out about the entrepreneur classes yet (work was too crazy this week) I am not giving up on the plan. I will work to improve my long arm skills to get me started. And this next weekend I am gong down to Brookeville Florida to take the beginning long arm class. I will be at Katydids Quilting Studio. Patty Butcher is an APQS dealer and the person who set up my machine for me. It is her studio and she will be teaching some of us novice long arm quilters how to use our machines. I am really looking forward to the class. Tatianna will be going with me since her midterms will be over this week. It will be a good break for both of us.

This week's plans:

1. go to the beginning long arm class
2. put the label on the small around the rail fence quilt.
3. finish the Christmas lemonade quilt top
4. clean up the studio
5. start quilting the braid quilt
6. But mostly sew a little each night.

What projects are you working on? What projects are you planning to do? Do you even plan that far out?

Design Wall

My studio lacks what I consider to be an important quilting tool. It does not have any space for a design wall. Truthfully I've never had any space or surface that I could use as a design wall. So why do I consider it an important tool? I suppose I could come up with many reasons but the only one that really pertains to me is Quilt Layout.

I tend to use many different fabrics and colors in my quilts. My blocks are rarely uniform in construction so, I need a way to lay out the quilt to keep colors and patterns spread out somewhat evenly. For smaller quilts I have made use of my bed. But that isn't always convenient. I do like to sleep occasionally.

I have seen people use flannel backed tablecloths tacked to a wall for their design wall. I have seen people adhere flannel to a wall in their sewing room/studio for a design wall. Recently I purchased a Quilt Wall from Missouri Star Quilt Company. Which is simply a large piece of felt or Pellon like material. The problem I have with all of these solutions is I don't have a wall that I can put these up on.

As I was perusing Pinterest, I saw a posting on design boards. One person had taken a sewing pattern board covered it with flannel and used curtain rods for feet. I liked the idea. It could be folded and put in a corner when not in use. The problem is it wasn't big enough. It would only be about 36 inches by 58 inches. But what if I used 2 pattern boards taped together? That would double the space.

So I set about gathering supplies. I purchased 2 sewing pattern boards and 2 curtain rods from Walmart. I had a box a of medium binder clips duct tape and the quilt wall from Missouri Start Quilt Company.

The only flat surface large enough to work on in my house is my bed. Don't you just love the camo sheet. Needless to say my husband is a hunter.

I bought these two pattern boards at the local WalMart. I was rather disappointed in what passes for sewing pattern boards these days. The ones from my youth were much thicker and sturdier. They also folded accordion style. These pattern boards are nothing more than large sheets of corrugated cardboard with a grid printed on one side. The edges are even raw, not finished. Plus instead of accordion fold these fold in on itself from each side. Not sure how well that will work for storage.

At least he overall size of each board 58"x 36".  That should give me 58" x 72" design surface.

I unfolded the boards and laid them long sides together. I took care to match up the fold creases. I really do want to be able to fold this up when I am not using it.

To help me keep the board lined up while I taped it I used small pieces of dust tape to hold them together. This helped keep the creases lined up.












Since the boards are 58 inches long and 36 inches wide, I couldn't run one long piece of tape easily. So I opted to tape from the center to the edge.

Yes I know my tape is not straight. Nor is it terribly smooth but it should not matter in the end.

Here it is fully taped. Now I am sure just taping one side would probably be enough. Especially since I will be clipping the board to the curtain rods. But I didn't want the tape joint to become a hinge.

So I flipped the boards over. See how nice and tight that seam is. That is a very good thing. If you look closely you can see the fold creases lined up.

I repeated the taping process on the plain side.

The tape is a lot smoother on this side. Probably because I was more confident doing it.

With the boards together it is time to cover it with something the quilt blocks will stick too.  You can use felt or flannel or a flannel backed tablecloth but since I have a quilt wall, I am going to use that.

I spread it out evenly over the boards. If I was positive that this was going to work the way I hope it does, I would probably use a spray adhesive and permanently attach the quilt wall to the boards. But I am not sure how well this is going to meet my needs and I want to be able to tweak things.

Therefore I chose binder clips to hold the quilt wall to the boards. I started to use the medium binder clips, but I quickly realized that I needed many more clips than I had. So I made another trip to WalMart. I wanted to use medium clips all the way around. But as luck would have it, my local WalMart didn't have boxes of medium clips. I could get small clips, large clips, or an assortment of sizes.






Small would work for the top and bottom but not the sides. Large was just  overkill. So I bought the assortment. Which actually worked out for the better.

I wrapped the quilt wall around the edge of the board and held it in place with the binder clips.

I used 21 small clips on the top and bottom edges. They were actually a better size for that part of the job.

For the sides, I needed the medium sized clips.

You see the board is not going to stand up with out help. I need something rigid to help hold it up. Hence the curtain rods. The ones I am using are the old fashioned single white curtain rods. with the slot in the back for curtain hooks if you needed them. These go from 48"to 84".

For the sides, I placed the curtain rod on the underside edge of the boards. I then wrapped the quilt wall over the rod and used the medium clips to hold it all together.

I tried putting the quilt wall between the board and the rod but the clip rested in the slot and made the clips lay funny.

I ended up using 14 of the medium size clips on each of the sides.

Here is the wall standing up in my studio. Well Kinda of. The curtain rods are not the greatest frame. I had to curve the wall slightly to get it to stand and the shelf behind it has a lot to do with it standing.

Does it work? Yes, it works. Here it is with a quilt laid out on it.







Is it all I hoped it would be? No. Time to get the resident engineer (otherwise known as my husband) to work on it.

Pros - It is portable. I can fold it and stick it in the corner. It does hold a lot of blocks. I can sit/stand back and get a good overall view.

Cons - It is flimsy, the slightest bump and blocks will fall. It is not sturdy enough to stand up without curving which affects laying out the blocks. It is not as big as the quilt wall.

I have asked my husband to redesign it, using different materials if needed. In the meantime I have a quilt laid out and am starting to get it sewn together. And I can go to bed without clearing the quilt off the bed. Since I can leave it up, I can sew a row or two every day and not have to set everything up and put it away. That is a definite plus for me. Once Hubby gets the flaws worked out it will be even better.

What do you use to plan out your quilts?

Depression, Set Backs, Attitude Adjustments and Prespective

My happy mood of two weeks ago lasted up until the Wednesday the 23rd. Once again, work got me down. I won't go into details but on Friday, I was told I had a poor attitude lately. I was also told I needed to change my attitude. I finished up work early and went home.

That weekend, I was determined to find another job as quickly as possible. I was ready to take any job. My resume is updated. I applied for a couple for jobs and spent a good deal of the weekend fighting tears. To say the least I was a bit depressed.

On Sunday, my husband gave me a priesthood blessing. In it, I was reminded that all growth does not occur outside the home and all growth doesn't occur inside the home. I was told to decide what I wanted to be and start working towards that. Now isn't that a wake up call.

While I really do like my job and most of the time my boss is really a good guy, it isn't what I dream of doing. It isn't my dream job. It is what I needed to do at the time. It is a paycheck that helps pay the bills. Sure I want to be good at it. I enjoy being the go to person. I enjoy being seen as my boss's right hand man. But it is not my passion.

I've said before what I would really like to do is own a quilt shop. It is my dream. I work for myself and get to help others learn to do what I love. It seems almost like a pipe dream. Well, that is what I want to be. So why not work toward it?

I have decided that I need to do is quit treating my current job as a career. It is a job. It pays the bills. Set backs in it are not that big a deal. Since I no longer run the lab by myself, I will stop trying to keep track of everything. This will get even easier when they add another supervisor.

I will work towards the quilt shop. Of course I have no idea how to start a business. Funding will be a big issue. I also don't have a clue about running a business. But when my daughter was looking to go back to school she came across an Entrepenuer certificate program offered at the local technical college.

I think I know where to begin. It is two semesters long and only 6 hours a semester. I believe it is offered online as well. I had planned to go find out more about it this week but ended up training a new temp in a seasonal position. So it was long days. This week my boss is out of towm so leaving early will be difficult. But I am determined to take this course. I will find out more about it.

Once I made these decisions, my mood lifted. I am not stressing over things at work. If I do my job and others of the same rank mess up, well that is up to my boss to deal with. I do not have to fix everyone's mistakes. I do not have to spend 10-12 hour days working. The other supervisor is just as capable of doing the work as I am.

I have had a marvelous attitude adjustment. Probably not the one my boss wanted but well it is one I can live with. It is amazing how little I fret over things once I started veiwing the job became as a means to reach my goal.

Perspective is everything. My focus will be on the quilt shop. I will figure out how to start it and how to run it. In the mean time I will work to pay bills and earn the money I need to make my goal happen.