Saturday, May 30, 2009

Quilting Today

I read Mary's blog almost every day. She inspires me with her quilting -- she quilts on the longarm almost every day and practices the new things when she can. I'm about 3 years or maybe more behind her...not as adventuresome in my quilting, but trying to get there.
This quilt is just 16" x 18" and actually is Kris' quilt that she gave me. I pulled a backing yesterday and threw it on the machine today and jumped right in with a little meander with a three petal flower thrown in there. Dawn Ramirez' DVD - Pajama Quilter was originally my inspiration along with Mary. I'm giving this one back to Kris and let her bind it!

In reading Mary's blog, she showcased a quilt her mother made for her that was quilted by her sister, Deb. I hadn't been to Deb's blog in a while, so I went over there and was totally in awe of what she does with a longarm! Wow, some tiny little all-over feathers as fill in. I will never be that accomplished, but boy, what an inspiration her work is.

So, I grabbed a backing fabric and threw my appliqued tree on the longarm and filled in the background with the tiniest stippling I've ever done. Now, keep in mind, this is my first attempt and I realized after I started that I should have set my stitches at least at 12 per, and didn't want to go back and pick stitches, so did the whole thing at 10 per. Also -- I have carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand (had surgery years ago on the left), and when I finished one section, my hand was so numb I couldn't press the stop button! vbg I still don't know what I'm going to do with the border -- maybe just stitch in the ditch between the borders and call it good. Anyway -- it's not great, but I feel pretty good about it anyway and feel really good about just jumping in and having a go at it.

I quilted one other little quilt today for Kris and just freehanded some little pumpkins in with a little meander...it's a small Halloween quilt.
So, obviously, I spent my day quilting and it was wonderful!

Gratitudes:
JR seems to feel better after having an upset stomach earlier today.
I spent some time rockin' on the porch this afternoon, reading a book - so nice.
Getting inspiration from other quilters.



1 comment :

Mary Johnson said...

I think you did great with both of them! Little tiny background fills make my hands tired too and I have to take frequent breaks -- I've also found it's something that's easier with the stitch regulator OFF so I can get smaller stitches.

(PS Pajama quilter Dawn's last name is Rameriz; Dawn Cavanaugh is another very talented longarm teacher and quilter)