Wednesday, November 30, 2011

And another bites the dust ...

Okay, I'm back in the groove!  Thanks so much for the nice comments about yesterday's quilts.  It is really great to hear what everyone is thinking ... and doing!  I got Judy's quilt done today ... it's a Kansas Troubles fabric and just a simple quilt, and I decided just needed a simple stipple ...
I wish my camera did justice to these quilts ... it is so much prettier in person!  When Judy had pieced the back of this quilt she realized it wasn't going to have the extra all around that it needs when it has to be put on a frame.  The extra on the sides is so the clamps have something to hold onto.  If there isn't enough room on each side, the machine will run into the clamp, and screw the quilting up.  This side does not have enough space
All you can see is the batting here, but what you don't see is that the backing is only one inch beyond the top.  The way I handled this was I quilted that outer border without the clamp on, and then after I moved toward the inside border, I put the clamp on.  I knew that there wasn't enough space on either side before I measured the quilt, because she had told me so.  I told her that I could add a strip of muslin to either side of the back, and it would get trimmed off and so wouldn't show when it was all quilted.  But when I was doing this last night at 10:00 p.m., I forgot to add it to both sides, and just added a 9" strip to one side of the quilt ... duh!  I knew her piecing was good and that her border was straight because I always measure the quilts before they go on the frame, and take a look to see if there are any problem areas I need to know about.  I decided rather than have a small strip on the back that was a different fabric, I could work around that left side and hope that by the time I got to the bottom everything was still straight and I still had that inch to work with.  It worked out great and I had no problems!  Here's what the right side looked like
See all that space?  I like to have a minimum of 4" on either side.

I usually pin my quilt top to the bar, but this time I decided to float my quilt top.  I used to float them all the time, but then when I went to my training on the machine, they told us we should be pinning the bottom of the top to the leader.  When I say "float" it means the bottom of the quilt top hangs freely and you have to smooth it as you go ...

If you look at this picture, you can see the border is just hanging ... that bar at the bottom of the outside border is what the quilt top is usually pinned to.  I admit that I love floating the top because it's one less step as far as pinning goes, and it is easy to smooth the top and eyeball it as you go to see whether it's lining up straight.  If you're a frame quilter, what do you do?  Float or pin?

I'm winding down on the quilts in my closet that need to be done before Christmas ... hurray ... a couple of days ago, I was three quilts behind ... now I'm only one behind.  That's the quilt that I'm waiting on the thread for.  It's a huge quilt, and will probably take me two days to finish, but I can work on it next week if need be.  So I have one on my schedule for Friday, and I hope to get the one I'm waiting on thread for on there on Saturday ... I should be able to get it done this weekend.  She just wants a simple stipple, but it's a queen sized quilt and I don't like to stand and quilt for more than about 5 hours at a time, so I'll probably split it into two days.  Then I'm done!!  Yay!!!!  I do have a quilt that needs to be done for my friend for Christmas, but I knew that one was coming ... I think she'll give it to me tomorrow, and I can start on it next week and take my time.  Glad to be done for the holidays and give myself a little break!

I'm very excited because my darling daughter's play is tonight where she has the starring role!  She didn't want my husband and I to go tonight because she said opening night is always terrible and like a dress rehearsal.  I told her that I didn't care; it's her first big role and I want to be there for opening night!  I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!!

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