Getting back to custom, a two part post

Wow, I have decided I am not thrilled with custom quilting anymore. I still like figuring out what I am going to quilt, but the long hours of standing, bending at the hips and moving the big Gammill are harder than ever. I do about three or four hours and then have to relax a while. So, it took almost a week to do this fairly small quilt. Not bad for my debut after over a year away from doing custom work. Get comfortable, I took way too many pictures.

Update! 

I started this post a few days ago and had a glitch in the matrix when I tried to upload photos. I finally got it figured out, and can continue on. So sorry.

Upward and onward! 

The other night at guild, I was given two boxes that came from a 92 year old woman who is looking to downsize her quilting stuff. One box is an old tin Whitman's sampler box, filled with packages of vintage rick-rack, seam tape and an assortment of lovely, hand crocheted and tatted laces. There were also two pairs of German made embroidery scissors, a strange needle/bodkin thingy and a tarnished thimble. I cleaned the thimble, and it is England made sterling silver! 

The other box is wooden, and filled with vintage wood spools of both cotton and silk threads. I emptied the box, untangled the contents and trimmed all the loose ends. Then, I sorted the threads by color and replaced them in the box. There were also some short, fat spools of silk buttonhole twist, made in England. My gears are turning to figure out what to do with this treasure. Enjoy the massive amount of photos.

Aren't these cool!?

All sorted and re-packed

If you know what the needle is for, let me in on the secret!

The tarnished thimble

The thimble cleaned up nicely.

Back in the studio, life goes on. Here are the quilts I have finished for customers in the last few days.

My sister in Texas sent several projects to be quilted. I'm happy to see she has started sewing again after some time away from her machine.

This Christmas quilt has the panto Holly Berries

This soft collection of fabric made a pretty top.

Panto: Posh

I finally finished the table runner for the longarm group. we all were to make the same runner and quilt it on our machines. I can't believe it took me all day to do this small quilting project! I'm getting better at sizing the patterns to the blocks, but not proficient enough to put this to work on customer custom projects. I'm taking a class on Saturday in Franklin to better learn how to accomplish digital custom quilting. I hope it sinks in...

In progress

All done!

The focus fabric is also the backing.

I'll close this mammoth post with a couple of photos of Penny. She goes next week to have her "Fluff and Buff", so we need to appreciate how cute she is when she is too furry for her own good. Brushing her is a nightmare, so I am happy to be getting her trimmed and sweet smelling.

Penny says, "Why aren't you sewing? Get to work, human!"

My smarty pants pup.

 

March-ing ahead

 What's happening? A quilt show, some quilting and a bit of sewing, that's what! It has been cool and rainy here, perfect days for staying in and getting some work done. Customer quilts have been finished and I even had time to learn and practice using the block quilting feature on the HQ. Good for me! Let's dive in...

The week started with this colorful customer quilt

Quilted with variegated thread in the Irate pattern

Its a great looking combination that looks nice together.

I made one of the Villa Rosa designs that come on these small postcards. They go together easily and are a snap to finish. I had the blocks done by closing time.

Next up, this jelly roll race done in reproduction fabrics.

I used a swirly, flowery panto on this one. It came out very pretty.

Nice blue backing, the quilt going to a 13 year old girl for her birthday.

One afternoon, I quickly put together this small kit made for the evening guild. It is quilted and bound and ready to go.

Here is a quilt I made (Villa Rosa) from a 10" pack of Ruby Star fabrics. I made this top just for fun.

Panto: Stacked Snails

Cheerful cherries on the back.                                                      

My big guild had an auction of quilts from a member who is seriously down-sizing.

I bid on quite a few of them, and went home with four vintage quilts for my collection!

Our president, Leslie, reading us the rules in front of the quilt that took in the most money for the guild. The final bid was $750!!! Wow! Not one of the quilts that went home with me...

I'll have to photograph my buys and put them here next time.

Outside, these pansies popped up following the hard freeze we had a couple weeks ago. What resilience they have!

Inside the studio, I spent two days quilting this lovely (and giant) star sampler for a customer.

The panto is a complex combination of flowers, swirls and vines with leaves. Each row took a long time tp do, but I think it was worth the time to use one as beautiful as this one.

It really looks nice in the open areas of the quilt.

Coordinated backing.

I made this little quilt to practice setting patterns in blocks.

Here is one that had a hiccup. I don't think it was supposed to have a double line in the feathers.

I was happy when this fell precisely in all four quadrants.

I set up the inside of the block, then hand guided the frame.

Most of the stitching on the back looked fine. But...

The first row had a major tension dilemma. I left the mistakes in because they didn't affect the integrity of the quilt, just looked really bad. After a tension adjustment, it went well.

Sunday, we took a quick trip to Watkinsville for a quilt show. Here are the quilts that I liked best.

Another week done, some quilts and some fun

 I was on the go this week and only had time to do a few quilts. I taught a free motion quilting tutorial at the art group meeting, traveled to Franklin for my HandiQuilter club and met in Blue Ridge with some guild members to cut and assemble charity quilt kits. In the few times I was in the studio, I finished some customer quilting!

This colorful star quilt was made in a local shop class

The customer chose a light green thread and this triangle quilting pattern

It really looks fun on the backing.

This quilt makes wonderful use of a collection of coordinated batiks.

I used a quilting pattern of meandering ferns.

You can see the quilting a bit better here.

I love the positioning of the stars with the gold centers. The layout is quite stunning.

The customer chose a swirly design for the quilting, which I did with gold thread.

Really nice!

This beauty was made by a guild member, using the Carolina Lily block .

It is quilted with a ginkgo leaf clamshell pattern that echoes the border fabric pattern.

The backing is this lovely blue paisley.

There was a country-wide massive storm this week, and my grandson had a snow day from school. What better way to enjoy the snow than to go sledding?! We didn't get snow...just more rain. Pretty soon our yard will float away. It is so squishy we can't let Penny run out there. C'mon Spring!! I'm ready for some warm sunshine.

Wheeeee!!