Memory Pillows for a Friend

One of the awesome things about sewing and quilting, versus other mediums of art, is that it helps make memories tangible.  You buy a fabric while on vacation, and it will always hold that memory for you.  If you inherit fabrics from a friend or from family, no matter what that piece ends up in, it will always remind you of that person.

In this case, the fabric was a shirt from my friend Kim's late father.  While her dad has been gone for a few years, it's still been a struggle dealing with his absence for her and her kids, particularly for her daughter.

So with her daughter's birthday rolling around, she asked me back in January if I could make a pillow for her daughter out of a shirt she had saved, an a matching one for her son.  Of course I could!  All she asked is that somewhere I could put a patch that said...

So I did. 

She said I made her daughter cry!  I'm glad to know that they were happy tears.  

Product Review: Supreme Slider

I love to free motion quilt.  Once I got over the bump of learning how it all works and getting my sea legs when it came to how to control the machine, my speed and forming the shapes, I became addicted.  I know that for a lot of folks it seems intimidating or too fussy to do at home, but I get a lot of joy out of it. 

That being said, there are a lot of gizmos and gadgets in the market targeted to quilters to make free motion quilting easier - there are clips and gloves and ointments and brackets and the list goes on.  You know me...the apple doesn't fall far from the gizmo-hating tree.  I was brought up by a gizmo hating quilter, so I too am a gizmo hating quilter. 

A while back one of our quilting buddies told us about a free motion quilting class she took in which the teacher had the Supreme Slider by Pat LaPierre on the list as a recommended supply.  She absolutely raved about how wonderful it was, and considering who was doing the raving, I conceded to giving it a try. 

So it came in this little folded pack, and it is just an 8.5" x 11" piece of slick teflon-esque material with a sticky bottom side that adheres to your machine like so:

It's not too difficult to get on there, but it does want to stick before you're ready for it to, so it takes a little finagling.  But one it's on, so long as your feed dogs are dropped and the hole is centered over the hole on your machine's throat plate, you're ready to rock.  

I should have taken a picture of the project I was quilting while I was using this thing, but to he honest, I didn't think about it. Oops!  But the Supreme Slider is WONDERFUL.  It really does reduce the friction like it claims to, and it is quite noticeable.  With my machine, there is an issue where, in heavily quilted areas, the threads want to catch on the open feed dog area.  I have NO idea why this happens, since the threads aren't loose, but it does.  Using the Supreme Slider seems to eliminate the issue in addition to eliminating the drag.  And, even though the backside gets linty after a while, it is very easy to clean and reuse.  For a gizmo...this thing is pretty sweet.

So what would I say are the pros and cons?

CONS

- If you have top loading bobbin case as I do, it's a pain to change the bobbin when it runs out.  If you aren't cautious to thread the bobbin thread up through the mat, it will get stuck on the sticky side and cause real issues if you don't notice and go to start sewing again. 

- For a one trick pony, it's spendy.  I had the advantage of being able to buy it wholesale, but it retails for just shy of $30.  

- Keep the packaging!  It doesn't come with anything to protect the sticky side from getting linty or dusty while you're not using it, other than the packaging it came in. 

PROS

- It really, really does reduce drag.

- It fits your machine even if you have an extension table.  My extension table likes to move while I'm quilting, and this helps keep that sucker from shifting.

- It is reusable.  I was able to get three quilts done before it was linty enough to affect its ability to adhere to my machine. 

- Speaking of washing, just some warm water and hand soap is all it takes to get the lint off.  Washing it with warm soapy water did not reduce its stickiness.

All in all, I give the Supreme Slider 4 out of 5 stars.  The cost and the bobbin issue are both enough to knock it out of 5 star status. 

You can find the Supreme Slider online here directly from the website. 

Woodpecker Quilt

So...there's a story here.  When my folks lived in their first house here in town, it was a two story house with wood siding.  On the side of the house where their bedroom was, there were a bunch of trees really close by - several feet, tops.  So there were a bunch of woodpeckers that would go into those trees, and a few of them decided to become the bane of Dad's existence and start pecking on the wood siding.  While I still lived at home, I lived downstairs and I remember hearing Dad wheeling out from his office, walking into the bedroom and then he'd run downstairs with this Red Ryder BB gun.  His goal was to scare them off and he's pop off a few BBs and that would be that.  He'd go back upstairs, but not too much longer later they'd be tapping on the siding again.

The woodpeckers were Dad's Bumpus hounds.

So we got this Woodpecker fabric in and of course I had to make a quilt for him.  My folks recently moved to a different house, so the woodpeckers are a thing of the past, but they live on in quilted form.

I quilted it up on my Janome with a large scale, loose wood grain pattern.  I wish it showed up better here, but it looked pretty cool with the wool batting.
  

Free Motion Quilting Cheats!

In the past few months, I have been doing a lot of my own free motion quilting, whereas I hadn't before. Unfortunately, the professional quilter I gave quilts to the most was out of commission for a little bit, and with my other preferred quilter having quite the backlog, I decided I should probably try and do my own work.  I mean, I'm using a machine that can do it, and I do have some free motion experience, so why not, right?  I figured the pieces would be nice and high on the wall at the shop where no one could see all the mistakes and the uneven stitches, etc...right?

My feathers turned into chunky, funky vines, whatever. 

Well, apparently I sold myself short. The response from people seeing my home-quilted quilts has been overwhelming!  People liked it, and were shocked I was doing this on a domestic machine. The truth is, I still don't think I'm all that great at it, but I do love the free motion quilt.  I can't handle much more than a small throw quilt without difficulty, and I still haven't mastered the even stitches bit even with a stitch regulator, but I love it.  I think it is my favorite part of the process!

No, my quilt isn't swearing, they're just asterisk snowflakes. 

But what I keep hearing from people looking at the few quilts I have up that I've quilted myself, is that they wouldn't have any idea on how to fill the space, and they wouldn't be brave enough to freehand the design. Well, yes, I'm not using a stencil or a computerized design, so technically, I am free handing the designs, but I'm most definitely not brave enough to completely freehand just yet! BUT...I do have a few cheats to share for those of us just starting out in free motion and for us not feeling confident enough just yet to 100% freehand.  Here we go! 

Free Motion Quilting Cheats

1. Pinterest really is a wonderful, wonderful thing.  If you're feeling stuck, pop on there and you can find a world of free motion designs to inspire you.  I have spent countless hours looking up designs because my arsenal is limited. Just search "free motion quilting" and you'll find yourself sucked right in. 

Exhibit A, found on Pinterest. 

2. Let your fabric and pattern work for you. Does your fabric have an interesting design, or does your pattern have its own funky natural lines?  Follow the leader and stitch around those patterns.  

3. I'll be honest...the Press and Seal trick did not work for me at all, not even one measly bit. It didn't slide underneath my quilting foot very well, and got bunched up even when I eased up the pressure on the foot. Also, when I tried to move the fabric around the design, the wrap didn't stay put and it moved with my hands. Oh, and that stuff is a pain int he ass to get out of your stitching...I ended up doing more damage to my stitches than I did to the Press and Seal, even trying to be delicate with tweezers! 

Please accept a picture of some Scottie puppies as a completely adorable substitute. 

4. If you can audition patterns, that is really, really helpful.  That's probably, in my opinion, what the Press and Seal is best for.  But, it is translucent and you don't get a good feel for how the pattern looks on your quilt.  My solution was overhead projector sheets.  Yeah, yeah, I know, how has those anymore? I've had these babies laying around since my junior year of high school...and only just found a good use for them. 

Sorry...I mean these....

But they're 100% clear and you can use Sharpie, a dry erase marker, or an overhead marker to trace out the design, or designs, you're toying around with. This will give you a much better idea of how your design will look on your quilt without ever having to take a stitch, and with zero marking on your quilt.

The pitfall is that you shouldn't really sew over these...they're quite stiff and getting the plastic out of your stitches would be at very best a nightmare. Once you get the idea of how it will look and what you want, it's time to be brave and dive in, or...

5. You can always you a washable fabric pencil, or water soluble marker to draw your design directly on the fabric. You can stitch right over it and wash it off when you're done...or, with all of that handling, it may wipe away on its own as you work.  This is best done in chunks because as you handle the quilt, especially if you opt to use a fabric pencil, it will wipe away...so it's best not to spend all your time drawing out the whole quilt only to have it fade away.

6. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Before you even sew a stitch on your quilt, make yourself a "test quilt" to make sure your tension is in order, and to make sure you know how to actually do the design you want.  When I make a "test quilt" all it is, is a 14" x 14" or so piece of scrap batting with scrap fabric on either side to act as the quilt top and back.  That way you are practicing on roughly the same materials as your quilt is made from.  Get you design down, your tension right and your courage up and you're ready to roll! 

Workie Work, Busy Bee

So...now that we've all had our fill of Halloween goodies...we're back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I've been busy at work on new samples, a few wedding quilts (no pictures because those folks read this blog), and an experiment in quilting weirdness.  But it was time to get in gear for Christmas, and let me tell ya, it felt really bizarre working on Christmas things while I was trying to enjoy my favorite spooky season.

Stonehenge Christmas table runner panel.  I wasn't really wild about the panel itself, but I was asked to do it as a sample.  The quilting made it a little more interesting, I think.

Little circles on the border.  They're not perfect, but half decent for a second attempt. 

Finished Project! The Easter Bunny Stocks Up

When this pattern came in to the shop, it was too cute to pass up...who would have guessed the Easter Bunny was a trick or treater and thrifty Easter Basket shopper?  It made me giggle, so I had to make it.

It's called "The Easter Bunny Stocks Up" and is by Cranberry Designs' Rockin' Redwork line.  I'm not much for doing embroidery - it's gorgeous but I don't have the attention span for much of it - but this was adorable and simple.  And, I had a total blast quilting it! I don't have a picture of the finished product (just finished the binding yesterday and neglected to take a picture of it), but the binding is purple and I'm pretty psyched about the whole thing.  It feels good to start and finish a project within a week...it happens so rarely!