I Cannot Sew Without ___.

What can you not sew without?

You can sew the guided quarter inch foot in this picture.

Gosh, my list is long but here are a few things I truly cannot live without (or maybe, things that I just really like!).

A seam guide. I use several different methods depending on what machine I’m sewing on. Recently, I purchased a guided quarter inch foot for my Featherweight. To be honest, it’s taking some getting used to. I think I like it….?

This is a close-up of the Guided Quarter Inch Foot that I have been using on my featherweight. I purchased it here. 

On other machines I use my “purple bumper”. Think back to the last time you went bowling and had to beg your husband to let you put up the bumpers. It kept you out of the gutters then, and it’ll keep you on the straight and narrow in your sewing as well.

If I can’t find my trusty “purple bumper” I’ll reach for painters tape. I stack several layers so it creates a lip that my fabric can push against. It’s cheap, works great, and you probably have some around your house.

These are my “purple bumpers.” They come 5 to a package, and one lasts quite awhile. I’m actually not sure that I have ever replaced my first one. They are available for purchase here.

The key to each of these guides is that you have an accurate way to check your quarter inch, or scant quarter inch, seam. After all, the guide will only work correctly if it is placed in the correct spot. My favorite tool for this is the guide that has a spot for your needle to slide into. If that is not an option you could carefully use a ruler.

This is an example of a seam guide with a needle slot. It is available here.

Another thing I cannot seem to sew without are small snips, or scissors. Again, it depends on where I’m sewing for what I reach for. I’ll share pictures of my top three choices. I like snips that are small, easy to use, and super sharp!

To be honest, I’m pretty set as long as I have good snips and a true quarter inch guide. Of course, I could get into the fact that I’m a ruler snob and I only like Creative Grid rulers or that Aurifil Thread in any light grey shade is always on my machine.  Technically I could get by with other options but my complaining might be a little ridiculous.  This post is about what I cannot live without, so I’m trying to keep it narrowed down to the absolute necessities.

Customer quilt quilted using Just Roses and backed with Shannon Cuddle.

The last thing that I cannot, will not, without a doubt won’t do is quilt without taking my right shoe off. I can leave the left shoe on— that one isn’t a problem— but there is no possibility of me sewing with my right shoe still attached to my foot.

If you have ever been in Quilter’s Hideaway, our quilt shop, you have probably heard “Where is my shoe?”, “Just a second, I’m looking for my shoe.” or some version of this more than once. Anyone else? I cannot be the only single-shoed quilter.

Customer quilt quilted using Flowing Water pattern.

Anyways, I would love to hear what you cannot quilt without.

See you at the machine,

Care

… Have you found my shoe yet?

The Fastest Moda Trip

At the start of this week we went on a road trip.  Cindy (mom), Tracy, Misty and myself piled in a Honda Pilot and set off towards Dallas.  We drove late Sunday night after the shop closed. We laughed more than humanly possible, ate yummy food, and arrived at the hotel without any limbs lost. There were moments when we were all too tired. By moments, I really mean 4 solid hours of laughter, yawns, and too many snacks. Shhh! If you ask me how much snack food I consumed in the car, I will not give a straight answer.

Nevertheless, we made it to Dallas late Sunday night, just to wake up EARLY Monday morning to drive to the Moda Warehouse.  Hello sweet mother-load of fabric! The amount of fabric shoved into this warehouse is incredible!

Customer’s quilt quilted with Sweet Shoppe.

Once we arrived at Moda, we grabbed our cart, and stormed off.  Okay we didn’t really storm; it was more like we all scattered, each going in a different direction.  I had control of the cart.  Someone had to monitor everything we were going to buy. 😉

 

 

This wasn’t our first rodeo, so we had learned the layout and what a trip to Moda Warehouse looked like. We knew we wanted the big cart and how they had the fabric organized.

Customer’s quilt quilted with Broken Glass.

I wanted Grunge. I focused there and just started grabbing off the shelf. It looked unorganized, but I knew the colors we had (thanks to pictures on our phones) and I was trying to fill in colors we needed plus restock our low inventory. Everything else we looked at was for restock or something we had seen and had an interest in. Many aisles I avoided, skipped, and just couldn’t focus long enough to walk down.

Moda Warehouse can be overwhelming. It is extremely tempting to grab one of each fabric and walk out with a Semi Truck FULL of fabric.  Remember, we only had a Honda Pilot to fill.  A Honda Pilot that also had four ladies and was making a trip to IKEA after Moda… Our space was limited.

Customer’s quilt quilted with Gems.

We have added precuts, Grunge, Christmas and Halloween fabric. We also added patterns, notions, and much more! You will have to stop by the shop, or jump online to see what is new.

 

After Moda Warehouse we jumped in the car and drove off to IKEA.  We can’t ever make a trip to Dallas without a quick stop at IKEA.  Many of the shelves at the shop are from IKEA, along with quite a few repurposed items.  For example, a TV cabinet holds our Minky, “trash cans” are spotted throughout the shop full of fabric, large planters, tables, garden trellises, and floating shelves are also stuffed with fabric around the shop.  I love walking through IKEA trying to figure out new uses for different items.

Customer’s quilt quilted with Ocean Froth.

After reorganizing our car to fit everything we found, we were off.  Take two seconds to imagine four ladies pulling too many bolts to count out of the car, just to fill it FULL… again!  I’m sure it was a sight to see… hopefully no one videoed that mess.

We made it back safely, and the new fabric is out on the floor.  It was a quick 24 hour round trip, but worth every minute.

 

See you at the machine (with new fabric),

Care

 

 

ONE DAY AWAY

It is Tuesday! We are ONE DAY AWAY from our biggest challenge, change, project QH has ever tried to tackle.  There will be mistakes, we will still be crawling along, learning as we go, but the end result should be amazing.

Customer Quilt quilted with Deer Hooves and Antlers.

Tomorrow, you will have to check out our NEW website!

Customer quilt quilted with Ocean Froth.

Close up of customer quilt quilted with Ocean Froth.

The class calendar, in my opinion, is much easier to operate, and you can even sign up for classes. You might just have to give us a few moments to get everything set up.

Customer quilt quilted with Meandering Circles. 

We are still working to get everything set up: every bolt of fabric, notion, ruler, etc had to be re-input.  That part has been gross!

Customer quilt quilted with Modernish.

I miss my sewing machine. Millie, our longarm quilting machine, has been putting in long hours, but that is the only machine that has really seen any operating time.  I miss it.

Customer quilt quilted with Americana Rounded Stars.

I’ve received two spectacular machines recently, and they are begging to be used. Soon.  I keep telling myself that it will happen soon. When it does, you bet I’ll be sharing with you.  TWO MACHINES! You will be meeting them soon.

Customer quilt quilted with Nested R&R.

Until then, I’ll be looking through photos on my phone and trying to share some of our older quilts that we have quilted.

 

See you at the machine,

-Care

Moving, Changing, Growing

It has been awhile since a blog made a presence. I blame… life.  Every time you think things are about to level out, something else comes up. I think there will just always be something. Recently, I was in a good friends wedding the weekend before we were supposed to be selling our house and buying another house which all was happening about a week before a huge program change at Quilter’s Hideaway. I’ve always said I would rather be busy than bored… 🙂

Customer quilt quilted with Fireworks.

A couple Friday’s ago, when we were about to leave for my friend’s Rehearsal Dinner, Dalton and I received word that our seller was still lacking some paperwork and our move was postponed. I think it probably worked out for the better looking back. I was able to spend more time at Quilter’s Hideaway working on Millie and preparing for our biggest challenge yet—changing to a new point of sale system.  We were also able to rest up more following the wedding before moving.

Customer quilt quilted with Damask.

Our move ended up being postponed one week, two weeks before we are/were to go live with our new system. The move happened fairly uneventfully and we are now full focus on our new system.

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Side note: This move symbolized so much! We were sad to leave behind certain things at our old house—a shed my brother-in-laws, father-in-law, and husband built, our “first” house as a married couple, the place we introduced our youngest puppy to our family.  However, this move meant that QH was successful! (AMAZING) It meant that it was time to move closer to the shop and shorten my over-an-hour drive to work every day.  All our hard work was paying off, and I could not be more thankful for YOUR support.

 

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If you have entered the shop in the last week, you noticed it was a little chaotic.

Customer quilt quilted with Rapunzel. 

When we opened the shop our goal was to merely open. The details were all slightly foggy. We were learning as we went and the Point Of Sale system we started with wasn’t handling our growth well. There were components of it that I loved, but mostly it was a pain. We have been blessed with incredible growth, and with that, we are going through a few growing pains.

Customer quilt quilted with Fireworks.

We made the decision to change our Point of Sale system, which also means we are changing our website, newsletter process, and so much more. It is exciting. It is nerve-wracking. It is a learning experience. It might be a little stressful.

 

I have had more than one bowl of ice cream this past week; whatever it takes, right?

Customer quilt quilted with Meandering.

To say I am excited for this new system is an understatement.  Do I like this conversion process? Absolutely not. Is the timing a little iffy? You bet.  But I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.  I also feel like it is time to make a change now, while we are still young. We just celebrated our 1.5 birthday, after all.

Customer quilt quilted with Meandering Circles.

Stick around.  The next few weeks are going to be pretty awesome. I might have an ice cream party at my new house if we all make it through this.

 

See you at the machine,

Care

What’s In a Name?

Happy 2018! It is a new year, and we have so many things on the agenda for the shop. I’m not a huge New Years Resolution person, but I am really hoping to find time to blog more this year.

 

With that said, I am also helping to continue learning more on Millie, and I started early learning new things this year. On Christmas Eve/Day, I quilted a custom quilt for my Brother-in-Law. Somehow, my two brother-in-laws have been able to convince me to only quilt custom for them. It has always been a large learning curve. Each time, I have learned new things, and thankfully the quilts always turn out great!

 

This particular quilt was a gift for the man officiating his wedding. The family’s last name starts with a G and they have three kids: Ellyn Beth, Jax Joseph, and Jones Dean. I promise we checked the spelling multiple times during this process, but it still made me nervous.

Devin, my brother-in-law, had the idea to quilt all of the childrens’ names into the quilt. It sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well… I couldn’t find an easy way to do it without a ton of jumps between every letter (A jump is when Millie stops sewing in one spot and moves to another spot. It leaves a stretch of loose thread that needs trimmed.), so I improvised. I spent quite a lot of time in PatternCad, a program in QuiltPath that allows a pattern to be “drawn”.

I grumbled quite often while “drawing” this pattern, but I love how it turned out. Now I want to do a similar quilt for my grandmother with all of the grandchildren’s names, but the idea of creating patterns for all of those names makes me worried.

 

See you at the machine,

Care

 

 

September-Quilt Among Friends

September. It was a month we knew would be filled with working late and waking early, deadlines around every bend, and more celebrations than we could count. We participated in our first shop hop. It was spectacular, but I will have to write again to fill you in on those details, because right now I cannot contain myself from sharing about an event that happened the day after the shop hop ended. On September 10th Quilter’s Hideaway hosted our first charter bus. We greeted almost 60 quilters from Arlington, TX.

We had a blast. Preparations were made months earlier. We worked with The Rolling Pin to serve for lunch. We wanted to offer them a little taste of Bartlesville and stay local. We also served Tracy’s famous pasta salad. At the end of the day only three sandwiches remained, so I would say it was a hit. Thank you, thank you to The Rolling Pin!

Knowing how many quilters we were going to have walk through the door and knowing their schedule we had to call in backup. We were blessed with great help and, thankfully, we were able to keep everyone on schedule. It was amazing! Thank you to all of the ladies who stepped up to help us out, and also to Dalton!

Arlington quilters/Quilt Among Friends, you are welcome anytime! We thoroughly enjoyed helping you, and getting to share laughs with each of you. Sew on my friends, hope to see you again!

See you at the machine,

Care

Ramblings From Our First Show

Alright. I’m fully aware that it has been a few months since I’ve been able to write anything. This is both good and bad. Good, because we’ve been busy at the shop.  I have fully enjoyed meeting each of our customers and working on so many quilts. Bad, because I love writing and I miss you terribly. So, with that said, I’m going to try to do better but I make no promises.
This past weekend (actually, it was two weekends ago), Quilter’s Hideaway went to its first show. We spent weeks cutting fabric, making quilts, trying to be prepared. We had all sorts of helpers helping and sweet friends making sample quilts at the last minute. I think it turned into a great show. Jubilee Quilt Guild of Bartlesville did a wonderful job. 

This is our almost-finished booth.

Somewhere in that process I also committed to providing a demo of my choice. I’m so thankful that I did not think twice when I made this decision, because my second thought was “absolutely not”. I was quieter than quiet in high school, college wasn’t much different, and I DREADED every speech in my Public Speaking class. (I’m also very thankful for that class. I now realize every “Umm” that I say… and it’s a popular word in my vocabulary). However, I was committed and not backing down from this challenge. 

Sprinkles by JAYBIRD QUILTS. {This is where my Sidekick journey began}

I had recently helped a lady complete a quilt using the JAYBIRD QUILTS Sidekick ruler. I was in love. I’m not a knickknack sewer. I try to use different things around my house instead of buying a new gadget, but I was sold on this ruler. Timing was everything, because this gave me a direction for the demo. 

Trail Mix by JAYBIRD QUILTS. {unfinished}

Finally, with a plan in mind I was able to prepare. I watched videos on the Sidekick ruler, videos on how to avoid saying “Umm” and made several quilts using the ruler. I thought, “If the demo goes downhill, I will just show pretty quilts.” 🙂 

Seashore by JAYBIRD QUILTS

My most favorite part about the Sidekick, Super Sidekick, and the Hex N More is that there are no Y seams. I’ll repeat that just in case…. THERE ARE NO Y SEAMS!! It is amazing, and brilliant. 

Night Sky by JAYBIRD QUILTS {My Favorite}

I could not recommend a ruler or Jaybird Quilts more. Her patterns are spectacular too. Detailed, colored pictures are shown at each step and each cut. Then, she breaks down exactly how to assemble the rows to avoid Y seams. 

Cinnamon Bun by JAYBIRD QUILTS

I’m not saying my demo was perfect. It was actually far from that. Mistakes were made, but the first demo and show are both done and I’m ready for the next. 
See you at the machine, 

•Care

Happy St. Patrick’s Day- FREE PATTERN

Top O’ The Mornin’ To Ya!  (I just looked up different St. Patrick’s Day sayings and came out somewhat empty handed. Thanks Google…)

 

Happy St. Patrick’s day!  As I sat in the car this morning before work, I realized that I had walked out the door without any green today… Thankfully, I had a green hair-tie in my car, but does that really count? We could get into the nitty-gritty, or I could share with you a fun, green pattern.  Let’s get to it, and hopefully it will make up for my lack of green wardrobe.

You can mix and match your fabric or use all the same.

 

Prep:

Dig in your stash for green and cream fabric. Or whatever floats your fancy.

 

You will need:

1/4 yard of green {clover fabric}

1/4 yard of tan/cream {background fabric}

One fat quarter {backing}

One fat quarter of batting

Two 2” strips {binding}

*You could also use mix and match your fabric as I did.*
 

Chopping Block:

Cut two 2.5” strips of clover fabric.

Now, cut 24 2.5” squares from the clover strips.

Cut two 2.5” strips of background fabric.

Now, cut 32 2.5” squares from the background strips.

Depending on the width of your fabric, you might need three 2.5” strips.

*Note: If you are unable to get the full 34 squares from these strips, you could also cut down the scraps in the next step to get the remaining squares.

Cut one 3” strip of clover fabric.

Cut this into four 3” squares.

*If you were unable to cut all your squares earlier, use the scrap from this step to cut the remaining squares.

Cut one 3” strip of background fabric.

Cut this into four 3” squares.

*If you were unable to cut all your squares earlier, use the scrap from this step to cut the remaining squares.

 

 

Stitchin’ Time:

For this step you will be using the 3” squares of background fabric and 3″ squares of clover fabric.

Take one of each square and place them right sides together. Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner.

Now sew a quarter inch on both sides of this line.

Repeat for all 3” squares.

Cut along the line you drew and press seam.

 

Trim these down to 2.5” squares.

You should end with eight half square triangle squares.

 

Assemble your block using the diagram.  Once assembled decide whether you want a stem or not.  It is personal preference.  I decided to add one using a scrap from an earlier step.  To attach it to my quilt I sewed lines through the stem multiple times.  I wanted it to look like veins on a leaf or stem, but also to be something fairly simple.  There are no rules here, just have fun and make it your own.

If you press your seams opposite directions for each row, it will be much easier to next each corner and patch your points.

When the top is complete create the quilting sandwich:

Backing fat quarter—Batting fat quarter—Quilt top

Pin, spray baste, or thread baste the sandwich so you can quilt it together.

 

Quilt however you desire: stitch in the ditch, horizontal lines, meander, the options are endless.

After quilted, trim edges and attach binding.

Finish by sewing the binding, and you will have a completed clover mini quilt.

Finished size: 16.5″ x 16.5″.

 

 

Instructions Without Pictures:

LUCKY, LUCKY

Prep:

Dig in your stash for green and cream fabric. Or whatever floats your fancy.

 

You will need:

1/4 yard of green {clover fabric}

1/4 yard of tan/cream {background fabric}

One fat quarter {backing}

One fat quarter of batting

Two 2” strips {binding}

*You could also use mix and match your fabric as I did.*
Chopping Block:

Cut two 2.5” strips of clover fabric.

Now, cut 24 2.5” squares from the clover strips.

Cut two 2.5” strips of background fabric.

Now, cut 32 2.5” squares from the background strips.

Depending on the width of your fabric, you might need three 2.5” strips.

*Note: If you are unable to get the full 34 squares from these strips, you could also cut down the scraps in the next step to get the remaining squares.

Cut one 3” strip of clover fabric.

Cut this into four 3” squares.

*If you were unable to cut all your squares earlier, use the scrap from this step to cut the remaining squares.

Cut one 3” strip of background fabric.

Cut this into four 3” squares.

*If you were unable to cut all your squares earlier, use the scrap from this step to cut the remaining squares.

 

Stitchin’ Time:

For this step you will be using the 3” squares of background fabric and 3″ squares of clover fabric.

Take one of each square and place them right sides together. Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner.

Now sew a quarter inch on both sides of this line.

Repeat for all 3” squares.

Cut along the line you drew and press seam.

Trim these down to 2.5” squares.

You should end with eight half square triangle squares.

Assemble your block using the diagram.  Once assembled decide whether you want a stem or not.  It is personal preference.  I decided to add one using a scrap from an earlier step.  To attach it to my quilt I sewed lines through the stem multiple times.  I wanted it to look like veins on a leaf or stem, but also to be something fairly simple.  There are no rules here, just have fun and make it your own.

 

When the top is complete create the quilting sandwich:

Backing fat quarter—Batting fat quarter—Quilt top

Pin, spray baste, or thread baste the sandwich so you can quilt it together.

Quilt however you desire: stitch in the ditch, horizontal lines, meander, the options are endless

After quilted, trim edges and attach binding.

Finish by sewing the binding, and you will have a completed clover mini quilt.

Finished size: 16.5″ x 16.5″.

 

 

 

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

See you at the machine,

• Care

 

8 + 2 + 1 = ?

8 + 2 + 1 = ?

I’m a numbers person. I struggle with scrappy, I try to find a pattern even if it is hidden deep, I want some sort of order to things.  I look for numbers.  I think this is the only reason I can work up a pattern from a picture.  My brain functions by adding seam allowance to things and using one yard lengths, 40 inch width, and feeling at home with a calculator in my hand.  I might be a numbers person, but please do not ask me to do anything in my head.  I need a calculator and something to write on: a napkin, post it note, paper, anything.

This weekend we quilted EIGHT quilts.  They were all beautiful and all completely different. The quilts ranged from: a Harry Potter baby quilt (pictures are top secret until later this month), a fabulously finished t-shirt quilt from our class earlier this month, a jelly roll strip quilt that came to life with the quilting, a peacock-lovers wedding quilt, two twin Farm Girl Vintage quilts (I LOVE FGV!), a scrap quilt where the lady used a piece of wood cut by her husband- so resourceful and so smart, I have too many ideas now- and lastly one we finished at the end of last week called Tapestry.

I also started TWO quilts this weekend.  Go big or go home, right? We have a class coming up, and my goal is to always make at least one quilt of each size before sharing any fabric measurements or class patterns.  I am still working full time in addition to the shop, so my time has been scarce.  I finally disappeared this weekend and started cutting.  Friday and Saturday I spent finishing one size using our brand new Moda line, Poetry, and Sunday I found a couple helpers to help cut out the second quilt.  I went with a much different feel than the first, opting for solids and a more modern look.  I started sewing this one Sunday and Monday evening.  I have great things planned for the quilting of this modern-like quilt, but I am not sure when I will sneak in any of my quilts on Millie.  I’m thinking that would have to happen in the middle of the night one of these days.  If you ever pass the shop late one night and see the midnight oil burning away, you will know what I am up to.

I have ONE pup who will try her hardest to stay awake with me.  (I had to come up with some excuse to share another puppy picture).  Our oldest knows the routine, and she will always go to bed and get comfy, but the youngest will stay awake, or try to, until I am ready for bed.  I caught her watching me from the top of the stairs Monday night as I sewed late trying to finish up a quilt.  She would open her eyes if I looked her way or moved, but she was so tired and fighting sleep so badly. It was too funny to watch.

 

8 + 2 + 1 = A successful weekend and start of a new week!

See you at the machine,

•Care

Traveling through Hyperspace… Or Just a Weekend

Weekends used to mean a time to relax, clean house, catch up on laundry, and go grocery shopping.  Now, they mean sewing and being surrounded by fabric! I’m fine with this tradeoff, but my house might be included in the next State of Emergency Alert.  Long days doing what I love, and an extremely understanding husband, make the tradeoff bearable.

This weekend was busy… and fabulous… and so much fun.  Friday I worked with Millie and caught up on random shop things including placing more inventory around the shop and ordering even more fun stuff.  Saturday we had our first class.  The Disappearing Nine Patch Class was a blast.  Although the pattern was the same, each quilt was vastly different.  I cannot wait to see the finished quilts.  Everyone made great progress during class, so ladies, don’t let that get buried in your unfinished project pile. I’m mainly talking to myself since I have had a partially finished D9P floating around in my car/backpack/sewing room for quite a while now.

Two of the quilts we finished this weekend were customer quilts.  One was a fun Bruin T-shirt quilt and the other was a GORGEOUS star quilt.  The t-shirt quilt was quilted using a pattern similar to the border print.

The Star quilt was quilted with a simple Damask pattern.  Can we have an honest moment for three seconds? This quilt made me nervous.  First, it is GORGEOUS.  I cannot believe the time spent on this quilt.  Secondly, the story behind it is one to break hearts and show love.  Every stitch was sewn with love, and I felt compelled to carry that through the quilting.  Lastly, it is just so breathtaking.  I was not the one to take this quilt in, so I had not seen it before I started loading it onto Millie.  Breathtaking.  Simply amazing.  I believe I asked my mom if they were sure they wanted me to touch it.  A few deep breaths later Millie started to hum.

The quilting pattern was perfect as it did not take away from the quilt piecing.  Thank goodness.  I would not have been able to handle it if the quilting changed this quilt in the smallest way.

Shout out to tall husbands and brothers.  Also chairs and friends.  Taking some of these pictures can be difficult but they put up with my “just a few more pictures” every single time.

The last quilt from the weekend (which is still on Millie) was a quilt my brother-in-law, Devin, has sewn.  He pixilated two Star Wars graphics and pieced them together using 3 1/2 inch squares.  I think there is a rule that you try to do anything a brother asks (I only have brothers), so we were jumping into the deep end and learning new things, left and right this weekend.

First, we wanted to keep the squares lined up.  The front and back were the same size and used the same 3 1/2 squares, so in theory they were to line up.  To handle this and knowing that the back sometimes shrinks up more while quilting on a Longarm we pinned the squares together all throughout the quilt.  I also attached leaders onto the backing so I would have enough space to attach the quilt to Millie.  On the last row of pinning, we found that there was an extra row on the top piece. Something was wrong.  The unpinning began and we finally found the problem in the middle.  We repined and were ready to start quilting.

Devin found two images he liked and wanted quilted throughout his quilt.  One was a TIE Fighter and the other was a X Wing.  At first, we tried pulling the images into Quilt Path, the program I use on Millie, but the program could not understand what line to draw next.  She was moving all over the place and creating around 45 “jumps” in one small square (Jumps are when the machine moves but does not sew, so you are left with long threads to trim).  I finally decided to draw each image line-by-line, so I could control what she would sew next.  I figured out how to upload a background image to “trace”, but it still took quite a bit of time, and it was a huge learning curve.  I was besties with that undo button.

I also reset the line and dot design he had found so it would fit in the different spaces.  We made different sized blocks so all of the lines and circles would stay the same size and not get stretched or scrunched when we set each block.  I set Quilt Path up to have four point marking in place.   Every block could be placed within the set boundary and not start to sew outside of the grid.  Although some blocks are off slightly, most are extremely close.

After all the blocks were designed and ready, I showed Devin how to place each block using the four point set up, pull the bobbin up, and get Millie to sew each blocks.  While he worked on this, I was able to work on a handful of other things around the shop.

Out of nowhere, we heard an awful noise and everyone started running to Millie as I kept saying “Press stop! Press stop!” Devin caught it, pressed stop many times, and we were there.  She broke a needle.  I tried looking for the other part of the needle and said a prayer that Millie’s timing was not messed up.  After looking underneath Millie, I quickly noticed the hook assembly looked out of place and way wrong.  To test, I put a new needle in and tried using the fly-wheel to make sure everything was okay.  It was not.  I jumped online and searched for the re-timing video APQS has recorded on YouTube.  A machine’s timing is correct when the needle can enter the bobbin basket as the hook assembly spins around at just the right time.  This creates a stitch.  Needle down, hook assembly spins, needle up, stitch created.  That is the simple way to say it.

When I realized the video was almost an hour long and knowing we still had quite a bit of quilting left to do, I called Brenda (The sweetest distributor from Barnsdall – Red Barn Quilting).  She confirmed my fear and said we really needed to watch the video and follow each step in order and fully.  I thanked her and turned back to the computer.  Here goes nothing…  After the first three steps, back up was called in.  My father-in-law was already at the shop, so he stepped in and I walked away.

I was a ball of nerves as the video continued; file this using an emery board, pull on this, unscrew and remove that.  Each step caused me more fear, and I was not helpful.  I quickly exited the room and worked elsewhere while they went at it.  On occasion they asked for my help, then I would quickly leave again. It was best this way.

Eventually she was back to sewing happily, which meant that I was back to being happy.  We began sewing again, this time moving on from the line design and starting on the X Wing blocks.  On the first block we all gathered around and were mesmerized by Millie (it happens quite often).

Devin continued placing the blocks and working away.  All that is left now are the vertical borders which I will finish up this week.  I need to work more in the design software to set those up.  This takes quite a bit of time and we were all exhausted last night.  Soon it will be finished.

All in all it was a busy but fabulous weekend. We accomplished quite a lot, chatted with friends, and finished quilts.  Learning new things is a key component of this journey and I am always pleased when things turn out well even if we have to take the long route to the finish line.

A new week awaits and another class, the t-shirt quilt class, is happening next weekend.

See you at the machine,

•Care