How big is your machine?

That's a question that many Longarm Quilter's get asked....I think what's meant is 'what is the biggest quilt you can quilt on your longarm?'
Well, the frame on which my longarm machine glides has 12 ft rails so that means that one side of the quilt could comfortably be up to 130 inches (maybe slightly bigger), but the other measurement can be longer as the quilt is wound on the rails as you advance.....I don't know who would want a quilt bigger than 130" x 130".....but it could be done!


But today's more relevant question is 'how many quilts can you quilt on your longarm....lol...?

Answer for today is 'Eleven!'

Well...that's five on the first row....(the tops of two pillow shams, the tops of two cushions and a cushion back at this end).

And that's another six on the second row.....(two Christmas wallhangings, two Christmas table mats, a cushion top and another white cushion back at the far end). Of course if my piece of backing fabric had been a little bit bigger, I could have also quilted another cushion back to finish off .....maybe next time!

I'm having a bit of a tidy up using up some orphan blocks that you may recognise and finishing up some small projects, some of which belong to my GKids.  These small quilts are all loaded on the same cream backing fabric although I am using some smaller offcuts of batting that have been lying around waiting for just the right project.

It takes a while to load all of those little quilts but it would have taken alot longer if they were all on seperate backings.

Feather Fans!

I've really enjoyed quilting my bought in quilt tops, it's given me the opportunity to experiment on a variety of styles and designs of quilts but also the quality of the piecing has thrown up lots of shall I say 'educational opportunities'.....I've needed to work my way around a few problems and find out how to enhance the piecers work to the best of my abilities.

Before quilting

I have to say that this top didn't really have any issues.....I did re-arrange the borders a little but that's all....I used this top as one of my 'what if' quilts, 'What if I try this and what if I try that'.
I tried a few new to me techniques including Ronda Beyers "S" shaped rulers .....only I would choose to use the largest of her rulers for my first try, those things are huge and a little difficult to manage....imagine it, ruler in one had, longarm in the other?

This is all freemotion, handguided and ruler work!

 

Everyone knows I'm a 'fan of feathers'....so this is 'Feathered Fans'.

It finished at 88"x66", I used white Glide thread on top, Bottomline in the bobbin, Super Poly batting/wadding gave lots of definition. When I spied it I just couldn't resist this fabric for the backing....it's Rosalee from Ikea, the colours were perfect for this top!

I've noticed a few new followers are stopping by, I'd like to say welcome to you all!


Greenfairy Giveaway

The Greenfairy  at http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/  is having an awesome giveaway....well, Clint is really busy while Judy is away learning lots of new quilty stuff....why don't you pop on over to 'The Green Fairy' and take part in the fun...you never know you may be a winner??

Nature all around us?

I took this photo in the middle of town this morning, this little guy stakes his claim to this spot on the stream, he is very patient and for his troubles he is often rewarded with breakfast....indeed as I peered over the river wall he bent down and just picked up a small fish which riggled a little and then slid down the herons throat before I could turn on my camera.....

Did you notice the light switch on the far side of the bridge....this heron lives in 'the lap of luxury', he has an electric light under the bridge....look, that's cool, great for the dark nights, he can fish after hours!

Wonder how he turns it on....lol....????

One Hundred!

 Well, when did that happen?

Sometime Saturday......I would like to welcome my 100th follower  'The Nifty Stitcher' ...Rhianon also lives in Scotland in the Kingdom of Fife .....I think that we should mark this ocassion with a little surprise.....Rhianon, if you are interested please send me your address by my email link on the left ....thank you for being my 100th follower!

Blogger's Quilt Festival... Fall 2011

Amy over at 'Amy's Creative Side' is again hosting 'The Blogger's Quilt Festival', thank you so much Amy. So, if you can't make Houston why don't you pop on over to have a look at the wonderful display of quilts on offer!

This is the second time I've entered a quilt for display and have to say that again I am entering my most recent quilt.....I almost always love the quilt I have just finished, I'm afraid that I have very recently posted about this quilt so if you are a regular follower of my blog I must apologise!

This quilt has been waiting for a while to be quilted as I was a bit stuck on how to quilt it but it did eventually speak to me....it's a simply pieced quilt in stack and wack style.  If you look closer you will see I added coloured threads to lift the black background.  My intention was to quilt water lillies in an oriental style but the backing fabric inspired me and my water lillies turned into tudor roses.

This quilt is now permanently hung in my hall, I really think it's time to display more of my work, I am please with how it looks and I think that the curtain pole that I found in my loft has really enhanced the quilt....I used coat hanging hooks (as seen in the photo) so that the quilt would hang tight against the wall.
You can read more about this quilt here and here

Here it is 'Tudor Roses'.

 

Thanks for dropping by....

Updated 8th November......I'd just like to tell you all how stunned and thrilled I am at all of your wonderful comments, you sure all know how to make a girl feel good....thank you all so much!

A bit of play time...

My Grandaughter Fieron and I had a day to ourselves today... we were having a bit of a play day .... I found a pattern for a Christmas wallhanging over on Quilting Gallery ..... mine is still a work in progress, I think I'll needle turn my fabric.....

But Fireon's are raw edge fused applique and are already sewn down with a glittery thread..... Fieron got to use Grandma's electric sewing machine to zigzag the strings herself and she cut out some of the fabric circles on the 'Go' cutter ...... we hope to get the borders cut and attached very soon.

As good as a rosette!

I belong to quite a few online forums, one of them being Machine Quilters Resource .... my latest quilt 'Oriental Tudor Roses' has made the home page as 'Quilt of the week' .... Thank you Jo Ann.

It will only be there for a few days so I snatched a screen shot as a souvenir..... so before it's superseded by next weeks quilt you can see it here .

If you have never visited MQR before I don't think you need to be a member to take a look around, there is lots of interesting stuff over there!

Oriental Kaleidoscope / Tudor Roses?

It's been a long while since I pieced this top, but I did manage to find some photos even from back then, in my old sewing room....it's Paula Nadelstern fabric cut stack and wack style then very simply pieced with black sashing..

I had no idea how I was going to quilt it but thought it had a kind of oriental look....and was thinking water lilies and took my inspration from the backing fabric, they turned into Tudor roses but I still like the effect.

I used 2 layers of Hobbs 80/20 in black with Glide thread in various colours, (gold, purple, cerise, green and black) and black bottom line in the bobbin.

A Bit of ruler work and a circle maker for perfect circles, the rest is freehand with just a small tribute to feathers around the inside of the cirlcles.

I would like to attribute this border design to Raylene Smith in Australia and then Donna James in Canada for the marking instructions, it'a a perfect border treatment for this quilt!

Those lilac borders are straight...don't know why they look a bit askew on the photos????

Trying it out for the effect in it's new home.....

Longarm Quilting Pick up Service...

I visited my Local Quilt Shop last week, that's Borderland Fabrics in Jedburgh and have arranged with Annette to offer a 'Pick up and Drop off' quilting service on the afternoon of the 1st Friday of each month during their weekly 'Patch and Chat' session, I will be there between 1.30 and 3pm.

You can always find details on my website...the link is in the sidebar on the left....

While there I picked up a couple of quilt tops.....the 'Hungry Caterpillar' is a shop sample.....

I think this totally handpieced quilt top now quilted with a pantograph (Ambrosia) will be a donation quilt....

Now back to binding my stack and wack!

Its bright here in Scotland.....

We are having some wonderfully unseasonal weather here in Scotland, radio stations reported 27C yesterday and I saw shirtless teenagers in town...well, that was just the boys!

Today is 1st of October and offically autumn so it's craft season, I was rumaging around and came across these 'friendship star international swap' blocks.... remember my two sets.....

They went of to Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and this is what I received back....

 I've arranged them on my design wall, they still need a bit of a shuffle but can stay there a little longer reminding me of summer we never had while I play with this....

Those are Paula Nadelstern stack and wack kaleidoscopes on black background...lots of quilting real estate, I'm enjoying this one!