Longarm Quilting On My Snowman Quilt

Inside this lovely house is one of my favorite places to visit! It's my local fabric store Pinwheel Fabrics! Love to go in here. She has the most wonderful fabric, lots of notions, quilting classes and everyone there is so kind and helpful. Charlotte has a $5 quilt club that meets once a month. The pieced blocks on my red/white snowman quilt were from the club. I then hand embroidered the remaining squares. I've said all that to bring you up to the reason I'm posting about her store today. I spent several hours there quilting my snowman quilt top on her Gammill Longarm Quilting machine. This was my first time to use it and to be honest, I was a nervous wreck!! I was so afraid I couldn't do it, but the girls told me I could and I did!! It was fun! So much fun!!

 

You begin by pinning the quilt on and then rolling it up. It was fascinating how it works. The quilt top is on one roller and the backing and batting are on another. This keeps pressure on each piece and it feeds together smoothly. If you look under the quilt top you can see the rollers.

A little picture of me quilting. I used a stippling or meandering pattern. There is a template just above my hand and you follow it with a laser dot. You just guide the machine with your hand to follow the dot. This probably doesn't make sense, but I don't know how else to describe it. I was so afraid to look up that I didn't see the quilting until I was finished with the first row!!

 

I was worried about stitching over the embroidery, but it worked just fine and I like the way it looks.

My next worry was whether I would like the white thread on top of the red. I could have quilted it with another pattern and changed the thread to red, but I just wasn't ready for that my first time. And, the white thread is just fine with me.

I'm really excited about quilting it and very pleased with the way it looks. Now, all I have left is the binding and I'll be through with one of my PhD projects.

Ahhhhh!! What a relief that this is done!

PhD Update!!

My second post of today!!!

Yeah, hooray, ye haw, whoopee, and zip-a-dee-do-da!!!!

 I have finished the top of my red and white snowman quilt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I can't believe it. This is the first full size quilt I have ever finished putting together. I give all the credit to the PhD challenge. There's something about a challenge that makes you work extra hard.  Now, on to the next step, I need to go buy the batting and backing!!! I'm planning on doing that tomorrow and talking to the girls at Pinwheel Fabrics about getting it quilted. I really am excited!!

I'm doing the happy dance!!!

Update on my PhD Challenge

I've been steadily working along on my red and white snowman quilt.

I was able to get all the rows joined and I'm working on the sashing that goes between the rows. I'm making good progress just sewing a little each day!

I was just wondering

how many spools of thread I've bought

how many bobbins I've wound

how many pins I've touched

how many needles I've threaded.

I imagine those numbers would be staggering!

Tomorrow I'll show you a treasure I created with fabric and thread.

Another Row On My PhD Finished

I was able to work on my PhD over the weekend.

I spent some time sewing the sashing.

trimming the blocks to size,

and joining the blocks and sashings to create a row.

I laid the row on my spare bed and noticed a block missing.

I panicked I could not find it anywere! I had just cleaned the room of leftover Christmas junk and had thrown some things out. I was so afraid that I had thrown the block in the trash.  I walked around to the other side of the bed to see if it had fallen off, and guess what I saw.  Somehow, I had picked it up with the other blocks and had sewn it onto the row above.  If you look at the picture of the finished row, you can see five blocks, it should have been only four. So now, I'll be grabbing the seam ripper.

We've had our first snow of the season, so I think tomorrow I'll sew and look at the snow out the window over my sewing machine! 

Working my PhD

I actually got started on my first project yesterday. I wasn't able to work very long, old back is kicking up, but I was able to join one row. I can't wait till this is finished. I'm getting excited about it again! One of the ladies on the PhD challenge blog said that she sewed 20 minutes a day. I thought that was a good idea since my back won't let me sew much longer. And I was surprised at what I could accomplish in about 30 minutes.

I'm off to the sewing machine!!

HAPPY MONDAY!!!

Quilt challenge

Do see the new button on the right side of the blog?  It's Myra's 2011 PhD quilt challenge.  A PhD is a Project Half Done! I have committed to finishing two of my quilt projects in six months. The quilts I want to finish are blocks from the $5 classes at Pinwheel Fabrics.

The first one is my snowman quilt. I have all the blocks finished and just need to add sashing and borders and then quilt.

I also want to finish my Amish looking quilt. I have a few more large blocks and several Flying Geese border blocks to make.

I'm excited, I think I need a push sometimes to finish things. I told myself I wasn't going to start another $5 class until I finished one of the precious quilts. But, I was at the shop this week and guess what, I started another!! I just can't help myself. I love to piece blocks! So now there is an extra incentive to finish these two quilts.

Wow, you should see the other projects on the blog. They are wonderful!!

I'll keep you posted on my progress and I could sure use your encouragement!