Long Arm Quilting

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Free Motion Quilting Workshop


Good morning everyone! I hope you are all doing well. I think fall is in the air, it is so nice and brisk in the morning and the leaves are just beginning to change color. It is gorgeous here in East Kansas.

As you can see above I have a bag packed for my Free Motion Quilting workshop this afternoon with the Kansas Modern Quilt Guild. I am really looking foreword to it. The back of my van is packed up with some spare sewing machines (just in case someone needs one) and suitcase filled with quilts and a big white board....I think I should find some extension cords too....


There is some good stuff in this big bag. Pens, pencils, folders filled with some neat stuff...rulers and there are zippers in there too.

I will have more to go on about when I return home.


This is one of the deer that lives in our backyard. As you can see she is well fed for sure. These deer are so brave. They are out all day long and just stare at you when you find them in your yard. She just  glanced at me and wondered off when I snuck out to take a picture of her.


I need to do a proper blog about Aurifil thread. I ordered big cones of it for my Long arm. Well actually the wonderful folks a Pink Castle Fabric ordered it for me. I need to fiddle around with the tension to make it work as well as I think it can. To do that I need to quilt one of my tops (not a client - I don't want tension drama if I don't need it with client quilts). I tried to use the white 40 weight on a quilt not long ago, but I had too much thread breakage to continue. I am sure it is tension related - but I switched thread to King Tut Cotton and it quilted like a charm. Normally I use a Polyester thread (So Fine) with my machine and my old Gammill LOVES it. I want her to love cotton thread though....to I am going to work with this some more.

I have been using it with My Bernina 820 for piecing and it really is a delight. I don't know if you know this or not, but my Bernina 820 is a real Prima Donna when it comes to thread. I have heard that other ladies have the same drama with this 820s. I LOVE how long a bobbin lasts with this thread and seams press so nice and flat.


I won this pack of thread from Aurifil a week or so ago and so far I have only used a bit of the orange. It is just so pretty. I think it is so neat that Pat Sloan's happy face is on the front of the box. That is big time to have your face on a box of thread...I guess that is the quilting world's answer to sport stars being on cereal boxes. Funny, huh? Quilting Super Stars!


OK, this is almost the last thing I have to chat about. I ordered some Long Arm Rulers from Quilters Rule. I imagined myself designing my own set of half circle rulers for Welsh quilting, but I found that someone named Ronda already made something similar. It is not exactly what I wanted...but good enough for now. Does anyone know someone who can make me a quarter inch thick acrylic ruler? Anyway, I look foreword to playing with these rulers!

OK, I need to go round up all my quilting gloves and finish packing the van. Have a great weekend! I hope you find time to make something wonderful!

4 comments:

  1. It was so fun! Nothing like spending an afternoon talking about a subject I love.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Loved the workshop! When I got home, I decided my zipper was not working well enough so I took the pouch apart, cut it down and bit and put it back together with a slightly smaller zipper. I accidentally stitched it with the print on the outside, so the quilting does not show as much, but that is okay!

    Thanks so much for doing the class. It was really informational and fun!

    ReplyDelete
  3. All the packing reminds me why I don't do workshops anymore but I hope you had a great time! I'm sure your students had a great time.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting! I read each one. I will either respond via email or here in the comments. xo - Tia