Busy day

I've been keeping to my pledge to work on the Quilter's Academy books and yesterday I decided to work on more than one lesson. The lessons in class 110 are all about tools and since it's not new to me I figured I could easily work in more than one lesson.

Yesterday I'd worked on my quilting space. It really is a small room crammed with way, way too much junk. I'm hoping that as I get moving and get some of the quilts done I want to get done I will make a bit more room in here. But who knows... As I work on more projects it may not clear things out like I hope. I have one project on the design wall that I want to work on in conjunction with the other stuff I'm doing. It's a quilt for my son that I started last year. I don't think I have quite enough fabric to finish it, and so I'm going to have to do some improvising with borders. I've tried to get some more of the fabric but no one has it.

If I can get rid of the boxes of extra junk, that will give me a bit more room. But the room is always going to be smaller than ideal. I guess I should just be grateful that I have a space now.

Yesterday's lessons in the Quilter's Academy started with the sewing machine. When I started making quilts I had an old Singer. I don't even remember the model, it was just a little workhorse but eventually it died. For a long time then I had no machine and when I went back to quilting I pieced by hand. Eventually a friend gave me the opportunity to buy one of her Singer Featherweights and I pieced many a quilt on that machine.

But ever since I first heard about the machines way back when I started quilting I'd lusted after a Bernina. When I split up with my long time lover I splurged and bought one. One of the things stressed in the Quilter's Academy is to buy a good machine. I've been very, very happy with my Bernina. After reading the chapter I took some time to look over my machine and reacquaint myself with the feet I use. Although Harriet recommends using a #13 foot with the Bernina, I don't have that foot and am not sure what difference there is between it and my #37. I've been pretty happy piecing with my current foot and I think I'll continue using that one.

I did purchase a straight stitch throat plate, as mentioned in the book and have found that keeps my fabric from being eaten as easily as sometimes happens with the regular throat plate.

Lesson three talks about rotary cutters and mats. Harriet and Carrie say to try a variety of rotary cutters and find the one that works best for you. I've tried a few brands but I always seem to come back to Olfa. The lesson mostly concentrated on introducing things and didn't get too in depth on how to cut other than mentioning the proper way to hold the cutter. I have not been holding my cutter with my finger on top as per the book, so when I actually do some cutting again I am going to definitely try that. She talks about various mats and again, I've tried a few but always come back to my Olfa. I have the large one 24" by 48".

The last lesson in class 110 talked about rules. I have a lot of rulers and templates but I actually don't have a couple of the sizes that the authors recommend you use. I don't have 2.5" x 12 or the 4" by 12. One thing mentioned is how you should use the smallest ruler you can use to help prevent slippage. Since I occasionally have problems with the ruler slipping, I'm really tempted to buy the smaller sizes and see if that helps my accuracy. When I started this venture I'd vowed to myself to not spend any money if I could avoid it, so I'm still debating whether or not to spring for the rulers.

By now you are saying "This isn't a blog post it's a book!"

In addition to the Quilter's Academy books I have been working on a few other projects. I think I'll save those till another post!

I will leave you with my quilting companions...

Quilter's Academy - Class 110

So today I'm starting off on the Quilter's Academy Books by Harriet and Carrie Hargrave. Even though I'm not a beginning quilt maker, the books appeal to me. I'm going to be doing a few different projects and working through these books is just one.

I've always liked Harriet Hargrave. I met her once long ago when I first started quilting at a store in Pasadena California where she was teaching. She impressed me at that time and I've followed her stuff ever since.

There is a new breed of quilter coming through doing something called Modern Quilting. It involves doing things in an easier more free form manner. And although I'm thrilled to see younger quilters picking up, it's not a style I find visually appealing and I feel that in some ways it's fhe very antithesis of what I'm trying to do now.

I will be going through the Quilter's Academy books lesson by lesson...and so without further adieu I'll start with Class 110 Lesson One.

The first class is talking about tools and your quilting space. When I first started quilting I had to work on a fold out table that I put up in the living room and took down every evening. I had not fabric stash and only the bare minimum of tools. Now I'm lucky enough to have a whole room and somehow it seems more cramped then that fold out table. Mostly I think because I have so much stuff!

I have an old wood desk that my sewing machine is currently on. The space is large and works well for sewing. The only downside is I do not have a cutout for the machine to bring it down level with the table. This makes it a bit more challenging to sew and at some point my husband has promised he will do the cut out for me. If he isn't able to get it done, I may do as suggested by the book and order a portable table. The threat should get him moving on the cutout if nothing else. :)

This lesson also talks about ironing and cutting spaces. I have an ironing board that I will take up and down, but at some point I want to get a big board. My friend Yvonne has one and says it's really great. It would certainly help when ironing fabric after dyeing.

The last section of this lesson is about a cutting area. That's one of my areas that's less than ideal. Because I have so much stuff in my little sewing room there isn't a space for a permanent cutting area and I will have to do it on a card table I take up and down.

The lesson gives information on what is the best kind of areas, but most of won't have the best of everything especially those of us without a permanent setup. Tomorrow's lesson is about the sewing machine!

Over a year

It's been over a year since I've been here. Lots has happened. Probably the biggest one is that we bought a house. Having a house means a lot of different things, one in particular is that I now have my own dedicated sewing room.

Moving made me really take stock of how much stuff I really had. The room I have to use is just a small bedroom, and although it looked big enough once I got all my stuff in there it just wasn't that big at all.

I am going ot make a concerted effort to cut down on how much stuff I have, that means not buying much and working on using my stash.

I think it's ironic that as quilters we work to build up a stash of fabric and then don't really use it. So it borders on hoarding instead of gathering a palette. At least it does for me.

I have a good friend that I met through blogging and now we either email, phone or use video calling to chat and keep in touch. She's a really amazing woman in so many ways, and I am blessed to have her as a friend. Especially given how I can be rather flakey. She's working on freeing her quilting style and quilting the Nike way ... Just do it!

While I understand her approach, I'm drawn to a different style of quilting that really has more to do with precision. Lately I've been caught in kind of a mire and haven't moved forward with any projects, mostly because making a decision is sometimes hard for me. But there are a couple of things that appeal to me and I'm determined to work on them.

I'm going to start with the Quilter's Academy books by Harriet and Carrie Hargrave. Although I've been quilting on and off for years and I probably don't qualify as a beginning quilter any longer, I'm still believe there are things I could learn.

So... off I am on a new adventure. My goal is to blog it here as I'm doing it. I'm not promising anything to myself, just taking it one day at a time.

Rainbow

So here are the fabrics I dyed during my little video shoot. I think I'm going to dye another set using a different red, yellow and blue, just to see what happens with the colors.

This weekend I'm also going to try doing some discharge work. I've been wanting to do it for a month or so but haven't had the courage yet.

I also want to dye some of the mixed fabric, I'm really anxious to see how the bamboo fabric takes the dye.

So, if I can work it right, this whole weekend will be a dyeing extravaganza!

Lost in Disneyland

I'm feeling really isolated today.

I've been doing so much better recently. I've been trying to stay in contact with people, I've been working on dyeing and doing some quilting. I've been reading a lot and even ventured out to the library. But today I feel a bit like a small child who got lost at a theme park.

I think part of it is the lack of sleep. All my life I was able to sleep relatively easily. Then in the last few years either from issues with pain or hamster brain I just can't sleep as well as before. When I'm tried I can't handle the pain nearly as well as I can normally and things just seem to domino into a much larger issue.

Maybe that's all it is..just lack of sleep... but at the moment, I feel very small and alone.

Video on the cheap

Well, I finally finished the little dyeing videos I've been working on. They are obviously very basic since they were shot with my digital still camera and they are only meant to give people an idea about what the process looks like. I'm no expert and don't claim to be, but they are meant to go along with some posts I made on The Quilt Show's message boards in their dyeing forum.


Tools and What not
Making a Dust Box for Mixing Dye Concentrates
Mixing up the dye concentrates
Dyeing the fabric

I learned a lot doing these and will probably make a few more if I find people are interested.

Lists

It seems that Vicki's list of goals idea is making the rounds. :) I've been thinking of doing it as a way of keeping myself on track and a bit more organized. So... here's my stab at what I want to do this next week:

• Get Yvonne's books mailed out to her.
• Do my next video in my immersion dyeing series.
• Create a 'dust box' for mixing dye.
• Finish 15 pumpkins from the long ago left over pumpkin fiasco.

Okay going to start small and see how it goes, so that's my list for this next week. If I can do additional stuff I'll add it in as comments on next week's post.

I had a really peaceful weekend. I didn't do a whole lot. Read a book yesterday and played in my fabric some on Saturday. I am really amazed at the amount of fabric I have. I have a lot of nice pieces as well, so I'm just going to have to work on a bunch of quilts.

I've been wandering around the blogsphere again, now that I'm feeling better and able to do a few things. There are so many inspiring blogs out there. Seeing that Vicky had lost here beloved Daisy made me very sad for her. I lost Bentley last year and I still miss him. Though I have two new dogs to help with the sadness. We adopted two older dogs, Welsh Pembroke Corgis, very different from the dachshund.

I really want to thank Yvonne for sticking with me and helping me to get back into things. She's a great friend and I'm lucky to have her as one.

Well, enough for now... I'm off to work on that list.