Thirty-Six & Stars Scrapalooza

Having finished off Celtic Solstice and Cathedral Stars this week, the quilting mojo was still flowing, so I loaded up Thirty Six that had been waiting on the to-do pile for a few years, having been started back in July, 2011.

The Feather-Me pantograph was used in order to give this quilt a feminine touch, using Aurifil thread, as always :)

Bobbin thread ran out just shy of finishing, but I had had my fill last night, so everything was shut down for a relaxing evening in front of the TV with the family, counting down to the New Year. (although, I drifted off around 11:00)....

This morning, the quilting was finished up, resulting in a complete size of about 66" square.

Feather Me pantograph

THEN, with the time hovering right around noon, I figured why NOT load up yet another quilt!?!?!?

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014 found myself and Kevin the Quilter teaming up to create some complementary blocks;  my version resulted in Stars Scrapalooza, inspired heavily by Bonnie's Wonky Star block.
Both Kevin and I pieced up two each of our blocks, with the plan of keeping one and sharing the other with each other.  Kevin's design is still "Top Secret" -- I so excited to see what he comes up with.

My design incorporated some scrappy wonky stars as the cornerstones in my sashing units, continuing the overall theme of wonky stars.  Kevin's blocks are AMAZINGLY done, using a crumb-technique for much of his blocks!

"Fascination" pantograph by Lorien Quilting

I took this opportunity to test out a new quilting pantograph that had been set aside after a panto-mania I went through a year or so ago.  

A few hours of quilting later, another (almost) finish is added to the pile.  A soft knit backing was used, and it behaved quite nicely; I had been worried it would stretch a bit too much. 

The pantograph is quite 'linear' looking, but it quilted up quickly, didn't use a heavy amount of thread, and is QUITE forgiving.   The quilt measures 51" x 71" -- a GREAT size for a throw snuggler or for a little girl to enjoy on her bed.  I'm really quite pleased with the fun brightness!

Wrapping up four quilting tasks this week, ONE of them being a 110x110 King size, is definitely leaving me feeling quite accomplished.  My back isn't even that sore :D

So NOW.........

in the event that Bonnie's latest Allietare mystery reveal knocked me off my seat from yet ANOTHER show stopper design.....

... maybe I could pull some fabrics from the shelves... to just percolate for awhile while a sand-n-sea inspiration unfolds...

Quilting Pantographs for a Juki98

The historical day: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 -- IT arrived! ("IT" being my quilting frame.) By Friday, April 23, 2010, I had my first completed quilt with my Juki 98/Grace GMQ-PRO combo.

I recall my first frustration that week was that the upgraded carriage did NOT come with a stylus of any sort. NOT that I was going to be stopped. I grabbed a pothole looming hook-thingy from Cassie's worktable (she had not used it in MONTHS!), whipped some blue painter's tape around it, and I was set. From what I can tell so far.....the long awaited $50 Laser Style I purchased last week was much overdue. The nicest component of the Grace laser stylus is that I merely have to move the stylus to line up the pantographs RATHER than move the pantograph paper to line up for the next pass. Definitely a good investment to make life easier :0)

Through my year of quilting with my frame, 96% of my quilts have been quilted with a pantograph rather than free-hand. (Okay, being a math teacher, I MUST inform you that the 96% quote is a rough estimate---there were no calculations done to share an accurate percentage----but I didn't think you'd mind or care) :0)

Prior to having the frame, I had purchased Golden Thread's Dot-to-Dot quilting book to use with some quilting on the domestic setup. It was manageable but.....well....duh.....the frame makes life SOOO much easier!

The picture above (showing the jimmied-up stylus) also shows a copy of one of the 4" pantographs in the book. For my first month, I merely made copies of the pantographs available in the book, taped them together after lining them up, and quilted away. Most of my first quilts were smaller crib-sized; the take-up bar never really ended up getting too thick, so even a 5-6" pantograph was possible. However, the larger the quilt, the thicker all the layers become on the take-up bar, which truly reduces the allowable pantograph size.

My true test of "allowable" pantograph space is actually happening right now. The Roll Roll Cottonboll is HUGE! And I am using a 7" feather pattern on it.

SEVEN INCH PANTOGRAPH???

Yes! Seven! Ya see, this pantograph has a 'top' and a 'bottom' part to it that actually works very nicely from side-to-side. Therefore, each "half" is only 3.5". I should have NO problem completing this quilting with my selection. Smart cookie, huh?

BUT, for those of you with a smaller harp (8.9" on a Juki98), depending on the size of your quilt, a 6" pantograph will be the maximum. Your safest best is to use a <5" pantograph.

I have ordered a couple of other pantographs; my favorite being 6" Feather Me. I chose to use this once on a larger quilt (roughly 80x85), SO.......before starting, KNOWING that it may just be too large, I took it to school and made a small reduction to it with the copy machine which brought it to 5". Admitting, it was a putzy process but I love this pantograph for the feminine quilts!

Most of the pantographs I have acquired were designs I had seen in quilter's blogs. I (try to) include all pantograph information on my completed projects for this reason. I have also spent my fair share of time googling "small quilting pantographs." ;0)

Naturally, the thought has crossed my mind about upgrading. However, for the hobbiest, I can't see the investment at this time. Instead, I'll play around with the new laser stylus to see how much easier pantographing can become. ;0)

12:22 pm comment......
**snort**
**giggle**
Having a few moments of down-time before taking Cassie to a friend's for a birthday party, I jumped online to see if anyone had updated this AM. Not seeing much to read, I took a moment to re-read my blog post.....

".....I grabbed a pothole looming hook-thingy from Cassie's worktable....."

Hmmm......I wonder exactly what a pothole thingy looks like! LOL.... wonder if it may ruin the wheels on my carriage the way typical potholes ruin wheels on cars....


OBVIOUSLY I meant....."potholder"
;0)

My first panto...

I'm in love...




Just remember my comment the other day....
"quilting is an art, and I'm no artist"....


BUT.....

Give me a pattern to follow with a jimmied-up stylus (pic will come tomorrow of that rig--LOL), and I'm feeling like I can actually make some nice looking designs.... I can't remember the name of this panto---it was in a quilting book from Cheryl Barnes of Goldthreads.com

I feel like I'm ready for a "real" quilt---one that won't go much further than family members :0) And then....maybe the Quilts for Kids???

Happy Thursday!