Thursday, December 14, 2017

Not much piecing or cutting done

My kids and grand-kids are on holiday already, even though I would still have to go to the office until 21 December but fortunately, with the office being closed, I just have to stay until I’m done with whatever needs to be done.  So for most days I can easily leave the office at 9 am (after having started at 7) but then it is family time.  I want to be home to have my grandkids over, pop something in the oven for us all to snack on or just order a meal to enjoy together, so until next year, I don’t believe I’ll do much quilting.


I do however need to seriously practise using a long arm.  At this stage (and I am female, I am allowed to change my mind after a while) I can spray baste and pin a quilt sandwich faster than I can load a quilt on a frame.  I can check my tension on a domestic machine immediately (after about an inch of 2 of stitching) unlike on the frame where I can only check this after 11 or more inches.  However….. if only I watched Jamie Wallen’s video’s on tension when I used my domestic sewing machine, I would have had far less struggles with tension.  I adjusted my tension on the fame tremendously, thinking I am taking a huge risk, no way…. Jamie Wallen knows it all.  Go bonkers and have fun. This video can be watched HERE. Now if he mentions Longarm and you are a domestic machine user, just ignore one word, guaranteed, this works for every machine when doing free motion.

I think I now belong to every long arm, mid-arm and free motion group on FB and if I spend less time reading all the hints and tips on these or watch You Tube videos I could have had heaps op tops quilted but heck,  some of these people are simply walking encyclopaedias.  I need to listen to them al!  In this photo I am not showing off my fabric or quilting motif but check the tension, especially on the black backing.  I used black thread on the top and gold on the bottom….. not a single speck of either coming over to the other side.  This is my idea of perfect tension.
I finished the practise piece and I think I like the back side better than the front.
I also finally figured out that in order to have the quilting show up on a photo, I need to have the flash switched off in daylight and take the photo indoors.

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