Quilts & Kitties

Life just gets in the way and next thing you know days pass and you wonder what have you been doing? I had been so busy focusing on work that life was passing me by. I’m taking a little time off to do some fun stuff. I have a couple work projects coming up but before I get swept up into it, I’m going to have some fun.

I just took my first quilt off the long arm frame and it is soooo cute, even if I do say so myself. I just love pink! I got this big print from JoAnns, didn't want to use my good fabric. I just outline quilted the hell out of it. It was so much fun, once I got the machine threaded correctly.

They talk about tension how important it is and it is. Well, I kept sewing and crawling under the machine to look underneath and kept swearing at all those loops. Where did they come from? I kept adjusting the tension and finally it was a tight as it would go and I still had loops. I was really swearing then. I looked at the machine and looked at the diagram and everything looked fine. So I took the thread off the machine to check out the spool and realized that the thread had not gone through the tension disks. I couldn't believe it. I felt like a silly fool! Anyway, once I got it threaded, set the tension correctly, everything was just fine.

Another thing, "they" talk about, is how you need a good extra 4 inches of fabric all the way around for the border. I always thought that a waste of good fabric. Anyway, as I was sewing along one edge or trying to, I realized that the clamps holding the background fabric taut were getting in the way. That's why you need the extra 4 inches....duh!!

I ended up with a bit of distortion on the side where the clamps got in the way and had to pick out those stitches. I just thought, I'll quilt that part and the sides on my regular home machine. I stitched one flower and it took forever and thought, this is too hard. I'll put it back on the long arm and quilt it downstairs. So after I sewed all around the edges and squared up the quilt a bit, I put it back on the long arm and was done in just a few minutes. Since I had sewn around the edges, I didn't need the clamps to hold the backing taut.

So now I am spoiled. I'll never machine quilt anything on my home machine. Looking back, I think about all those quilts that I spent hours quilting on that thing. Never again. I know a lady who has a long arm in her living room and one in her dining room. Now I know why. She said they weren’t using it anyway. Hhhmmm I can’t remember the last time I used my living room.

I'm very happy with the way my little quilt turned out. It will make a nice baby quilt. I'm cheating on the binding. I didn't feel like spending time making bias tape, so I got store bought. Am I bad or what!! I'm just itching to quilt the next quilt. LOL

Here’s a picture of the quilting on the back. It’s not real clear but it looks good for a baby quilt that will get lots of washings. There is no way that thing is coming apart. From an artist’s point of view, I wish I had used pink variegated thread. That would really look cute on the back. Those flowers would really pop. I could use green on the leaves and it would be really stunning.

Well, I can’t have a posting without my kitties. A couple nights ago, I was cleaning this pink container and left it in the bathtub to dry out. What is it about boxes and kitties? Simba & Snowflake were fascinated by it. Snowflake was way too big to get into and Simba insisted that he was going to try it out. He spent an hour scratching at it, inside and; out, I’m guessing to try to make it bigger. He even tried digging under it. You can see how small that container is compared to him.

He got tired and eventually gave up. The tub is his favorite summer time place to sleep.

Last night, he made it into the container. He is the cutest little guy.


ttfn  :)  Yuki