Sunday, February 22, 2015

Quilting At Last!

It seems like I've been waiting twenty forevers (due to storms) to get a crack at quilting on the rented longarm up at Ellen Peters' Cat's Whiskers Studio in Laconia, New Hampshire.

Ellen in her studio with her helper, "Denver"

I refused to let last night's fresh 6" of new snow slow me down this morning. I got up early to help shovel, sweep, and make bacon and eggs for my "Plow-Boy Husband Wonderful," Felix.
The very best alarm clock in the world is the scent of hickory-smoked bacon cooking!! It will bring the bear right out of his cave.
By ten this morning, I was snow free and Ellen was already loading my quilt, yippee!


We chose a pretty cocoa-colored tan for the top thread, and a burgundy shade of purple for the bobbin on the bottom thread.
If you look, you can see a bit of the sort of mulberry colored backing flannel in the corner below. The backing was a twin flannel sheet that was a lucky find at the Concord Goodwill store for $3.00. Ain't it grand?


It was a little short for the quilt, so I sewed on a strip of printed cherries flannel that was a scrap from some other quilt-backing. It worked well.


I decided to quilt it with the easiest-for-me-to-do design of big loose spirals and I was surprised to have it done and coming off the big machine in two hours time! Whoohoo!!! I smoked it!


In the above photo, you can see Ellen lifting off the red snapper plastic clamps that seat onto a cloth-covered flexible rod to hold things in place. They are very difficult to get seated because you must push really hard with your hands to get the c-shaped clamp piece over and securely onto the cotton canvas covered rod. But boy, they sure are fast!


This quilt was just a fun little project of sewing together four charm packs in the now out of print Clermont Farms line from Moda. It was never meant to be an heirloom quality show piece, but just a nice throw size quilt in homey tones. My wobbly spirals are perfect for it!


I think that I'm going to call it, "Pleasant Times" because the name Clermont Farms is meaningless to me and it would only raise constant questions about what it meant if I were to use it on the label.


Maybe I should name it, "Russian Roulette," after the chances that I took by never properly measuring and calculating that red "Tweet For Two" Faye Burgos border fabric.
This is a picture of what I had leftover after putting on the outer borders. Yikes, that was too close for comfort, LOL! Two 5"x10" rectangles, sheesh!


 If I can get it bound quickly, it might be a nice gift for my girlfriend, Frances' 99th birthday that is soon approaching on March 8th.


My quilts do get used!!! That plow-boy that did such a nice job on cleaning up all that fresh snow we had, you remember?


Well, here's what he looks like while he is taking his nice afternoon nap under my Scrappy Jacob's Ladder quilt!


And I wouldn't have it any other way, LOL! Sleep neat, Plow boy!

Happy quilting!






5 comments:

straythreads said...

looks great! Well done and you have more snow. We are snowless here but still cold
Ann

Gayle said...

I recently used a long arm machine for the very first time and it was a delight! Your quilting looks great - the spirals are perfect for each square. Nice to have a gift for your friend who has reached such a milestone!

Wendy Caton Reed said...

Love your quilt! I am trying to get the courage (and the time) to try longarm quilting. You did a super job! love the Jacob's Ladder "bump" too.

Janet O. said...

I think you achieved your purpose in making a nice, comfy, useable quilt. Pleasant Times is all that.
Can't believe the close call on the border fabric. Wow!
Sounds to me like Plow Boy earns his naps. : )

Maureen said...

Great job with those spirals! So good to see quilts getting used!

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