If you buy one thing this year ...

... it should be a couching foot.

Save your pennies or sell an arm or a leg. This thing is so much fun it should be outlawed!! (And yes this is a non smoker, non drinker, passionate free motion quilter talking - so I have a pretty low base to what 'fun' is!)

I went through my sketch book and tried pattern after pattern.

Groovy Curvy Quilt

This quilt top was put together by the lovely Maria. You can see some other of Maria's quilts here and here. Maria's quilts are a dream to work with. Her piecing is wonderful, the colors she works with are amazing and her backs and put together in a way (1/2" seam allowance pressed open) which makes me as a longarmer swoon with gratitude.

This is a quilt pattern called "Groove" by Carolina Patchworks.

Mix and Match Quilting Designs

I love the idea of throwing lots of different quilting motifs together into negative space on quilts.



Here are two little baby quilts I put together using various different motifs. The motifs for some reason took on a beach theme. With shells, swirls, waves, pebbles, ripples and can you spot the attempt at a razor shell type shape?

Working Hard

I have been working hard on a number of projects. I have five Memorial quilts that I am really excited to share with you - but not yet because the families have not yet seen them.

Meanwhile I have been trying to fit in progress on various other projects.

Detail of Baby Playmat. 

Mixing up Simple Free Motion Designs

Our guild is currently making baby quilts for charity and this was a top from Maria. Maria said that she had had this top for around a year so it would be nice to get it finished. The block is based on the Flatiron Partnership logo - which I think makes a really great block. It was such a great idea my Maria to translate this logo into a patchwork design. I read somewhere that you are a true quilter if you see a quilt in everything you see - and I don't know how many of you also walk around the world looking at things constantly thinking 'that would make a great quilt' .... my list of ideas & projects is seemingly endless these days.

Rainbows and a Blooming Nine Patch

I understand that the blooming Nine Patch Quilt Pattern is an easy pattern to accomplish - but one that looks utterly beautiful. Well the next quilt in the pile from Andrea just brought rays of sunshine and spring to my world.

My new years resolution was to be braver with color. I meant this more of being brave with my thread colors when quilting as I have typically only used white or invisible threads in my early quilts.

Andrea's quilts are so full of color - I wanted to take a serious plunge into color. I decided to use Rainbows thread by Superior. These are an absolutely stunning selection of threads. They have a color change every 1 inch. I do have the Superior color charts at home so I was able to select threads that blended perfectly. The actual colors of the thread do differ from the photos online quite a bit - so the color charts are well worth their small investment. 

Longarm Quilting Services

It seems that I have inadvertently started a Longarm Quilting service! I got Freddie to help me with the charity I am trying to set up 'Quilting A Memory' - so that I could quilt my memorial and memory quilts in an easier, more effective way and to a better quality.

It is true that Freddie lives in my bedroom. It is true that we are now deeply in love.

So I have decided to post some information about the cost of my longarm quilting services in the sidebar - and if you feel moved to do so - please contact me and I would love to quilt for you. 50% of all quilting costs go to Quilting A Memory. Quilting A Memory is a charity that provides free quilting services to the families of fallen/lost service men & women - making memorial & memory quilts filled with love from their clothes and or uniforms.

So to celebrate posting this - here is a quilt I just finished for a client Maria Gualdoni. Maria was so pleased with the the result of this quilt - she proudly showed it off at a recent guild meeting - which I have to admit felt really good.  I hope you enjoy the quilting eye candy that follows.

Longarm Quilting: My First Client

At the moment I am practicing my free motion quilting on Freddie on some quilt tops given to me by a lady at my guild - NYC Metro Mod Quilters. Andrea blogs on The Beyondness of Things - her quilts are really pretty and I can not wait (in a terrified sort of way) to do some work for her. She doesn't like quilting and I'm not a big on piecing 'just for fun' - so it seems like a good match!

This quilt top was made for a 2 year old little boy - it is crib size.

I started. Panicked. Then unpicked.

Then finally got myself together and here is the end result. (Quilt has only been trimmed - not bound.)

Diary of a Longarm: Week 8

I have loaded a little chevron quilt that I have made as part of the Bee Purposeful which is being hosted by Corey who is the very talented lady behind Little Miss Shabby.

I thought I knew what I was doing with this quilt top so I began with repeating ocean waves along the chevrons but after running the waves 3 times I wasn't convinced. 9 whole hours of unpicking later. I began again. I had found this quilt by Linda of L & R Designs Quilting and I loved it. Every chevron stripe is done in a different design.

Diary of a Longarm: Week 7

This a sneak peak at a quilt I am making for the girls school as a fundraiser. The family who won the quilt requested a 'modern quilt, purple, with flowers'. I've been thinking for a while of what pattern to use for quilting.

Here is what I decided. It is from Doodle Quilting by Cheryl Malkowski - I love this book - it has such great ideas from practice to putting various elements together to make interesting designs.

Dairy of a Longarm: Week 6

I have purchased some micro handles which are supposed to help me with micro/up close work. I tend to try to do quite dense/detailed quilting. The micro handles are helpful - your hands are in more of a similar position to that of domestic machine quilting - although they do reduce your working space by a few inches as they take up a little room in front of the front bar. I have been trying out some new things I haven't done before - using the Welcome Baby Blankets that I am making for our church as my experimenting ground.

Diary of a Longarm: End of Week 5

I've finished the guild quilt top and I don't know if I want to celebrate or faint.

Diary of a Long Arm: Week 5

I reloaded the guild quilt top again. To say I am harboring a little bit of resentment towards this piece is a mild understatement. If you remember - last time I loaded this top I quilted for 30 mins and unpicked for over 5 hours. I was clear with the guild when I took the top that I wanted to practice and our President (Lisa Mason - check out her work) asked me if there was any particular pattern I would like to practice. Taking her question as though I have free reign to quilt what I please. I have kept the curved serpintine type lines on the diagonals but I used a really pretty grey/lilac thread by Superior So Fine # 50 - Milan Mauve instead of a variegated thread. I am simply fascinated by how the color of the thread changes dependent on the fabric underneath it (I'm totally obsessed by color but typically scared to use it.) I have decided to take this quilt one block at a time. Quilt a different design in each block - changing thread colors as I go.

 

I started with some echo shells. Wish me luck!

Diary of a Long Arm: Week 4 - McTavishing

Karen McTavish was actually the first person I saw using a longarm who's work captured my attention and made me think 'I want to do that'. Her work seems effortless, organic and flowing. My dream would be to become a quilter of this standard - maybe after 20 years of practice? I've been practising McTavishing on our latest Kid Painted Art Quilt - Watercolor Circles. It was such a fun piece to quilt - I just went for it. I've now become obsessed with negative space in quilts!!

Diary of a Longarm: End of Week 3 - Unpicking stitches is not fun

This is a quilt top that I got from my guild (NYC Metro MOD Quilters) to quilt. Stuck for ideas and inspiration I asked a couple of members for ideas.

Diary of a Long Arm: Week 3 - Flowing Feathers

I have been finding feathers really hard on the longarm. I wanted to practice them. I still have my peacock that started my progression in feathers on my domestic machine. I decided to add some fabric to the peacock and just quilt feathers - all sorts of different feathers. Why not have both my first feather practice pieces together?

Diary of a Long Arm: End of Week 2

People give me all sorts of materials - all sorts of clothing, fabric (cotton, upholstery, antique.) Sometimes this fabric sits there for years before I find a good purpose for it. A friend of mine gave me this cotton/linen/canvas type material which has some really pretty flowers embroidered on the top. After I had washed the fabric it felt really nice. I put in a double layer of cotton batting and quilted along the embroidered pattern on Freddie.

Diary of a Longarm: Day 6-8

I have loaded the memorial quilt that I have been avoiding to quilt so long on Bernie. Loading on a longarm really is so easy and the lack of 505 spray & endless smoothing while on my knees made me feel like there is hope in this purchase.

For this quilt I was using ladies shirts. All sorts of different patterns & materials. The family wanted to use the quilt in their house in Vermont - so we agreed on the traditional Bear Paw pattern.

Diary of a Longarm: Day 5

Something is happening. Things are improving. I'm feeling happier. 

Diary of a Longarm: Day 4

I have loaded a practice piece of material onto the now named Freddie (imaginative no?) This is a piece of material I had found to practice my free motion quilting skills back in August. It is a colorful hexagon print by Michael Miller.

Here is a rare picture of me - concentrating hard. 

For perfectly straight lines on a longarm you can use a ruler - almost genius.



I'm trying to follow the shapes & patterns somewhat but dismally failing. I hope by the time I have finished the 'quilt' I will have made friends with Freddie a little bit more.