(Long) Arm Yourself...

I do not think there is a quilting blog out there that did not touch on the subject of long arm vs. domestic sewing machine for quilting. For the sake of argument, I am going to disregard those pesky little details such as chronic lack of space and cash. 

Domestic machines, from very basic treadles, to highly sophisticated and sometimes temperamental computerized ones, are all good for piecing. Some require a little bit more effort and muscle tone than others, but they can all piece a marvelous quilt. And yes, they can all quilt that top, no matter how small the throat. When there is will, there is way. Always.

From the very first time you picked up a pen and paper your brain and your muscles were conditions to do one thing - move the implement, the pencil, over the surface, the paper. We use the same mindset when we wash the dishes. We move the sponge over the surface of the pot, we do not move the pot around the sponge. When we vacuum our carpets, we move the vacuum cleaner around, the carpet does not move around the vacuum cleaner. We are conditioned to move the tools, not the items that are worked on.

One day you decide to tackle that pile of tops and quilt them yourself, and the world as you know it gets turned upside down. When you quilt your top on the domestic machine you are in essence moving the paper and the pencil remains stationary. Everything you learned from the very first days of your life goes out the window. Your brain is fighting you hard because it is not conditioned to do things backwards. Did not think about that did you, when you started banging your head against the wall because you could not do a simple meander stitch. So cut yourself some slack, take a deep breath (glass of wine and a slab of chocolate:) and try again. Our brains are noting but pliable. You will get into the groove and it will become your second nature, in time. Quilters all around the world are doing it, and producing marvelous quilts, even winning Best in Show titles in major quilt shows. So, yes, it can be done.

Time goes by and you are now all confident with you domestic machine, you are meandering and pebbling, and the quilting world is your oyster. And then, on a lark, you decide to go to a big quilt show and after driving five hours in snow and sleet, you find yourself in front of a long arm machine begging to be (ab)used. You grab it, like your life depends on it, and start stitching. Hours later, while you are stuck in traffic on your back home, it hits you. Long arm machine is like a giant pencil moving across your quilt. Wow, what a concept, you do not need to do things backwards anymore. 

Many long armers will tell you to draw the designs on paper over and over again until you are ready to puke. It is muscle memory, and also you are training your brain. If you can draw it, you can quilt it. It is that simple. Do not obsess about not having any talent for drawing. Talent is important, but it is not essential. It is practice that makes perfect. I could not draw a feather to save my life, and I detested them just because I could not quilt them. Now my feathers are as good as anybody's. The fact that I destroyed half the rainforest worth of paper drawing the darn feathers is beyond the point. I did not know how much I loved my long arm until I lost it. It had to go back because it was misbehaving.

So yes, you can quilt anything on your domestic machine, and you can be really, really good at it. But if you have that space, and the disposable income, do yourself a favor and think about a long arm machine. If you decide to go down that road, you may also want to buy a stock in a paper mill, because you are going to need lots of paper for practicing.

Rip It, Rip It Real Good...

Several years ago, while I was still an uptight newbie when it comes to quilting, I went to one of those wonderful stores that sells heavily discounted fabrics. At $1, $2, or $3 a yard, how can you go wrong? I picked lots of fabric, and piled it mile high on the cutting table, and was completely lost in my thoughts, already planning what quilts I would make from the new fabric when I heard this awful sound that brought me back to reality like a bucket of cold water. Riiiiippppp!!!!

I was flabbergasted, to say the least. What did she just do? I looked at the lady cutting, well ripping my fabric, like she has just murdered my first born. I was so shocked, and mad, that words were just not coming out. My mind was racing 100 mi/h about distorted threads, and stretched fabric, and, oh my, it is a catastrophe of biblical proportions. And that's where I got my first, and best lesson in quilting. 

Patiently, as if she knew that I was just about to rip her head off, the lady explained me the ins and outs of fabric ripping as opposed to cutting. 

This is what they say at About.com paraphrased by yours truly:

(http://quilting.about.com/od/fabricembellishment/ss/fabric_grain.htm)

The term fabric grain refers to the way threads are arranged in a piece of fabric. Long threads, called warp threads, are stretched on the loom and secured. They become the fabric's lengthwise grain, the threads that are continuous along the length of your yardage as it comes off the bolt. Weft threads are woven back and forth, perpendicular to the warp threads and along their entire length. These weft threads make up the fabric's crosswise grain. The lengthwise grain and crosswise grain are both regarded as straight grain, sometimes called straight-of-grain.

True bias is defined as the direction at a 45-degree angle to the straight grains, but in quilting we refer to any cut that doesn't run along a straight grain as a bias cut.

When we cut fabric for quilting, unless we are making triangles or curved blocks it is important that we do not cut the fabric on bias because it stretches quite a bit, and the blocks will not fit together properly no matter how precise your cutting or sewing is. When fabric is folded in half, and rolled on the bolt it shifts with each roll, and by the time we go to buy it, it is always, always cut on bias. Unless you rip it. The only way to get a strait of grain cut is to rip the fabric because it always rips,along the grain. Of course, you have to line up the salvages and clean up the rip afterwards because it does distort the fabric for the the first 1/2" or so. Unless you rip and then wash, it can take some persuading with a steamy iron to line up the fabric properly. This is really not practical for store owners for many reasons besides the question who is going to absorb the price of that 1/2", the customer or the retailer? 

Unless I buy a fat quarter I almost always rip my fabric to get that true grain going. I rip fabric for my binding too, unless it is already nice and neat. Does it waste fabric? Probably, maybe, it depends on how thrifty you are. For me it is worth it, because it saves me the grief when I start to piece my blocks. They all fit perfectly, unless I screw up something else :)

So rip away sisters, and don' be afraid. That horrible sound will set you free and become music to your ears. Happy quilting!

Don't "Thread" on Me...

Thread, the bain of my existence. I have so much of it. I have polyester thread, cotton thread. I have thread for piecing, and machine quilting and hand quilting. I have cones upon cones of serger thread. And please, don't even get me started on embroidery floss and pearl cotton. I have all the colors of the rainbow and than some. So, you would think that if I wanted to applique something I could just go in one of my many drawers of thread and pick one. Well, you would be wrong. I never, ever have the exact thread that I need. Naturally, I go and buy some more thread with every new project. If I continue like this, I will be buried by threads by the time this year is over.

If you read my last post, you saw that I am working on a color wise fairly simple project. I had only two threads that I could use in my stash, red embroidery floss that came from my mother-in-law and green pearl cotton. That's it. No yellow, or orange or blue. None. Sunday, right before the Super Bowl starts I will be zipping over to the store to buy some thread. People are buying beer, and chips, and dip, and I am buying thread. But, to my defense, it is a quilting emergency. Football game is long, and I need my thread to keep on appliqueing through out the game so I can keep my sanity. Happy quilting, and I am going to bed now, so I can be relaxed and refreshed for my thread shopping.

Work in progress

You asked for the pictures of a project and I delivered.
Here are a few pics of a sample and a pattern I am working on right now. It is wool applique wall hanging and/or a large table mat. All the wool came from my dye pot and I will make two samples, a really bright one (the one in the pictures) and one in fall colors. The background will be charcoal flannel and natural linen.