Friday, May 16, 2008

A Good Day!

I won, I won, I won something! Ann of http://quilttilyouwilt.blogspot.com/ offered a giveaway and just guess WHO won a book that I will definitely use? Yeppers. ME! I'll show it when it arrives. Happy Day!

(Just updated with the address ...)
Next good thing -- my Patsy Thompson DVD on machine quilting arrived several days ago and I've been glued to the Lazy Boy, wanting to absorb the gentle flowing feeling she demonstrates. This particular DVD is on leaves and vines. She has a number of DVDs and the video samples are very tempting!
I've tried a long-arm, just once, and decided that was too much machine for me, too fast, and too much fiddling. (any excuse for not being successful!) And besides, my house is too small, blah, blah, etc. And after all, the Queen of machine quilting is Diane Gaudynski, and she does her precision quilting on a DSM.

The DVD is really wonderful - I wish it had gone on another 2 hours. I am amazed my first efforts using her suggestions were not THAT difficult. The problems I had were that I can't always see what I'm doing (thread matches fabric) or the foot gets in the way of the planned design, and tonight, I had so much JUNK on my machine bed, and was too lazy to move it (to where????) so THAT impeded smooth flow, but here's how it turned out.

These are 4 practice blocks.
I did each quadrant differently. One is a feather, with swoopy curliques to fill empty spaces, the next was a leafy stem, heavily filled, then a leafy stem lightly filled, and finally, a fill of hearts and loops. The last one is what I've done for a long time, never courageous enough to get beyond my one successful design. Previously a 'style' totally escaped me, never knowing what style to use for what type of quilt.


This will be Show and Tell at Guild meeting Saturday.

One more thing - I sew on a Janome 6500 and I don't know how it happens, but every thread I've used on that machine for quilting does just fine. Every thread I put in the bobbin (reasonable) does just fine. And even the combinations, with no forethought, have done just fine. I am NOT a fusser -- good thing! I don't do ANY adjusting - it just does one great job! (Hope I haven't jinxed myself with bragging on my machine!)

A good day.

16 comments:

  1. Wow Elaine, the machine quilting looks pretty good to me. I haven't had the nerve to try yet. You are an inspiration!

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  2. Everyone is talking about those DVD's! I think I need to get them. I'm not much of a quilter and I am ready to work on it. Yours looks great, but yours always does!

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  3. The quilting is beautiful! You sure look like a pro to me! After looking at yours I'm not going to show any close-ups of MY quilting!

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  4. Congratulations on winning the book, and your quilting looks great. I like that method of getting started. Sounds right up my alley, only our DVD player is in the bedroom, so I guess I would have to "lay down" to watch. Oh, the sacrifices we make for our art.
    If it worked half as well as yours, I would be happy. Beautiful quilting.

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  5. Your quilting looks great. I have Diane Gaudynski's book and have tried some of her ideas. Mine never look as good as hers but when people see them they are impressed because they haven't seen hers. Sometimes we are our own harshest critic.

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  6. Congratulations on the win. So I take it that you are recommending Patsy's DVDs? I've been watching her clips on YouTube.

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  7. Can we have a link to Patsy Thompson DVD ?
    I tried to google with no success.
    Thanks.

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  8. Beautiful feather! I too love my Janome. I have relatively few problems. Right now I'm torn between honing my longarm skills (on a borrowed machine) or developing my home machine skills. For big items...ya' can't beat the longarm. For smaller, gotta love the home machine....Maybe I'll just stay so so on both! LOL!

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  9. Hi Elaine,
    Congratulations on your win! And your quilting is wonderful - can't believe you're a novice at it. I sew on a Janome, too, and I've never had any problems. I've had three Janomes (keep upgrading) and they've all been great.

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  10. Congratulations on winning the book. Your quilting looks really good for a DSM. I am assuming that means "darn slow machine"? I want to do more patterns on my machine also, but I have problems keeping the fabric away from the foot while I am sewing. I do not have enough hands!

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  11. What's left to be said? I echo "looking good".

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  12. Wow, you clever girl! Looks very good to me!!

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  13. It looks good to me Elaine! I've been watching Helen in the UK's blog as she's been trying all these new quilting designs and Patsy Thompson's blog too. I haven't bought the DVD's yet but will eventually - I'm sure the designs will be just as doable on the longarm.

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  14. WOW - that quilting look FANTASTIC ... and that was just a practice piece!!! There will be no stopping you now :)

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