Tutorial 1 - Proper Application of Borders

I'm not going to belabor anything about this today.  Mom's got her first tutorial ready.  We decided to post on the proper way to apply cornerstone and capped borders as they are the most popular.  She'll cover mitered borders in a later tutorial.

Why this tutorial on borders?  Well, it turns out that that is one of the biggest problems that presents itself when someone wants a quilt quilted...wavy borders.  Mom has even got a couple of quilts that she has had lying around for awhile that have wavy borders.  She wants to share this vital information, some parts which can also apply to adding block borders and even sashing,  so that when someone brings a quilt to her or other professional longarm quilters they're not sent back with a request to reapply the borders.

So, without further ado, check out the following:


Tutorial 1 - Proper Application of Borders

First off, I've GOT to figure out how to get all of these pages under one heading, but for now, here's the Border Tutorial.

Hey everyone.  Pumpkin decided that this was too boring to post for, so she's told me that I must do the tutorial on my own.  She said she trusts me to not mess it up.  Wow, I never thought I'd need approval from a cat to make a blog post!

Anyway, I want to talk to you all about applying borders properly.  This isn't going to be a very long, drawn out tutorial.  It doesn't need to be.  However, this is something that is SO important when it comes to quilting...either on a domestic or longarm, although longarms feel it more when a border is out of whack.  So, here we go.

I'm like a lot of people and sometimes buy premade kits because they're quick and easy to make most of the time.  The problem with these kits is that they give you a number of inches of a material to cut for each border, but this amount isn't always accurate.  In fact, it rarely is.  We all have our own 1/4 inch seam allowance, even when using wonderful tools like Guidelines Precision Tool to make sure that we've marked a clear, scant 1/4 inch on our machines, we still often have differing sized 1/4 inches.  They can be off a thread or two in the woven fabric and, believe me, that adds up over the surface of the quilt and by the time you add the border, you can have a quilt that doesn't come out the dimensions listed on the pattern or kit.  So, what to do?

Well, this is the first step.  We'll use an example of a capped border, as I call them.

1.  Once the quilt top is finished and ready to apply the outer border, make sure to measure THROUGH THE CENTER of the quilt, both vertically for the side borders and horizontally for the top and bottom borders.  This is the most crucial part to me.  This gives you a true idea of what size you need to cut the border length. 

It's also a good idea to measure near the edge of the borders just to see if there's a large discrepancy.  If there is, you may want to take a good look at your quilt to see where it's not laying flat and go back to that area and see if there are any mistakes that need to be fixed, such as crooked seams, etc.  After you've repaired your quilt, if necessary, and it lies nice and flat when laid out fully on a flat surface, take the measurements as instructed above.

Once you have your correct border measurements, go ahead and cut your border fabric to those measurements.  Now, step number two:

2.  When you are ready to apply your border, the first thing you want to do is fold the side border (using the example from above) in half and carefully mark it with a pin or safety pin.  Do this on both sides.  Now take the borders you cut for your sides and fold them in half and carefully pin that spot as well. 

Step three:  Pinning.

3.  A lot of people don't like pinning when they sew, but I find that it saves a lot of time correcting errors to take the time to pin before sewing fabric together, especially when applying borders or sashing.  This is why.  You have to match those pinned quilt sides to the borders pins and, well, pin them together.  Then you go out to each end of the border and match the edge to the edge of the quilt and pin it there.  Then you can break it down further and work your way on each side of the center pin dividing each side continually until you have enough pins to hold it securely.  Sometimes you might find that you have too much fabric.  In that case, if you cut accurately (double check your border length if this happens) and it's not a large amount (I'm talking an 1/8 of an inch or less here), you can ease the fabric in.  This could cause a small bit of a wave when the border is applied, but it's not something that can't be worked with when quilted.  Now take your quilt to the machine and sew on the borders. 

You would do the same for the top and bottom border.  The only difference would be that, if you're applying cornerstone borders, it's imperative that you make those border seams intersect with the cornerstones are accurately.  Usually, you apply your cornerstone to one border set (usually the top and bottom) and then you would just treat the whole as one border when measuring it and attaching it to the quilt.

I CANNOT express how important it is to follow these steps when applying outer borders...or ANY borders (say you have a quilt with two or three borders).  In fact, I've found that using this technique when applying block borders or sashing to my quilt makes my quilts turn out wonderfully flat and the corner meets are crisp and true.

So next time you're getting ready to apply a border, try these methods and see if your border doesn't look a whole lot better when you lay your quilt out to inspect it prior to either quilting it yourself or sending it out to a longarm quilter to get it done.

So, that's all for now.  Pumpkin has arrived to inspect what I've written.  She seems pleased, which is a good thing because she's can be a harsh task master sometimes.

So, as she says...

Paws are best used for quilting!

Injuries

Well, the last few weeks have been interesting for me and mom and the family.  Mom was working on a quilt about three weeks ago, basting it down along the top side, getting it ready to go, when the needle jumped and went through her middle finger.  She yanked her hand back so fast that (gross out factor here, FYI, in case you get...you know, grossed out) and pulled it out through the front of the finger from where it went it.  It was a reflex action and all happened so quickly that she didn't realize how bad it was until she ran into the bathroom to wash it out.

Well, it was very bad and off to the Urgent Care she went with my "dad." They were, somehow, left sitting in the waiting room while they saw person after person who had come in behind them be taken in, which didn't sit well with mom and she started making comments out loud about it (I would've done more, like hiss and spit and done other unsavory things to get the humans' attention if it had been me or I had been with them...maybe a well placed yowl would've worked...).  They finally got in to the exam room after about 90 minutes in a place that had an empty, basically, waiting room. 

Anyway, after having it x-rayed and cleaned out, it turned out that the few stitches it needed couldn't be done because the (gross out number 2 here) tissue was, basically, hamburger.  I know.  I know.  GROSS!  Mom's a trooper though and she was back at work within a few days, wearing a splint over the finger to protect it from getting banged against something. 

She worked really hard on the quilt she was doing, but found that it had some difficulties she'd never encountered before.  She ended up having to unpick her stitch in the ditch in different areas and it took her three tries before she threw her hands up in the air and decided to quilt the quilt old-school style.  She says it was kind of freeing to realize she didn't have to follow all of the "rules" about how to quilt on a frame.  The quilt turned out really nice too.  I gave it a good look over and was very pleased. 

Mom's also been working on a few other quilts at the same time and has a recommendation for a quick way to load/unload and change quilts on the frame (I hardily concur, by the way):

RED SNAPPERS by Renae Haddadin (from over at quiltsonthecorner.com) as well as her Red-E-Edge Side Clamps!

Mom has moved her loading time down from over an hour (for a King Sized quilt) to just over 40 minutes (counting the basting and side clamping).  These are, in the kitty vernacular, cool as a catnip mouse!  They are these plastic rods attached together with dowels that are then fed into a sleeve-like area on the edge of the canvas leaders on the frame.  Once in there, the quilt is laid over the area with the rods and in no time at all a "snapper" is clipped over the quilt on the canvassed rod and the quilt is attached!  How much faster than pins is that?  I've told mom to put in a link to Renae's Video on this amazing product, which will be posted at the end of this...post. 

These side clamps don't just take a small bite out of the side of the loaded quilt, but clamps the whole length of whatever size you've ordered!  This provides a full, even tension, with NO GAPS where it's on the quilt at making the tensioning of the quilt on the frame SO much easier! 

I have to say that most of the other kitties don't appreciate the snapping sound when she applies them to her quilts, but I love to hear it and watch her apply them...when I'm allowed in the quilt room when she's working on her own quilts.  I do feel badly, a bit, for nagging her to death to be in the room with her when she's working because she then has to thoroughly clean it again before starting a customer quilt.  She says it makes her be extremely picky and thorough when she does her cleaning, so I guess I won't feel too bad about it.  It is, after all, my business to.  Otherwise it wouldn't be named after me!

Anyway, I'm digressing again, as I so often do.  Mom wanted me to let everyone know she's not affiliated in any way with Quilts on the Corner.  She just wanted to share what she thinks is one of the coolest products she's ever used for her quilting.  Anyway, if you're a longarm quilter, please take a look at these products.  They can really speed up your load times.  Mom says she just wishes she'd found them a lot sooner.

So, as I've said, an interesting week.  We had something that could've been very bad happen and we've had something that really improved mom's work time.  It's almost like it was meant to balance each other out!  So, here's the link to the YouTube video of Renae's amazing product, Red Snappers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udj94FQ1juE

As well as the Red - E - Edge video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6l5lq_lttI

Let us know if you try these products.  I know mom would really like to know, as would I.

Oh, on the unposted tutorials, well, you can understand why she hasn't done that yet, I hope.  She's realized that she might go with a more basic first tutorial than loading a quilt on the longarm, but will focus more on what to do to add borders to quilts to get a nice square quilt when you're finished, which makes it turn out better when longarm quilted.

So, until then, remember:

Paws are best used for quilting!

Busyness

Wow, another almost two weeks has past since my last post.  All I can say is...it's do to Busyness.  No, not business (although that technically is what the busyness has been about...meh).  Mom's been cleaning out the Quilt Corner and finish up a commissioned quilt (yes, THAT quilt...the nightmare one!).  I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I know she is too, especially considering how many problems she encountered with the fabrics and whatnot.  That's good news and was a large potion of her busyness.

 I have to admit, I didn't like her cleaning her space and organizing it a little bit better.  I liked things just the way they were.  It's not like it was dirty or anything, but because she moved stuff around, some of my favorite places for napping (when she'd let me in the room) were taken away or changed.  This made me quite cranky and I had to take it out on someone.  I DON'T like my Quilt Corner being messed with or changed.  I kind of picked on the somewhat slow, gangly, HUGE (BIG doesn't even begin to describe how large he is) younger brother, Darcy...er, MR. Darcy.  Yes, mom named him after THAT Mr. Darcy.  She loves Jane Austen...too much if you ask me, but then what do I know. ( I haven't read Jane Austen or any of her novels since, well, I'm a cat and if a book hasn't been published in Kittenese, well, I just don't bother with it.)  Anyway, I was picking on him.  He's easy to do this to sometimes because he's such a lover and doesn't always appreciate a scrap.  To give him credit, though, he does come out on top on occasion...but not this night.

At any rate, the business is coming along splendidly and though mom's only had two customers so far, one has asked for her to make another quilt for her.  Mom took the commission from this woman (the nightmare...otherwise known as Wind and Waves), but isn't sure she wants to go down that road anymore.  She does love to do handwork, but mostly does her own stuff by hand when watching TV with dad in the evenings.  I'm trying to convince her that that time should be dedicated to me and my brothers and sisters by laying right next to her occasionally and generally keeping her busy handing out treats and whatnot.

Mom's determined to try this new method of loading her longarm machine.  She saw it on an old episode of Linda's Longarm Quilting.  It showed how you can load two quilts on the machine at the same time so that it helps you do things a bit faster.  Since both of the customer quilts she has right now would seem to be able to fit, she's considering doing that.  Of course, the show didn't tell all the logistics of it, so I think mom will be laying awake at night the next couple of nights trying to figure out the best way to go about doing that.  Just think how much time can be saved if she can successfully accomplish this!  I have no doubt she will because, well, she's MY mom and I picked her as MY person and I wouldn't have done that if she wasn't just a bit intelligent.  I just don't like idiotic behavior in people and she's not like that!  If this works, I'll let you know and even maybe make her very first written tutorial on double loading...if I can convince her not to be shy, maybe I can get her to even video it and post it here.  Wouldn't that be cool?

Well, I just saw a red spot go flying down the carpet and I want to catch it!  Talk to you all later!

Remember, paws are best used for quilting!

Pumpkin

Countdown

Big High Paws Everyone!  We were planning on opening Pumpkin's Quilt Corner on September 1, 2013, but had the opportunity to get it going early.  Therefore, we "officially" opened for business July 27, 2013.  Mom met with her first customer!  (The business is still in countdown mode as the quilt won't actually be delivered to mom until Augst 10, 2013, so THAT'S the "official" date for me!)
I wasn't allowed to go because mom is meeting her "clients" (what does that word even mean?) at a local quilt and sewing machine shop.  I don't think she'd mind me giving her friend and mentor a shout out, so here's to Jackie Lynn's Discount Sewing Center in Rochester, New York!  HI Jackie!!!  See, I'm waving my beautiful orange paw at you!  See me???  Jackie LOVES kitties as much as mom and dad and the fam do.  In fact, she takes care of many feral kitties that live outside her store.  That makes her tops in my book.

Anyway, I digress, as usual.  Mom had a great meeting with her first official customer and was very careful about all of the paperwork and whatnot so that the meeting would go smoothly.  The woman mom met with, she said, was very nice.  She can't wait to get started working on her quilt. 

Mom couldn't take the lady's quilt right away because she promised one of my human dad's friends that she'd make one for her (NOT as part of the business) completely...from start to finish.  I'm surprised mom didn't rant about that one (maybe she wanted to leave me to) for hours and hours and pages and pages.  It was a true nightmare for her, which left me feeling unhappy because there were days when she refused to even go into Pumpkin's Quilt Corner because of that.  (Well, that is why I think she didn't go in...She said it was because she hurt her back.  I'm telling you...you humans need to figure out a way to get spines made and transplanted into your bodies that are built like a cat's.  We can turn on a dime...thus the myth about a cat always landing on it's feet.  We can from about six or seven feet up...most of the time, but forget it from heights higher than that.  Oh we do sometimes, but better not to test it out.)

Mom says I can't give details as it could get her into trouble, but let's suffice it to say that the quilt she had such problems with was a panel quilt and the panels were printed on the fabric all askew (I think that means crooked).  Even after complaining and getting a replacement panel, it was still the same.  She says she won't buy panels or panel quilt kits online (or maybe ever) again after this.  She had to buy a couple of extra tools to try and get one that would help her "fussy" cut the panel and then she had to try and find a type of fabric that is no longer "in style" so it took her weeks to find one that, sort of, worked.  She's about ready to construct the quilt and I've got my paws (all four of them) crossed that she doesn't have any more problems with the quilt.  I know she wanted to do a custom design on the quilt, but now will have to settle for a pantograph, which makes her sad, but what can she do?

Wow!  I didn't even mean to tell you all about the "nightmare" quilt, but I guess sometimes we all just need to rant.  I'm the one ranting because it was heartbreaking to see mom get so angry she'd throw stuff (mostly paper) across the room once.  Mom pretty much NEVER gets mad (not even when one of us accidentally scratches her), so this should tell you how frustrating the whole thing has been. 

At any rate, we are now officially counting down the days on our paws (and fingers) until the customer's quilt is delivered to us.  Mom is busy working on organizing the paperwork and making sure all the numbers are correct as well as practicing the stipple pattern in the size requested by the customer.  (This on top of the friend's quilt!)  Needless to say, this has been an extremely busy last few days, but I know mom and she's up to it.  So, everyone...count with us and be ready for Pumpkin's Quilt Corner to officially blast off on 8/10/2013!!

As always:

Remember, Paws Are Best Used for Quilting!

Preparations...

My mom is getting very nervous, but excited too!  The time for our business, Pumpkin's Quilt Corner, to open it's hypothetical doors for business is coming up soon.  We decided on September 1, 2013, as long as everything is ready to go on that date.  I'm excited and nervous too.  I've been bugging mom to spend more time in the Quilt Corner (which is in our home) because she's now locked me out of our bedroom at night! 

The reason for this outrage, she says, is because that crotchety old woman, Flutie (the Old One) has been diagnosed with some kind of blood cyst or cancer in her stomach.  The vets said she would die soon and since she's been mom's closest friend for years, mom has been kind of sad.  So, she decided to keep Flutie from being "picked on" (hey, I've got to keep everyone in line, especially at night) at during the night that she would be locked in mom's room with her.  I am REALLY angry about this!  I must admit that, perhaps, I've taken out too much of my frustration on the others, but a little extra toughness, especially on that grey THING, Bella (the former sheriff), helps to keep her in line.

My ponderings are wondering from the quilting business, for which I apologize.  I will have times when that happens, as evidenced in my blog title. 

Now, back to business.  Mom has been feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the paperwork and whatnot to get going, but she's been a real trooper.  She's being really thorough and making sure everything is done correctly and accurately.  She's also been practicing her pantographing and even some stencil quilting and custom quilting.  She LOVES freehand quilting.  So do I as it's fun to sit on the back side of the table and watch her work (if I'm not napping there).  I can't do that when she's using pantographs.  I do like when she finishes her practice pieces more than when she finishes real quilts, or quilts real quilts.  I get to test the comfortableness of the practice pieces, which makes me VERY happy.  Of course, being the magnanimous ruler I am, I let the others try out the quilt pieces too...when mom let's them into the room, which is hardly EVER.  Only I get to come in most of the time since it's MY business and mom just works for me.  Of course, she's warned me repeatedly that once the inventory is completed prior to starting the business, I may not be allowed at all (yeah, right!  I'll convince her to just put a disclaimer in her business software warning about pet hair and dander being on her quilts) once she starts taking in customer quilts.  She does get tough with us once in awhile, so who knows, maybe she'll do that when she opens our business, but that doesn't seem fair, does it?

Anyway, there's so much to do to get ready for this.  I really hope it works out for her.  Right now she's trying to figure out the right prices to charge since it's kind of hard to figure that out, not only based on skill, but also based on competition and average pricing in our area.  It's not the easiest thing to find out other quilters' prices as they aren't the most forthcoming about them.  I wonder why that is.  As busy as they are all reported to be, you'd think they'd gladly work together and share information and whatnot, but I guess the competition makes them not only seemingly secretive, but also crabby on occasion when asked about pricing.  Maybe it has something to do with money. 

I don't quite get the whole money thing.  It's just NOT something we have in out kitty world.  It's not necessary because of the way we've set up our societies, both domestic and in the wild.  Oh well, I digress...again.  I feel hungry.  I think I'll go see if I can get mom to give us some of that oh-so-yummy soft food she's been "hiding" from us (like she can fool me).

So, signing off for now. 

Remember Paws are best used for quilting!

Trials

Again a huge amount of time has passed for which I am sorry.  Kitty things have kept me busy what with a virus going through my house and several kitties getting sick.  I also lost another friend, Zippy,  a couple of months ago who was 16 and his old body couldn't fight off the virus.  In the end, I told mom that it was time to say goodbye to him and let him go to his rest.  It has been very hard for her losing two beloved pet friends whom had been in the family for a long time.  We did add another shelter kitty, but it turned out he is a "pure blood."  Reminds me of those Harry Potter movies mom likes watching, but he's not a snob like the "pure bloods" in those movies are.  Actually, he's kind of a Baby Huey (wow, do people even use that phrase anymore?  Where did I even hear that???).  He's cute, sweet, cuddly, and HUGE.  Mom's started calling him her "horse."  Then the "old girl" (our 14 1/2 year old sister, Flutie...mom calls her "the Queen."  Yeah, right.  I think THAT adage should ONLY belong to me since I am the boss and undisputed ruler of the house, but mom says not.  Age, I guess, counts for something sometimes!) had to have about nine teeth worked on.  My gosh that was totally unexpected!  It totally worried mom to have "her heart" go under anesthesia, but everything worked out fine.  So, that's another good thing that happened to offset the trials.

Then her longarm machine decided to not work correctly and it's taken her a long time to get it fixed.  Actually, she just got it fixed today!!! YAY!!!!  I was really, really missing our time together while she works.  She wasn't able to use the machine much at all unless it was with the stitch regulator (what is that?) off.  Talk about trial!  Even the positive of getting a new "little" brother (he hardly qualifies as little...I can't stress that enough!) have been trials in and of themselves.  This got me thinking...

How many of you all use your quilting as a way to reduce stress?  Mom said that she didn't realize how getting into the rhythm of quilting totally relaxed her and that she was working more the more stressed she was.  She said that not having her machine was hard on her because she lost one of her stress reducers.  I don't know about all that, but I know that I HATED not being in my "office" overseeing her working.  My time with her alone in the "office" was hard on me too, but now we should be able to get back to work designing and quilting quilts!  YAY AGAIN!  I hope all of you will think about what it is that helps reduce stress...even if it isn't quilting...I CAN think of one thing most of you will probably use...CHOCOLATE!!!  Mom sometimes says that she wishes she'd have a vat of it to swim in (that sounds sticky, which I DON'T LIKE!) to relieve her stress!  Isn't that funny?

Argh!  It's Been Too Long Since I've Posted.  I Promise, I Have One Ready, But I Want "Mom" To Figure Out How To Link To A Separate Page Of Information For You All. In The Meantime, Check Back Soon.  I Feel A Possible Rant On Rules Coming On....