Music, Seams, Family

Bummer this is a day late for Lara's Talk about Tuesday. Oh Well.

So I was reading Seams to An End and Karen mentioned music. Probably not the same music subject I'm going to post about, but it made me think that I've been quilting to music the last couple of days and Loving it!!! I found this cool site Pandora Radio! You can type in an artist or a song that you like and it will find others like it, and you can create your own station. I currently have a Classic Station, a Disco Station (yes I was raised in the 70s!) and a New Age station. These may all be diametrically opposed genres, but Oh Well. I'm loving it! Check it out and let me know what you think.


So the Lemoyne Star quilt is almost done. See how removing the bulk in the seams has allowed me to stitch in the center of the star without problems. It's amazing how every block that has a bulky center always seems to need the stitching to come from the center. And if you intentionally avoid the center, it seems to poke up even more!
So, I've posted about my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt I've been piecing by hand. Well, we took down the Christmas Tree (yes it's fake) on Saturday. FINALLY! and the 2.5 year old was helping w/the vacuuming. Yes, he's going to be OC like his Dad. We've decided it's a good thing! OK, so back to the quilting. Well, he's detached the vacuum head and just walking around w/the nozzle, and all of a sudden I hear, "uh oh". Guess what? He vacuumed up the block I was working on. Yep, it was almost finished! SWOOSH!!! Right off the table needle, pin and all GONE! My DH offered to go get it out of the central vac canister in the garage and I said "don't bother." Then I'd have to figure out how to get it clean w/o it getting all distorted. I figure it's easier to just get started on the next block!
This is the little table DH/Santa gave me for Christmas to sit next to my comfy chair and hold my quilty stuff for me. Wasn't that nice of him! Especially since we agreed NOT to get each other anything for Christmas, because our trip to Canada is going to be our Christmas! Yes, That's coming up soon. We leave in less than 3 weeks to pick up our missionary son in Canada!! YEA!!!


Happy Quilting! Lauri

Twisted Seams VS. Bulky Intersections

So, learning how to press your block the tried and true method is to press all seams to the side, thus providing strength to the seam by not pressing it open as in sewing clothing. This also provides hand quilters the perfect seam to stitch in the ditch. A twisted seam is a BIG no-no and aggravation to the hand quilter.

Being a Machine quilter and actually dis-liking stitch-in-the-ditch and avoiding it like the plague, what I have found to be a huge hindrance to the machine quilter is bulky seams. What happens to me, is I'm quilting along and the hopping foot of my machine comes to the bulky intersection and can't go over it, thus it bounces off and creates a lump in my wonderful feather. Which no longer looks wonderful cuz of the bump. Or how about cruising along with a pantograph and BAM you run into a bulky intersection and now your cute pattern has a lump in it. A bulky intersection is the kind of seam you find at the center of a pinwheel or a lemoyne star. When there are 8 fabrics converging at the center of the block, and 8 seams, which means 16 layers of fabric. AAAHHHH! press that to the side and it makes for a huge pile of fabric.

So what are the solutions? Well, I learned a techinique from my friend Niquie where you can loosen some of the threads on the seams which are crossed by the final stitching and open up the intersection and press it, this really helps to eliminate the bulk in a four-patch type seam intersection.

But what are other options?

And especially for those flying geese points?

Leave your comments and let me know what you think about twisted seams vs. bulky intersections. Happy Quilting! Lauri

PS Thanks to my Cousin Chris for her quilt, in all the examples.