Right as Rain

Wow, what a load off my way too big plate, my Innova is feeling better! as am I!!! 

Jim made us 'right as rain' :0) 

Following a new and upgraded tension assembly (thank you Jim and Innova :0) re-timing we spent almost 4 hours on my Innova. Jim and I ran every kind of thread that I use on every kind of batting that comes into my studio. 

Our biggest challenge was getting a good stitch quilting on Quilter's Dream cotton batting, Request and Select, both very thin battings. It's a good batting, very popular here in Chico because of our temps and the brand of batting available at Honey Run Quilter's @ Cathy's so I quilt on it allot. All of Theresa's samples that I quilt for her are quilted with them. Of their battings I personally prefer Quilter's Dream Wool, LOVE the loft, it's light weight and allot more fun to quilt on! So do quite a few of my customers and the list is growing :0) Yea! 

After Jim left I headed over to Cathy's to bid farewell to Nancy. Dan had 2 cakes for her and she received lots of flowers and cards. I will miss her at Cathy's so very much but I know we will see her often at Embroidery Club having fun with that crazy crowd! ;0) Becky and I invited her to join us for lunch every Monday, that would be great!

By the afternoon it was too hot in my studio to fire up my longarm and it was all I could do to wait for some cool evening air to play on some samples on my Innova. I did and it was a BIG improvement! HUGH!!! It ran a little different on Auto Pilot than it had that morning with the belts dropped free hand. With a minor adjustment on the check spring I had it dialed in perfectly. LOVE this new tension assembly!!! Thank you again Jim and Nicky as well for letting me keep him all morning. The two of them have allot to do to get ready for an upcoming show in San Diego. They will also be at Pacific International Quilt Show in October. If you go, look for Jim and Nicky at their Innova ~ Sew So Shop booth! I have to add that Innova is a really good company. Support is available 24/7 and they really stand behind their product. 

Look for Theresa and Honey Run Quilter's booth at PIQF and the samples she made. With two more I have to finish I've lost track of how many quilts Theresa has made. She is one very busy person! (She also will be sorely missed!) Here are pix of the last samples, this one is up on my design wall waiting for a background fill I have planned for it...

This one was quilted 2 weeks ago...

with Solar by Anne Bright

 using a Fantastico thread *my new fav!*

 and the backing

and one more, from that book I've been drooling over Adding Layers by Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession. It's the one with the giant Churn Dash, this is a pic from the book... Theresa and I challenged ourselves to make this quilt and darn if she didn't do it first!

Wait until you see Theresa's made with a really cool paisley fabric! It's even better! Just like my machine. Now that it is all better, right as rain, I've decided to give it a new name as well. In place of Harley for it's chrome handle bars I think maybe the problem is that it's a she machine. "She" certainly has had her "moods" picking which days she wanted to run. Well now her name is Helena, my mom's name. It's a beautiful Dutch name and I hope it makes her as happy as I am right now. As you can see, I am up early. The windows are open and the fans have been pulling the wonderful cool morning air into my studio. I am ready to go play! See you on the flip side!!! 

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend
Take some time to take some stitches!
Groetjes, Jo

  

More quilts in August

Love this graphic Christmas quilt made by Sandra E

Check out these really cute fat Red Cardinals!

Quilted with the perfect Christmas e2e with gold Glide

Ornaments, stars, trees and of course another cute little bird

Not a Cardinal but both birds have cute little feathered tails!

Sandy's was one of the four delivered yesterday along with this one for Phoebe

Also quilted with birds. A different design, this one from Anne Bright

Phoebe's is made from blocks she won at our guild

Annie Star Quilt Guild's Block of the Month lets say 'some' time ago :0)

Phoebe is finishing this one for a family member

A second quilt for Rosie was picked up yesterday

Rosie is new to quilting! Loving it which is good

because she is very good! 

 Quilted with a pattern from One Song ~ Dogwood

I love this pattern and used it allot on my last longarm. After using it on both Rosie and Judy J's quilts on my new system found that it does not run correctly. It's in a .dxf format that Auto Pilot is able to convert to .pat but it doesn't read it the same. New functions I have now didn't work and the stitching path was completely different. It did allot of extra traveling that wasn't necessary so I have decided to retire this design. Not to worry, I can repurchase it in .pat or will find something new to replace it. The amount of designs available now are amazing. A note about One Song if you are a longarmer, Donna will be closing down her website in October. Her patterns are now only available thru Digi-Tech. They carry lots of designs from several different designers. Someday, when I have some extra time (ha ha) I want to play with Art N Stitch and learn to digitize my own designs and then I could redigitize patterns myself when needed.

One more of the four from yesterday was a baby quilt made by Pam P

Pam appliqued the hearts and added a chain stitch around each of them with embroidery thread. Very cute. A new to me customer, she asked for a cross hatch for the background and that I not stitch thru the hearts. I added a floral border and corner design for the outer border finished with a SID in the inner border. Quilted in a thread called Western Pink.

The backing, perfect choice for this quilt.

Thank you Pam! 

I am off to work on Janie's quilt. She is coming by the studio today to work on Amaretto Cottage as well. Looking forward to seeing her progress and new finished blocks.

Enjoy your day! 

August Quilts

Lots of quilts that came in 2's were quilted in August...

This is a baby quilt made by Betty D

Fun summer project!

Quilted with an all over pattern of clouds

The back was fun too with hot air balloons and flying geese blocks.
Very colorful :0)

Two quilts for Judy J

This one is quilted with a Dogwood pattern

and this large quilt with a really nice layout and colors

 Quilted with a paisley e2e design from Sweet Dreams

Thank you Judy! You are in our thoughts and hearts right now

praying for the best and sending bear hugs

This quilt is made by Tina B for a very good friend

that is going thru breast cancer treatment right now

A very pretty panel with great colors and a great bird. 

Quilted with humming birds in the outer area

and FMQing in the center panel

A very special quilt! 

This very cool little quilt with itty bitty log cabins is made by Carol F

Made of scraps from family members, this quilt is for a baby

 lots of fabrics, very scrappy!

lots of SID with a border design called Love Doodle

A second quilt Carol made, also from scraps

for another family member

Definitely a sports theme going on with this quilt

Quilted with stars for her sports star :0)

Quite the variety! My job is rarely dull and always filled with lots of color!

More to be posted. Two for Sarah, as well as two more for Beckie

One of them is a surprise for a friend so I will hold off on posting those.

Another flip quilt for Donna, this one with numbers but it got by me

along with a really cute quilt for Judy P 

that were quilted and picked up without pix :0(

Two more samples for PIQF that Theresa made

Two Christmas quilts, one for Sandy E

A quilt for Phoebe, one for Rosie and a baby quilt for Pam P

The last four were delivered today

I have a quilt for Janie C on my frame right now

Happy that my machine is up and running again

after three days of down time this week!

I will share one of the Christmas quilts... 

This is a Christmas Tree Bargello, made by Goldie and is a class

coming up in September at Cathy's Honey Run Quilters

Here is a pic of the quilt hanging up right now

at Honey Run Quilter's

 Stop by and take a look

Better yet, sign up for Goldie's class! 

Hope you find some time to take a few stitches!

A little Ketchup

A new month and a good time to post a few of the customer quilts not posted that were quilted in May and June while I was in Ketchup mode :0)

This is a quilt made by Barbara H.

A kit she purchased from Morning Star Quilt Shop in Paradise. I was very happy to see this quilt top as I made the same kit purchsed from Marsha when Morning Star was a vendor at Annie's Star Quilt guilds quilt show. Custom quilted on the Innova. She also brought along this quilt to my studio for quilting...

made from a Kim Diehl pattern which I was also familiar with because I am making one too! We have the same taste in quilts! I spent some time on both of these quilts and they are the very first custom quilts quilted on the Innova. Here are a few close up pix...

 This is Petit Fours from 2009 :0)
Heirloom Roses and a Williamsburg border design quilted in the borders
 and below the back...

 Barbara's Kim Diehl quilt

Surprise, I found another that Sandra E made, a Tessellations style quilt...
Sandra is a prolific quilter! 

 Also quilted with Jubilee. Love this Anne Bright pattern!
Another gorgeous batik used for her backing...

Check out this fun quilt made with Mickey Mouse and 

Nightmare Before Christmas fabrics

Made for the quilter's sister, a true Disney fan!

Quilted with a geometric design that she picked that was perfect!

This is a Breast Cancer Fundraiser quilt made by members of the 

Embroidery Club at Cathy's Honey Run Quilters

The project was spearheaded by Carol and the quilt pieced by Beckie

Custom quilted on the Innova, 

each of the blocks were machine embroidered

so an e2e was not an option for this one! 

Following are close ups of some of the embroidered blocks...

A wonderful collaboration!

Three Four more, these are all baby quilts...

This one is a very cute panel quilt made by Janie

Quilted with Stars in a Bright Yellow Glide thread

Two made by Janet M

This one is quilted with Dragonflies

with a very cute backing fabric

and last but not least...

 These fabrics and prints were a mix of baby animals

 Quilted with Aussie Babies and a Minkee backing

 very cute!

 Found one more, made by Rosie

 Also with a minkee backing and quilted with Jubilee
Love this quilting design!

I had a hard time taking pix of this one, it was a very bright, sunny and hot day so I laid down a sheet and took photos out in the grass in the shade. Not the best photos, but the best part is that this is one of Rosie's first quilts. I now have a second she made already, waiting to be quilted. She is getting ready to retire and plans to spend some of that time learning to quilt. Well, she has gotten a pretty good start on that! Yea! 

Thank you Rosie, Janet, Janie, Carol, Sandra and Barbara! I appreciate each of you very much! If I have left anyone out, my apologies. Every once in awhile a quilt gets past me without a photo or a customer did not give written permission on my work order to post their name and/or quilt on the internet.

It is so nice to be caught up from the back log. Not a fun situation, especially in the summer time! Recently finished two for Judy J and a class sample for Honey Run Quilters that Goldie will be teaching in September, it's still on my longarm and will be posted... stay tuned! Today it was cloudy all day. Lots of rain up in the mountains, a good thing with the fires but not so good with mudslides in SoCal... in August! Very weird weather! 

Stay safe and cool and take a few stitches whenever possible! 

Groetjes, Jo