Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Some Charity Quilting

Hi all!

I hope that everyone is safe and dry this Tuesday!

I decided to load a couple more of our local guild's charity jelly roll race quilts onto my frame and do some simple quilting on them on Phoebe!

 

I load the two quilts side by side along a wide-back backing fabric and one run of batting.  I thought that I would post a picture of this since a few people found it hard to "see" this technique.  Two jelly roll race quilts side by side are pretty much exactly the width of the wide-back - it's a little tight but doable and it saves fabric.

By doing this I make one pass across both quilts using the same thread.  It is so much faster and easier to load and quilt once instead of twice.  I did a very loose meander stitch in 40 weight Fil-Tec Glide thread top and bobbin.  Why such a loose meander?  One - the batting is very thick polyester batting and I didn't want these quilts to get stiff with too much quilting.  Two - these quilts are going to kids and i think that they will love the puffiness of these quilts better than a packed down quilt.  They are so cuddly!

Do you do any quilts for charity?

Monday, May 13, 2013

Review of the Accuquilt Go! Cutter With Smoother Rolling!

Hi all!

Look at what I got in the mail to play with!



Yep!  This is the new version of the Accuquilt Go! die cutter with smoother rolling action.  Notice the different box with Alex and Ricki on the front?  When I was offered the chance to review this cutter I jumped at the chance as I frequently get asked if the newer version of the cutter is better.  Of course I was skeptical but I was looking forward to trying it out.

As you know I have been a Go! user for a few years now so when I opened up my machine and put a few layers of fabric on the die and ran it through let me just say that my jaw was on the floor!  They really HAVE IMPROVED the rolling action.  Not just a little bit improved but a lot improved. 

I didn't have to hold the cutter down with my other hand while I ran the die through.  I just turned the handle.  I never had to put muscle behind the cutting.  This is a big improvement!

If I can be honest it is as easy to turn as the Sizzix machines now.  Not as easy as the Studio - they still have the market there - but - just as easily as Sizzix.  The rolling action was always the biggest complaint about the Go! and that complaint is gone now.  The cutter is still the same folding up machine that is easy to store but they have changed it so that the rolling action is smoother and more stable.

Thumbs up from me!

If you still have the original Go! this improvement in no way makes yours obsolete it is still the cutter that you know and love!  Don't worry - it's just nice when a company works to improve their products.  Yey!

Do any of you have the new Go!?

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's - expecting Mom's - want-to-be Mom's and Mother-in-Laws out there!  xo!

What did I do today?  I went to a quilt show and purchased a few Mother's Day pressies for myself!


Yummy aren't they!  These are all Fil-Tec threads that I am looking forward to quilting with.  The large cones are Glide the smaller are the variegated Affinity and the bobbins are  the magna-glide magnetic core bobbins with a whopping 132 yds on each bobbin!  I am really looking forward to trying these out.  I really liked using the Glide thread on Phoebe and was very pleased with it so when I knew that the dealer would be at this show it just gave me another reason to get to a quilt show and buy some more!

Fil-Tec threads are all  a 40 weight trilobal polyester thread that is strong (but not too strong) smooth and has wonderful colours and a shine that just makes the thread melt into the fabric.  I loved it for machine quilting - no thread breaks :-D

Isn't that green just yummy?  I have no clear destination for that thread but how could I leave it there!!?

Just had to share my quilter's candy!

2022 Christmas T-Shirt Quilt Gift

As promised - here is the T-Shirt Quilt Christmas Gift from 2022! I did share this on my Facebook page but not on my blog, (whoops sorry!) s...