Hi L Cat.

About that metallic thread..Not a lot of fun...But I survived it.  I have a Baby Lock Quest Plus, thats how i was able to get the stitches in the sky.  I used a metallic needle. I see that it provided me with more success than if I did not, because it allowed the thread to feed through better.

Some of the threads fed through better.  The gold wirey one was the absolute worst. (Thats my opinion).  The one that I used around the kings garments worked the best.  I used a zig zag stitch and shortened the stitch width and length.  I played around a bit.

I will definately try metallics again.  Perhaps thread gets old with age, because I cannot recall when I purchased the thread.  Next I will play with the tension a bit more. 

Overall, I would suggest giving it a try.  Just make sure you use a metallic needle...

Happy New Year.

E

My favorite part of the quilting process is the "before" part. The dreaming up (research, inspiration gathering, color preferences, etc.) of a design that I want to try, and then putting on my thinking cap to figure out how I would actually execute the design. Important to note that not all my dreamed up plans have an executable solution yet . . . but to dream, that is the thing. After that, fabric is the next most important part of my process . . . I love to shop and buy fabric, but have to admit that I purchase rather haphazardly and rarely purchase something I have a set idea for, which in the end leads to a large stash of fabrics that when said and done will require many other purchases of fabric to work with whatever I actually end up doing. A vicious cycle. The rest of the process I could probably eliminate altogether if magic fairies showed up in my studio late at night to do all the rest of the work. I love seeing the pieces I have cut up on the design wall, and love to manipulate them until it's just what I was thinking, or mostly what I was thinking . . . and then I dread having to actually sew them altogether, press and press and press. And then there is the back. I love the back and have recently found myself spending an unusually lengthy time developing and piecing the back, sort of two quilts in one. Because I have not built up the confidence to machine quilt anything larger than a 1 yard square, most of my quilts get sent out, only to return to my most loathed task, the binding. Although, the experience of hand stitching the binding is growing on me, so we'll see. And then, just like at the end of a good book, I am sad to have it finished.

As I was thinking about a topic for this week's chatting point, I kept thinking about all the time I spent in the sewing room since my last post, what I made, and what I liked about it.  I have several projects going at the same time (as I'm sure most of you do), and I tend to jump from project to project, doing what I can when I have time, getting to the more unplesant bits when I know I've got a few hours available to push myself through it... and so, that brings me to this week's topic..

What are your favorite steps of the quiltmaking process?
And which ones don't you like as much?

Please write a post telling us how your mind and emotions work, when it comes to quilting.  What steps do you get excited about, which make you want to up and leave your sewing space?  Perhaps you can make a list, ranking the steps in order from favorite to least favorite, i.e.

1. fabric shopping
2. machine quilting
3. binding
4. choosing a pattern
5. piecing
6. cutting
7. squaring up blocks
8. ironing

(for example, my own ranking would be a bit diffferent).  Feel free to use more steps that I've used, tell us what the process is for you.

As for my quiltmaking.. On the spiderweb I've been working on, I love love love "choosing" scraps to add next to a block, pinning them in place, and chain stitching them down.  The step of removing the pins and ironing I'm indifferent to, but I'll happily do it because it means I can get back to choosing the next round.
I like trimming up the full triangle templates and laying them out to see which ones make pleasing blocks.
I don't like piecing the triangles together into blocks, ironing the seams open, or removing the papers.
I'm not really a fan of cutting out the paper templates, or cutting the kites, but being able to play with my strip stash makes it worth it.. like, as I'm holding the kite template down and rotary cutting a stack of 8 at a time (with a dull blade), cursing when the blade nicks the template, I'm really just looking forward to getting to choose and chain piece some colorful strips, and that makes the dull jobs easier.

Other steps I'd rather skip include squaring up (anything, but esp. HSTs), piecing fabric for backings, and cutting patches (except diamonds, I like cutting diamonds).  Oh, and putting fabric back on the shelves!  that's no fun~

So, which steps are your favorite?  Tell us as much or as little as you'd like, but please post this week!!

Hello Metro Mod Quilters!
I was really sad to miss last weekend's meeting. The circle quilt looks wonderful! I like the idea of posting questions to the blog. So here goes: I am starting a new project today. It's a pattern I saw online (here's the link: http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/07/random-reflections.html) and it's for my mom. So far she and I went to her local quilt shop (http://www.taosadobequiltingandmore.com/) and picked out fabrics. We really liked the blue batik with the dots in circles, so we got lots of that. And yes, that's my favorite fabric up in the back right!

First step: cut lots of strips (the pattern calls for jelly rolls). The nice thing about having the intended owner of the quilt pick out the fabrics is that I'm happier knowing that they might actually like it. I wouldn't have chosen these colors, together, but now I think it's a nice mix. I think the most challenging part of this project is going to be quilting it, I'm trying for a queen and I've never made one that large. We'll see!

Here goes....

This is for a dear person that is in need of some quilting cheer.  I intend to use the yellow print as the backing.  The front will be comprised of the four that you see above.  By the colors, you can gather the cause.  It will be a lap quilt and I thought about making big blocks with the rose print and the dotted print, accented by the wavy print and the solid tone print.


I am thinking that I will use the wavy lines of the backing to quilt, or something nice, pretty and easy to complete.  (Perhaps some pebbly texture machine quilting.)  All in my head, we shall see if it develops as I anticipate.  Stay tuned...

At the meeting yesterday, David had the great suggestion that we start using the blog more to talk and share between meetings.  I volunteered to organize and post a weekly converstation topic to get the ball rolling. 
This is what we were thinking..

• Each Sunday a new topic will be posted here on the blog and you have the whole week (til Saturday, midnight) to write and post your own blog post on the topic. 
• The topic will include 2 questions which you can answer (or ignore), and your posts might include text, photos, links, or anything else you'd like to share. 
• During the week as the posts start appearing, get in there and leave comments, read comments, and get talking!   After you write your post, make sure to check back often and see what's going on in the comments.  Blogger will not email them directly to you from our group blog.
• A new topic will be posted next week and the fun starts again.  If you have any suggestions for topics, please email me at jessunderquilts (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Sound good?  Alright.  For the first week, David suggested we talk about our Process.

1. What you love most about how this is coming together.
2. What is most challenging about this project?