Hello from East Texas!  My darling husband and I picked up stakes and moved to Tyler.  It's been a great adventure.  We are slowly settling in as we meet new friends, and learn a new town.  We have met some wonderful folks in East Texas.

I started doing some charity quilting this month for a local guild.  It's been fun to connect with my fellow quilters.  Yesterday, we had an "Airing of the Quilts" event in Tyler's town square to help raise funds for organizations that help others.  

I've also been playing with my quilting software and Art and Stitch software.  I created a pantograph and some words to go on several of the charity quilts.  I used a pre-purchased pattern and created the words in "Art and Stitch".  I then used Quilt Path (software on my longarm) to put the whole pattern together.  I used matching thread to be subtle, and have included some pictures of the pantograph layout on my computer and of the quilt.  Fun, fun!!

I continue to work on my butterflies for the "Lepidoptera" quilt.  I would like to give this as a gift this Christmas, but I still have  quite a few butterflies to cut and sew. 

We went to the Texas/OU game this month too in Dallas.  I grew up in Dallas and it was great to go to the State Fair, eat a corndog, and watch the game.  We had some friends come up from Austin and it was a great weekend.  

Have a great week! 

Hello everyone,

I have been having lots of fun quilting edge to edge quilts for myself, charity, and the public.  I decided it was time to have a bit of a challenge for myself and to extend my skills and learning in the space of "Custom Quilting".  Last summer I created a very Modern quilt top at a retreat that I attended.   I decided to take on the following challenge for this quilt top be be quilted:
1. Design my own digital blocks for the quilt
2. Quilt the blocks 

Now this might not seem like a large challenge to you, but the blocks are 17 inches and my longarm throat space is 17.5.  I've also never designed a block from start to finish and had it quilt out in such a large space.  My theory was to make the blocks pleasing to they eye and not to have over complicated blocks.  Below is a picture of the quilt top and the blocks that I designed:

Lessons Learned:
Stitch in Ditch (SID) 
1. SID on curved lines is really not very easy to do on a long arm by hand.
2. SID using your multi-placement border feature in Quilt Path (software) can help remedy this.
3. SID using more points on multi-feature AND Pins makes for near perfect SID results.

Hi,

Sorry I haven't posted recently.  I am having a hard time finding time to blog.....

I've been working hard at IBM and quilting in the evenings :)  I recently completed the "Paisley" quilt in the purples above.  I am currently working on the red and white quilt, which I am calling the "Rose" quilt. The customer requested red roses in the white squares and white roses in the red squares.  I am about 75% complete on this quilt and hope to have it finished over the weekend.  It's been fun figuring out what to quilt in all the blocks to help direct your eyes to the roses.  I'll post pictures of the "Rose" quilt when it is finished.

Yard work took me from quilting last weekend and I am not including any posts of pictures of all the leaf bags and twig bundles we assembled to be picked up this week.  Thank goodness that is done for a while!

​I've also been working on my 5 at the Hive blocks and trying to keep up with my butterfly blocks.  I am hoping Easter weekend will be a prolific quilting weekend, but  we will see how it all goes.  

Our friends just purchased this fun 1929 Model A truck!  It is beautifully restored and I couldn't help but enclose a picture.

​Wishing you and your family a Happy Easter!!

 My DH and I went to Tyler, Texas this weekend to visit the East Texas Quilt Guild Quilt Show.  This is an annual event that coincides with the Azalea festival in Tyler.  The Azaleas, like the Bluebonnets, in Austin, decided to make an early entrance this spring and most of them were on the downside of the bloom.  They were still beautiful!  Sorry I don't have any pictures of the flowers.  We saw about 200 beautiful quilts at the East Texas Quilt show.  We talked to some very nice ETQG members and have a wonderful time.  We tried Chuys Restaurant for dinner on Friday night and enjoyed ourselves.  In Austin, there is always a significant wait for a table to eat.  There is a very minimum wait at Chuy's in Tyler, but it's a long way to drive for Mexican and Margaritas. :)

I am sharing pictures today of a large block, about 40x40 that I will be using later this month in a longarm class on "How to Make your Quilt Sing" with Angela McCorckle.  I plan to post some "after" pictures when the course is finished later in April.  Now in this class there is no Quilt Path use (my computerized design systems) and I will be driving the longarm with my own two hands.  It's exciting and a bit scary all at the same time. 

I am also working on Linus Charity quilts and customer quilts too.  I am having a great time with Milli, quilt path, and my quilting adventures!

Hi all,

Since I last wrote, I have been busy learning about new tools and techniques with my longarm.  Two of my quilting friends swear by a product called "Red Snappers".  This is a product that allows you to load your quilt quickly onto the leaders for quilting.  I have been using zippers to pin to the back of the quilt and zip it on to a zipper I have added to my leader.  So I decided to try the "Red Snapper".  My conundrum was that to use the "Red Snapper" I needed to sew a "pocket" or "channel" on my leader as there is a small pole you place in the "channel" and then use a "u-shaped" clamp to "snap" onto the "channel" to hold the backing in place.  I have a few pictures above.  Well to use the "Red Snapper" I would have to "un-sew" the zipper from my leaders and create a channel for the "Red Snapper".  This made me nervous as I knew my zipper systems worked well and I was not familiar with the new product.  I solved my conundrum by creating a "Cheater Leader".  I purchased "Duck" fabric, which is the same fabric as my Leader fabric and created an 8 inch panel.  On one side, I sewed a zipper (to zip to my existing system) and on the other edge I created my channel for my "Red Snapper".  This allows me to either use "Red Snappers" with my "Cheater Leader" or a zipper system by removing the "Cheater Leader".  You can see a quilt loaded up with Red Snappers above in the center top picture.  So far, I do like the "Red Snappers" and I have quilted about 4 charity quilts using this method with absolutely no issues.  I also like the fact I can use my zipper system for larger quilts.

On another fun quilting note, I finished my "Farm Girl Cover Quilt".  HOORAY!   I had so much fun creating all the block last year in a local club.  I used a "Chicken Wire" design on the outside border, small circles on the inner border, and an open flowing flower pattern in the middle of the quilt.  It's now bound and in my Living room and can be seen in a photo with my son :)

I hope all is well with you and I hope you have an excellent week.  I'll write more about my quilting adventures in the coming weeks.....

Lucinda :)

I finished my first t-shirt quilt for a customer.  From buying to binding we worked together to come up with a quilt that can be enjoyed for years to come.  We started at our local quilt shop (HoneyBee Quilt Store - which ROCKS!) and selected fabric.  We altered our original design to add a stop border (in white) to make the quilt a wee bit larger.  We also selected a floral outer border to give the quilt a bit more of a feminine feel.

I prepped the t-shirts, cut them out, added the sashing and borders.  The thread selected was sliver and the quilting pattern is a running shoe surrounded by stars.  All the t-shirts are for "Adventure Racing".  I bound the quilt and will be delivering the quilt later this week.  It was a fun project. :)

Speaking of fun projects, I've also added some photos of a Star Wars quilt I quilted for a customer.  It was a flannel top and bottom and I was able to secure a "Star Wars" quilting pantograph pattern to quilt.  I used a gray on the yellow back so you can see the Fighter jets.  See if you can pick out the Fighter jets in the photo below.

I continue on my journey with Quilt Path and the Longarm machine.  I hope to start learning more about creating my own patterns in the coming months...

Have a great week!
Lucinda

Hi all,

I've been learning more about placement and honing my skills for Custom Quilting.  I've included an example below where I was putting a design in sashings, triangles, and squares for a charity quilt.  I am learning how my software "thinks" so I can get better with placement.  I am also experimenting with creating my own quilting designs.  In this quilt below I made the very simple chevron shape. (You have to start somewhere ;)  ). 

On creating a whole quilt, I am sewing these great, big butterflies.  I am in a club at my in LQS and this year we are making a BIG Butterfly quilt.  I had loads of fun with this.  You can see there are lots of parts that come together for a beautiful butterfly.  I have the pictures of the next two "Before Charity" quilts that I will be quilting and I created a very scrappy baby quilt top that will also be quilted soon.

Have a great week!
Lucinda :)

The New Year has started out with crazy weather in Austin, TX.  Nineteen degrees one day and mid-seventies two days later!  I hope you are staying safe and warm wherever you are. 

The theme of sewing so far this year has been "Fireflies, Flowers, and Butterflies".  I am currently working on charity quilts and honing my skills for custom quilting.  I am having fun with sashing, borders, and placing different patterns throughout the quilt.

I have also started my "Block of the Month" club at my LQS and am making a Butterfly quilt called, "Ledidoptera" by Elizabeth Hartman as well as a "5 at the Hive" club.  It is so much fun working on just a few blocks all year round and then putting the whole quilt together at the end of the year.  It's also fun to attend the meeting and see all the beautiful quilts that folks bring for show and tell!

I am still finishing up my quilts from 2016 "Block of the Month" club and today am sharing my Tractor quilt, which is nearly finished.  I need to add yellow ric-rac and binding.  I'll post a finished picture next time, but want to show this time all the fun I had with pinwheels!  One-hundred fifty-six of them, but who is counting ;).....

Until next time, Happy Quilting!!!

I hope your 2017 is starting off well!  We usually sit at home for New Years, but this year we got to spend time with two sets of friends at two parties. ;)  It was a beautiful night and we got to sit outside at both gatherings.

Today, I finished my first custom quilt for a customer and a charity quilt.  I am having so much fun learning about the software that drives my Millie APQS machine.  I believe I really understand edge to edge quilting and am still honing my skills on placing borders (especially when they aren't square and they are wide).  I did a good job, if I say so myself, on the quilt below.  I also created one of the designs I used in the quilt and look forward to doing more of this too.  I have a picture of the charity quilt that I used a design called "Dewdrops in the Garden".  It has these large pea pods and swirls.

I hope you have a great week and a wonderful January!