Ongoing Quilt Projects, Continued from the "No Appreciation...." Thread

[speckledhen]

King Tut is made by Superior, nice thread! Some amazing variegated colors. Here is one set of shelves of thread. Why I told speckled hen she was welcome to see if I had a match. LOl I have another partial unit with regular spools. Yes a thread junkie. These shelves are 6 feet tall and nearly 4 feet wide. Most have 4 cones on each row. The boxes are full of pre-wound bobbins.

View attachment 1283916

OMGOSH, thread heaven!

 

[jeria]

I think at some point, I'm going to try Isa Cord. It's pricey, but as far as I can tell, everyone raves about it.

I get that after quilting full time for 5 years. Filtec is pretty affordable and awesome threads. I also have some Molly Polly which is less but haven't tried it yet. I found that most quilters didn't care if I used the more expensive good cottons or poly. It was me that cared. Everything you put into a quilt for someone adds up. I didn't charge enough and you probably aren't either.

It was color and the look that mattered. I tend to quilt closely so was spending much more time on most quilts than I needed to. I didn't charge for that extra time and work. I would get carried away with how I could make the quilt look the best I could. So custom quilting for an overall price happened way too often.

 

[jeria]

OMGOSH, thread heaven!

Sheesh I probably have $1000.00 worth of thread. No idea on fabric. Tis why I said if you were close you could come and use some. LOL I was planning on selling thread but it didn't prove to be profitable and a PTA with a demanding full time job.

 

[speckledhen]

You said:

It was color and the look that mattered. I tend to quilt closely so was spending much more time on most quilts than I needed to. I didn't charge for that extra time and work. I would get carried away with how I could make the quilt look the best I could. So custom quilting for an overall price happened way too often.

That who we are, we do our best even if someone is not paying for it. We take pride in a job well done. Shame that some will never understand what they got for their money, but you know and I know. I'm just lucky some will pay anything for my quilts, it seems.

 

[jeria]

You are lucky Speckledhen. I probably wasn't being firm enough or following my estimates. I simply kept going overboard.

One of the last customer quilt I did was a horrible mess that I tried to fix. I felt so badly. Hand pieced by an elderly woman and I felt bad for her. It was horribly pieced and I spent hours and hours trying to cement a small baby size quilt together so I could actually quilt it. I felt badly charging her extra for fixing it--had called her daughter. I think it was $45.00 for something like 20 hours of work. I had to tell her I simply could not quilt any more quilts for her, her previous quilter had told her the same thing.

I had a number of those when I quit. I had already gone back to work for a company full time as I needed a consistent full time paycheck and benefits. Left the ex. who I was trying to support anyway--he turned into a mess anyways.

Would love to teach when I can retire but need to win some major awards to do that successfully or maybe figure out how to do a youtube series.

 

[speckledhen]

I sold a little quilt I called the Blue Yonder quilt, with airplanes, in blues, red and golds, to a nice lady who bought my queen and a very large reversible lap quilt from me. She got it for her grandson, plus then she bought two of my e-reader covers I make. But, her son who is 6'2" tall, wants the same Blue Yonder quilt in a twin size! So, after I do a couple of lined up projects, I will be doing a quilt on commission with these fabrics again, some were in the first one, some I could not find again yet so bought others that will coordinate well:

I'm quilting a twin quilt today. The purple and green stars and squares spring quilt is next, but I wanted to "limber up" on this one first. It's fatiguing on the shoulders/neck/arms/back as you all well know, so I have to take frequent breaks. I did the center by hand, but I may go back and add some hand quilting to that because the edges are turning out more densely quilted than the center is, which is par for the course with hand quilting vs machine quilting, at least for me. I'm no expert at machine quilting yet, but I'm getting much, much better with it and feel more confident.
Another recommended teacher is Angela Walters. She does The Midnight Quilt show and the Daytime Quilt Show on Youtube, quilts on home machines and longarms, both. I watch her and Leah Day for help.

This will be a great summer quilt because it has 100% cotton batting, which breathes better, but it also lays very flat because of the fiber and the quilting flattens it even more. The gold reminds me of sunshine anyway and has that deep olive green, too. This may not look great to experts, but to someone who has learned on her own and has only done it a couple of years, I'm pretty proud of myself!

 

[jeria]

speckled hen, love the quilting design and it's perfect for that quilt. I'm sending myself a photo so I remember it. No way could I accomplish that on a domestic machine.

I may steal your design when I attempt quilting again. I have fleece that I will simply do a double layer and quilt it together. Super warm, easy, and will be good for me to get some practice in before working on a quilt. It takes a little to re-gain good control if you haven't quilted for awhile.

 

[speckledhen]

speckled hen, love the quilting design and it's perfect for that quilt. I'm sending myself a photo so I remember it. No way could I accomplish that on a domestic machine.

I may steal your design when I attempt quilting again. I have fleece that I will simply do a double layer and quilt it together. Super warm, easy, and will be good for me to get some practice in before working on a quilt. It takes a little to re-gain good control if you haven't quilted for awhile.

You really like it? Thanks! It's sort of taken from Leah Day's paisley video she did recently, plus I added some little circles in some spaces.

Here is a wonderful article:

https://www.today.com/news/family-honors-grandma-s-memory-displaying-all-her-quilts-her-t108586

 

[jeria]

I do like it and the way you added the circles as fills I went to her youtube videos, it looked like she had some nifty designs.

 

[speckledhen]

I do like it and the way you added the circles as fills I went to her youtube videos, it looked like she had some nifty designs.

Thanks! It's not perfect, but it's handmade and if you could have seen how I did at the beginning, it's a major improvement, LOL. I love many of her designs, but I don't have all the nifty machines she has, of course. I want a table so my machine can drop down and the surface is level with the presser foot plate, no hanging off at all. But, maybe some day.
I have that go-round finished and had to quit for the day. My back hurts now after being at it on and off all day long. Not sure what the next round will be, maybe meandering leaves, one of Angela Walters' designs.

I do think I need to do more hand quilting in the center to match up better with the density of the machine quilting, but I can do that later.