Monday, April 4, 2011

Mono, Bliss, Supernova and I was in the paper!!


I got all of the quilting done on my monochromatic quilt over the week-end!  The nice big arm on my new machine helped me do a ton of straight line quilting in the center blocks!  It took me much longer to do the straight stitching, and there were a few times that I wondered if I should have, but in the end, I just LOVE the way it turned out!!  Only the binding is left to do now.  And now that it's not part of the monochromatic quilt contest, I want to come up with a better name for it.  It was inspired by robes and leather work that's displayed at a local museum of Native Americans, so I'm thinking "Native", or "Tribal", or "Feaux Leather"...  Any other suggestions?

My kids had Friday off from school last week, and the museum has a wonderful new exhibit that opened that day, so we went there, I again admired the bead, basket, and leather work, and we all enjoyed ourselves very much!  They don't allow pictures of exhibits, but I did take these pictures of a wild bird rehab center that had an informative session that day, and a picture of the outside back of the museum that I took from the cafe where we ate lunch!  What a view!!

After finishing the "Mono Quilt", I got my "Bliss" quilt out to finish.  Right away, I started having problems (after nothing but smooth sailing with mono)!  I'm starting to think that the Bliss quilt should be renamed too, because it's been anything but blissful quilting it.  I started to wonder if the quilting pattern that I'm doing may be part of the problem.  Or the fabric?  Or the white thread (I've tried 5 different spools!)?  My old machine gave me problems on the quilt, the new one hates it, and I'm starting to wonder how I will ever get it done!  I started taking my frustration out on the quilt, and decided then that it was time to put it away yet again!  Any ideas out there?  Ugh!!


I don't know about you, but when I get frustrated quilting something, it's time to change gears and do something fun, like starting a NEW QUILT!  Here's the "Super Nova" quilt that I'm doing with "Freshly Pieced".  I'm using up all of my batik scraps.  I was a bit concerned about how it would come together, and without the entire pattern in front of me, made some assumptions when I cut out the fabric initially, and cut all squares.  I was about to quit after realizing I'd made a bad assumption, but found some fat quarters in my stash that I could use instead.  Now that I can see it coming together, I'm glad I stuck with it.  I think it's going to be a beautiful quilt!

My last bit of news is that I WAS IN THE NEWS!!  Our local art center wrote up and submitted an article about my Med Tech Quilt!  It was in the local newspaper last week!  It's the first time ever that I've been in any newspaper!  Here's the link!  Whew hew!!

7 comments:

Beth@IHaveANotion.com said...

It's so much fun to visit local things!!!

With Bliss... Are you having the same problem as with Mono? Breaking thread or is it something else? Is it the same batting, same weight backing? You may need to mess with tensions again. Is the bobbin drop in or push in? It will never be the same thing when quilting twice in a row!!!

Make a scrapbook for your fame....

monika@mysweetprairie.ca said...

Right on!! :-)

monika@mysweetprairie.ca said...

Me again... Becky! What a TERRIFIC article! Hokey smokes!

Lee said...

Supernova is looking great! How fun that you were in the news! : )

Leanne said...

Your monochromatic quilt looks fantastic and I love your supernova colours!

Becky said...

Thanks everyone!! It's a drop in bobbin, Beth, same batting, but different fabric. Good to hear it's different each time. This new machine seems to be much pickier about FMQ-ing, but once I get it dialed in, the tension stays put, unlike my old machine that would suddenly just seem to lose all of the tension settings for no reason. Then I'd have to readjust everything and start again. I haven't' had a single nest on the back of any quilt, which makes me happy! And the needle-down function is worth every penny! No more cranking the wheel!

Marlene @ KISSed Quilts . com said...

Will your Supernova be ready for Pendleton - Krazy Horse Quilter's show at the end of the month? Today is your deadline to register the quilt....I'm debating if I can get in there and finish my own in time! :-)