Stippled!

Last evening at this time I was doing homework and therefore lacked the time to pull together any kind of blog post. Now I know that procrastination isn’t a productive route but somehow I had not made quite enough time to be ready for today’s learning opportunity earlier. I am happy to report, that this evening, I can show the results of my work.

It is exciting to learn and master new techniques in all aspects of life. I feel fulfilled at work when I teach and see our new staff members assimilating the information I share. Today I was the student but not in my professional life. I, along with my crafty friend Georgina, attended a pop up studio class in long arm quilting.

Now before you tune out because I am talking quilting think power tools with a blank canvas. Think of a male instructor who is the business owner with his wife and father to 10 children (which totally boggles my mind). Think outside the box and at least stick around to see the photos of our day.

I am not a prolific quilter by any means and as a rule don’t do a lot of full size quilts. Over my 8 years of quilting I have had two hand quilted by a group, one professionally done on a long arm and the other one was done by my sister. This quilt was the one for me to spread my wings on as it is a less traditional style and so would suit a more modern quilting style.

Georgina, on the other hand, is extremely proliferating quilter and had several options of what to quilt. We both chose to start with large queen + size quilts which we did using a panto technique which means basically we drove the quilting machine from behind following a pattern. I spent a bit of time fighting my progressive lens as I couldn’t get my head angle right and eventually gave up and took them off. The line is large “print” black and the laser dot was easy to see so it worked but I found it very taxing on my eyes. I had to keep saying “smooth flow, smooth flow, breath and blink, smooth flow, smooth flow, breath and blink” over and over again and again! He chose this pattern for all of us as he said it is easy to master and that we would be happy with the results. He was dead on as all of our quilts looked great.

 

We then moved on to smaller options. I changed techniques and did a true free motion on my friend Jackie’s Christmas wall hanging that I picked up last night. Matt timed me and it took me 16 minutes and it was so exhilarating! That’s where I would spend my time, dipping and driving and watching the fabric and quilt top rather than the pattern behind. Georgina had one more small one that she was hesitant to try free motion on but as it was loaded it seemed silly not to get it quilted so I did it for her.

The six hours flew by as I knew they would and I am very pleased with all of my results. I hope that my friends feel the same way about their quilts that I did for them. It was both an inspiring and educational day that I capped off with a brilliant 3 km walk in the setting sun. Life is very good.

Bernie