Sometimes my customers try to make things easier for me. For example, this lady's quilt top and quilt backing were just about the same size. To put a quilt up on my
Gammill Classic Longarm, I have to have the quilt backing about 3-4 inches larger all the way around. Well, perhaps a customer might have
just enough fabric for the backing...no more, no less.
Been there done that! (once I bought a beautiful backing for a quilt and ran out of it. And the quilt shop where I got it didn't carry it anymore. And I couldn't find it on-line either! Frustration!)
This is what I have my customers do if they run into this problem. Can you tell what she did?
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Let's lift up the quilt top and the beautiful wool batting so you can see...
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She attached some strips of a simple white muslin to "
enlarge" the backing. Can you see it better below? Isn't the backing fabric lovely?
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As I loaded the quilt onto my Gammill longarm, I just made sure the backing and quilt top stayed lined up properly. I didn't quilt onto her white muslin strips and everything worked out beautifully. By the way, this quilt is a gift to her husband.
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And here's
another way my customers make things a little easier for me. This customer loves to make darling
little quilts. When I say little, I mean, table topper/runner size. All the backing fabrics are the same--unbleached muslin. So what she does is bring me a bolt of unbleached muslin. This one happens to be a good quality
Moda muslin.
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I racked up enough yardage onto my Gammill longarm and quilted all the quilts at once. Normally I would have to rack up each quilt backing and quilt top separately. Before Christmast I quilted 7 table runners doing this. It's a great way to save time...if all the backing fabric is the same, of course!
Now let's take a closer look at these darling little quilts:
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She did a great job on her applique:
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Here's another quilt I did for her at the same time. And because these quilts were so small, I just used scrap pieces of batting I had on hand.
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Isn't this chicken cute? His "comb" was a 3-dimensional piece.
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I wonder if my quilting ancestors had ways to make
their quilting easier. Look at how sad they all look in this picture! That's because they are wishing they had a Gammill longarm!
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5 comments:
Your work is always so beautiful, Vivian! I should send my quilts out to you for quilting...although I'm not sure if the shipping costs from Chicago would be prohibitive. :)
Your quilting is beautiful! I try to click on the pictures, but they don't enlarge. Should they? I wish I could take some classes with you. But, I don't travel much anymore. I live in No. Calif. I would love to learn that curly-Q design you do so well! If you put up a close up picture maybe I could practice it on my whiteboard. Thanks!
I love how you mix the old with the new. I love seeing pictures of your ancestors and all the quilts you quilt. That English wedding ring/crown of thorns of beautiful. Have a great weekend.
Mary
Very smart ideas! I will have to remember these the next time I need to have something done on a longarm.
I always enjoy looking at your quilting, these are just so lovely-
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