Aviatrix Medallion QAL - Progress is Amazing!

Aviatrix Medallion is a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.

I loved this pattern from the moment I laid eyes on it.  The rainbow color spoke to the 80"s child in me and said "you NEED to make this rainbow quilt".  When I saw that they had a kit and Quilt-a-long at my local quilt shop (Sew Inspired in Simsbury, CT) I went and bought one right away.  It's just piecing I told myself...yeah, a LOT of piecing, but I can do that.  Maybe. Not so much.

UGH.  Thank GOD for the first class...The instructor went over the cutting for the center piece in great detail, noting that although you got a fat quarter for each color, which is what the pattern called for, you needed a FULL, EXACT fat quarter.  If it was a hair short or crooked, you had to get clever with your cutting.

I tried to take a lot of pictures as I went along.  The diamonds were much harder to line up than I thought...and every single one of the eight had to be ripped out at least once.  I used the templates in the pattern.  My cutting techniques and precision need improvement.

My not so exact diamonds for the center medallion

Much pulling and creative pressing ensued.

The first set of grey offsets helped a ton in "making" things straight

 This project has been a lesson in patience.  And also, in taming my perfectionist shrew.  I only tore the center out once, and I am honestly really happy with how the points came together in the very center.

Look at my points in the center!

I absolutely love the grey fabric that was included in my kit. It's got this amazing texture, it's not a quilting cotton.  I'll have to ask exactly what it is next time I'm at the shop.

Center and border #1

It was so much fun to put the first colored border on.  It really started to feel like the rainbow explosion I was looking for.

Border #2

Although the fourth border was a great deal of piecing, it was also sort of addictive.  I wanted to actually see the blocks finished, and I was chain piecing a lot of it, so I didn't get to see what they looked like until the end of the month.

With Border #3, which was a TON of piecing

As my Aunt Pat says, "the pattern is beginning to emerge".    It's so big now, I have to take it outside to get good pictures.  It was very grey the day I took these.

With the squares for border #5

This is a close up of the grey ("neutral") squares for Border #5.  When you sew them on, they're rectangles, and I was sort of surprised they actually came out like the pattern said they would.

Close up of Border #5

I went to the class today as a drop in.  They went over the next two borders.  The final border set is the butterflies, which will challenge my ability to do angles again.  They are also TONS of piecing, wish me luck in keeping up!

At the end, I'll try to include some pictures of the other color/fabric options people in class chose.  They are all spectacular.

Gammill Long Arm Certified!

You know you're a sewing geek when...you take a half day from work to go to a quilting or sewing class! Last Friday I did just that. Sew Inspired, my local quilt shop was offering a class on getting certified on their Gammill long arm machine. While I believe my regular machine will be sufficient for quilting most of the quilts I make, I want to have the option of getting something done FAST. That's what this machine can do.

There were seven of us, and the first part of the class was around getting to know the machine;



Learning about threads to use, and how to load the bobbin properly;



And how to get the bobbin thread up to the top of your work. The size alone of the machine is pretty impressive.



The second portion of the class was about how to prepare your quilt top and attach it to the zippers that will connect the quilt to the machine itself.



Pretty cool, and truthfully, fairly straightforward. The pieces go on rollers, which pull the quilt sandwich through evenly (we HOPE) as they get quilted.



One of the things I think will work best for me is that you don't have to baste or pin your top to the batting and backing. In fact you can't. That's part of why the process is so much quicker.

The remainder of the class was about how to program the computer, how to continually monitor the progress and roll your quilt through after the various rows of quilting were finished.



The next photo is the machine checking where we said the edges were and calibrating for the size of the quilt. There is a cool red laser "eye" that shows up at the edges of the top. All together now.."ooooh!".



And finally, the quilting itself begins...



It was a wonderful class, and although I'm sure it would take me multiple times going through the process to get comfortable, it is a wonderful option to have. My goal is to have 3 tops to take with me when I go back. That way it will really be clear in my mind when I'm finished.

Next up, updates on my projects. God willing I will get my sewing machine back tomorrow. I've been without it for over a week because of the weather, and the shop being closed. Think dry, warm thoughts for me!

Starry Night BOM #2 - Much better!

I'm not sure if I mentioned this with my last block, but when I was at the fabric store buying that first block, I saw a co-worker there. She bought the other colorway, and we agreed to bring our blocks into work each month to share what they came out like. She emailed me last week, and said she was going to the shop last Monday and would I like my 2nd block. Well heck yeah! Sew Inspired actually had the blocks for August ready last week, a week early!

Peggy (my co-worker) had hers done two days after she delivered me my block, so embarrassed by her diligence, I got right to work on mine.

I actually think my second block came out MUCH better. My corners are much more exact. The only thing I don't really love is the way the lime and purple look together with the black. It has a Halloween-y sort of feel to me. But I do think that mixed with the other blocks it will be pretty.



This is what the first block looked like.



And here's a pic of the finished project, I don't think I shared this last time.



I've been working on garments so much that I forget how exacting you need to be with quilting. It's actually fun for me now to go back and forth between the two. What do you think? Do you like garment sewing better, or quilting and why??

Starry Night BOM #1

The first BOM I joined, I only managed to get through 5 of. They came with a "class" and I just couldn't get there. This BOM is with Sew Inspired in Simsbury, CT. A fantastic store, that seems to "get" how to manage all of the details of these things.

The group is called Starry Night because they are inspired by Vincent Van Gogh. There were two colorways to choose from. Black, blue and green or black, yellow and red. Funny, I chose the darker colors thinking the wouldn't show dirt as much.

Here is my finished first block.



I am definitely getting better at cutting, but you can clearly see that my top border is not even. Nor do the squares line up with the side sashing. I WAS pretty happy with my points, but I realized that I had sewn a few of the boxes in the wrong order and had to unsew them and resew. Of course, the second time, the points were not as even. Finally, the center had just the tiniest bit too much fabric, and it puckered when I sewed the four boxes together.



Of course, these are all comments for a "perfect" square. Overall, I'm actually happy with it. I think the colors are going to be really pretty together. And I'll take all the practice I can get.

This block took me 1/2 hour to cut, and about 1 hour to sew (counting the unsewing and resewing!).