My two Grandchildren

My second grandchild arrived last night.  Her older brother Cooper is smitten with Violet Elsie. Think I am too.

I am having a lot of difficulty trying to add pictures to my blog using my tablet, So now I am using my phone.  I am in Dubbo for a few more weeks awaiting the birth of my second grandchild.  Last one went nine days over this one is now one day over.  I have been working on another Judy Niemeyer pattern  This one is Bali Fever. Limited quilting area but I brought my supplies with me.

Rulers and non Ruler Quilting

I have a friend who is a fellow longarmer, who like me reads a few Quilters Blogs with her Morning cuppa.  We both saw the same post on  Green Fairy Quilts Blog, and liked the look of the ruler she was using.  Independently of each other we found a source for the rulers. She only bought the larger one,  I bought both!!!  So I am taking bragging rights.  Her second ruler should be arriving very soon.

Took them for a quick test run on the quilt on my machine, no ruler base, but I was able to outline SID a block very easily. I was trying to complete this quilt all freehand, but ruler work for the centre block only, will suffice.

All of these lines however, are freehand.  I love the control I have of my machine.  This is the fourth quilt I have quilted from this class.  Decided I would put a modern interpretation on this one.  So far only Glide Black thread.

Loading a Quilt back with no ironing

There has been some discussion on longarm forums of late of having to iron or steam quilt backings for customers.
I thought I would show the process of how I load a backing fabric without squaring  it up or ironing it.
I clamp the backing fabric to my back roller, using Red Snappers, with the selvedge lined up on a line near the casing for the Red Snappers.  This way the tighter fabric near the selvedge is not under the Snappers and no where near the quilt top.
I then spritz the quilt top with a fine spray of  Filtered Rain Water ( no chemicals in it).  Roll the top onto the back roller.

I then continue to roll the backing fabric on spritzing as I go. The water gets rids of all those creases and fold lines in the backing fabric, softens it up a bit, and if it is going to shrink it will do some of that now before the top is quilted to it.

I don't usually wait until it is thoroughly dry before rolling on.  My studio is not humid and by the time I get back to the end the beginning is barely damp.

As I roll the quilt on I take note of where the very edges of the quilt are with small clamps or Painter tape.  On this quilt becase the backing was not cut square I had to put the quilt 1" from the left hand side at the top of the quilt, there will be only 1" of backing spare on the right hand side at the bottom.  If I had tried to square it up by cutting I feel I would have not had enough.

When I get close to the bottom of the backing I weight it, so that I know that there is even pressure on the finished edge.  I don't have enough hands to  hold it straight.  These weights are made with 75 grams of Popping corn, bolts etc and tied to all the old Conference Lanyards, tablecoth clips, name badges that I have collected over the years.  They hold the bottom edge straight and then I can put on the Red Snappers and roll the whole quilt back onto the front rollers.