After several days of working on cementing some of the basics of edge to edge computerized quilting in my brain, I was feeling the need to get in some of my favourite hand guided free motion quilting.
I loaded up a practice quilt sandwich, lowered the belts, and spent some time playing on my new Gammill, did a bit of ruler work and, of course, some spirals! It brought me a lot of enjoyment and peace to just go with the flow and stitch randomly whatever came to mind 🙂
While I was working on a client quilt this week, I recorded a short video showing how I used my hands while my Gammill Statler was stitching out a digital design, to manipulate the quilt top and ease in any bits of fullness to avoid getting unwanted pleats and tucks. I got the idea from a video Linda Taylor did for the Best of Both Worlds series for Gammill Quilting (look for that great set of tutorials on Youtube!) and it was definitely beneficial for me, and in the end for my client who ended up with a lovely finish on her quilt.
There is soooooooo much to learn in this computerized quilting arena! But I just try to focus on a little bit at a time so my brain won’t explode! LOL Of course, I want to try ALL THE THINGS!
First a few photos, then the video at the bottom. All are posted with permission 🙂
Have a great weekend!
After practicing some edge to edge designs on a few quilts this past week, I went ahead and tried some custom work using computerized patterns.
This quilt has a lot of wide open space, but it is pieced together in rows so, for the most part, I chose designs for each row. When I got to the blocks with text, I fit the designs around them.
This was so much fun! LOTS to learn and every day there’s something I have to tripe check as I go, but it’s gradually getting more comfortable. Check out the video below for an idea of how it all came together 🙂
I would like to introduce you to my new Gammill Statler Stitcher (fondly referred to for now as my “personal assistant” until I can come up with just the right name for it! LOL) It arrived a week ago, has upped the decor level in my quilting room by several points, and is performing like a rock star.
I’m spending time right now getting used to the process of computerized quilting; it is a huge learning curve, but I’m gradually getting the hang of it, and since I was without a machine for just over a month after the old one sold, I had time to piece together a few quilt tops to have ready for practice. I’m testing out different ways of getting the patterns onto the quilt, some edge to edge as well as some customized work, choosing different patterns to fill specific spaces.
This machine purrs like a kitten and is a pleasure to drive (“She’s got a competition clutch with the four on the floor and she purrs like a kitten ’till the lake pipes roar, and if that ain’t enough to make you flip your lid…” OK I’ll stop!)
Everything here is solid as a rock and it’s clear this is no lightweight piece of equipment. I was slightly intimidated the first time I turned it on myself the day after Mr. Bentley, my dealer/delivery man left. I had to stand back a minute, take it all in, and show some respect. Even moving the rollers – smoothly as a hot knife through butter – gives me pause to be grateful.
I wanted to share with you some of the things I’m working on, just to keep you posted and stay in touch while I’m learning 🙂 I have three completed quilts with edge to edge patterns on them and am currently working on a custom one – mostly computerized, some ruler work – and all will be available in my Etsy Shop in the next couple of weeks or so.
Once I’m confident with the basics, I’ll be opening up my computerized quilting services to clients in addition to the hand guided work I’ve been doing thus far and continue to enjoy very much! For now, here are a few peeks into the fun I’ve been having. I’m trying a new techie system of embedding these from my Instagram feed, so be sure to follow me over there – annwalshquilting – to see regular day to day updates that don’t always make it into a longer post here 🙂 For those of you who aren’t familiar with Instagram, the notations you see under these photos go along with the Instagram posts, and it’s all about the hashtags over there!
