Jobiagioli's Blog

New York Beauty for a New Year

Jo Biagioli — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:51:00 GMT

I took a New York Beauty paper piecing class in Milwaukee during the summer of 2011. The class projuect yielded a 40x40 quilt top. But I don't make wall hangings, and I don't make lap quilts. I always make full or queen size quilts. I set out to find matching or coordinating fabric. I found some very close matches and set out to add to the interesting top. I made a good start, but couldn't decide on the rest of the quilt. I pinned it up to the wall of my sewing room to get perspective, and let it speak to me. That quikt top stayed on my wall until yesterday morning. I woke up, knowing exactly how I wanted to complete the quilt. I spent all day cutting sewing measuring, cutting, sewing, and finally I declared it complete.

It will have to wait for my longarm to be freed up, but I know it won't be lomg until I can complete the quikting, bind it, and send it on to its home.

The New York Beauty block it quite stunning. I will have to do more. Hopefully the next one won't take me 18 months to get together.

The lines are mere suggestions

Jo Biagioli — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 19:41:00 GMT

When I first got my longarm, I got quite a chuckle as to just how difficult it was to follow the lines of a quilt design. I started with a sampler that the dealer had loaded to my machine before leaving. My circles were not circles. My lines were quite wavy. My flowers were jagged. Some leaves were too narrow and some too fat. The good news is that nature didn't produce perfectly round flowers, and I'll be darned if when you look, those leaves out back aren't all the same either. So maybe my not-quite-so-perfect quilting was more true to nature that I thought. :-)

To quilt or not to quilt

Jo Biagioli — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:06:00 GMT

I work fulltime from home, so when my day is done I don't have a long commute. But even with no real commute its hard to get hyped up to work on a quilt at the end of my day. But the good news is that I subscribe to several magazines and there is almost always one waiting for me! I got the new Machine Quiting one today. What a treat! I subscribed to this one after deciding to try to take up machine quilting, after 20 years of hand quilting. This machine quilting stuff is not very easy!

For years I have enjoyed sitting each evening and doing hand quilting work. It woukd take me about 6 weeks to complete a quilt. I've always made full or queen bed size quilts, so each one became a treasure to be wrapped in, or to wrap a loved one. A coupke of years go I had a full knee replacement so I can't kneel or crawl around on the floor any more. That meant that I could no longer baste my quilts as I had always done and needed to find a new outlet. Maybe I could grow to like this machine quilting stuff?

Machine quilting on my domestic only accomplished stressing me to the point of no return. I thought maybe a longarm or sitdown. Never one to fully make up my mind, I bought an HQ16 sitdown and an Empress Longarm (or really a midarm). So I'm attempting to love this art form as much as my handwork. It's somewhat gratifyng, but not yet a thrill. But I can tell that as I improve my level of excitement rises. It isn't as immediate as that first hand quilt, but it is coming. Well, I just paid to have my Empress upgraded with the much desired ram horn handles, so I might have much more glee in my experimentation. Meanwhile, I will continue to try to keep one quikt ready for hand work and another ready for machine.

2013! Who woukd have thought!

Jo Biagioli — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 01:53:00 GMT

I welcomed in the new year by finishing my latest hand quilted quilt, packing it up, and shipping it to its new home (a gift for a special friend). Just like usual, I finished it and the little errors scream out at me. I know that no one else will see them as errors, but they scream in my ear. My hope is that even in its flawed tate, that it bring a smile to her face and wraps her in comfort.

Ok. Now on to the next project. I have a half-done top waiting for me to decide what to do to complete it. With the completion of my last quilt, the final solution came to me as I awoke to the new year. Maybe I'll even figure out how to share pictures. :-)