Machine Piecing the Modern Baby Clam Shells Quilt, with Help from QNM

Hello, my lovelies!  My one and only weekly goal last week was to START -- just to start, not to finish, mind you! -- piecing my Modern Baby Clam Shells quilt.  I created the design in my EQ8 software in December of 2018, with a specific baby in mind whose due date was several weeks away...  Then it took me awhile to find the 9.5" acrylic clam shell templates I wanted to use (from an Australian Etsy seller who has since closed her shop).  Then I hemmed and hawed about the best way to cut out completely accurate 9.5" diameter circles (10" actually, since I needed a seam allowance).  After cutting out all the clam shells, circles, and partial clam shells, I then realized I didn't know how to sew them together!  I had my heart set on old school curved piecing, which I'd done for Lars's Drunkard's Path quilt eight years ago, but I wasn't sure how to go about piecing a clam shell quilt.  Do you start at the bottom and work your way up, or start at the top and work your way down?  Searching online, I either found instructions that confused me and explained only the part I already understood (how to sew a curved seam) and left out the part I didn't know (where to start and how to progress through the piecing of the quilt).  I also found patterns that subdivided the clam shells to simplify the piecing, or for using a prepared edge appliqué technique to avoid piecing altogether, neither of which interested me.  Ugh!  Annoying!  Set aside and ignored for a year and a half, until I made it my goal for THIS week:

So, as you can see, I've met that goal already because I did start the piecing!  Yay, me! 😉.  I'm using my Golidilocks machine for this -- my 5.5 mm Bernina 475QE, which is why I have my portable SewEzi table set up in my studio next to the big machine's cabinet.

So that's my quilt design rendering, created in EQ8 software.  It should finish at 40" x 40" unless I decide to enlarge it somehow.  There may or may not be embroidered butterflies before the top gets layered for piecing.

As you can see, I'm using a bazillion pins, because I want the smoothest, most accurate curve possible and I don't want to clip the seam allowances.  I prefer piecing with Patchwork Foot #37 on my little machine, and I bought a Bernina seam guide that I can snug right up against the side of my foot just like the seam guide that came with the #97D foot for my big 750QE machine.  Having that fence-like guide out in FRONT of the presser foot makes it so easy to to feed the curve smoothly with a deadly accurate 1/4" seam.  I'm also using my Patchwork Straight Stitch defaults (lower tension for my Aurifil 50/2 cotton thread and a shorter stitch length of 2.0).  On my 475QE it's stitch #1303, but the same exact stitch on my other Bernina is #1326 -- go figure!

Yay!  The first seam!!  As you can see, I started in the middle of my quilt.  Where should I add the next patch?  Let's put another clam shell onto the blue half circle!

Yay again!  Smooth round curves are making me happy!  This is awesome; why was I so afraid?!  Let's add a circle next!

But then I started second guessing how I was going about all of this and wondering if I was going to piece myself into some kind of a corner.  And I remembered an article I'd saved when I was going through a haul of ancient Quilters' Newsletter Magazines that a former member of the Charlotte Quilter's Guild gave me about a year ago.  (She wanted to donate them to a current member of the guild and I was the only person who raised my hand).  So I stopped piecing and (miraculously!) located the article, filed away in one of my ubiquitous 3-ring binders.

THIS!!  THIS is the information I'd been looking for, and I had to go all the way back to a March 1997 magazine to find it.  The instructions are for hand piecing, but all I really needed was that piecing diagram explaining that you start at the top, alternating between rows one and two, and then work your way down adding row by row beneath the first two.  That, the pressing direction for seam allowances, and the Fig. 6 photo showing that the seam allowances need to be kept open where two pointy clam shell sides meet up.  

Maybe I would have been fine if I'd kept working my way out from the middle of the quilt, but maybe there's a good reason for working top-down that would have caused frustration and swearing and, God forbid, seam ripping.  I'd rather not have to reinvent any wheels on this quilt that is already so far behind schedule, so I left off working on the middle rows and started working on the top and bottom rows instead, per the magazine instructions.

By the way, in the QNM illustrations they have cut out their clam shell using tag board templates to mark the seam lines and then adding 1/4" seam allowances beyond the drawn line.  That makes it easier for hand piecing, since you can check periodically as you're stitching to make sure your stitches are landing right on the seam line on the back of your work as well as on the front.  My acrylic clam shell template has small holes along the edges that I'm using with a Frixxion heat erase pen to mark alignment dots on my clam shells.  I know some people have had horrendous issues when they've used Frixxion pens to mark quilting designs on the front of quilts, with "ghost marks" left behind or the ink reappearing in certain situations, but I am just twirling the tip of the pen inside the hole to make tiny black dots on the WRONG side of my fabric.  They disappear pretty well when I iron them, and if they are not completely gone, well, they are on the wrong side of the fabric where no one can see them anyway!

So here you can see the completed bottom row of my quilt, all pieced and pressed!  I now know that a normal quilter would have used whole clam shells along the outside edge and trimmed after piecing, but it seems to be working just fine.  I think I planned for a 2" wide border in that same blue so the clam shells would float away from the binding. My top row is completely pieced now, too, in addition to that bit in the center that I'd already started before locating my instructions.  My plan now is to continue piecing down from the top and up from the bottom per the QNM instructions, joining the sections together at the center circles.

SO, having met my goal of STARTING the piecing this week, what are my quilting goals for the week to come?

This Week's Quilting Goals

• FINISH piecing Modern Baby Clam Shell Quilt!  
• Load next charity top on the long arm and decide how to quilt it
• Write next post for my Long Arm Linky party and schedule publication for Tuesday morning!

I'm linking up today's post with the following linky parties:

SATURDAY

·       UFO Busting at Tish in Wonderland

SUNDAY

·       Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

·       Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

·       Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts

MONDAY

·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

TUESDAY

·       To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us

Machine Applique Progress and Continued Long Arm Tweaking

Testing, tinkering and troubleshooting makes for boring blog posts, which is why I haven't posted in awhile.  Last night I took a break from all of that and spent some time playing with the machine appliqué project from Karen Kay Buckley's workshop.

Leaf By Leaf, KKB Workshop Project Coming Together

I'm enjoying the prepared edge, invisible machine stitched technique and the prep time really is minimal compared to other methods I've tried.  The reason this project isn't finished yet is that I've been having so much fun (and wasting so much TIME!) digging through scrap bins to find the perfect fabric for each little leaf.  But then, once I've preturned the edges of each piece and glue-basted it in place on my background fabric, the actual stitching part is a breeze.  Since I brought my Bernina 475QE Goldilocks machine to the workshop, I've been continuing with that machine now that I'm working on this at home.

Bernina 475QE Settings for Invisible Machine Applique

I have YLI Wonder invisible monofilament thread in the needle as well as in the bobbin, and I'm using a size 60 Microtex needle.  I am using a modified version of the Invisible Machine Appliqué stitch found in my machine's Quilting menu, with the stitch width reduced to 0.7 and the stitch length reduced to 0.55.  With monofilament thread in the top AND bobbin, no tension adjustments were necessary.  Once I got the length and width dialed in, I saved the altered stitch in my Personal Programs folder so I can get to it quickly whenever I'm doing this technique.  For this project, since my background fabric is very dark in some places and very light in others, I'm alternating between the Clear and Smoke monofilament depending on the background fabric in the area where I'm sewing down each shape.  I'm using Open Embroidery Foot #20 to give me a really clear view of where every stitch is landing, and of course, since this is a sideways motion stitch, I've got the regular 5.5 mm stitch plate on my machine rather than the straight stitch needle plate that I like to use for piecing.

Open Embroidery Foot #20 for Great Visibility

Meanwhile, on the other side of the studio...

The fine-tuning and tweaking of my APQS Millennium longarm quilting machine continues.  My husband Bernie gave her a thorough maintenance and cleaning as per APQS Tech Support instructions and she's moving more smoothly along the rails.  Upper tension adjustments are working much better since he disassembled and rebuilt the tension assembly.  And the erratic motor speed issue has improved since he replaced a cable, but I'm not sure it's completely resolved.  He replaced my L "Smart Hook" assembly with the larger M Hook assembly and retimed the machine, and I'm still deciding how I feel about that.  I feel like there's more noise under there now, like rattling operation, but when I take out the bobbin case and check for any play in the hook collar area everything is tight and rock-solid, just as it should be, and the timing is perfect.  So now I'm wondering whether a brand new hook needs more oil right out of the gate and that's why it seems loud or whether I'm paranoid and imagining things now??  I'm hoping to get a charity cuddle top on the frame this afternoon so I can see how the machine does quilting an actual project rather than a sample sandwich of muslin.

Another thing I'm still on the fence about is the Texas Hold 'Em Bracket I got so I could remove the quilt top roller from my frame.  Here's what Millie looked like before, with the top roller in place:

My APQS Millennium with Quilt Top Roller in Place

The quilt top roller is the one with blue painter's tape on it.  I've experimented with pinning my quilt tops to that roller versus doing a full float method where nothing gets attached to that roller at all, and I've found that the full float method is working better for me.  Since I'm not using that roller at all, it's kind of in my way when I'm quilting, and the Texas Hold 'Em bracket was designed to preserve the functionality of the hand brake with that top roller removed:

APQS Texas Hod 'Em Bracket, Place Holder for the Quilt Top Roller

What's going to take some getting used to is relearning how far I can keep quilting before the throat of my machine hits the pickup roller.  Just because the top roller is gone doesn't mean my machine can reach farther forward than it did before:

This Is the Closest the Machine Reaches Before the Pickup Roller Hits the Machine Throat

See what I mean?  It's not that I actually have less workspace, it's just that I was using the quilt top roller as a visual reference before and, now that it's gone, it LOOKS like I should be able to quilt another 6" closer to my tummy.  So that will take getting used to!  The quilt top roller was really annoying me on the Mission Impossible quilt, when I was quilting all those horizontal lines with rulers and I had to reach my hand over the quilt top roller and hold my wrist in weird positions to use the rulers.  I'm also thinking that it might be easier to work with wool batting and double battings without that bar there, since I'll be able to lift the quilt top out of my way and visually check that the batting is smooth and even each time I advance the quilt.  But it's easy enough to put that quilt top bar back on the frame if I ever decide I want to use it again.

So anyway, I have two possible outreach cuddle quilt tops that I could load today, one that is just giant checkerboard squares in Christmas prints and the other is the purple novelty fabric I Spy  top that my mom pieced a few months ago.  A friend from my quilting bee loaned me a set of Groovy Boards to try and I was thinking of using those on one or both of these tops, but with so many new variables at play I'm not sure I'm in the right mindset to learn how to use the new tools, if you know what I mean.

Meanwhile, we're moving my oldest son into his college dorm for the first time in less than TWO WEEKS!!  I'm not going to really believe that until we're driving away from the college, leaving him behind.  Weird, weird, weird!!  And then we have a family wedding the following weekend, and then school starts up again for my youngest son, the rising high school Junior.  Summer goes faster every year, doesn't it?

I'm linking up with:

SUNDAY

·      Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com

MONDAY

·      Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com 

·      Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/

·      Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/

·      Moving it Forward at Em’s Scrap Bag: http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com.au/

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·      BOMs Away at Katie Mae Quilts: https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/ 

Sewing Machine Review: Meet Goldilocks, My Bernina 475QE!

Well, she's not brand-new anymore -- I bought this machine five months ago but I wanted to sew on it for awhile before posting a review.  I LOVE this little cutie!  I brought 'Nina, my 7-year-old 750QE to the Bernina dealer to have a minor part replaced back in February, and was the first person to play with their demo B 475QE sewing machine that they had just barely unpacked and set up on the sales floor.  By the time they had finished working on my 750 I had made up my mind to purchase this one.  I've been sewing on this machine for five months now, and it just might be one of the best machines I've ever owned.

Meet Goldilocks, My Bernina 475QE

My B 475QE is named Goldilocks because she's not too big to take to a class/bee/sit-and-sew, but she's not too small for large-scale paper piecing (like Lars's graduation quilt -- those foundation patterns would have to be rolled up inside the tiny throat of my Featherweights).  She has the same color touch screen, familiar interface, and all of the bells and whistles of my big 7 Series Bernina -- including the JUMBO BOBBIN, y'all! -- but no embroidery capability to jack the price up into the stratosphere.  I'd looked for a more portable "baby sister" machine before, but the 5 Series Berninas were priced beyond what I wanted to pay for a secondary machine and the 3 Series machines were a bit too small and were missing too many features that I use regularly.  Goldilocks is not too hard, not too soft, not too hot and not too cold -- she's the machine in the middle that was just right for me!  Here are my favorite features:

• She weighs in at a reasonable 21 pounds (whereas my 750QE weighs 30 pounds)
• This is a full-sized machine rather than a 3/4 compact size, so it doesn't feel cramped the way that the 3 Series machines did when I test sewed on them
• She uses the same Bernina Hook system with Jumbo bobbins as my 7 Series machine, with the same exact INTERCHANGEABLE bobbins.  I can wind a bunch of bobbins for a project on one machine, and grab those bobbins when I switch to the other machine.  That is SO convenient!
• The 475QE is a 5.5 mm machine, so the feed dogs are closer together for better control when piecing intricate patchwork than they are on my 9 mm machine.  Yet, unlike my straight stitch Featherweights, the 475QE can also do zigzag, blanket stitch, and invisible appliqué stitches
• The 475QE has the Adaptive Thread Tension feature that was added to the 2nd generation 7 Series machines for even better stitch quality
• This machine has the tie-off stitching and automatic thread cutter (love that feature when paper piecing)
• It comes with the Bernina FHS Free Hands System, the knee lift bar to raise and lower the presser foot so I can keep both hands on what I'm sewing
• Unlike the 3 Series machines, the 475QE has adjustable presser foot pressure
• There are a total of 840 stitches in this machine, even more than the 837 stitches in my 750QE, and 40 quilting stitches (compared to 33 quilting stitches in the 750 machine).  The ones I'll use most often are the piecing straight stitch (#1303 on this machine), the invisible appliqué stitch, and the beautiful blanketstitch appliqué stitches
• She comes with full size presser feet, not the snap-on soles, and Patchwork Foot #37 is included
• Even though I have a longarm machine for quilting, it's nice to know that I can grab the BSR foot that came with my 750QE machine if I want to do free-motion quilting on something small on my 475QE.  The BSR foot is an optional accessory for this machine that I already own.
• She has the same bright, cool LED lights for excellent visibility that I love on my 750 machine
• The 475QE comes with the coolest zippered canvas accessory bag!!!  None of that silly Barbie Doll closet nonsense -- this accessory case is rugged, functional, and perfect for sewing on-the-go:

Bernina 475 QE with Zippered Canvas Accessory Bag

Interior Compartments of Zippered Accessory Bag

All of the accessories that came with the machine fit in the accessory case, with room for additional accessories as well (the above photo shows a couple of additional items that were not included with the machine).  I did purchase a few additional accessories for my new sewbaby up-front:

• I bought the upgraded Bernina Foot Control that has the heel tap feature to raise and lower the needle.  That foot control comes standard on the 480 machine, but is an optional upgrade on the 475QE and the soon to be released 435 machine.  
• I also purchased a Patchwork Seam Guide that screws into the bed of the machine (shown in the case in the photo above).  It's just like the one that came with the 97D Patchwork Foot for my 750QE, and just like the vintage seam guide that I use on my Singer Featherweight 221, and it's my tried-and-true favorite for maintaining a consistent, accurate 1/4" seam no matter which machine I'm using.  On the 475QE,  I'll use the seam guide in conjunction with the #37 Patchwork Foot that came with my 475QE.
• I bought a straight stitch plate.  Did I NEED it?  Probably not -- but I'm in the habit to switching to the straight stitch plate for piecing on my 9 mm machine and I wanted one for this machine, too.  I've put my straight stitch plate on my 475QE, so the stitch plate shown in the photo above is the 5.5 mm plate that came with the machine.  
• I also purchased Open Embroidery Foot #20 because I like to have maximum visibility when I’m sewing decorative stitches or doing machine applique, and I do have some machine applique planned for the imminent future.

As of this writing, MSRP for the Bernina 475QE is $2,399.  Compared to the other machines in the Bernina lineup, that is an amazingly affordable price for a brand new Bernina that comes with so many bells and whistles.  My dealer offered me a great deal on the machine at $1,899 but by the time I added on my personal "must-have" accessories and North Carolina sales tax, I ended up around $2,300 anyway.  Having sewn on this machine for five months now, I'm really happy with the purchase.  In fact, if I decided to give up machine embroidery, I would consider parting with my 750QE because the 475QE does absolutely everything else that I need it to do, stitches beautifully and reliably with any thread (including 50/2 cotton Aurifil and monofilament thread), and can handle everything from garments to fussy little quilt blocks to machine appliqué.  

After shopping around, I bought this DeNOA wheeled trolley case for transporting my Goldilocks 475QE:

Although the 475QE is light enough to carry by the handle, the rolling bag provides a little additional protection during transit.  The real advantage to the trolley is all of the other stuff that can be packed in there along with the machine -- threads, notions, fabrics, projects in progress, etc.

I've taken this machine to my quilting bee and to Karen Kay Buckley's machine applique class.  I also had it set up in a little SewEzi table downstairs by the TV for a few weeks when I was piecing the blocks for Lars's Mission Impossible quilt.  And now I have her set up in my studio at my secondary workstation, because I've discovered that it's really convenient to have multiple sewing machines when you're toggling between different types of projects.  Goldilocks is all threaded up with monofilament thread, a size 60 Microtex needle, and her Open Embroidery foot so I can work on my block from Karen's machine applique workshop, while my Big 'Nina 750 is threaded up with cotton piecing thread, a size 75 Quilting needle and foot 97D for piecing quilt backings and other odd jobs.  

Anyway, I highly recommend any of the 4 Series machines, either as a secondary machine like mine or as your One and Only, if you aren't interested in machine embroidery.  I'm definitely glad I got mine!

My March OMG Requires Reinforcements: Teaching My Mom How to do Foundation Paper Piecing

Look Who Learned Foundation Paper Piecing Today!

I looked at my calendar last night and realized that I only have seven weeks to get this quilt top made if I want it to be ready to quilt when I get back from Quilt Week at the end of April, and I gotta be honest, folks -- I was feeling panicked.

But then I remembered how much fun I had with my mom -- and how much sewing we got done in a relatively short period of time -- when she helped me make my Victorian Christmas caroling costume:

My Ridiculous Caroling Getup, Made With My Mom in 2015

I did almost all of the sewing myself, but I never could have finished it without my mom there to explain the convoluted pattern instructions, help with fittings, keep me motivated and on task, and assist with hand stitching that trim along the skirt hem while I was frantically sewing something else at the machine.  I always seem to be sewing something frantically at one of my machines, don't I?  

And then I remembered how much fun I had with my mom and HER mom back in 2001 when they helped me sew a yellow duck costume for Lars's very first Halloween:

Lars's Duck Costume Made by Me, My Mom, & My Grandmother in 2001

I wish someone had taken pictures of us working on these projects!!

Anyway, when the panic sets in and the situation looks desperate, that's a great time to call your mom, don't you agree?  Now my mom do all kinds of alterations, tailoring, clothing and costumes and even bridal gowns, but she's not a quilter (yet).  Before today, she'd never made so much as a 9-patch block before!  Nevertheless, despite not knowing anything about quilting and never showing any interest in learning, my mom agreed to learn in order to help me get Lars's quilt done on time.  If she and I make it together, then Lars's quilt will be made with twice as much love!  Still can't believe that little dude in the duck costume is about to graduate from high school...

My Mom's First Attempt at Paper Piecing on my Bernina 475QE

So we each made one of the flying geese arcs, side by side and step by step in my studio.  Another bonus of having two Berninas set up for paper piecing in the same room!  Now my mom can come and sew with me without having to pack up her machine and bring it from home.

See?  Paper Piecing Is Fun, and Doesn't Hurt (Until You Nick Yourself With the Rotary Cutter)

So now there are five completed arcs (out of 48 needed) plus two more that we started after dinner and abandoned when we realized that A: We were tired and B: The alarm clock goes off EARLY on Sunday morning.  I'm lucky that my mom lives close by but still don't like her to drive home too late at night when she's tired.

Five Arcs Pieced, Forty-Three to Go!

I am SO EXCITED about this project now -- I LOVE how those geese look together!  Pinned in the center of the circle is a swatch of the Spoonflower custom printed fabric that I'm 90% sure I'll be ordering for the backing.  I put the swatch through the laundry today to make sure it's colorfast and I didn't notice any fading at all.  The washing softened it up a little, too -- I'm going to have it printed on the same Kona cotton base fabric as the solid colored fabrics used in the quilt top, and I did NOT wash or preshrink any of those, so probably best not to prewash the backing either.

Tomorrow I'm only singing at the early church service so we can take Lars back to UNC-Asheville for a second visit.  The theatre department gave us comp tickets to a matinee performance of their one act plays.  We're looking forward to seeing the play, but also looking forward to the chance to see more students, faculty, parents, etc. to get a better feel for this school as Lars narrows down his options.  May 1st is the deadline for making a decision and sending a deposit.  

Whether I get any more sewing done tomorrow will depend on how late we get back to Charlotte and how tired I am at the end of the day!  But I do have my quilting bee on Monday afternoon and I'm planning to take this project "on the road" every opportunity that I get until it's done.  Don't expect to see much in the way of hand stitching from me until this quilt top is ready to quilt!

My One Monthly Goal (OMG) for March is to piece all 48 arced flying geese for this quilt, with mom's help!

I'm also linking up with:

SUNDAY

·      Slow Sunday Stitching at http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/  

·      Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com

MONDAY

·      Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com 

·      Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/

·      Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/

·      Moving it Forward at Em’s Scrap Bag: http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com.au/