To-Do Tuesday: Spirit Song Top Nearing Completion and a NEW Ruler Work Linky Party!

You guys, I am so excited about a NEW linky party just for ruler work quilting!  Karin is hosting it on her blog The Quilt Yarn, every other Tuesday -- and the link up is active for a full week starting TODAY!  The linky party is open to anyone who is quilting with rulers, on any make/model machine whether it's a domestic machine, a sit-down longarm or a longarm on a frame.  I'm ridiculously excited about this because there is nothing better than a community of quilters who are all exploring the same techniques, working on the same skills, motivating and encouraging one another.  Those of you who have been with me for awhile know that I've had a bumpy start with my longarm machine, which sapped a lot of my enthusiasm for learning.  Over the past year, I've made some investments in education -- including ruler work classes with both Judi Madsen and Lisa Calle -- as well as investments in a small arsenal of quilting rulers.  This new linky party is exactly what I need to help me put those rulers to use in my quilting.  If any of you have a recent or not-so-recent post about quilting with rulers, I encourage you to link those up with us right now, right here, in this week's party.  The more, the merrier -- and I am so looking forward to seeing everyone's ruler work tips, tricks, trials and triumphs gathered together in one place.

48 x 64 Spirit Song Top Assembled, Ready For Borders

Meanwhile, I got my Spirit Song quilt top completely assembled (finally!).  It measures exactly 64" at the left edge, vertically through the center, and at the right edge.  The width is exactly 48" at the top and bottom, and it's 48 1/4" through the center -- that's a tolerance I can live with and "quilt out," as they say.  

Since I used a lot of unwashed precuts in addition to scraps for this quilt top, I think I'm better off NOT washing my border and backing fabrics, either.  The prewashed scraps in the quilt top might end up with a bit more crinkly texture after washing, but at least the unwashed patches won't risk shrinking to the point that they rip right out of the quilt, right?  

I showed you my border and backing fabrics in my last post, but here they are again in case you missed it:

Border, Binding and Backing Fabric Selections

This quilt has no intended recipient, no deadline, and no rush, so it's perfect for practicing ruler skills, don't you think?  As usual, I was quilt-doodling during the sermon on Sunday from the choir, exploring some of the possibilities for this quilt.  

Doodling Quilting Possibilities on my iPad

I was using a photo that was taken before all of the Birds In the Air blocks had been sewn together, using the Notes Plus app on my iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil Bluetooth stylus.

I really like the secondary pattern that forms at the corners of my straight set blocks, and I want to emphasize that somehow.  There will definitely be stitching in the ditch, because I worked hard to match all those points -- SID will draw attention to the piecing accuracy.  I know I'll try to mash down the neutral fabrics with dense fills to help the colored triangles pop, and I know I want to emphasize those larger diamond shapes with some straight lines, but a lot of the particulars are still up in the air.  I have to keep reminding myself that just because I can draw something on my iPad doesn't necessarily mean I can quilt it with my longarm machine -- at least, not yet!

And so, seeing as it's To-Do Tuesday, and there's a whole lot of NUTHIN' on our agenda for the foreseeable future thanks to COVID-19, here's what I'll be doing with my Social Distancing free time over the next week or so:

Tuesday's To-Do List for March 17-24

1. Add borders to Spirit Song to complete quilt top.
2. Piece Spirit Song backing
3. Make Spirit Song binding and set aside
4. Paper piece next block for Anders' Beware the Ishmaelites sampler quilt
5. Load SOMETHING on my frame -- either a practice piece, a charity top, or the Spirit Song quilt -- and START QUILTING!

Next Block for Anders' Beware the Ishmaelites Quilt, Ready to FPP

...And a Special Invitation for My Christian Friends Whose Church Services Have Been Canceled:

By the way -- with so many churches having to cancel worship services during this frightening time when we need more than ever to be reminded that God is still seated on His throne, I want to invite my Christian friends and family -- and anyone else who could use an infusion of hope in these troubled times -- to join me and my church family at Christ Lutheran as we gather for worship online.  I know that many churches are not set up with the technology to live-stream worship services as our church does each week.  This past Sunday, our pastors and music volunteers (that's where I come in) gathered in an empty sanctuary, since worship had been closed to the public in accordance with our governor's ban on large gatherings.  We sang and preached to an empty room, reminding one another that God is the audience for worship -- and later realized that over 5,500 people had been worshipping with us online that morning!  

Christ Lutheran will continue to live stream worship over the Internet throughout this pandemic, with a Traditional service at 8:45 AM (EST) and a Contemporary service at 11: 00 AM (EST).  

You have two ways to join us: You can find the live video on our church web site here, or via Facebook Live on the Christ Lutheran Facebook page.  If you had to miss church last Sunday and you need a dose of hope to cancel out the fear coming at us through the media right now, you can watch a recording of Sunday's Contemporary service right here (I'm the dorky girl in the glasses, singing at Communion).

Stay safe, everyone, and happy stitching!

I'm linking up today's post with:

·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

·       BOMs Away Katie Mae Quilts  

·       Colour and Inspiration Tuesday at Clever Chameleon

·       To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us

·       Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

·       Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

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·       Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

Tentative Quilting Plan for Jingle and More Spirit Song Birds In the Air

Alright, you guys -- my #1 priority quilting goal for the month of December is to get as much of this Christmas themed Jingle project quilted as I can.  It's not loaded on my frame yet, but here's what I've accomplished since I posted about it a few days ago:

• Located a package of Hobbs 80/20 Cotton/Poly batting in my stash that can be cut down for this quilt
• Ordered and received a package of Quilter's Dream Wool batting to layer over the 80/20
• Located the 108" wide backing fabric and prewashed it in HOT water to shrink it as much as possible (all of the blocks in this quilt had to be soaked repeatedly in boiling hot water with Dawn dish detergent due to a dye bleed, so I'm certain that most of their shrinkage has already taken place)
• Reviewed my notes from the longarm quilting workshops I took with both Lisa Calle and Judi Madsen during Spring Quilt Week in Paducah earlier this year
• Ordered and received a new ruler gadget from Lisa Calle's online shop to assist with stitching in the ditch around all of this applique
• Started a tentative custom quilting plan on my iPad in the Notes Plus app -- I just import the photo to the app from my iCloud photos, stretch it to fill the page, and then I can sketch quilting designs directly on the photo as you see below:

Tentative Quilting Plan for Jingle Quilt

Cool, huh?  I know quilters have a lot of different ways they try out quilting motifs on a quilt, like dry erase markers on vinyl, etc., but doing it on my iPad means I can doodle through a gazillion options whenever I have some down time.  What do you think so far?  I like those ruler work designs that I put on the inner setting triangles and I know that if I mark them carefully, I should have no trouble executing them on the longarm.  The feathers in the outer setting triangles I'm not so sure of.  I think I'd have to mark them all ahead of time and follow the marked lines to avoid the dreaded String of Ogre Toes look, but if I can do that successfully on a practice piece, I might give it a go on the real quilt.  Otherwise/instead, I'll do one of those piano key things where every other stripe is filled in (I tested that idea out on some of the red setting triangles near the top).  I don't know how well the yellow "ink" shows up on your screen, but all I did for the center medallion is come up with reference points to make a giant X behind the applique, so I can break that area up and do one fill inside the X and a different fill design in the V-shaped areas outside of the X.  Not sure what either of those fills might be, but I'll definitely have to mark the big X prior to loading the quilt.

I picked the doodling "inks" based on what would show up on the photo, but I'm actually planning to use Superior's Antique Gold Metallic thread on those red and green setting triangles if all goes well.  I'll use monofilament for all of the stitch in the ditch between borders, blocks, and around the applique, and an off-white shade of So Fine for the background fills behind the applique.  I think I want to get some lighter weight Bottom Line thread to put in the bobbin with my metallic and monofilament threads, and I don't have any of that on hand, so that's on my To Do list for this week:

1. Locate my Superior Bottom Line thread color chart and select bobbin colors to coordinate with quilt backing (for monofilament), metallic threads, and possibly for background fills as well.  Order cones of thread from Superior.
2. See whether I already have an arc template for the spine of those triangle feathers.  If not, figure out what size I need and order it.
3. Test out feather design on sample quilt
4. Mark medallion X and feather spines on quilt top
5. Load the Jingle quilt on the frame!

Meanwhile, I spent some time sewing up some more Birds In the Air blocks for my Spirit Song Dress Code quilt today:

121 Blocks Complete out of 192 Needed; 71 Blocks to Go

This one is also reminding me of pink lemonade.  I know it's obnoxiously bright, and I don't care.  If I can just finish the blocks, I can clean up the giant fabric mess and refocus my attention on the longarm machine.  I keep telling myself that, and then I say I'll just sew a couple more of these HSTs and then I'll stop...

Well, I've got church in the morning and then we'll spend the entirety of Sunday afternoon returning Son the Elder to his college campus.  It was a very low-key but restful Thanksgiving holiday at our house -- just what the doctor ordered!

I'm linking today's post with:

SATURDAY·       UFO Busting at Tish in Wonderland

SUNDAY·

       One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts: http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/  

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

MONDAY

·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

·       Moving it Forward at Em's Scrap Bag

·       BOMs Away Katie Mae Quilts  

TUESDAY

·       Colour and Inspiration Tuesday at Clever Chameleon

·       To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us

Free-Motion Quilting on my iPad

Quilt Doodling in Notes Plus app for iPad

Several of the free-motion quilting experts in SewCalGal's 2012 FMQ Challenge have advised doodling new quilting designs with pen and paper to get comfortable with the designs and commit them to muscle memory.  I don't take a notebook with me everywhere I go, but I usually do have my iPad.  Lately, I've been using the Notes Plus app on my iPad, along with a stylus, to practice doodling fill designs that I'm considering adding to Lars's Drunken Dragons quilt. I can doodle at red lights, I can doodle in the drive-through line at Starbucks or at the bank, I can doodle at a restaurant while we're waiting for the food to come, or while watching/listening to the Olympics on television.

Notes Plus is a powerful note-taking app that allows you to create documents combining handwriting, sketches, vector shapes, photos, and even audio.  You can click here to watch a YouTube video that walks you through the features of Notes Plus.  At $7.99, it's pricey for an app, but I originally downloaded it to use as a tool for taking notes in meetings with my interior design clients -- snap a photo of that window, record measurements, ideas, etc, and even move things around on the page so you can go back and add another idea after you've run out of room.  Then the notes can be exported as images or PDF files.  No more misplacing important pages!  Anyway, I think Notes Plus is a great tool for business or student note-taking, but there are simpler, less expensive options if you just want an app for doodling quilting designs.

Might I suggest:

Screen Shot of the Drawing Pad app for iPad

At $1.99, the Drawing Pad app for iPad has a much friendlier price tag than Notes Plus.  It seems to be geared towards children, with an in-app store for purchasing coloring books, etc., but I like the colors and different brush strokes.  This app also allows you to import a photo as a background.  This is a very handy feature.  Say you're reading a free-motion quilting tutorial online, like Wendy Sheppard's August tutorial on SewCalGal's blog.  The tutorial post includes photo sketches of Wendy's Jester Hat quilting motif.  All you have to do is save that image to your iPad, import it into the Drawing Pad app, and you can practice tracing the design over and over and over again on your iPad until you've ingrained that design into your muscle memory to where you can recreate it freehand.  Once you can draw a fill pattern almost automatically, barely having to think about it, it will be much easier to sit down at the sewing machine and quilt that pattern.  You could also use the import photo feature to practice quilting on an image of your actual fabric.

Okay, app developers out there: Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to develop a Free-Motion Quilting App "FMQ for iPad!"  It would be based on a simple drawing app like Drawing Pad, but it would have some fabric backgrounds and quilting designs included in the app, like Stippling and Feathers, for instance.  The biggest difference would be that, instead of drawing with virtual markers, ink pens, or chalk, the FMQ for iPad app would let you draw with lines of thread stitches, maybe even letting you use an eyedropper tool to pick up a thread color from your fabric image, and definitely giving you the option to draw with variegated thread stitches.  Hop to it!