First Quilt Finish of 2018: "Math Is Beautiful"

It's time for the Big Reveal, y'all!  This is my first quilt finish of 2018, my first pantograph quilt, and the first real quilt that I've quilted on my APQS Millennium longarm quilting machine.  Behold, "Math Is Beautiful":

"Math Is Beautiful," 51 x 51, Designed by Lars

This quilt has been in the works since June of 2015, when I was going through my sons' notebooks to save unused filler paper for the following school year and discovered this design in Lars's 8th grade math notebook:

Lars's Design Inspiration

And I was like, "Dude, you designed a QUILT!"  I had recently purchased EQ7 quilting design software, so I used that program to play around with different fabric possibilities for a throw sized quilt that was going to be "quick and easy."  Then I fell madly in love with a discontinued, out of stock Kaffe Fassett floral print that I used in my virtual design and had to hunt it down online from eBay or etsy or something like that.  

Early Version of Math Quilt Design

When I found the black and white math printed fabric, I knew it was perfect for this quilt that derived from my son's daydreaming and doodling during class, and I decided to make the quilt as a gift for his teacher, Jen Thomas.  It's even the right kind of math -- Algebra!

What  Lars SHOULD Have Been Writing In His Notebook!

This isn't just any teacher, either -- Ms, Thomas taught Lars Math I in 7th grade when he was at the Metrolina Regional Scholars Academy charter school, and then she moved to Community House Middle School the same year we did, so she taught him Math II again in 8th grade.  Then last year she had my younger son, Anders, for Math II as an 8th grader.  Both of my kids are, um, HIGHER MAINTENANCE than your average student, and this teacher has been an amazing advocate for both of them.  What's more, once he got to high school and his freshman Math III class seemed easy, Lars realized that Ms. Thomas taught him well beyond the Math II curriculum so that the next year's math class was a breeze, and my son told me that he wanted to go back and thank Ms. Thomas.  So I'm going to try to bring him with me when I deliver this quilt.

The Vital Statistics:

This quilt finished at approximately 51" x 51" after washing.  It was quilted using Glide trilobal polyester thread in Cool Grey7 top and bottom, using the Popcorn LG pantograph pattern from Willow Leaf Studio.  The batting is black Quilter's Dream Poly.

My Quilting Looks Even Better After Washing

Happily, the slight shrinkage and crinkling that happened when I washed the quilt was just enough to smooth out and hide the wobblies of my beginner pantograph quilting, just as I'd hoped it would.  I like the way this pantograph design mimics the swirlies on the blue and fuschia fabric at the center of the quilt.

I kind of fell out of love with this quilt and lost interest in it for a long time while it was hanging on my design wall.  I felt like it was too busy AND too boring, but it was the perfect candidate for my first attempt at pantograph quilting.  Now that's it's finished, it's grown on me and I really like the finished quilt.  It's the black and white striped border that does it for me, tying in with the black and white math fabric and balancing those bold and colorful Kaffe Fassett print fabrics. It gives me kind of a MacKenzie-Childs vibe now.  

I Love My Stripey Binding!

The binding fabric was pure serendipity.  I didn't buy it specifically for this quilt, but I had a half yard of it in my stash and as soon as I saw it, I knew it would be perfect.  

More Stripey Binding Goodness!

The back of this quilt looks really good, too, which is of huge importance to me.  No matter how carefully I pin basted my projects before quilting them on my domestic Berninas, I ALWAYS ended up with a couple of pleats or puckers on the back side of my quilts.  Not only was it faster and more comfortable for me to quilt this standing up with a longarm machine, but those backing problems have been completely eliminated.  And my tension was consistent throughout the quilting process, giving me stitches that look beautiful on both sides of the quilt from start to finish.  I'm really pleased with my APQS Millenium machine.  I can't wait to get another quilt top loaded on my frame!

Look, Ma!  No Pleats, Tucks or Puckers!

I am really looking forward to delivering this quilt to the teacher, along with that original doodle from Lars's math notebook!  Here's one last look before I tuck the quilt into the gift bag:

Math Is Beautiful, 51 x 51

And now, what's next for this happy quilter?  

1. The "Draw Me A Story" backing fabric needs to be pieced, pressed, starched, and set aside
2. I need to cut out some reverse applique patches for my "Frankenwhiggish Rose" hand stitching project
3. I'll start piecing the "Tabby Mountain" quilt
4. Yes, Colleen -- it's time for me to make another pineapple log cabin block, too!  :-)

Today I'm linking up with:

• Needle and Thread Thursday at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/ 
• Finish It Up Friday at www.crazymomquilts.blogspot.com
• Whoop Whoop Fridays at www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com
• Finished Or Not Friday at http://busyhandsquilts.blogspot.com/
• Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday, hosted this week by mmm! Quilts: http://www.mmmquilts.com/2018/01/flow-friday-finish.html

A Slice of Elation, Topped With a Dollop of Misery: Design Wall Monday, With Machine Embroidery

Good morning!  I'm so close to finishing this quilt that I can almost TASTE it, which is the elation part of this post.  The misery part is that I am really, really sick and my throat feels like I swallowed broken glass or gargled with razor blades or something.  It hurts so much that it's making my eyes tear.  I don't know if it's the flu, strep, or what, but I'm going to the doctor at 10:30 to find out and hopefully get some kind of magic make-it-go-away medicine.  

Machine Embroidered Label Appliqued to Quilt Backing

But meanwhile, I got my math quilt labeled and ready for binding!  My favorite way to use machine embroidery is to personalize quilts, either with embroidered monograms, quotes, or just a label like the one for this quilt.

Designing the Label in Bernina Embroidery Software

This label took me only a few minutes to design and digitize in my Bernina Designer Plus embroidery software.  It's as easy as typing into a text box, picking one of the True Type fonts from the drop down menu, and resizing the block of text to fit into the hoop I want to use.  Save to USB drive, plug USB drive into Bernina 750QEE sewing machine, attach embroidery module, and press GO.  Yes, there are lettering stitches built into my sewing machine, but I use my embroidery software instead so that I can lay out all the text the way I want it and stitch it out with perfect spacing as a single embroidery design.  If you use the built-in lettering stitches to sew out a lot of text, you need to carefully mark every row of stitching and it's easy to mess up the alignment.  Plus I have many, many more lettering fonts to choose from in my embroidery software.

Label and Binding Fabrics Selected From My Stash

I am able to print out an actual size template of the label design from my software that I can use to check that it's going to be legible and look the way I want it to look.  I was able to find the perfect solid orchid fabric for the label and a black and white striped binding fabric in my stash, which was great.

Stitching Out the Label Design

I starched my label fabric twice on each side of the fabric, then sprayed it with 505 temporary spray adhesive and affixed it to a layer of tearaway embroidery stabilizer before hooping it.  I also floated an additional layer of tearaway stabilizer beneath my hoop and reduced my top tension to prevent bobbin thread from showing at the edges of my satin stitches.  It took about 20 minutes for my machine to stitch out the design, and then it took me another 30 minutes or so to carefully remove all of the excess stabilizer from the back of the label, using a tweezers to remove the bits of stabilizer that were trapped between rows of stitching.  I don't want my label to be bulky, stiff, or scratchy; I want it to be just as soft and snuggly as the rest of the quilt.

Tabby Mountain, Final Layout With Replacement Fabrics

Meanwhile, my replacement fabrics came for the Tabby Mountain quilt so I could swap out those Cat Eyes prints that I wasn't fond of.  And again, it's not that I don't like the Cat Eyes print at all -- I just didn't like it for these giant triangles.  It would be cute cut up into smaller patches for another project, and it would be cute binding fabric.  I replaced them in my quilt with three Kaffe Fassett Collective prints instead, and I like it much better now.  I have someone special in mind for this quilt and it "fits" her better with the fabric substitutions I made.

Original Layout With Busy Eyeball Fabrics

The scale of the Cat Eyes print was just too small for the big triangles, and the print didn't read well at a distance.  It looked muddy to me.

Kaffe Fassett Collective Print Substitutions

So, as soon as I get the math quilt bound, I'll be able to start piecing the Tabby Mountain quilt top.  That should come together fairly quickly, and then it's destined to be the SECOND real quilt for my longarm machine!

Because I have another goal for 2018, in addition to buying more fabric and drinking more wine.  My number one quilting goal for this year is to become proficient with my longarm quilting machine.  With that in mind, I'll be choosing more quick and easy piecing projects so I can focus on improving my quilting skills.  Then, once my quilting ability is on par with my piecing and applique skills, I can go back to more complex projects without fear of "ruining" them with shoddy beginner quilting!

Today I'm linking up with:

• ·       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/

Teacher Gifts Revisited: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Minky Baby Quilt

So my fellow quilt blogging friend Val's Archives Linky Party theme for this week is teacher gifts.   Rather than link up an archived post, I'm doing a new, separate post today because the post I wrote about this project when I finished it back in 2010 was eaten by the Blogger Goblins or accidentally deleted or something.  Let me start out by saying that my goal today is BREVITY.  My last blog post ran on much longer than anyone could possibly have felt like reading it.  Hopefully I can manage to be concise this time!  And now, without further ado, I bring you The Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt:

Very Hungry Caterpillar Baby Quilt, for Anders' First Grade Teacher

My best teacher gift ever that I actually have a picture of is the Very Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt I made for Anders' first grade teacher when she had her first baby.  It's the second baby quilt that I ever used Minky backing on, and it's the first quilt I ever free motion quilted, on my Bernina Artista 200/730.

Minky Backing + Satin Binding

My First Ever Free Motion Quilting Project!

I LOVE my kids' teachers, without exception.  From preschool through today, I can honestly say that although there were a few who weren't good personality fits for one boy or the other, each and every one of their teachers cared passionately about teaching, cared about my kids, and went out of their way to accommodate their various quirks and to encourage their intellectual curiosity and love of learning.  And you know, when your kids are first starting school, you feel like your naked heart has left your body, climbed onto a yellow school bus, and is running around in a minefield somewhere that you can't protect it anymore...  So when your first grader gets a teacher who really "gets" him, who makes him feel loved and safe and excited about coming to school every day, that teacher is like a guardian angel sent down from heaven.  I wanted to do something really special for her when I found out she was expecting.

I chose the iconic Very Hungry Caterpillar panel print because reading was such a huge focus in her classroom that year.  I knew she would be reading this book to her baby, and I even personalized the quilt with a customized monogram.

Machine Embroidered Monogram

Another first with this project is that it was the first time I embroidered the "quilt label" information directly to the FRONT of the quilt, which I ended up liking quite a bit.

Machine Embroidered Quilt "Label" with Jewel Satin Blanket Binding

I like to sign my quilts on the FRONT.  :-). By the way, I've been asked about where I sourced that cool ombre satin binding for this project.  It's Wright's Satin Blanket Binding and the green/purple/blue color is called "Jewel."  I'm not sure whether it's still a current color offering or not, but I was able to locate it from an Etsy seller who still has some here (affiliate link).

Anyway, the quilt was a big hit with the teacher, and they even ended up doing a Hungry Caterpillar theme for the baby's first birthday because of it. 

So, I just realized that baby is almost 7 years old now.  He is probably a first grader himself this school year!!  Wow.  I hope that this baby quilt has been loved to pieces by now.  And I hope his teacher is every bit as wonderful to him as his mother was to my little boy.  Happy birthday, Gage, wherever you are!

Machine Embroidered Quilt Signature: Using V6 Bernina Software with the Artista 200/730 Machine

Machine Embroidered Quilt Label

Today is a busy Saturday for us, but I wanted to get this down quickly while the details are still fresh in my mind.  If you've missed my previous posts about Lars's "Drunken Dragons" drunkard's path quilt, you can catch up here. 

As you can see, I've machine embroidered the name of the quilt, my name, and the year on the front of my completed quilt top.  I suppose I could have put this information on the back, where I appliqued the Mommy Loves Lars Scrabble label, but I decided to put it on the edge of the quilt top, a few inches away from where the binding will be.  I'm planning to quilt this project with invisible monofilament nylon thread, so the quilting stitches can go right over both labels without detracting from them. 

This is the first time I've used my Bernina Artista Embroidery Software since upgrading from Version 4 to Version 6 a few months ago, and when I first sat down to do this label I ran into annoying technical difficulties.  Here's what happened.

Printed Template of my Quilt Signature Design

First, I created this simple embroidered text design in my software program on my PC.  The template printout shown above is useful in positioning the embroidery design on the quilt.

USB Stick Plugged into Artista 200/730 Machine

Next, I saved the embroidery design to a Sandisk USB stick that I have successfully used many times (before upgrading my embroidery software) to transfer design files between my PC and my sewing machine.  (Note: My embroidery software lives on my PC, in my first floor office, and my sewing machine lives in my second floor sewing studio, by the way -- if I had a PC or laptop sitting right next to my sewing machine, I could connect the two with a cable and send the designs directly from the computer to the sewing machine). 

New Design, #17, Won't Preview on Sewing Machine

However, when I scrolled through my USB stick designs on my sewing machine screen, I could see all of my older designs, but the new design I'd just created was just a blank square without a preview.

When I selected Design #17, I got this error:

-- Which is ridiculous, because the machine hasn't opened any designs yet, and the one I'm trying to open is an itty bitty design with less than 4500 stitches.  My sewing machine can handle much larger, extremely complex designs -- it doesn't make sense that my little text design would max out the machine's memory.  I tried shutting down and restarting the machine, but I got the same error every time I attempted to open my new design.  When I touched the red circle with an X, I got the following additional information about the error:

Hmmm...  "Design not loadable?"  My Version 6 embroidery software is the latest and greatest version available from Bernina, but my sewing machine (an Artista 200E that was upgraded to the equivalent of the newer 730E) is about 10 years old now.  I know, I know -- our mothers and grandmothers sewed on the same machines for 30 years or longer, but today's computerized machines are more like our laptop computers, cell phones and televisions.  I began to suspect a compatibility issue between the sewing machine and the new design software.

I went back downstairs to my PC and saved the design again, this time paying attention to the file format that the software was defaulting to. 

v6 Software defaults to save every design in the newest .ART60 format

Aha!  Instead of saving my design as an .ART file, it was saving as an .ART60 file, the newest format.  I'm sure the newest machines can read this format, but my older sewbaby was choking on it! 

Selecting .ART type for Bernina A730/A200 designs

Sure enough, there's an option to save designs as BERNINA A730/A200 designs (*.ART).  Once I saved the file in the correct format for my machine, it popped up on the sewing machine screen with no problems and it was smooth sailing after that.

New Design Previewed in square #15; #16 is a file in the wrong format for my machine

Here we go!  Now that I finally had my design loaded on my sewing machine, I threaded the machine with Isacord 1301 and black embroidery bobbin thread.  I used an organ embroidery needle, the straight stitch throat plate, and attached my embroidery module to the sewing machine (it's a separate unit that locks in place and plugs into the sewing machine with a cable, allowing the sewing machine's internal computer to move the embroidery hoop in all directions beneath the needle according to the programming in the embroidery design file to create the desired embroidery design). 

Quilt Top Basted to Stabilizer in Oval Hoop

Most of the time, you hoop your actual project fabric between the two rings of your embroidery hoop to hold your fabric taut and secure for stitching, but I was leery of the possibility of getting a hoop "ring" creased into my quilt top that I might not be able to iron out.  My little text design was not incredibly dense, so I decided to hoop a single layer of tearaway embroidery stabilizer, which I then sprayed lightly with 505 Spray and Fix temporary Spray Adhesive.  I carefully positioned the quilt top over the sticky surface of the hooped stabilizer, using the gridded hoop template to ensure my quilt top was straight, and then I used a preprogrammed automatic basting "design" to stitch the quilt top to the stabilizer just inside the hoop.  These automatic basting designs are available for every hoop size and can be downloaded free of charge from the Bernina web site.

On-Screen Editing Tools Used to Precisely Position Embroidery Design

Next, I used the on-screen editing features of my sewing machine to reposition the embroidery design at the edge of the hoop, instead of centered in the middle of the hoop.  I could have done this in my embroidery software before saving the design, but by doing it on the sewing machine screen I can position the text more precisely on my project.  I wanted it near the edge of the quilt top, but far enough away that it wouldn't get covered by the quilt binding. 

Now, I should mention that at this point my husband poked his head in and said, "You are going to test that on another piece of fabric before you do it on the quilt top, aren't you?"  Duh...  Everyone knows you should always test your embroidery design with your planned fabric, stabilizer, thread, and needle combination before you stitch it out on your project in case you need to make any adjustments.  So, that's what I should have done, and that's what you should do.  I scowled at my husband and ignored his advice.  Full speed ahead! 

Ta Da! 

So here's the finished design, after trimming the jump stitches between letters and tearing away the stabilizer from the back of the quilt top, and carefully removing the basting stitches.  The basting stitches left holes in the fabrics, especially the batik fabric on the left, but I was able to easily scratch them out with my fingernail.  My husband is right; I should have tested the design on a scrap first.  There are many different fonts built into the embroidery software and you can also automatically convert any True Type font that you have loaded on your computer to stitches, but some fonts work well in small sizes and others work better larger.  After stitching this out, I realized that the font I chose this time has little jump stitches within the letters that are simply too tiny to snip safely without risking cutting actual embroidery stitches, so it looks a little sloppier than I'd like if you put your nose right up close to it.  I suppose I could use my stitch eraser (like an electric shaver) to cut out all of the embroidery stitches and start over, but I think it's better to leave it the way it is than to risk accidentally cutting a hole in the quilt top and really screwing things up. 

Now that I've got the quilt signature embroidered, I can give the quilt top a final pressing with plenty of starch, and then either mark some background grid lines (if I decide the grid quilting should be diagonal) or else skip marking and move on to layering and basting the backing, batting, and quilt top (if I do the background quilting grid straight instead of diagonal, I can use the piecing seams to guide the quilting so marking won't be necessary).

Children's Signatures Embroidered on Craft Aprons as Teacher Gifts

Idea for a future quilt label: I could scan in my handwritten signature and use my embroidery software to digitize an actual embroidered version that I could stitch out on a project.  I did something like that several years ago using children's signatures.  I had each child sign his or her name in magic marker on a white sheet of paper, scanned the signatures and then embroidered them on readymade craft aprons as end-of-year gifts for Anders' preschool teachers, who had worked on name writing with the class throughout the school year.  I just used the "magic wand" tool in the embroidery software to instantly assign stitches once the artwork had been imported, and the only downside was that the software can't tell it's working with lettering when you import a scanned signature, so the satin stitches don't automatically slant along the letters the way that they do when you are working with a computer font.  I ended up using different fill stitches for some of the kids' signatures and was able to make it work for the apron project, but if I was going to embroider my own signature on a quilt I would spend the extra time to manually angle the satin stitches for a more professional end result.  Perhaps this is easier to accomplish with the Version 6 software instead of the Version 4 software I was using when I did these aprons four years ago.  I'm looking forward to finding out when I take my software mastery classes in April!

Meanwhile, I have a quilt top that needs to be pressed.  Have a great weekend!

Update: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Blanky Quilt, Part 2: Embroidered Monogram & Quilt Label

Since I last posted about this project, I finished assembling and attaching my border strips (and re-learned the importance of fitting the quilt edge to the border strip rather than vice-versa).  Because I happened to end up with a blue stripe on the main border fabric falling right next to the corner block, I switched to a yellow fabric scrap for the corner blocks instead. 

I didn't want to use a polyester batting because I hate the way polyester fibers migrate through the quilt top and "beard" over time, which would be especially visible on these bright colors, but I didn't want to be committed to quilting too densely, either, since I wanted the quilt/blanky to retain the drapability and squishiness of the Minky backing as much as possible.  My quilting plan is to set forth boldly with no plan, and quilt just enough to add interest and texture without making the quilt too stiff.  Remember the quilting is not going to go through the Minky backing at all.  So I bought a thin 100% cotton batting with scrim that the manufacturer said could be quilted up to 8-10" apart for this project.  I don't remember who the manufacturer was, but I bought this batting by the yard from Mary Jo's Cloth Store in Gastonia, North Carolina.  Since this is a fairly small quilt project, and because my mantra right now is Simplify!, I decided to try basting the quilt top to the batting with temporary spray adhesive.  I used 505 and sprayed the batting, as per the instructions on the can, and then layed the quilt top onto the sticky batting and struggled to get it smooth and square.  It's a good thing the kids were at school, because I found it necessary to use some very bad language throughout this process.  Never again!  This spray basting method was a royal pain in the butt, and my previously perfectly square quilt top was not so perfectly straight and square anymore when I decided enough was enough.  I should have basted with my curved safety pins like I usually do; it would have taken the same amount of time, with no chance of distorting my quilt top in the process. 

Once I had the batting stuck to the quilt top, I stitched in the ditch with my walking foot in all the border seams to help secure the layers of the quilt a little bit better before moving on to the embroidery stage.  Here's the completed pieced top, stuck to the batting, and quilted only in the ditches:

Remember that the wide outer border is going to be mostly covered up by my 2" wide satin binding.  I laid the satin binding down over the corner to get an idea of how the border will look when the project is completed:

The satin binding looks a lot darker in the photo than in real life; it's a beautifully vibrant purple, leaf green, and royal blue that complements the fabrics.

So then I spent several hours the next day planning the embroidery.  Originally I thought of a three-letter monogram, but then I couldn't find a monogram style that I liked well enough.  Everything was either too grown-up, too commonplace, or else had too much going on that would detract from the spirit of the Eric Carle illustrations.  Finally, I remembered the Buttons monogram style from Embroidery Arts.  Eureka!  I have used Embroidery Arts' monogram designs over and over again and have always been pleased with the design quality, but this Buttons style never appealed to me in the pale pastels it's shown in on their web site.  But, by changing the thread colors to match the "marbles" in my Hungry Caterpillar fabric, this monogram looks like it was a custom design to go with my fabric.  I combined the 2" initial "P" Buttons monogram with the baby's first and middle names in my Bernina Artista embroidery software, which automatically converts any True Type font on my computer into embroidery stitches.  The font I chose is called Mufferaw.  Here's the template of my customized design that I printed out from my embroidery software, along with the Isacord thread colors that I selected.  I like to cut out my design templates so I can preview it in different locations on my project.  Isn't it perfect how the "P" fits so nicely into the space under the caterpillar?

I wasn't really worried about how the narrow satin-stitched lettering would stitch out on my quilt, but the "P" is a pretty dense design so I decided to stitch out a sample.  Sometimes thread colors look different stitched out in a design than they do on the spool, so a sample stitchout would also give me an opportunity to make any necessary thread color adjustments before stitching on the actual project. 

For my sample, I sprayed a scrap of the same batting used in my project and stuck a piece of cotton quilting fabric on top.  I hooped the two layers in my large oval hoop along with a single layer of tearaway embroidery stabilizer, and then I basted along the outer edge of the hoop using the basting design file I downloaded from the Bernina web site.  As you can see, I got a big bulging pucker at the top of the "P" and a good bit of fabric distortion.  Notice how goofy the fabric grain looks around the center of the design.  I decided that the hoop basting wasn't doing much good with this design because the basting stitches were too far away from the outer edge of the design at the top and bottom, where the distortion was occurring.  I decided to proceed with embroidering my project, but I applied two layers of light fabric starch to the quilt top first and added a topping of Sulky Solvy in addition to the tearaway stabilizer for additional support and to ensure that my skinny little letters didn't sink into the fabric too much.

Now, what I struggle with most in machine embroidery, other than puckering, is getting my project in the hoop straight and taught, with the hoop perfectly centered on the spot where I want the embroidery design to stitch out.  I taped my little template cutout to my gridded hoop template to help with that, but I still struggled a bit before I was satisfied with my hooping.

Here's how the design stitched out on my project.  I'm really happy with the design, the thread colors, and the placement, and I'm mostly happy with the way the embroidery stitched out...

...But I do still have some puckering around the letter "P."  It's better than the sample, though, and I think I might be able to smooth it away with a combination of ironing and quilting.  Next time I want to embroider on a quilt top, I'm going to try a couple of new things: I could pin-baste the layers like I usually do, and then quilt a 2-4" grid over the area that will go in the embroidery hoop, using wash-away basting thread in the top and bobbin, to better secure the layers and hopefully prevent this distortion, and then the basting grid will just wash away when I wash the completed quilt.  If that doesn't work, I'll go back to embroidering the quilt top before the batting is added, using one or more layers of fusible Poly-Mesh and tearaway stabilizers on the bottom and the Sulky Solvy on the top.  One of these days, I'll come up with the magical method for pucker-free embroidered quilts!  In the meantime, one good thing about baby quilts is that you know they are going to get ratty and ragged the more they are loved, and the baby isn't going to be looking the quilt over with a magnifying glass and passing judgement on the quilter for every little flaw.  I try to keep that in mind to keep my perfectionist tendencies at bay.  The quilt label stitched out without a hitch, as I knew it would.  It's the same True Type font that I used in the monogram, just a smaller size, and I tried to put it an inconspicuous location on the front of the quilt, next to the outer border on the upper right side. 

I'm making progress!  The next step is to add texture and better secure the batting to the quilt top with some free-motion machine quilting.  I've had the BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) update for my Artista 200 machine for several years, but never had the time to play with it and get comfortable enough to use it on a project before.  I always want things to be PERFECT, and if I'm hand-quilting it may take a few years to finish a project but at least I am in complete control of every stitch that goes into the quilt and it comes out exactly the way I envisioned.  But I've been inspired recently by Wendy Sheperds's Ivory Spring blog and her BSR quilting projects featured in Bernina's Through the Needle publication, so I'm determined to get over my fears and take the plunge.  I know that the best tools in the world can't give me the instant ability to achieve exquisite, heirloom quality machine quilting like Wendy's, but having the best tools does give me a head start on the learning curve, and the only way to get better is to get started and just do it!  Wish me luck...

Quick & Easy Embroidered Teacher Gifts

It's getting to be that time of year again.  Now that we're back from Spring Break, it's full speed ahead to summer vacation.  If your kids are in preschool or elementary school, it's not too soon to start planning group gifts for those special classroom teachers.  Scrapbooks, photo albums, and group gift certificates are always nice, but I thought I'd share a quick but meaningful machine embroidered project that I came up with a few years ago for my son's preschool teachers.  All of the moms pitched in to buy two simple solid-color aprons.  The class had been working hard all year long on learning to print their names, so I got each child to write his or her name in marker on a white sheet of paper.  I scanned the signatures into my computer, cleaned up stray marks in Corel, and then used the Auto Digitize feature of my Bernina Artista embroidery software to convert each child's signature into a machine embroidery design.  Then I randomly stitched the children's embroidered signatures all over the aprons in different thread colors.  Ta da!

If I had this project to do over, I would have asked the mom who bought the aprons to get ones without pockets since I would have had to remove and reattach the pockets in order to embroider them and still have them be functional.  I was down to the wire, so I just embroidered around the pockets instead.  And if I was a little more comfortable with my digitizing software it would have been nice to angle the satin stitches around the curves of the letters for a more professional end result.  But the teachers loved their aprons and said they would wear them when they did craft projects with the kids, and the children enjoyed finding their signatures on each one and pointing them out.