Pam's Curved Log Cabin Update

I have 25 of the 48 squares completed for Pam's Curved Log Cabin quilt.  Grant and I played with the squares and laid out a few of them (I admit I was a lazy bitch because I didn't clear off the dining room table to layout more of them).  I'm quite pleased with how this is going to come out!

It turns out this quilt pattern is perfect for constantly checking one's quarter-inch seams:  Each time you add a new piece, it should fit along the edge exactly.  If the new piece is too short, then the seams have been too small; but if the new piece is too long, then the seams have been too large.  I thought I was going to hate the quarter-inch foot because the line on the throat-plate disappears into the hole for the feed dogs, but then I noticed that the feed dogs have the quarter-inch line in them!  Between the line on the throat-plate, the line on the feed dogs, and the edge of the foot, I have this down now!

One of the coolest things about piecing the blocks is deciding in which orientation the next foreground fabric strip will be added, allowing one to consider the color and flow of the block.  I can hardly wait to do the same thing when laying out the blocks in rows, swapping them till I get a pleasing arrangement.

And I'm really excited to quilt on my new mid-arm machine.  I haven't decided if I'm going to use stencils or free-hand; at the moment, I'm leaning toward free-handing a tighter meander in the background fabric areas, with a looser/larger meander on the foreground fabrics.  I might also use the fabric pencil to draw in the long, graceful curves implied by the rectangles, perhaps adding some scroll work or other embellishments.  But, I have plenty of time to make those decisions.

And He's Back...

I did not really expect to be absent from the blogosphere for such an extended period of time, but no trabajo, no dinero.  The month of January saw no quilting activity to speak of for me (shock!  gasp!), although I did some serious fabric collecting during that time.  The coolest development, however, was that between Mom & Dad's christmas present and Grant's valentine's day present, I got a new Bernina 820 (henceforth known as Ernie):

I am in love with Ernie, as one might expect. I don't know if I'm more in love with the 40% larger bobbins, the bobbin quantity warning, the automatic needle threader, or the button to cut the thread! I'm not quite used to this dual-drive quarter-inch presser foot because the right feed doggie is only half-covered, so I feel like the seam is hard to control as it moves to the very end of the seam. On my 21 year old Bernina, I shift the needle to the right 1/8" and then use the 3/8" guide. The only downfall to that method is remembering to shift the needle accordingly when switching tasks.  For the time being, I'm going to stick with the 37D foot because the foot was designed for quilters.

My only serious complaint has already been addressed:  When we put the order in, the distributor told us that Bernina decided not to develop the plexiglass extended table for the 8 series (and I fell in love with that innovation with my old Bernina).  Yesterday, Joyce informed me that they found another company that makes the table I want (24" by 24"), so I will get my extension table afterall!!  Yay!

So my current quilting project is an excellent one for my new machine:  Curved Log Cabin from Blue Underground.  It's perfect between each square is comprised of 15 rectangles, and if my seams are not spot-on at a scant 1/4", then the new piece will be either too long or too short.  I've made my first two squares, and my seams seem to be right on target with only tiny variation.   When Grantward picked up the first square, he noticed immediately that the stitches were extremely even and more consistent that the old one.  I'm using a dozen asian print fabrics and a beautiful brown "line sketch" floral for the background of this quilt, which is destined for my dear, dear friend, Pam, who is going through chemo for non-Hodgkins lymphoma.  Yikes!  For the record, I'm getting a little fed up with all these fluffing cancer quilts.  On my last trip to Sew Sassy, I bought a dozen happy, bright batiks to make a HAPPY COLOR version of the Arcadia Quilt for myself.  I need a happy, non-cancer related quilt in my life!  I have two blocks done, and I can hardly wait to piece the blocks together -- this one is going to be gorgeous, and no one deserves a special quilt more than Pam.  Good thing, too, because otherwise this one would be hard to part with.