Tread Lightly – completed

Well that’s it. The globe is finished. I had to let out some of the air to be able to finish sewing it closed, but it is a bit cooler today so hopefully it won’t go down too much if it is cooler in the exhibition. The valve is hidden under the ice cap. It is really tricky finding a good sewing position on a globe this side. Even harder than finding a thin thread that is strong enough to hold the pieces together once the ball is inflated. It was worth it though. I am really pleased with it and next time I am on Watford I will be looking for more of these cheap exercise balls to use as armatures. I want to do Jupiter, Mars, our Moon and an old style globe. Of course I also need to think about storage and display, but I will worry about that after I have made some more No point worrying yet. If the worse comes to the worse I can keep one in the house and the rest in storage.

If you look closely you can just see the world plinth. It’s not a bad fit at all and really does look OK. It does need polishing before I pack it. I also have to find a way to fix it’s show tag to it. I can’t pin it on because of the risk of puncture, but I don’t really want to sew it either. The only double sided tape I would trust to stay on won’t come off afterwards either. I might just have to sew it unless someone out there has a good idea? The show tag is a square of paper about 3″ square.

Tulips

Here is the picture of the binding on Gems 1. It took longer than we expected but I think it worked really well. The fine white piping really makes the colours leap out. Still that is the quilt done. It just needs the label and sleeve doing, which is hand sewing we can do during the game on Sunday. So I won’t worry about that until then. It would be nice to get Gems 2 to the same state by then as we could probably finish all the hand sewing on both of them. I don’t know if it is possible, but it is a goal to work to.

These tulips are based on a Ricky Tims technique. They are from his caveman quilting DVD. I love this technique and have made several projects using it.

What really pleased me about this was the quilting. It was the first time I tried this pattern but I think it does exactly what I was looking for. I wanted the colour from the background of the flowers to spread out into the borders and be a bit softer. I feel that I have achieved that. The border itself is quilted in black which also just flows in to the other colours. It is a shame that the pictures don’t capture how well the dancing cubes leap out of the border. You will just have to take my word for it. I had been going to enter this quilt in the Edinburgh show, but as I am not doing those shows anymore it hasn’t been finished. I do love it so as soon as I have some time it will be finished. It will stay with a wavy edge, and I think I will try and figure out a way to put a piped binding on it.

Hint 2, when making a quilt with a lot of bulky ‘embellishment’ it is a lot easier to trim the base before stitching everything on to it Guess who just trimmed up the back of the PCB. It was an interesting experience but it would have been easier if I had done it sooner.

PS. Why are all your errors twice as big and twice as obvious just after you post them on a web site?

Tip of the day

I looked at one of my quilts today and it was beyond linty. It looks like someone has been using it as a duster It isn’t dirty just covered in lint and hairs and threads. I could have gone at it with a lint roller, but with that amount on it it would have taken ages. Ages I don’t have right now. Then I remembered, the bedding I washed earlier in the week and hung outside to dry looked as covered in cat hairs after washing as before, and usually it looks completely spotless. Hmm what did I do differently. Normally I tumble dry bedding. Therefore the tumble drier removes fuzz. Twenty minutes on cold in the tumble dryer and I would say most of the mess is off. I am giving it another twenty to finish off, but I am impressed. So if you need to clean hairs and lint of a quilt without having to use a lint roller you might want to give it a try. I wouldn’t try it with wool waddings though.

Another day another milestone.

This is the front of ‘See Sound’ this is all the quilted detail done now. I have decided to leave off a few of the markings. I don’t think the mounting holes add anything to it as a quilt and there is no point stitching the markings completely covered by components.

Why is it that whenever you do something new you work out the easy way to do it just as you finish? In this case I had been finding it really hard to do the numbers and letters, then on the 11th before finishing I figured out how to do it. The last few were so much easier and I think they look far better than the earlier ones. At least I know it isn’t just me I’ve had several others tell me about similar experiences. On the bright side if I ever decide to do something like this again I will know at least one trick to make it easier. Hopefully when the quilt dries out the chalk marks will have gone. If not I suppose I can try washing it a bit more thoroughly tomorrow. It was good getting this stage finished today, it means I am still on track to getting everything finished in time. Gems 1 is now totally quilted and just waiting for the binding, shame I will have to force myself to rewatch the Ricky Tims DVD to remind me how it works. What a hardship If you haven’t seen him either on DVD or in real life you really should he is a hoot.

Yay!

I’ve reached another little milestone. I’ve done all the stabilizing on Gems 2. In this heat even these little things seem a big deal. The Discovery has been behaving itself really well, and after man handling Gems 1 under his domestic machine Robin is now practicing on it. Hopefully he will be able to use it for his other entry. I did mean to take a picture of the quilt on the frame with the UV light on showing the powder, but I got over excited when I finished the sewing. I have discovered that the powder gets every where. I too me ages to get most of it off the machine. I really don’t want any of it left behind as it will probably work quite well as a grinding paste. It certainly built up in the bobbin, but that might has been weather related. I think the rosin is more likely to clump when it is hot, and of course the bobbin area probably gets warm as well. Still it did the job a lot quicker than using a washout marker, and no washing the quilt before the show.

I’ve managed to get a stand for my globe. It is a world plinth, not in anyway a dog bowl. Definitely not, I just happened to buy it in a pet shop. I thought I should supply something as the show organizers aren’t likely to have a stand for a globe. I had been thinking of buying rubber rings and covering them but I haven’t been able to find any. I think the bowl will be more stable anyway as it is designed not to be tipped by hungry dogs. I suppose I need to label it don’t I.

I saw the most amazing sky tonight when we went out to buy food. I wish I had taken a camera with me. The sky was mostly a grey blue, but over where the sun was setting it was a fantastic pink. The most wonderful part was where the clouds were just outlined in the pink. It was so striking. I think I will have to try and make a quilt from it but I don;t think anyone will believe that the sky was really that colour. I am starting to think that I will have to carry a camera everywhere I keep finding inspiration in odd places and the camera on my phone isn’t quite enough. Last night at the hospital there some good architecture and an a fantastic clock. In the dark the pictures on my phone didn’t come out. Do you suppose I will get even more odd looks wandering around the supermarket with a huge camera case?

Interesting times

Well it has been an interesting day, and I am very thankful that I have only been helping to deal with it rather than involved. A friend has been knocked off their motorcycle, so we were asked to recover it for them. That isn’t a good day for anyone, but this person has just moved house and was supposed to be going on holiday this week. The timing really sucks. Still they seem essentially Ok, the bike will live and hopefully the other parties insurance will pay for the holiday.

Before my day became interesting I did manage to get Gems 2 onto the frame. I was planning on taking some pictures but I think that will have to wait for the morning now. The real morning after some sleep. I’ve managed to do the do the first 3 of 16 rows, so I should be able to finish it tomorrow. The areas am working on in this quilt are all white so I have tried a new to me marking method. Rather than something I need to wash out I am using a powder that glows under UV light. My first discovery is that I need to get a blue black light bulb. This type gives out less visible light. Given that I don’t find UV especially black at the best of times I need to reduce the light as much as possible. Secondly I a very sensitive to the powder. Having looked at what is in it that doesn’t surprise me either. However I can’t recommend having to wear latex gloves in this heat. They get pretty disgusting pretty quickly. Still it is doing the job and is a lot quicker then an erasable pen.

Once I get this batch of quilts out of the way I want to spend some time playing with the longarm and making up some samples. I’ve learned a lot of different freehand designs and I would like to be able to show people what I can do.

Getting there slowly

We are making slow but fairly steady progress on our quilts for the NEC. Gems 1 is two thirds of the way to being quilted and Gems 2 is two thirds of the way to being pieced. It’s not where we wanted to be but it will still be done in time.

I’ve done some playing with the the wiring for ‘See Sound’. I am fairly happy with it. With only 4 LEDs to a transistor it seems to be reasonably bright, but now I have a new problem. I think the microphone needs to be more sensitive. Clapping, and some words will set it off but clicking your fingers at it won’t. I am not great at electronics, but given that there is a variable resistor that adjusts the sensitivity of the microphone, could I just replace it with a lower resistance. I might just try removing it and see if that helps. I suspect it won’t I think it is already turned down to almost zero. After that I either need a better microphone or more amplification. The latter is definitely beyond my scope.

I’ve been complaining about our unseasonable weather for a while now. What I hadn’t realized until yesterday is how bad it is everywhere else. Which has lead to discussions of global warming, and the idea of a reversible quilt based on that concept. I’ve had a few thoughts along that line before but the idea of a double sided quilt really appeals. Of course to do it the way it looks in my head it would need to be a mirror image on the back and perfectly aligned, so the 2 images could be quilted together and the quilting make sense on both sides. It is very tempting but I think I will have to kick it around my head for a while. It would have lots of interesting technical challenges. Oh and thinking of climate change, by observation, the size of the world is changing noticeably when temperature fluctuates more than 5 degrees C. Well my little world anyway. So I will wait for the next drop and inflate it as much as I can. Even with my best effort it isn’t that hard so should be fine if the temperature rises again.

What a mess!

This is desk right now. Yes I am typing on that keyboard over all the mess. The mess is the wiring for ‘See Sound’ . It is at least working, but the lights are dimmer than I would like. I might have to ask an expert. Fortunately I have one of those coming over tonight. It’s funny how much I have had to add just to scale up the PCB. Most of the wire is involved in running extra LEDs. Also trying to make the microphone work when it is inside a quilt is proving interesting. I think if I can hold it right up against the top of the fabric microphone I should be OK.

I have also been reminded that I do not use the cheap electric soldering iron. I really don’t get on with it. That would be why I bought a gas one, which I love. I wish I had remembered before I burnt my finger in exactly the same way as the last 3 times I used the electric iron. Ho hum, maybe next time I will remember.

At last

It looks like it wasn’t blogger with the problem, it was my picture. Apparently that memory card is really broken the images I got from it won’t upload, but any from anywhere else will. So here we have my little helper sleeping in the block trimmings yesterday. He did wake up just as I started trimming the next set, having slept through me moving the machine he is lying against and sewing the next set.

Here is a picture of the back of the PCB as well. As I said it has all but one piece of solder on it. I still need to make the last one. I am quite pleased with it. It is mostly flat and really does look the part. I do wonder how many of the quilters will know what it is. So far all the ones I have spoken to, or shown it so haven’t got a clue. On the bright side you tend to get a lot more men at the NEC and I think some of them might know what they are looking at. I suspect some will then have to study it and see if all the details are correct Hope I manage to do it justice.

Too Hot

I am just not built for this weather. I can’t think above 28 degrees. I have to try any persuade the other half that we need to move to the Arctic Circle. Cold I can cope with just fine. Apparently all the computers are having a bad time too. I still can’t upload the picture. So I suggest we all go for a nice cold drink and leave creativity until tomorrow. On the bright side I did manage to get 3/4 of the blocks sewn and trimmed for gems 2.