Stories from the Sewing Room: Juki TL2200QVP

Showing posts with label Juki TL2200QVP. Show all posts

How to Use a Paper Pantograph

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

I thought I'd try something new--I made a video during the process of quilting the guild donation quilt I worked on last week. I thought people might wonder how you would use a paper pantograph when quilting, so I made lots of small videos with my cell phone as I went along. This is my first time talking in a video, my first time using iMovie (had to get my tweenage son to help me), my first time trying to join multiple videos into one, just lots of firsts.

The movie ended up much longer than I expected; it's 13-1/2 minutes! I removed as much unnecessary content as I could to try to shorten it. Also, there are times when I forgot to aim the camera where I was looking or it didn't quite focus where I was aiming. The transitions between the scenes are nonexistent. Hopefully the content is useful despite my inexperience. And YouTube has chosen an odd frame to use as the preview here!

If you watched, what did you think? Could you understand what to do? Please be gentle!

As a side note, since adding the computer to my long arm, I hadn't quilted anything from the back until now. Tracing the panto by hand made me so thankful for the computer. Not that there's anything wrong with doing it by hand, I did that for almost four years.

I've been busy working on the technical end of launching the quilting business, so I have not sewn at all since I did the guild quilt a week ago. I've ordered business cards, am working on taking photos, and am still tweaking the website. I've ordered some new batting that I'm excited about. I'm doing other business-y things too. ha ha

If you'd like to see the website in progress, click here. All of the information is there and services can be booked, but I haven't added photos yet. Since you're reading here, you probably have already seen my photos anyway. 😏 Anyway, there is also a newsletter sign up there with a special code. I'm planning to do a once-a-month newsletter, so it won't clog up your inbox.

My quilt guild is selling raffle tickets to win the library quilt. Much to my surprise, I've actually managed to sell a few tickets long distance via Facebook. Thanks to my cousin and high school friend who bought some. 😊

Totally switching gears again, the summer garden is basically done. We still have the cucumber and jalapeño plants. The cucumber is slowing down but the jalapeño is going strong. We harvested the first batch of potatoes and beets. Last year we harvested the beets and ate them boiled, because that is how my mom likes them and it was her birthday. This year we tried roasting them, but I thought they tasted essentially the same as they did boiled--earthy and beet flavors. At least they look pretty in the bowl. We have a few more to harvest and I think I may try making chips out of them unless someone can point me to an outstanding recipe. At least the potatoes are good--we didn't get much yield from the first bag, but they taste really good. And they didn't have scab like last year, so bonus.

And finally, a sneak peek of a project a long time in the making.

Have a great week!

7.3.19

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

This past week has been a bit off. We had unexpected schedule changes and sometimes the kids just need you more than usual.

I did manage to finish quilting the quilt that's been on the frame for several weeks. I was trying out a new pattern on it and the computer program just didn't like it. Not only was it super slow, it crashed continually and I had to keep reprogramming the pattern. Thankfully I had thought to write down the settings so that it wasn't too bad to reprogram. Each row took 30-40 minutes to stitch out and had over 12,000 stitches. I lost track at the end of just how many rows I did, but I am confident in saying that it has over 180,000 stitches. Next up will be making and attaching the binding.

I have since learned that I could have tried a different file format to import the design and it would have then perhaps had a smaller file and wouldn't have been so prone to crashing the program. While I generally prefer a tighter, smaller pattern, I think I should have gone much larger with this one. I'll try again another day.

I sewed four more book blocks while the long arm was stitching.

I finished painting the room we are working on. Next up is to replace the windows. The originals leaked at the corner seams and we got new ones under warranty.

I've mentioned before that we've had a very wet summer and how it seems to have affected things. We've had very few butterflies--still no monarch sightings. We have had a lot of birds stay longer than usual, especially the orioles. The orioles do stay all summer, but don't usually come in to the feeders after a few weeks. We also have at least one pair of rose breasted grosbeak that have stayed--those generally come through in May and stay only a week or two. We have very few goldfinches this year. Those we generally have in abundance all year. We have a much smaller amount of hummingbirds as well. Anyway, the point of all this is that we are also seeing juveniles of many of the birds. Some are easy to identify and some are a bit more challenging.

I saw this group of orioles last week. One of them was feeding jelly to the lighter one.

I also have been seeing this bird at the feeders often. I'm fairly certain it is a juvenile red headed woodpecker.

I'm really hoping to get in more sewing time this week. If not, school starts in five more weeks... I'm planning to do the binding for the quilt shown above, piece two more charity quilts, make more book blocks, and just try to be more productive than I've been lately. I'm drowning in fabrics that I really would like to use up.

Also, I'm really not a fan of people shooting off fireworks at home, especially over a long period of time, like a week or more. Some people, pets, and children do not handle the sounds well. You think you're safe in your own home, asleep, and suddenly it sounds like you're under attack. I'll be glad when this week is over.

Some Quilting

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

I managed to sneak in a little sewing time yesterday. I've had the FQS 2013 BOM on my frame for a week. I'd been having problems getting the pattern I wanted to quilt on it to actually load correctly. It kept crashing the program. I finally deleted it and reloaded it into the software and that seems to have helped. I have finished three of 15 rows so far. Each individual row has over 12,000 stitches.

While the computer was stitching away on the quilt, I managed to get two more book blocks made. I'm super far behind where I wanted to be on this project, but it will get there eventually.

Over the weekend I had lots of time in the car, so I finished binding the Charming Lucy baby quilt. Now I just need someone I know to have a baby. LOL. This quilt was made using Stacy Iest Hsu's Best Friends Forever fabric for Moda. The free pattern is by A Bright Corner.

Originally I thought maybe I'd bring the 365 Challenge quilt to bind, but once I picked it up and realized how heavy it is, I quickly decided on the baby quilt instead. I was curious how much the 365 quilt actually weighs. It's 90" x 90" and it weighs between eight and 10 pounds!! I did the super-scientific thing of standing on the scale with and without the quilt. :P Right now this is the only quilt I have left to bind.

We have had so much rain lately and heavy storms too. Most of our garden plants are super happy. We have a bumper crop of milkweed this year and haven't seen a single monarch butterfly or caterpillar so far. Go figure.

This bee balm is super happy, as is the spearmint that is taking over everything. I need to thin it out a lot. The good thing about the spearmint is that the deer don't like it.

Our vegetables are starting to look a bit wild. I bought a cucumber plant this year. I think it's an English cucumber. It all the sudden started growing like crazy and has pushed through the fence to the outside. Of course the deer have eaten off most of what sticks out through the fence, but they apparently don't like the actual cucumbers since this one is still here. And yes, I know I need to weed the vegetables.

When I was taking pictures in the sewing room this morning, I saw what appears to be a baby/juvenile blue jay sitting in my window well garden. I had to zoom in a bunch, so the picture isn't the best quality, but I found it funny that a chipmunk photo-bombed.

I'm hoping to get in some more sewing time this week and I also have a room to paint. What are you working on?

Linking with Sew Fresh Quilts and For the love of geese.

Getting Started with Quilter's Creative Touch with Juki Long Arm

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

A useful way to try out quilting software is to make and quilt charity quilts. I decided to make some for Quilts for Kids. While you can request kits, I chose to use my own fabrics this time because I wanted to get started right away. They offer many free patterns on their website and I picked Alternate Squares and Rail Fence this time. The quilts finish at around 38 x 44 and each top takes me about an hour to sew.

For the first quilt, Alternate Squares, I decided to try out a free pattern, Lisa's Raindrops, that I got from Urban Elementz. It took me a lot of time to try to figure out how to use the software and make a layout that I thought would work. While Juki does not offer any tutorials (shocking, right?), I watched several APQS videos on YouTube and also found this video from Quilted Angel extremely helpful in walking me through how to set up a quilt. Other places to help get started with the software are videos by dfgeorge (using a Grace machine) on YouTube and tutorials by Thread Waggle Quilting (APQS). There is also a Facebook group for the software that is loaded with information. I recommend watching the videos and taking step by step notes to help you.

Anyway, it took me forever to figure out how to baste my layers together to get started. In order to use the Juki long arm without the software, you turn on the machine but not the tablet. Then you can baste the layers. Alternately, if the tablet is on, you click on the red toolbox in the software and hit the release carriage and release machine buttons to baste (don't click the ok button until after you are done basting).

After I got the basting figured out, it took me forever to figure out how to get the design into the safe area. Once we figured out that you can click on the quilt measurement buttons and type in your quilt dimensions, it was quite easy. The recommended overage is adding two inches to each measurement, but I am finding that an inch is more than enough for me so far. Another tip: make sure you ALWAYS optimize each row!

So we finally got the design into the safe area and started stitching out the first row. It took like 20 minutes. For a 38 inch wide quilt. I wanted to cry. I thought this was supposed to speed things up for me. For all the time I'd spent trying to figure out the software and setting everything up and then the 20 minute stitch out, I could have custom quilted the thing four or five times over. Then the software completely froze. And I didn't know what to do and was near meltdown. We just shut everything off and I walked away for the day.

In the morning I watched the APQS video about restarting after an unplanned shutdown. I went through the steps and found out that my pattern had somehow corrupted because when I reloaded the pattern, instead of five inch high rows spread over the entire top, I had two .8" high rows for my entire quilt. Maybe that's why it was so slow the first time? So I had to start completely over. I enlisted my daughter's help to rip out the row of stitching. Even thought that was frustrating, I was okay with it because some of the stitches were super long in our first stitch out and I didn't quite have it placed correctly to start.

I reprogrammed the design, started over, and the entire quilt was stitched out in under an hour. That included changing a bobbin and figuring out how to advance the quilt and line up the pattern correctly. I didn't have weird, random long stitches either. Each row only took a few minutes, not 20.

I'm pretty pleased with how it came out, though I would make the pattern a bit smaller and not so spaced out if I quilted it again.

For my second quilt I used another of the Quilts for Kids patterns, Rail Fence. I decided to purchase a pattern, Malachite, from Urban Elementz for this one. Malachite is such a great pattern. It was super easy for me to lay out in the software. I think it took under five minutes and just nested together so nicely. It stitched out really well. I need to be super careful when advancing the rows to ensure even spacing. While I love how this looks, I could perhaps make the pattern a bit larger, especially for a kids' quilt. This one had 704 inches of stitching for each row of the pattern. There were six rows of pattern. That's a lot of stitching!

I still need to bind these. Quilts for Kids requires that the tops are machine quilted and machine bound because they need to stand up to heavy washing. I'm hoping that my math was correct when I was trying to figure out yardage. Oh, and they do need to be washed in scent-free detergent before shipping as well. No problems there since I use scent-free anyway.

Now that I've figured out the software, I'm ready to quilt for you. I can quilt virtually any digital pantograph you find online. Good places to find digital designs are Urban Elementz, Intelligent Quilting, My Creative Stitches, Quilts Complete, and Willow Leaf Studio. Check out my long arm quilting service tab for more details. I'm waiting to hear from you! :)

In other news, we are enjoying the heavy blooms of the iris and clematis this spring.

Caesar's Brother Iris

Clematis--can you see all the buds?

Another Clematis. It's so pretty!

I can't remember what this purple plant is, maybe a Penstemon, but it looks outstanding this year!

Some of our vegetables are coming along nicely. The lettuce is still really struggling. I'm sad about that because there is nothing better than fresh lettuce from the garden.

We are nearing the end of our school year, just a few days left now. I am just done with this year and looking forward to the official end. Our summer is going to be a busy one with lots of appointments, three different weeks of camp for the kids, and three different trips to Michigan since we couldn't work out the timing any better. I'm still looking forward to it.

I'll leave this today with a funny paper my son brought home from school. He made a note on the paper about what they were supposed to wear. I think he needs to pay better attention!!

In case you're wondering, it was supposed to say clothes for the woods. Big difference!

Linking with My Quilt Infatuation.

Quilter's Creative Touch for Juki

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Over the weekend my husband got the computer hooked up to my long arm. I have figured out how to turn on the tablet, though it took me a bit to figure out how to unlock the screen (thanks, Google). You should know that you have to call Grace to actually register the program. No code comes with it. I have imported design files, but haven't quite mastered how to set up a pantograph. I've joined a Facebook group and watched lots of video tutorials. I think I'm going to sew up a few Quilts for Kids quilts and then practice the quilting on those before I tackle anything fancier.