Here we go loop dee loo

I finished Molly's quilt today.  I am not unhappy with the results.  I had some serious tension issues at the beginning.  When I was half way through I resolved them, for the most part.  I quilted spirals and as I made the spiral I kept repeating "Here we go Loop Dee Loo."

Steven was in the studio fixing the toilet on Sunday.

"Honey, do you remember "Here we go Loop Dee Loo?" as I quilted a spiral, first one way and then the next.

And he sang :

"Here we go Loop Dee Li."

"Who did it?"  I asked.

"Mother Goose."

Of course You tube provides various versions.  

And Odetta in a medley...Wait for it...

It sure is a catchy tune. 

 I quilted variations of spirals in the squares. 

 I used red thread on the bobbin too.  I think it looks a bit odd on the back. I think the blue on the red looks more odd on the front.  I used some of this fabric in the border.  I did not change to red when I quilted it.  No photo available, sorry.

 

I cheated on the binding.  I just folded the back over and made a hem instead of making a real binding.  Even doing only that took me a couple of hours.  I had to trim the batting and press each side.  I chose to stitch each side as I finished the prep.

 It was hot today so I sewed in the house.  The 31-15 was perfect for this job.  I put up the side extension table and put the bulk of the quilt on a chair next to me.  Not only did I have a chance to use the 31-15 (which needs oiling, I might add) but I was forced to vacuum before I could even start.  So now the dining room is all set until Christmas.....

Next up is the baby quilt.  I think that I will quilt it with flowers.  I tired of spirals toward the end and tried my hand at flowers. 

Most likely I will quilt larger flowers all across the next quilt.  I will finish it more quickly that way.

Machine quilting on a frame involves a tremendous amount of preparation. Each time you roll the quilt you must fiddle with this and adjust that.   I still believe that it is easier than pinning a quilt sandwich.  I have done that and it is tedium DEFINED.   Nor do I like hauling a huge quilt around underneath the needle.  Practice helps.  After all, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?

A room of its own

I have a mid arm quilting machine.  It is home grown with foreign parts, I believe.  I bought it  in 2010 with the intent of learning more about machine quilting.  I got a deal on the frame and I splurged on the machine.  What the heck, it was built near my home town and I am a sucker for nostalgia. 

My sewing loft is not heated and this machine lives there.  I could bring it in the house,  but I don't really have a place for it in here.  I thought that I would insultate the floor of the loft really really well and then have an electirc heater hardwired to the circut breaker and just keep the loft at 50.  Steven said the Barn is not built to code and it would be very inefficient to heat it with electricity because we could never get it insulated well enough.  I don't want to waste energy.  I can't keep a wood fire going all the time, either.  The little Jotul puts out a goodly amount of heat but it requires stoking every few hours.  Can't do that.  So, I thought, why not build a little box that sits over the Bailey, like a coffin top?  Then I could stick a light bulb in there and keep it warm that way.  We have used a light bulb under the floor boards in an old house to keep the pipes from freezing.  Heck we still stick a work light under the washer when it gets to sub zero.  Should work, right?

I had imagined a nice plywood box.  Steven suggested using rigid foam insulation and gorilla tape.  He even bought me the foam and showed me how to use his sheet rock square. Clearly the guy did not want to build me a plywood box.  I was willing to build it, but the table saw scares me and I would need to purchase the plywood, rip it down, brace the corners, screw it and glue it and mount the lamp socket.  So, while I initially resisted the idea of the rigid foam insulation, I set to work on this project today.

 

The idea is to score the cut with the utility knife and then go back, cut deeper and then cut the foil from the opposite side.  I wasn't so good at that.  Practice will improve my technique, I am sure.  

I cut three pieces 16 X 32.  (32 X 3 =96 which is aka 8 feet.)  I had no waste from that calculation.  The ends I cut 14 by 16 so that they could fit inside the sides and top.    I cut a 32 inch long piece  14 inches wide from the remaining 32 inch wide foam board. Then I cut that piece in half.  No waste there either.  I now have a a piece of rigid foam insulation that is 32 inches wide by 82 inches long left over for another project.   It appears that I know what I am doing wrt layout and piecing.  Not so.  Steven figured that whole thing out for me.

 Then I taped the whole thing together with gorilla tape and duct tape.

I wanted the light bulb mounted on the side of the box.  That way it would not touch any part of the machine.  I had bought a lamp socket at the hardware store and used it as the marker for the hole.

Then I used a very narrow knife to cut out the hole so that the lamp socket would fit.  I originally bought a nifty socket that would plug directly into an extension cord.   

But when I tried it out, the bulb was too close to the foil and it got too hot.  So I wired up the lamp socket and it works quite nicely..

These next photos I took with the camera on self timer from inside of the box.   The light bulb is no where near the machine.  

At first I used a 40 watt incandescent bulb.  

But it got way too hot.  So then I tried a 20 watt low energy bulb.  Still too warm.  The lowest wattage that I had was 13 watts.    I checked it after dinner and Steven approved.  Temperature inside the box 70 degrees.

I am a bit concerned that the mice might like it in there.  I did not do a great job cutting the end pieces and had to trim after the box was together.  I trimmed too much and there is room for the little vermin to crawl under there and warm up.  Fine, just don't shit on my machine.....  No building nests, no taking up residence.  Just get warmed up a bit.  Then leave...

I just checked it again.  68 degrees.  No mice...