Lisa Kay Knits... and Quilts!

I have started a quilting website, designed to advertise longarm quilting services. The new website went live last night at lisakaywilson.site. (The .com was taken!) As part of starting the web site and kicking off my business, I created a company logo on Looka . That was fun. I love it!  Happy Quilting, Lisa Kay

How much of a difference does wet-blocking make?  I took "before blocking" and "after blocking" shots of the finished Abstracts in April , 4/21 Skill Builders Club. The "before blocking" case had some squirrelly places that would not lie flat, however coaxed. The "after blocking" still was not perfectly flat, but showed a marked improvement.  After Blocking: Before Blocking (I coaxed these as flat as possible; trouble spots are more obvious on the back): I was worried that I wouldn't like the the "traditional" look of the washed quilting, for the modern style of this quilt, but I ended up liking it. I think I'm going to be a blocking fan. Maybe it is my knitting background. I wet-blocked everything except maybe an occasional pair of socks.  Here are a few close-ups of the blocked quilt: I am not sure how I'll manage blocking a king size quilt. In the past, I've taken pictures of king-sized quilts laid out in the living r...

I finished quilting, bound, and wet blocked the second trio of Jumpstarters , the previous Skill Builder Club (SBC) sets, from Methodist Hill Quilt Studio.  I learned a lot and feel like I'm ready to take on some of my own projects... though I'm likely to do a few more SBCs, first. "Abstracts In April" is already in the post-quilting "burying ends" phase... I can't tell you how awesome the club sets are, with all the associated instruction for how to do each section of each project. The software is complicated enough that having such a "walk thru" is totally invaluable! I joked with Rob from At the Heart of Quilting, when he set up my machine, about getting eight Skill Builders done in a weekend... Well, it wasn't quite that fast. I'm on my 14th day (not counting install day), and I've just taken the seventh off the frame (pictures of that one are coming...). I did have to work my "day job" during the first week of that ti...

 We have chipmunks living in the yard, and we have sort of adopted one (him, her, them, not sure), and we refer to it as Alvin. It may be more than one, but we've only seen one at a time. We put out sunflower seeds (which get pouched and taken away in minutes), and even a water bowl. Alvin is on Chris' naughty list, today, though. He got caught in the blackberry patch. Oh, those precious blackberries. Chris said, "Suddenly, I'm not as fond of Alvin." Fat and sassy little burglar, isn't he? Happy Quilting, Lisa Kay

 Of the six Jumpstarters  in the Skill Builders Club sets, I'm on the sixth one, the August 2019 set of placemats. I have all four basted and Stitched in the Ditch (SID), and I finished quilting the first one. I had a mishap last night, as I was just about to change thread for the last time on the fifth Jumpstarter, the May 2019 Border Corner set. I hit the "single stitch" button while my finger was too close to the needle. It both stabbed and crushed my finger. I also pulled my finger away, instinctively, and the needle ripped sideways out of the little bit of meat it had caught. Ouch. I'll see if I can get into the doctor, tomorrow, and get a tetanus shot. Mine is eleven years old, so just out of date. Here's the border corner project, just before putting the white thread on for the cross-hatching. I finished it today, and I'll get some pics after I put the binding on... Happy Quilting, Lisa Kay

 I have finished my first Jumpstarter set, the first trio of Skill Builder Clubs (SBC) from Methodist Hill Quilt Studio. The sets are a great way to get under way, as the instructions and videos are made for the purpose! The first SBC was shown quilted in my last post, but now I have it bound. This lesson focused on "pattern to boundary." The second SBC in the first Jumpstarter trio is the Edge to Edge (E2E) lesson. I tried to line the "circles" up with the squares, but the E2E mode isn't really suited to tweaking in the blocks.... Finally, the third lesson in the first Jumpstarter set is the "Repeat Pattern" mode, with a wide "modern" design.  After doing handwork all day, yesterday, binding the first three projects, I started another quilt, tonight, the first one in the second Jumpstarter trio... the first "custom" lesson.  So fun! Happy Quilting, Lisa Kay

 An exciting day, indeed, and my Statler is home. It is a tight fit. Rob even left off the perpendicular handle on the pick up bar's wheel, which leaves just enough room for me to scoot around the end. (Time to diet.) You can see the first practice piece in place. Super fun. After Rob left, I quilted my first Skill Builder's Club from Methodist Hill Quilt Studio. I'm certainly learning. My first Stitch in the Ditch (SID) was a bit wonky...  It was an awesome day. Rob from At The Heart of Quilting was super nice and very helpful. What a cool job! It must be so great to go meet people who are so happy to see you. :) I am so excited! I have two full days of regular work this week. It will be hard to concentrate!  Happy Quilting! Lisa Kay

 As I am twitching and squirming about, waiting for my Gammill Statler to arrive (two hours and forty minutes to go...), I thought I'd share some pictures of the custom quilt rack that Chris had made for my birthday. It just arrived on Monday. Yes, that is a few days late... but it was being made... to specifications. You gotta love this man! Yes, yes, I have it upside down in the photo. The top of the bars go parallel to the floor, of course. I haven't decided where to hang it. It will have to be on a stud, certainly. It will also take up a fair amount of space, once the four arms are loaded and sort of overlapping each other. How cool is that? It's beautiful. It was made at Kunz Carpentry in Trenton, IL. The workmanship is incredible. Chris said that they liked the design and said they should have made two... one for display in the shop! When Chris was telling me I'd have to wait for my birthday present, he said he had "drafted" something. I didn't figu...

 My dear friend, Babs, made a beautiful beaded ornament for my birthday, focused on the quilting theme. I am amazed at the little scissors and spools of thread, and the workmanship blows me away.  Babs shares my excitement for the long arm arriving this week! Happy Quilting! Lisa Kay

How do you start learning to use a long arm? There are so many teaching resources available, it has been a bit of a fire hose, and often hard to choose. I found a resource I really like, specifically aimed at the Gammill Statler, the long arm that I have on order. The Methodist Hill Quilt Studio has a monthly "Skill Builders Club" from Joyce Lundrigan and Joan Knight that includes piecing and quilting instructions, a video link, and digital designs for the quilting. I joined a couple days before the April period ended (the 15th), and so now I have both April and May instructions. Even better, club members can download previous months, and there are six "Jumpstarter" sets from early subscriptions that teach some basics. I have pieced the first three Jumpstarter tops, January 2019 , February 2019 , and March 2019 , which will give me some great learning pieces to do as part of getting acclimated. Here are my pieced tops, and their plain white backings, queued up for ...

 Things, they are a' changin'... I have been working hard on getting the end of the master bedroom cleaned out to make space for the long arm quilting machine. I had to disassemble and take out the desk, and I took down the hand-quilting frame... which I have to admit I will unlikely use again.   With the bed still in the same place, I expected to have a 6' x 14' space for the 12' frame. That is cutting it pretty close, given the space needed to pass around all sides, loading the quilt, and allowing the machine about 1.5' of travel behind the table. Chris got involved and suggested swapping the bed and the dresser (which was right behind me when taking the photo, above). That made things a little closer together on the "bedroom side" of the room, but added 2.5' to the "quilting side" of the room. Yay! Chris has been a really good sport about the whole thing. He also mounted a shelf for bins... which means I will still have a lot of open ...

Hello after a long hiatus... I have been distracted down a different road, recently, that of quilting. I still knit, also, but quilting seems to be my main passion, lately. I made several last year, even hand quilting two myself, but also having some machine quilted by others (mainly Itchin' To Be Stitchin' in Staunton, IL). I'll include some pictures of last year's quilts at the bottom. It tugs at my "do it yourself" gene to pay someone else to quilt my quilts, but I just haven't been able to manage large quilts on my home sewing machine. I'd really like to get a long arm quilting machine, and I'm looking and scheming, but I'm not quite there. Maybe soon. I'm particularly intrigued by the combination of ruler work and free motion quilting (FMQ) done by Judi Madsen . In addition to her quilting, she and her husband run an on-line shop, Green Fairy Quilts . She's my hero. I've watched all three of her on-line/DVD quilt classes (at ...

Back in late 2007, my mom and I were shopping at the Galleria in St. Louis, and we happened upon this sweater in Brooks Brothers. I had never actually bought anything in Brooks Brothers, and it seemed at little bit "out of my league," to be entirely honest. I thought the pink and brown Fair Isle sweater was the bee's knees, and my mom purchased it for me as my Christmas present that year. While it was my first thing from Brooks Brothers, it wasn't the last. They usually have a few Fair Isle sweaters each year, and I keep an eye on them. It is one of the few stores where I've seen wool Fair Isle sweaters, ready-made. Fair Isle is usually hard to find, often only in two colors, and typically not wool. The wool yarn, to knit it yourself, is generally more expensive than a store-bought sweater (even at Brooks Brothers), and a store-bought sweater is instant gratification! One of the benefits, also, of a store-bought sweater is that they are machine-knit, which all...