Today, I thought I would share with you one of my other passions. It's quilting! I enjoy all aspects of quilting. The planning, picking out fabrics, cutting, sewing and watching your quilt come to life. You see, I love color. My whole life I have been attracted to all different types of fiber. I do have to admit to you that I couldn't even sew on a button until I was about 29 years old! My first love is fabric. I'll show you my stash sometime. Anyway, about 11 years ago I had a dream of owning my own quilting business. I was a stay at home mom. I really wanted to make some extra money for our family and work from home at the same time. My DH believed in me and we purchased my Gammill Quilting machine. For us it was a huge amount of money. I trusted God and dove right in. I did really well and paid for the machine in less than a year. I was booked for about 9 months in advance. After a while it took it's toll on my body. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy it. I just can't work it full time. I still manage to do several quilts for customers a year. Here is one I did for a customer over the weekend.
For those of you who don't understand how it works, let me explain. A customer comes to me with her pieced quilt top and backing. I load the quilt top, backing and batting onto separate rollers of my machine. My Gammill has a 14 foot wide table so I can work on any size quilt. I then start sewing! It's kind of like driving a car. So I drive the sewing machine to make the stitches. The three layers are sewed together and tadaa finished quilt! It took me a while to master that technique. Here is a close up of the star block quilted. I wanted the stars to look like they are spinning. It does right?
This is the finished quilt. You can click on any of the pictures and get a better look. I still adore quilting. I love to work on customers quilts too. It's is so inspiring to see what other quilters are creating.
If I can leave you with a word of advice... If you have a dream just do it!
12 comments:
That has to one of the most stunning quilts I have ever seen. I love it! Way to go
Ksee said it right, the quilt is stunning. Someday, I hope to learn to quilt. Maybe after I perfect my knitting. ;-)
Oh, how I wish you lived close to me. haha! I have a quilt top that I made for my niece, that I can't quilt. My sewing machine is old, and it won't go through all the layers....when I try, it just tears up all my piece work. So now, it sits in a box, not quite assembled. I tried hand quilting, but I just don't have it in me.
Your work is beautiful!
You did a great job! Those stars are awesome. How very cool. I have made a couple lap quilts. Nothing fancy, just strips. The quilting and the piecing is beautiful.
Your technique is lovely. My mom has a Gammill and does quilting full time.
very nice. i miss my gammil. i sent it to missiour to be overhauled, had it for 14 years without getting it serviced...too expensive to ship from hawaii and back. now i need a new stand. i have tops to quilt and i think i can do a bit of business here too. there is alot of interest in my hand dyed fabric and it looks like i will be teaching at least a half dozen dyeing classes this summer if not more. i have a scarry stash, took up a good portion of the 20' container...mark didnt understand my need to dye more until he saw the whole process from bolt to packaged fqs...he was pretty impressed and there is nothing like making a quilt of fabric that you have dyed yourself
Looks harder than driving a car to me. You did a great job on it! The "spinning stars" are so well done and I like the other stars you stitched too.
OK, Let me try this again!
Oh, My Heavens, you do BEAUTIFUL work. Love your quilting machine. And all I have done today is play in the yard!!
OK, back to the sewing room....:-)
I should proof read my comments better! LOL
bThat is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing info on the machine. My husband's aunt is a professional quilter, and I was always curious how that big machine worked!
You really have a gift!
Lovely, lovely, lovely work! good job, Barb. I want a long-arm but know that it will take away from my first love, which is the piecing. And now knitting has taken over my life and the quilting is suffering.
beautiful!!! I used to quilt but it was so hard on my eyes, so now I knit and i am not sure its much better
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