Flashback Friday: Pretty in Pink

So I had this great plan to have this ready and up this morning before most of you even got that first cup of coffee. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men and iPads.

The Movie

With all the beautiful flowers blossoming right now, I thought we'd share some flowery quilts we did a while ago. Back in the 80's, John Hughes' movies were super popular, especially when they starred Molly Ringwald. Using that as inspiration, we're calling today's Flashback Friday, Pretty in Pink.
Hope you enjoy them as well as your upcoming weekend!

 

Monday-New Tool Review

A plethora of threads

Obviously, every quilter knows how important good thread is to their craft. At OTS, this is no exception. We use Superior Threads for all of our machine quilting. The selection of their "Sew Fine" threads cannot be beat in color, stitching and wear. They also make the quilting easier as they leave almost no lint and are great for all batting, whether cotton, polyester or wool.

Besides helping to choose quilting designs, choosing the right thread color is another favorite task. So many people just choose thread that matches the backing or front of a quilt, but we like to put a lot of thought into our choices.

Here are some questions we ask when choosing thread:

~Would a blending color or pop-out color look better on the pieced design?

Some quilts are very simple while others have a wide variety of colors. Sometimes the quilting looks better when blended while other quilts look fantastic with a bold color choice of thread.

~What quilting design are we using and which color would highlight that?

The color can matter if we are using a unique or custom quilting design.

~What style of quilt is this?

This one's especially important as more quilters are doing vintage-styled quilts but want a modern quilt design or vice versa.

Superior Threads also has a great website and monthly thread club which we love being a part of as we get to try new colors each month. Like we've said before, we don't get any money from sharing our tools with you, but we want your machine quilting and sewing to be the best it can. Enjoy your Monday and stay sew happy!

Flashback Friday- Babies, Boxers and Motorcycle Pigs

We were busy with some fun quilts a few weeks back. 

Here they are for Flashback Friday-

Jungle Buddies- quilted with jungle leaves
 for a happy new Grandma

A close up of the Boxer quilt. It was quilted
with a dog bone design in brown.

The Boxer quilt- it's doggone awesome!

Motorcycle Pigs- The back was out of flame
fabric. It turned out great!

I couldn't resist a close-up of the flame quilt design

Monday- New Tool Review

 "If you cannot measure it, you cannot control it." ~ Lord Kelvin
"Measure twice, cut once." ~ English Proverb
"Measure seven times, cut once." ~ Russian Proverb
"Better measure short of seven, than spoil all at once." ~ Gaelic Expression

As you can tell from the above quotes, measuring has been an important part of creating for a very long time. Here at OTS, we use a few different ways to measure, and always follow one of the above adages. Today, I'll share some of those measuring tools with you.

A standard 120 inch tape

The tape that gets used the most is this standard 12-inch measuring tape. The length is important as many of the quilt tops we get run from 90-110 inches in length. We always measure the quilt top and back as well as the batting when we receive a quilt and then re-measure before it goes up on the frame. Everything is written down on our intake paper, but it's always good to be sure.

  

The second tape we use is this 14' centering tape. It is really helpful when having to adjust the size of quilt backs before they go on the frame as well as making sure everything is centered once it's ready to be quilted.

The spring tape measure

Another tape measure that we don't use a lot in quilting but in other sewing is the little spring tape measure. These generally aren't very long, but they're similar to a construction tape measure in that they will stay at a chosen length once pulled out. You simply retract the tape when you're all finished.

The FabriCalc

Jeanette has had one of these Quilter's FabriCalc for a while in the studio. It's a huge help for figuring out how much fabric you need for backing, binding, etc. when you're putting a quilt together. 

The Robert Kaufman Quilter's Little Helper

Nanci's newest favorite measuring tool is this quilting calculator from Robert Kaufman Fabrics. It's a free app (available on the app store) that helps do the same sort of thing the FabriCalc does, but it is much more user friendly. 

We're sew happy we were able to share some of our favorite ways to measure with you today. Thanks for stopping by On The Stitch!

Flash Friday- Flowers Flowers Everywhere

As spring in the Willamette Valley continues to give us gorgeous flowers, we thought we'd share some beauties of our own. From a precious little bonnet to a quilted masterpiece, we hope you enjoy this Flashback Friday.

So it's not a quilt, but I couldn't resist showing you the teeny preemie
bonnet Nanci hand-embroidered and made for a dear Instagram friend.

Love this sew much! We called it our "Anne of Green Gables" little quilt

The amazing stained glass quilt that Jeanette custom quilted 

And here is the whole stained glass quilt in all of its' beauty.
So many hours were put into both the piecing and quilting.
It is definitely an heirloom quilt!

Flashback Friday- Facebook Challenge Edition

Did you know that both Jeanette and On The Stitch are on Facebook?  One of Jeanette's crafty friends gave her a 7-Day FB challenge about sharing quilts that she's quilted. She posted some great pics. We thought we'd share a few of the beautiful quilts for you.

Day 1- Stained Glass Quilted for Customer

Day 2- One of her first ProStitcher quilts

Day #- Quilt of Valor by Jamie
in honor of Jeanette's Dad

Day 4- Quilt made by Carol Kurth,
Applique by Pam More. One of the
first free motion quilts by Jeanette. 

Day 5- Quilt by Terry K &
quilted by Jeanette

Day 6- Quilt made and quilted by
Jeanette for grandson Ashton

Jeanette quilted this for Kaye L for her kids

Be sure to visit and like us on Facebook.

Our New Machine Has a Name

Well, we have a winner in the 

"Name the New Machine" 

that has joined the OTS family! 

Congratulations to Charlene from Arkansas 

 name was drawn in the contest. 

We're sending a package of OTS goodies 

 to help her with her quilting.

And now for the name of our new "baby"...   

                                Ivy Perpetua

She has been a joy to work with so far. 

We are realizing there is a learning curve, 

but a few of the new features are amazing. 

We'll definitely be sharing more on what we think 

about our new Handiquilter Infinity, 

"Ivy Perpetua" in future blogs!

Flashback Friday- Springtime Edition

A sweet bird for a raffle quilt

 

Here's a look at some very Springy quilts

that we've made in the past~

Lots of flowers and pinwheels

A close up of a floral quilting design



Springtime stripes

 



A vintage embroidered quilt on the machine

Grains of Wood and Anna Maria Horner

My granddaughter Cari is learning how to use my longarm, and she is doing a great job-she's done three already-so she was super excited to quilt a shop sample. This particular sample is using Anna Maria Horner's latest fabric collection, Pretty Potent, and a pattern from Kaffe Fassett's book Quilts en Provence. We used a fantastic Wood Grain design with a red, gold, brown and tan variegated thread. So much fun!