Lauraleefritz's Blog

Here we are in Santa Clara, California.

Booth number 406, the IntelliQuilter  booth.

The most fun is seeing you quilters and friends from the last several decades, once again…or maybe I’m off base there, maybe it is the most fun creating new artwork on the demonstration quilt with the very creative software.

So much for fun, the best of all is that we can look back at the days where the longarm quilting machine companies were mired in the dark ages of dog-eat-dog bad-vibing and refusing to be comrads, and be now thankful that the heavy hitting competitors are able to be colleagues first.

Quilt Oasis

October 2-4 2014  in Palm Springs California, a Mancuso Quilt Festival.

Look for Ron Paul and me, in ouir IntelliQuilter booth, quilting on our own Calamity (the Gammill Classic) and Wild Bill (her personal IQ computer butler).

Then:

Pacific International Quilt Festival

October 15-19  Santa Clara California, a Mancuso Quilt Festival

Again, we’ll be there with our quilting machine and IntelliQuilter, in our IntelliQuilter booth.

STOP and say HI

Join me for a trunkshow of my most unique quilts.

Take two unforgettable classes, Labor Day week at Quilt Expressions.

Here’s what I’m offering:

Trunkshow:  Tuesday Evening, September 2,   5 – 7pm

These quilts will change the way you think about quilting!  “Since 1989 Laura, with her longarm quilting machine, has been extracting and illustrating the stories she has learned to find in every quilt”.  In addition to quilting my own pieces, I’ve quilted over 18,000 customer quilts over the last 25 years.  Experience my thought processes, and the path I take to  quilt in front of me.

Sketchbook Quilting:  Tuesday  September 2,  10am – 4pm

Learn how free motion designs “move” across a quilt, and experience some brilliant ideas for designing your own continuous-line patterns.  At any experience level, you will amaze yourself with the volume of creative ideas you will unleash.  $125

 Longarm Free Motion:   Wednesday September 3,  10am – 4pm

This class is for current renters at Quilt Expressions, and is a hands-on class.  From any basic starting shape, learn to evolve a multitude of designs.  Practice what you learn, right on the spot, and take home your quilt.  All materials are provided for you.  $175

For more inspiration, visit http://www.lauraleefritz.com

 

I love those Oh yeah, duh! moments…never happened to you though., right?  Most notable was when, after 22 years sewing on my Bernina 830, I learned where there was a built-on thread cutter (on the piece that latches the foot onto the presser foot.)
Now I have a new moment to report.

I have quilted for  30 years on that machine now, and always “eyeballed” the quarter-inch seam allowance, aiming the fabric somewhere in the middle of the feeddog slot on the right hand side of the needle.
Thoroughly embarrassing to confess this, but yesterday it occurred to me to move the needle-centering knob to the right to the first click, and oh my, a flawless scant-quarter seam allowance.

Moda wool and my Early Buds sweatshirt overlay pattern, published by Golden Threads

My driveway attendants, boy are they glad I don’t eat poultry.

This weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, is the Celebration of Craftswomen show at Fort Mason Center on the bay in San Francisco.  If you are there, look me up, I have the pleasure of tending the most colorful booth in the exhibit/sale.

It is the best opportunity upcoming, for seeing all my quilts and wearables in one place, and catching the excitement of all the other vendors as well.  Fort Mason Center is where  Marina turns the corner by the Safeway store, and once you enter the compound it is in the Herbst Pavilion, one of the long buildings on the piers extending over the bay.  Open 10-5 both days, see you there!

You know those borders, waving to beat the band.

In this quilt the border has an extra inch or two for every 24″ stretch. Ouch. It takes a lot of care to quilt these without pleating the fabric.
Here’s how I quilted it, designs from the Creative Classics book C&T published last year.

What a start to the day, the wild turkeys took down my electric fence.  Let me ask you, just how many splices do you think it takes to restore 200 feet of burned out electric fence wire before you can get back to the quilting machine! I know, I asked for it, have to have those animals.  But if you knew Pecos, you’d understand.  That ram just wants to be everyone’s best friend, such a sweet character, gentle, the kind of guy any lamb would want for a dad.

So what’s up for the photo gallery today?  Here is a quilt from Carol in Missoula, a king size fish quilt.

Phew, between the trip to Montana to move bookcases and dressers, then getting the local plague, a month has dribbled by.
This week is the time to catch up on the quilting jobs I commited to, Natalia you will get your Egyptian jacket! Anita, your quilts will be done, Doris I haven’t forgotten you either!
It was a treat to get to quilt two tops for new fabric lines released at Houston Quilt Market, one was Sandi Henderson’s line for Michael Miller, one was a delicate toned collection of florals for P&B fabrics.
Not even getting any patchworks made, since the sewing time I often use for that is the busywork and demo period at the Napa Valley College quiltmaking classes I teach weekly, but this semester is full of new students, beginning quilters, all with great questions and needing the guidance I am there to offer.  Looks like time to carve out some sewing time at home.
Love to see new quilters become part of the class family and then take off running once they get the hang of quiltmaking.  That is the best part of teaching a local class that is ongoing through the years.  To see the artistic development of the participants in class is worth all the effort.

Now, here are two photos of the Egyptian Jacket:

What do YOU think, is that too complex or is it perfect,  to put into a new book of continuous designs?  Remember, it only takes practise and the right materials to do excellent work instead of mundane work.

Here is a bit of information about the blog page “header”: this is a hand-appliqued,  hand quilted piece I did, 84″ x 84″ back in 1989 or so.  It’s title is “Hang Glider over Yosemite”.  It first appeared in print in my book  The Art of Hand Applique, published by American Quilters Society (now available sometimes from Amazon.com) . Now  my machine quilting carries the same vision:  illustrations of life around us, time capsules of how we live, and a play of one design atop another just like we live in a world built upon a rich history and heritage.

Here is a photo of the whole quilt, well close to the whole quilt: