I had an idea about a year or so ago. I thought at some point down the road I could buy a digital laser cutting machine to make custom applique quilts. I looked into several and knew which one I wanted, but filed it under “some day”. I was on the company’s refurbished email list (their refurbs are from customers who have upgraded to a larger machine). Lo and behold, the exact machine I wanted showed up on the list last week. The short story is while this looks really small, it’s really a 90 pound machine! And it’s now sitting in my office. I have some ideas which I’ll get into in a later post, but the short story is it can be used to cut or engrave anything from fabric to acrylic for rulers and all sorts of things in between. In the meantime, one of my classes requires setting up a website and presenting a company’s products so the academic world is merging with the quilting world right in front of me. Stay tuned!

Speaking of laser cut quilts, I finished the quilting on The Watcher this afternoon.  I used 2 layers of batting – Hobbs 80/20 on the bottom and Tuscany silk on the top. This quilt has more loft than a Texan woman’s hair!

I bought several Swarovski 6mm crystals to sew on it. They have ones which can be glued on but I’ve been told it requires a special machine and since I don’t plan to put crystals on a lot of things it seemed easier just to sew them. But trying to manage around quilted lines without sewing to the back, and hiding the knot, and catching 2 teensy tiny holes was more of a challenge than I expected. So far he has just 1 crystal, at the bottom of one of the teeth. Maybe someday I’ll add more!