Quilting again!

 

Well, it seems that my machine is fixed, at least well enough to quilt with.  It still has a couple of quirks to it; I can’t quite put the action into words so haven’t called tech support about it yet.  I’m just glad I was able to complete a quilt without any trouble!

Of course, I was so excited to get it to my customer, Lorraine, that I forgot to take photos!  This is the sneak preview I sent her, so you’ll just have to wait until I get a photo of the full quilt from her.

This is one of the Rail Fence quilting that came from my Foundational Quilting Skills class I taught last winter through Continuing Ed.  I’m planning to invite Lorraine back to spend some time re-learning how to attach the binding because it’s been awhile since she’s been able to sew and wants to do a good job on it.  Not only was it fun to teach the class, I also made a new friend!

In the meantime, tonight I tried my hand at free motion quilting on my Singer 201-2 tonight.  It wasn’t the smoothest experience; it seems the lever wasn't "hopping" with the foot and I was getting large runs of skipped stitches.  I even swapped out the all metal hopping foot with another one I had that had a plastic stem.  It's possible, though, that I tried something too thick so I’ll try a different project another time.

Tonight’s project was a bag of scraps that will be donated to the Humane Society for crate beds.  Lots of quilters here in the Treasure Valley are making the beds but aren’t quilting them.  I think they’ll get all lumpy when washed so I wanted to add a bit of quilting and this was a perfect opportunity to try out one of my vintage machines.

It was fun, too, because I learned how to drop the feed dogs on this machine, and I’ve been wanting to figure this out for awhile.  Still, I think I prefer the longarm!

Enjoy your Halloween!

It’s Been a Busy Two Weeks!

Customer quilt complete!

I finally finished my customer’s 112” x 112” Double Irish Chain quilt!

She provided a Hobb’s washable wool batting and I quilted an overall meander in the chains, a freehand boxy leaf pattern in the inner white border and a piano key on the outer border.  I used a continuous line stencil pattern for the design in each of the setting blocks, tracing it from a printout of the stencil using the laser light on the back of the machine.  It turned out great, and my customer really likes it!

Longarm machine update

Two weekends ago I spent a full day with tech support again and we adjusted the electronics on my machine.  It seems to be sewing a lot better, but I’m taking it slow because I don’t want to create yet another problem with the customer quilt I have on the frame.  Once I get the off of there, I can put on a test piece and quilt the way I usually do.  If it works, I’ll be back in business.  If it doesn’t, then ABM is going to see if they can route a technician through Boise to get this resolved once and for all.

What’s New

This past week my mom came to visit because we got tickets to go to the Gordon Lightfoot concert!  We had a great time and even though I couldn’t take any time off work I was able to work from home.  That was awesome!

The Boise Basin Quilters quilt show was this weekend, too.  Mom isn’t a quilter and wouldn’t have had as much fun as I do when I go, so instead we went to the Farmer’s Market before her flight back home.  After I dropped her off I went to the trunk show lecture that our featured artist, Marsha McCloskey, gave.

It was raining on Sunday and with all of the activity of the busy week, I didn't want to go out, even to the quilt show!   I went, though, because I'd ordered some batting from the Winline Textiles vendor.  I knew I'd enjoy myself after I got there, and I did.  It was a really good show and I got lots of photos so I could refer to the quilting later for some ideas.  I even got to talk to my friend, Julie, afterwards.  All in all, I enjoyed the day but I got absolutely nothing done this weekend.

I've come down with a sore throat, which started yesterday, so I'm working from home today with a colleague and trying to rest a bit, too.