CaRLCA PAC Fundraising Quilt

I'm using an over-sized freehand pebble pattern.

 Except for a little practice quilt that I did for our Relief Society group that makes baby quilts for new moms and lap quilts for seniors in rest homes, this is my first serious attempt to use my new Brother sewing machine and quilt frame. (See post for 14 Jan 2012, "My Brother's Been Framed" )  It was a learning experience. For one thing, I thought we followed instructions correctly, but turned out we had the take-up pole on backwards. The fabric should have been rolling onto the pole from the underside so that the stitching area stayed flat. I had a lot of skipped stitches and tying off on the first half of the quilt because of the upward slope going over the pole.

The auto-stitcher on the arm is touchy, but worth it--a lot easier than using a foot pedal.

YES I am gritting my teeth! It took me at least half the quilt before I started to feel comfortable quilting on the frame.

I did this quilt in two halves, removing the take-up lead cloth from the one side and attaching it to the other side for the second half of the stitching. Buck and I also swapped the take-up pole around so that the quilt stayed flat. What a big difference! I have decided that this machine quilting, even without it being a long-arm, is the only way to go. I may never hand-quilt another piece again, except for my Civil War Sampler quilt that is still in the works. Even the blocks I have stitched together by hand, trying to keep it fairly authentic.

The finished quilt.

Fabric design has both a beach and stamp theme.

Miss Bootsie had to check it out.

 I hurriedly stitched on the binding Friday in an effort to get pictures of the quilt before I lost all my light. Unfortunately, it was still late enough there was quite a bit of shadow.

I liked my name label so well that I cut out a bunch of stamps from the scraps to make more to put on other quilting projects that I finish. They say every quilter should put something on with their name and the date finished so that generations down the line, people will know who created the quilt. I have been a little lax on that score. I even sent my sister's quilt to her without a name label. Either that, or a part of me is smart enough to know I am probably better off if no one can connect the quilts with me.

My Brother's Been Framed

The quilt frame arrived several days ago, but I was not ready to set it up. First I needed to clean out a hole in my studio (aka junk room). I started by unloading two large shelf units and stacking all the keeper stuff on top of my desk. Then the shelf units went outside so I had room to maneuver while I straightened, consolidated and put things away. What was left filled half the garbage can except for the two big boxes that went inside to be burned. My craft table joined the camping equipment in the shop. My desk is now my craft table.

At last, "the hole".

I could actually see more than three square feet of floor. Buck had helped my stack the two plastic units next to the china hutch (aka book case, junk-catcher). Next project was to take the two former medical file cabinets I use for fabric storage and move them to face the quilt frame.

By today, the fabric cabinets have been turned to form a false wall, the storage shelves had been returned to the building and "the hole" is even bigger. The jury is still out whether or not the file cabinet will remain where it is, but Buck and I began to assemble the quilt frame.

This is the second quilt frame he has helped me put together in the last three years. (I still have my wooden hand-quilting frame.) Please don't bring that up around him, though, because that is kind of a sore subject with him.

I ended up being the Allen wrench turner. Halfway through he got tired of waiting for me to use the hand tools. He brought in his power impact. Zip-zip! Done!

We left the cardboard and styrofoam trash outside. Trust me, there was plenty of it.

Three hours hours later, my Brother sewing machine was framed. Now I need to get busy and finish sewing the blocks for my next quilt.