Home Quilting Machines, and Working with the Old Prints

 

 As far as I could go, after 3 hours of frustration!

I have this love/hate thing with my Pfaff Grandquilter. 

 The 
back of 
the quilt top, 
it was this 
far on 
Friday night!

 Just getting it 

mounted

on the frame

at 9 a.m., 

my hopes 

were 

still high!

I must say, when things are good, Momma's a happy quilting fool. I have shared with others that having just this domestic machine on a ten foot frame has allowed me to complete so many more quilts than I ever have in my lifetime. I LOVE quilting, and for as long as I can remember, I wanted a long arm. Price has never allowed me to have one, and this is a close second. We purchased it from a friend in my quilting class, who allowed me to make "my" size payments. When I quilted for someone, I would turn my check over to her. It took me 2 years to pay her off, and she discounted it $500 from her original investment. (Poor Jill, she never made anything with it. She was designing a quilting studio that most of us would only dream of, it took 2 1/2 years to build. Once she got the sewing machine and frame all set up and ready to go, she realized her physical health limitations would not let her sew at the frame for any length of time. Since she had purchased it at the beginning of the building process, she was stuck with the machine. She "quilts by check" now!)

I do not want to push a queen sized quilt through a regular throat opening EVER again. BUT, I am totally self taught on this GQ, to the point I had to watch You Tube videos to see how to even load a quilt. Trial and error has been a tough taskmaster, with the school of hard knocks degree well earned. Except, I have no support group or instructor, or even a salesperson to guide me when I'm struggling with a lesson such as tension. That is the wall I've hit this past week. ARGH! I was on a roll, completing the 2 comfort quilts on time, praise the LORD, for the Christmas gifts they were promised to be.

Then I got the wild hair to sew the gift for my friend Ginni P's (not Ginny B., lol) 50th wedding anniversary. (Yep, New Year's Eve was the party, she was married on her birthday!)

Ginni P. in black, 
with friends. 
The room 
we were in 
was an 
old school room, 
how appropriate!

BTW, I gave her a cd with pictures we took that night, and photos of the gift to come, lol. What? I bet you've had to do that before, too!

 

Donna, my teaching partner 

and friend for  20+ years, 

with her honey, Don

 

Good friends Paul and Ginny B. and Beth

  Our "like family" friends, Beth and Jerry

 

                                                       my sweet Larry and I

My friend Dora gave me some advice to join a Yahoo home quilting systems, but I've not had a light bulb moment.


Other than to see that no matter what machine you are quilting on, tension is the #1 frustration. And all the suggestions I've read are either things I've tried, or they do not relate to my little set-up. So, with a week now passed of me walking by and appreciating the sweet quilt,

 
and kicking the frame, I think I'll go back and try again tomorrow morning. I don't want it to get the best of me, but I just don't know what else to do. *sigh*

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Okay, enough grumbling. Here is the little bit of sewing I've done since last Saturday. Since I had the civil war prints out, Temecula Quilt Company has been putting up a small sampler titled "The 12 Days of Christmas" each day, and I was lured in.

One block a day, finishing up at 3 inches, Hey, what's not to love? Even being back to school, it was do-able.

Each day added one more piece to the block. this little blue X was day 11, and my biggest challenge of all of them. That 1/4 inch seam is a bugger sometimes!

I think this will be my layout eventually. It was easy enough to make 2 blocks of each, so there will be two mini quilts. Larry said it wasn't gonna be big enough 
to be a napkin. He makes me laugh-!
:-}















He thinks this is small, well, you need to check out this blog. Really, the pattern for these little houses are 3 inches, oh, my... but it sure is a cute neighborhood! I've downloaded the paper pieced version, and I want to give it a try. Her idea was to make one for each day of the year, with a larger house in the center. 366 houses one for this being a leap year. You can make it as large or as small as you want, it was inspired by a mini quilt she did with (I think?) 12 houses.


Tell me you aren't wanting too, also. Come on, Jeanneke has the sign up until the 15th of January, and she has simple ideas for a fun quilt along that's literally world wide! Who knows, mine may end up just being another "napkin" sized quilt!

 

If any of you have any suggestions on the sewing machine, let me know.  Oh, and did you notice I've lost my signature? Shucks, I threw it away, and don't remember how to put it back!! 

So, without the pretty flourish, I'll just sign off with ~

Hugs, Pokey

"Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits...

For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust."

Psalm 103:2;14