Long Arming Spring Dreams

It's not a regularly scheduled update for the sew along, but since it's rather a big deal to me, I thought it worthy of a post.

I quilted my Spring Dreams quilt today. *smiles all over!*

I began the prepping and loading yesterday. I had to piece the backing which took the better part of the afternoon. Then I decided to see how far I could get into the loading process before running out of steam. What a lot of work! It doesn't help that I forget certain aspects of efficient loading, so I find myself re-doing things which is totally an aggravation.

It has been gloomy, rainy and overcast all day - the perfect sort of day for long-arming a quilt. I got started as soon as the coffee kicked in and stayed with it until I had just one final pass of the machine on the last row of blocks. Then the interruptions began. I got a phone call. Then DH came home from a morning out and about. I knew I was due for a bobbin change on this final little bit. When I returned to the final pass of quilting, as expected, almost immediately the bobbin ran out. Fixed that, and then before getting to the end of the quilt, I think the bobbin thread broke 6 times. Arrgghh! So maddening! 

Eventually, I did finish it out and removed the quilt. We won't talk too extensively about how bad the back quilting is, especially on the last bit, but let's just say I have some issues to work out before putting in another quilt. For this quilt, we are accepting her and all her 'beauty marks.' They shall be badges of honor for us! 

If you look at the back roll in the last picture, you see the floral length of backing fabric. I had just enough of it to stretch the other backing fabric (see previous picture) adequately. Here are the two backing fabrics together from a post I wrote a week or so ago.

Below, have a glimpse of my original Spring Dreams Quilt fresh off the long arm. I now need to trim her all around, then make and apply the binding for a total finish. Hoo-rah. 

I dream of the day when I can do this long arm part of the process with less trepidation. The challenge grows less and less intimidating with each quilt I do, so obviously I need to forge ahead. If I want to be comfortable doing it, I have to work through this learning phase.

Maybe Monday when I do my regularly scheduled Sew Along Update, I will have the  binding done and can provide pictures of her with some pretty staging.

Happy Quilting, Friends!