Another Quick Quilted Quilt

Nothing to complain about over here; I am having the time of my life! I have been so happily quilting away on my Tin Lizzie that I am just beside myself with glee.

Yes, quilting so successfully has been a true motivator! I am purposely choosing small-ish quilts to quilt, and those several speedy finishes are just the thing for keeping me focused. 

Newly removed from the frame is this 3-Yard quilt I made at a quilt retreat way back in April 2022. It was my first one, and a gift from quilty-friend Jan. The fabrics are French General and the pattern is called Best Friends. She gifted the book as well.

I loaded this quilt onto the machine around 8pm yesterday and by midnight I was finished quilting. I left the trimming and removal for this morning. And now I have the binding attached and am ready for hand-stitching tomorrow when we Frankfort Girls meet at Helen's. Yay for another quick finish!!

My quilting on this is far from remarkable. I had a hard time seeing where I'd already quilted, and so there are several places where I've overlapped. The prints are so busy, however, that it won't be readily apparent. The backing is busy, too, so I plan to simply ignore the quilting imperfections.

I had remnants of French General bindings, so I used them up on this quilt. It will be a fine utility quilt to throw over my lap or to keep my toes warm! The quilting was loose meandering and the machine quilted like a dream.

I'll get right to work on stitching this binding. Having one more finish to check off my to-do list is a real boost to my sense of accomplishment!

My next quilt on the longarm will take me into a new frontier: I will be switching the handles around to the back and using a pantograph for quilting a pre-determined design. When I got the Tin Lizzie from my friend Sharon, (long story; click here) she included all the related paraphernalia - several pantos were among those things. I am sorta' excited to finally be trying this!

Hope you are working on a project you are loving! 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Facing My Fears

That title is quite dramatic, don't you think? Perhaps you think I have some riveting tabloid news-type material to share in today's post. Alas, the dramatic title is simply referring to my reluctance to make myself sew on the Tin Lizzie long-arm machine that's been with me now for 6 months.

Back in November, my dear friend Sharon O. gifted me her barely used Tin Lizzie. I wrote about her generosity here. With the help of our husbands, we brought the machine here in early December. DH and I then assembled it relatively easily. In the intervening months, I have spent some time fiddling with things like tension and attempting to get the hang of quilting. I became aggravated at threads breaking, stitches skipping and improperly formed stitches. It seemed I would never get it figured out. Of course, I needed to have more determination; instead, I'd just close the door and ignore it for another month. I gave up pretty easily, I am ashamed to admit.

Early this month, when all the Frankfort girls went on that shopping trip to eastern Ohio, I spoke at length with a shop owner who knows Tin Lizzies really well. He was extraordinarily helpful with pointing out some obvious tips and offering suggestions that I have been able to use with encouraging success.

The result of this is that I have put two pieces of fabric together with a batting, loaded it onto the long arm, and have quilted with satisfying results. I was just tooling along great until I ran out of bobbin thread. I hadn't thought to load a second bobbin, so I stopped. I should make myself get back to work on it because I was very happy that mostly everything was going along so well.

Tomorrow morning the Frankfort girls will be here for sewing. I need to do a fair amount of housekeeping - vacuum, dust, sweep, etc. Mostly, we have clutter, so a thorough straightening-up is in order. We always need a reason to tidy things up around her. *grin*

It's been awhile since I joined a linky party, so why don't you go take a peek at Kelly's Quilt Infatuation to see her gorgeous churn dash quilt!? I do love those churn dash quilts, and this one is quite striking. Check out the linky party participants, too!

Hope you are having a great day!
Happy Quilting, Friends!

Odds and Ends

The jobs in the quilting room have been either secret or small lately. It's that time of year, you know. I have bits of things to share, so I will combine a few in today's post.

First, I helped Claudia for a bit on Friday afternoon (last week) on a t-shirt quilt she is making. It will be a nice-sized quilt, and she is currently in the process of making the last of her blocks. We discussed the size of her sashing strips, the usefulness of cornerstones, the width of the borders, etc.  She has become so knowledgeable in her new-found hobby! I am quite proud of her fantastic progress.

Next, I will give you a sneak-peak at some Santa-sewing I did on Sunday afternoon. I can't wait to share the entire project with you!

And last, for today anyway, is this cheesy picture of yours truly just after DH and I finished putting the long-arm machine together. We have both remarked that this was not nearly the intimidating job we feared it would be. Now I just need to find a few free minutes to play around with it!

For now, that's all I've got. I did sew with Sharon yesterday, so I have some progress on my December UFO to share. It is going to be so nice not to have to think about UFOs for awhile! Yes, I do still have more, but I probably won't even think of working on one for several months! This year of UFOs has done me in!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Major Announcement

Few times in one's life does one owe so much to one person, but I am the grateful recipient of the most amazing gift ever. My quilting friend Sharon O. GIFTED her long-unused Tin Lizzie Eighteen to me!

Most of us already know that quilters are among the most generous folks ever, and Sharon's kindness is truly one of the most generous acts of kindness I have ever been privileged to receive!

To say that I am over-the-moon excited about this would be putting it mildly. This news has been brewing in the background of things you've read here for several weeks, and today I have finally taken ownership - DH and I moved it from Sharon's basement to our basement, with the help of Sharon's DH Fred.

This is the machine - and in the background, you can see Sharon and Fred. Sharon bought this Tin Lizzie just after she retired in 2001. Every time she was ready to make some progress at using it and becoming familiar with it, she had a major health situation or surgery to contend with. At this point in time, she says she is just plain out of the mood to try to figure it out.

The pictures above, are from Sharon's - I took many so that I could be certain to put it back together properly. Now, below, you will see our basement. When she made this incredibly generous offer, our mostly-finished basement looked quite junky.

Since the kids have all left home and no one goes down here with friends to watch movies and hang out, the space had become a catch-all for stuff we needed to deal with, but , you know the old phrase - out of sight, out of mind! I suppose most people do this to some degree or another. I fear we are masters at it, unfortunately!

We - and I have to give great credit to Kevin, my dear husband, for he has been my best encourager through all of this - dedicated a couple of weeks to some serious weeding out - keeping, donating and trashing as much as we could, and as of last night, here is where Tin Lizzie will live.

We did pretty good, didn't we? Now don't go thinking that all that stuff has been dealt with. Just off to the right side of this picture is a pool table laden with stacks of things that still must be sorted and stored.

This morning, DH and I went over to Sharon's, dismantled the Tin Lizzie, and brought her to her new home. Below, she is waiting like a puzzle to be put back together. I plan to get right on that this evening.

And when that base is built and leveled, this sewing unit will join it and I will begin experimenting with long-arm quilting!

Isn't this exciting??

Now, however, I am off to Claudia's to help her with a t-shirt quilt, and later tonight, our Mennonite neighbors are coming to sing Christmas carols! What a busy day!

Happy Quilting, Friends!