Friday, March 12, 2010

This made me feel goooooood.......

see this computer screen and all these buttons?

quilting in progress....


moving right along....
rather nice stitches.......




pretty even stitches......right?.........





and just as pretty on the back!!
Well girls there is a story behind this post..............
Where do I begin? OK....remember I drove all the way across the state to get this machine that I thought was such a good bargain, that I found on Craigslist?
I played with it at the ladies home that I bought it from and when I got her home she sewed beautifully!! I was so looking forward to getting a quilt ready for my frames and give her a try in there. So several weeks ago I slapped a layer cake (40 ~ 10" squares of fabrics)
together that I have had for a while. I am using a thrift store sheet that has some special detail that you can't see in the pictures yet, for the backing. I wrestled with my frames and getting this quilt in the frames for almost half a day that day.
I was so excited to see how my baby would do. She has a longer arm than my other machines but she is still not a long arm. I was hoping the difference in the length would be tolerable and make the job a little easier on me.
I played with the machine on the table first, wound all my bobbins and stippled on some scraps and it was just lovely.
When I got her in the frames it was "Katie Bar The Door" all you know what broke loose in my sewing room!!!! Not kidding! Everything that could go wrong went wrong with this machine.
The needle just fell out! I broke needles, I broke threads, The stitching was absolutely horrible.
I took the machine out of the frames and worked with her for at least 3 hours that afternoon and I couldn't get her to hardly sew a stitch. Robin was sitting beside me with the manual and we tried everything in our power to get her sewing. Nothing worked.
So I just got up and walked away from the sewing room and I have not been back until today.
I told no one except for Terri of this ordeal because it was too painful to talk about.
I was ready to give up quilting and throw everything out the window into the fish pond.
I left it all out of sight and out of mind for all these weeks now.
When I went up there today......I didn't feel like doing much of anything, so I thought I would just sit down and see if I could make her sew one final time.
It worked!!
It was sewing beautifully again in no time.
I said a big prayer asking the Lord for patience as I put her back in the frame to not lose my temper and shoot her.
God is good!!
I have over half of the quilt finished and I am so pleased with the results!
Apparently I did not know how to change the thread tension and save it in the computer. For some reason it just fell into place today. I did not even pick up the manual either!
Maybe I can think clearer with a foggy stuffy brain???
So I am not ready to throw her in the pond yet. Danny was happy and came upstairs and watched me quilt for a while and told me several things he can do to the frames to make them a litlle easier for me to work with....woowooooo!!!!!! Now just getting him to do that!!!!
Yes this really made me forget for a while that I was so sick.....then the Excedrin wore off again!!!! I am going to finish this quilt, that is just for me...maybe for the midnight boatrides that we have every now and again. Then I have to get to work on some other UFO's and some new projects that I have in mind....like a log cabin quilt like Terri's!!!




7 comments:

Brenda said...

Congratulations !! On feeling like working on the quilt ... On getting the fancy machine to do it's fancy stuff ... On taking time to let God help with the situation! He is pretty cool that way! :D

Kim said...

Isn't it great to see Him at work? Even in the little things? Pretty amazing! Having your quilt in frames makes it look soooo easy. You're going to have to give me a lesson on that "pretty please"! I struggle with wrestling my layers through the machine by hand and get into some pretty stressful situations. Have fun with your fabric!!

Unknown said...

Thanks Brenda!!! Yeah he's pretty cool!!!!!!!!!!

Kim ~ Thanks for telling me it looks easy cause I didn't want anyone to see me struggling with this quilt!!! LOL!!! That is why I talked Danny into buying me these frames for a birthday a couple years ago!! It just wears me out trying to quilt on a machine not in a frame. Of course the grippy gloves really help with that. Do you use them? It's amazing how much easier life is with them!
I can say that the throat (Space between the needle and the right side of the machine) needs to be as big as you can get to accomodate a larger quilt. I also watched a youtube video about quilting and she said not to roll your quilt in a roll in the throat of the machine. She just sorta feed the whole quilt thru working on a small space at a time. I'll have to see if I can find that one for you. I tried it and it seems to be easier.

Your quilts are beautiful!!! I don't think there is anything that I can teach you!!!! If you get frames like mine I can help you, maybe!!!!!

Amanda said...

I wondered why you haven't had any quilt posts for a while.

Lorilee said...

wow, that is some machine. I feel your angst! I have a serger that I am just learning to use. Sewing machines can be SO frustrating. I have only made one quilt and I hand quilted it. (which I loved doing, but it IS time consuming).
Blessings,
Lorilee

OurCrazyFarm said...

Beautiful! Would you please, please, please do another one of your wonderful tutorials and show us how to use those frames? I am struggling with getting a nice flat stippled quilt when I'm done. You can just send that baby up here next time you get mad at her and I promise to take really good care of her:)))) Can't wait to see your log cabin!

Thistle Cove Farm said...

Very impressive...both the quilt and allowing God to work -smile-.