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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Progress

Kitty, my long arm, is all settled into her new home. Fitting better than I had planned with enough room for me to get around both ends and the back. An alcove instead of a closet was included on the far end to maximize my available floor space.
I have never been able to get the SLR to work on this machine. I took all the parts to Carol's to test them on her machine; they worked just fine. But when I installed them back on Kitty, nothing. I resigned to the fact that  I would have to quilt without an SLR. 
 After testing my stitches, I decided to give the SLR one more try. Maybe, just maybe, reassembling the frame and machine would set something right that had been out of sync. I held my breath as I flipped on the SLR and moved the carriage... it worked! I did a happy dance. After half an hour of adjusting the max/min speeds, I loaded "Granny's Hankie", a 2011 BOM from Denise Russart. Each day, I quilt for an hour, taking my time learning the rhythms of the SLR. 

I quilted this quilt before the basement renovation, then sewed the binding on last week. The pattern is Majestic Mountain and calls for a Jelly Roll, but I used strips from my 2-1/2" scrap strip bin. The quilting is a clam shell design using a template. This quilt will be going to survivors of Super Storm Sandy. 

Orca Bay is ready to be quilted. This photo shows it hanging sideways, as it is too long vertically. I found that if I worked on it just a few rows at a time, it didn't seem so overwhelming. Now, I need to make the backing.
My new quilting studio is so much fun. Thank you DH. You're the best! 
Til next time, 
Mary