SNOWMEN QUILT QUILTING

 I loaded the Snowmen quilt onto the longarm this morning and set up a pantograph that has swirls and snowflakes.  Everything was going just great.  The panto was stitching out beautifully until we got to the last row when things started to go awry.

First, there was two thread breaks for no apparent reason.  Then *crash*  the machine made a horrible noise and stopped with a alarming icon saying the machine was jammed.  The needle had come down onto the plastic cup of the #74 foot and was jammed there.  Using the hand wheel I was able to lift the needle up, but the foot's cup was broken (of course it was, it's a poorly designed plastic cup and this is actually the second one I've had that has broke- at $150 each). I gave up for the day and shut it down.

I don't understand what happened.  How could the needle move enough to not go down in the stitch hole, but move over and strike the cup?

Hopefully, the needle bar isn't bent or something.  

COLOR STAR QUILTED

 I've been busy doing other stuff the last few days and getting the business B&O Taxes filed and paid by the end of the month. 

But, today I was back to quilt Color Star on the longarm.

And now it is officially quilted and off the machine.

NYC QUILTED

I finished the quilting on the NYC quilt today.  Erik was a great help.

 

HUGS AND KISSES DONE

 I finished the quilting on Hugs and Kisses today.  It has ruler work all over.  I used a small circle to make point-to-point arcs in the squares (what is this pattern called?  I forgot).  Then I outlined the Xs and Os and put straight lines, spaced an inch apart, behind them.  I alternated the direction of the lines in each square.

COMPUTER ILLS

 The computer on the Q24 won't turn on now.  But, I've been able to keep stitching.  In fact, Erik is stitching beautifully.  I got another row quilted before I ended for the day.

Then I called Sewing Machine Service and spoke with Cevin.  I explained the problem and he asked me to check a few things.  He said he'd call Bernina and get some advise and call me back.

A short time later, he called with instructions.  Apparently, there is a little battery inside the computer that went dead and needed to be replaced.  I ran to McLendon's Hardware and got the battery.  Then I asked Darrell to help me.  He did pretty much the whole thing.  Which is wonderful.  He always has the right tools.

And, lo, that fixed it.  It's ready to go now.

CHARMED, I'M SURE

 I loaded this small quilt yesterday and got it partially quilted.  We finished it up today.  

The quilt is made from a Charm Pack of 5" squares by Art Gallery, spaced with some strips in a black and white print.

I used Karlee Porter's Graffiti Quilting pack of designs for the pantograph.  It quilted out really nice, if somewhat slowly.  I'm really impressed with it.

While this was going on I started sewing together the Voltron! parts and pieces I had thrown up on the design wall yesterday.

FLING IS QUILTED

 I finished the quilting on the Fling quilt.

P.S. Jelly is fine now.  She woke up this morning and the 'hives' were all gone and she doesn't appear to be itchy.

CITY NOISE QUILTED

 I finished the quilting on City Noise this morning.

CRUSHING IT QUILTED

 I finally finished the quilting on Crushing It.  I had Erik do it, because what I had planned was going to take too long.

Go, Erik, go.  He did a beautiful job.

QUILTING XXIII

This month's UFO Challenge with Quilting Mayhem in Snohomish is #1, which is my XXIII quilt.

I had a backing already made.  The label said 2022 on it, so I added 2023 and loaded it onto the Q24, Erik the Bold a few days ago.  I'm using Dream Cotton Select batting and a cream colored thread by Wonderfil.

Here we go.  I want to do a combination of free-motion, ruler work and computer guided.  This quilt is going to be a test and practice quilt.

INTERTWINE QUILTED

 I had loaded Intertwine onto the longarm yesterday and set up a pantograph program.  I had a few problems and didn't get much done.  In fact, after picking out some bad starts, I gave up and decided to come back to the top later.   I was very frustrated.  

Today, after I couldn't unlink two rows, and it refused to quilt the top row of the two.  I discarded the whole program.  I just had the one row up and moved it on the computer to line it up with each previous row.  It was tedious, but I got the quilting done.  

REDSTONE LAMP QUILTED

 I spent almost the whole day watching Erik the Bold (my Q24) quilt the Redstone Lamp quilt.  

And while he was doing that, I was busy cutting up the garments I got at the Goodwill a while back.  I wanted to use these 'used' fabrics to make a soft improv quilt.

There was a lot of stuff cut off and destined for the trash.

I love these colors.

Here's the quilt and Erik got it done - with the quilting anyway.

If you're wondering why I named it Redstone Lamp.  I got it from Minecraft. 

 This is a Redstone Lamp...

BASTING A QUILT

 I thought I'd try basting a quilt fully before quilting it on the longarm.  It took a couple hours.  

I'm curious if this will make any difference and help keep it straight and square.

This is "Redstone Lamp" quilt.  It was made back around 1998-9.  We had done a Red Swap at Pieces.  Each participant would contribute a bunch of red 6" squares and we'd trade so everyone ended up with a bunch of different fabrics.  Then, I think we did a red and white exchange, too.  This quilt was one of the one's I made with the reds. The other being "Red Love"  which was donated to the folks in California that lost everything to wildfires.  I hope it found a good home.  Hopefully I can find this one a good home, too.

DAY 17

 Day 17 andha the prompt is "Lunch" for #30daysketchbookchallenge.

I had to quickly take a photo of Darrell's lunch before it was gone.

This is a pen and ink drawing with watercolors.

But, before I drew this, I had loaded Wildflower onto the Q24 and started quilting it.  Of course, things had to start out badly.  But, I sorted it out and we continued on and it quilted beautifully.

DEVOLVE OFF THE LONGARM

 I finally finished the last of the quilting on Devolve.  It's all straight-line horizontal quilting, randomly spaced about 1/4" or so apart.  Looks good.

NINE-PATCH PI QUILTED

 I finally finished the quilting on the Nine-Patch Pi Quilt.

It's fabulous!

WAKE UP ERIK

 It's been quite a while since I used my longarm, Erik.  I've been recovering from my left knee replacement.  But, I loaded the Eddy quilt's backing onto him today.

I looked for batting and all I could find was a Hobbs Tuscany cotton/wool blend.  I guess I'll have to use that.  Then I ordered some small Dream Cotton battings, which won't be here until next week.

RED BRUSH

 Since the rainbow makeup brush has worked so well to keep my 770 Bernina clean and dusted, I bought a red one for the Q24.

Red for Bernina!

FUN WITH QUILTING

 This new machine, Erik, is a dream to use.  I'm having fun quilting on the big flower, Amity Baroque.  

GOING BIG!

 Have I mentioned that I wasn't happy with the limitations of the 9-foot Bernina longarm?  I've been regretting getting such a small machine.  I thought it would be able to handle just about the same width as my old 10-foot, but no, I was really wrong.  The Bernina 9-foot will only take, officially a 72" wide quilt.  I did manage to get that 77-1/2" on there though.  But it was a stretch. 

So, I enquired about changing the small frame in for a 12-foot.  I was told it was possible, but it would cost me!

But, what the hell is money for, if not to make one happy?

Today was the day they swapped it out.

The 9-foot - Before

The 12-foot - After

It fits!  There's less room going around it, but it was room that was basically unused before.  One of the benefits, however, is all that space underneath.  Now, all of the boxes I had stored behind the old one, can be stored under this one - out of sight and out of the way of the cabinets behind.