Monday, May 7, 2012

8:30

Today I loaded this quilt on the frame.  It took me about an hour, maybe less, to get it loaded properly.  Then I started quilting it.  I quilted a pantograph from the back of the machine.  The backing is a busy pattern, which I will photograph when I get it bound.  I worked on it in a couple of spurts and took it off the frame at 8:30 tonight.  I figure the quilting took me about 2 and a half hours.  I am sure that when I get better at this, those times will decrease considerably.

This quilt wasn't very large, maybe 44x44.  I'm pleased with the way it turned out, especially for a first quilt that I did on the longarm.  I did have a little bit of trouble with the thread when I hit a certain material in the top that was different from the rest of the fabrics.  It wasn't a 100% cotton material and had a sheen to it, like it might have been a sateen or something.  I found that if I went very slowly I could get through that problem area, but not before I had quite a thread nest on the bottom to deal with! 

Feeling pretty good about things right now! 

2 comments:

Glenda in Florida said...

Just wanted to say congratulations on fulfilling your dream of getting a long arm machine. I've been reading your blog for quite some time, and realized that we had corresponded via E-mail about a dozen years ago, after "meeting" on the WWQP. I'm originally from southern IL, and was living in Korea at the time. I hope you love long arm quilting--I've rented time and taken a few lessons from a local long armer, and have come to the conclusion that quilting by checkbook is the way to go for me! I'll leave all the hard work to you more creative types!

Kathy ... aka Nana said...

Woo hoo! Congratulations! Can't wait to see what you quilt next!