September Update

The Easy Quilter II frame arrived and I have it all set up and ready to go. I put a small quilt sandwich of scrap material on it just to practice. The frame doesn't seem to give me the tension I want, but I think I may be able to get it tighter with practice. And of course that new machine I have is giving me fits. It also seems to have some tension issues, and bobbin issues, and needle issues, and - well just fill in the blank and that machine has an issue with it! But I'm stubborn and am going to master it. Someday.

I have been working on a couple different things. This is the last exchange for the Round Robin for the quilt guild. I have to add a round to the one I have and then turn it in at the next meeting. Will be glad when this exchange is over. It seemed to be a roadblock for me to have to finish it. I wouldn't let myself work on much else until the RR was done especially when it got closer to the next meeting.

I put together a quilt top for a friend at work who has been fighting cancer. She loves to be outside in her garden, so I cut up some 3-1/2" strips into 6-1/2" lengths and sewed into strips then sewed the strips together. The materials used were kinda country. There were seed packets, ears of corn, food labels, stuff like that on the material. Then I pieced together some yellow gingham for the back. I haven't quilted it yet, but hopefully this weekend I will get to it. I want to use the Easy Quilter but am afraid that I will mess up because I'm not that good yet!

The weather has finally cooled off after a horribly hot summer. That in itself has inspired me to do more quilting and sewing. I even pulled out the guitar quilt I'm working on for my son that I'm hand quilting. It's been a long time since I started it and I would really like to get it finished.

I have a bunch of 6" squares that I want to turn into a trip around the world quilt for my uncle. I will have to post a picture of the one I made and hand quilted. The one for my uncle will be machine quilted, but I'm going to mimic what I did by hand on the machine.

Nashville was great!

My friend and I went to Nashville a couple weeks ago for the quilt show. Wow. Words cannot describe how neat it was. I was on sensory overload when I walked into the convention center. There were so many vendors and so many quilts it was impossible to see them all in one day. Or even two. We had a great time. This was my first time in Nashville and I would definetely go again. The five hour drive wasn't too bad, I guess.

We took our sewing machines and spent a lot of time in our room working on quilt tops. We had stopped in Paducah, KY on our way down. We went to Hancock's of Paducah where I purchased, off the clearance table, some fall colors. I put them together in a fourpatch and one patch design. That top is waiting for me to decide what border to use on it.

I also am waiting for a new purchase to arrive. When we were at the show, I really wanted to purchase the Easy Quilter II system. It is a machine quilting frame that you use your home machine on. I was able to find a used system at a reasonable price and now I'm waiting for it to arrive. I really want to get a few tops pieced together so I have something to work on right away when it comes!