Saturday, November 12, 2011

saturday quilting

I've been working more hours each week and slowly adjusting back into the schedule of not being home all day...I'm exhausted every night and don't get much quilting done, but with Christmas looming nearer every day and two quilts needing finished for gifts, I decided today to dig in and quilt one.

I didn't get as early of a start as I wanted, but I'd forgotten to get my batting out of the package last night, so I did chores around the house for a while and let it relax a bit.

So at around 10:30 this morning, my longarm looked like this:


I'd ordered green thread and it arrived Monday so I was excited all week to get started on this quilt.  I crossed my fingers that the thread would behave (with this machine, I can definitely tell a difference in thread quality - it will sew with everything I've tried, but the better the thread, the less trouble I have) and got going.

It went well.  And I got braver as I went.

Two M-size bobbins later, around 4:30 (which included a phone call from my mom and take-out from Wendy's for lunch), this is what my longarm looked like:


Quilt done, removed and trimmed, ready for binding!

I had fun with those swirlies in the checkerboard.  I've loved them since before I got my longarm and am so excited to be able to do them reasonably well.  Now I have to learn how to cover a quilt with them - so far I've just done borders.

I'll get a better photo and show the whole quilt, but since it's a Christmas present, I don't want to spoil anything just in case this blog is found by the recipient!

Did you quilt today?

Happy quilting!
Katie

8 comments:

Marsha B said...

That quilt is looking great! I like the swirls, too. It will be a beautiful Christmas gift. My machine is in the shop for a cleaning, hope to have it back next week, but I ironed a bunch of fabric so I can start cutting out a new quilt tomorrow. I also need to mark the border of my Henrietta quilt to have it ready to stitch tonight. Sounds like we both have had productive days!

A Left-Handed Quilter said...

Love your quilt!! And your swirlies!! About your batting - I just take mine out of the bag - unfold it - and toss it in the dryer on "Fluff - Air Only" (no heat) for about fifteen minutes. It fluffs up nicely with no wrinkles. I usually use polyester low-loft - so I'm not sure how well it would work on other types of batting - but you could give it a try. ;))

---"Love" said...

Someone you know is going to be VERY happy, come Christmas! That looks great! Glad you had such a good day! ---"Love"

canuckquilter said...

Love the swirls! No quilting here today :(

a good yarn said...

Working sure bites into quilting time. How fun to have a long arm! I like those swirls too. ann :-)

Liriopia said...

Well done! That quilt has been so good for you and will be welcome by the recipient. And, no, haven't done any quilting for at least 6 to 8 weeks. Same reason. Too tired after work.

Liri

Barb said...

Love this quilt.....

Anonymous said...

You are doing very well with your machine quilting.

Have I shared this site with you before? Or have you discovered it on your own? It is Machine Quilters Resource, and it has all sorts of stuff on Machine Quilting.

http://mqresource.com/forum/index.php?app=ccs

They changed their page, this is the new one.

-Alice