Slow progress and more spending

As said in my previous post I am making a serious attempt to finish the All stacked up quilt.  I think this would be such a lovely quilt to get some good practise in on the longarm but gosh then things like this happen and it can easily make me give up again.

Fortunately I didn’t, I unpicked and fixed the problem to keep going.

I also purchased Glide thread for the longarm as most Q’nique owners claim this is the machines’ favourite.  I will have to finish a quilt to see if this is true.

It seems darkest Africa finally has a decent importer in our midst.  Remember the rulers I ordered on 14 March?  Well, they arrived today 2 weeks and 1 day after I placed the order and these were from 2 different suppliers in the US.  I am over the moon!

The best part about this importer is that when I could not order zippers for my leader cloths due to the US supplier not being prepared to deliver to my address, I contacted Importitall.co.za with the link of what I wanted and within an hour, I got a quote.  So I do believe in two more weeks’ time, I will have these too.  Even more reason to finish a quilt top.

For now however I am going to take a lengthy afternoon nap as both the grandkids are spending the Easter weekend with us and I simply don’t have the energy they seem to have.  So no more blog posts for a while as I’m sure I’ll need the week after Easter just to get myself and my thoughts off crayons, paint and play dough before I can talk quilt again.

Your expenses do not quite stop here

I recently read an article about purchasing a longarm and one of the things that rang extremely true was when the author wrote “your expenses do not stop here”,  I could immediately relate.

You pay an arm and a leg for the machine and frame, then realise these machines have a mind of their own and some prefer only certain threads and suddenly you find yourself shopping for threads you’ve never even heard of or used.  Different needles, different pins or zippers for the leader cloths, 

different marking tools, you need a ruler base, different bobbins and the list seems never ending.  This is for a non-computerised machine; I don’t even want to think about the cost to have that done.

My latest purchase was rear handles and a laser and attachment which hubby fitted this weekend but I am way far from trying my hand at pantographs which made me realise I still have so much to learn.

I didn’t get much quilting done, no excuses just plain lazy but continued on my All stacked up quilt blocks as this one has been occupying my design wall since July 2017 and I am getting irritated with myself for not moving on with this, so hopefully now…..

On Ringo Lake, a Bonny Hunter mystery – 10 – Completed

I had a very productive public holiday in sunny South Africa.  I got up early, cooked food for the dogs, started the laundry, turned the venison leg in need of being marinated for 3 days, cooked pickled fish for Easter, prepared supper for this evening and cleaned my garden table outside the kitchen as I had every intention of spending the rest of the day just there, finishing the binding of this quilt.

Now I too can say, “been there done that.”  I impressed myself by actually finishing this and not having it end up in a bin as a UFO but I think the fact that I needed a completed top to be able to practise on my new long arm played a huge roll.

No perfect points, not many seams lining up neatly but I do love the colours and the quilt will serve its’ purpose.

A little unpicking and an almost finish

The one thing about quilting on a frame that I still can’t get used to is not being able to see the underside of the quilt as you progress.  So with most of the quilt done and as I advanced to another section I noticed really bad tension in one area and knew I would have to unpick.  I think this happened just before I ran out of bobbin thread.  So I continued after replacing the bobbin and with the quilt off the frame, I had to find the spot needed to unpick.  With this amount of stitching, not an easy job.

Finally spotted the bad area and then could start unpicking.

With my quilting done, binding sewn to the front, label glued in place…. Guess what I’ll be doing on the public holiday tomorrow in South Africa??

New credit card needed

O dear, o dear, o dear.  Some ridiculous quilter somewhere towards the end of last year posted on her blog that she kept track of her expenses during 2017.  She posted the amount, so obviously in US dollar and it didn’t sound too bad to me (or maybe it didn’t make any sense).  The bad part for me was, me deciding to do the same.  For one, I’ve never dug into garbage bins this much ever….. I’d go shopping, forget about keeping track and then a day later, remember and go dustbin hunting to find the slip.  Filthy I guarantee you!

Anyway, my credit card is due for renewal very soon and it turns out the magnet is not truly fully functional anymore, so more than once my dear card had to be swiped and wiped several times before it registers but ha-ha, no problem with this when internet shopping or that is what I thought until I took a quick peak at my expenses for 2½ months.  A flippin total of R14 463.45  (roughly $1 207).  I think I am having an asthma attack….. and no I don’t suffer from asthma!  But heck, look at my last purchase, can’t wait for these to arrive.

And then being new to long arm quilting, I need all the books I can lay my hands on now, don’t I?

The excuses will never stop.

And I vowed never to buy a quilt book again…

Nope I don’t dislike authors or don’t like supporting them but at some stage I realized that apart from paging through it when I get my hands on a new book, I hardly ever make something from it or read the book from front to back BUT I am back to the game I enjoy playing.  So today when a new book “Quilting wide open spaces by Judi Madsen” arrived, I was per usual ecstatic and best of all was that I had a salon appointment, so while washing the grey out, I actually read MOST of the book.

Apart from getting some great ideas, I picked up valuable little lessons from her.  She practiced 6 (yes SIX) years before regarding herself a good quilter.  So this is a shout out to any and every one out there, claiming they’ve practiced the WHOLE afternoon or Saturday….. it takes just a little bit longer, okay.  So I am still good.  I only have my machine for 4 months now, so a couple of years more of fun practicing.

I am however in the process of quilting my “Bonnie Hunter’s On Ringo Lake” quilt and decided to try Angela Walter’s technique in her Free Motion Quilt along Challenge.  I am doing the echoed leaves in some blocks.

Another great lesson learnt from Judi Madsen’s book was “don’t quilt if you don’t feel like it”.  So all the pressure of having this quilt finished is off as I’ve really struggled with my bobbin and tension issues on this one (luckily my own) and I simply don’t feel like forcing myself.  So now I simply enjoy the break.  I know my FM mojo will return soon.

Riana’s quilt done

Now I can proudly say that even though ignorant, I found out that I’ve officially done my first custom quilt.  It is definitely more tedious than simply doing a free motion overall motif but the final look is so rewarding and the best part is the fact that the quilter is satisfied.  All is well that ends well.

Even the back didn’t look all that back from afar.  One should just not go and sit to inspect every minute detail.

Now back to a little quilting for myself.

Financial Year End and all that jazz

I hardly did any quilting this week with the financial year end and stock taking.

I however had the Bernina technician all the way from Johannesburg to fix some issues on my long arm, so hopefully better days ahead and I’ve also been asked to quilt another striking quilt by a fellow quilter.  With all these interesting happenings I had to abstain and focus on the reality of being in business.  Murderous!

When I finally got around to spending time on the long arm, I experienced every problem in the book.  My ruler foot, obviously mass produced and one that slipped through inspection, is so off center it is just not true.  The needle ends up being anywhere but the center, then my take up rail still gets stuck on the frame at a certain point but unfortunately this only happens occasionally, so I’ve been unable to proof this when the clever people are around.

The quilter whose quilt I am doing decided on a grey thread and a white sheet for the backing, what a moral destroyer for any new long arm quilter.  One sees every little mishap, every little curve that went haywire and every stitch defect. I might never quilt with a sheet and contrasting thread ever again.  If the thread perfectly matches the sheet, it can be considered but then it should match the top as well.  I really have to force myself not to look at the back as then I will simply phone the quilter and say I can’t do this.

Fortunately I had amazing feedback, just when I was about to cry and give up totally, from none other than the very amazing Patricia Heinrich Hechler from the FB page The Threadworks Factory, which kept me going, ignoring the back, as not part of my responsibility.  Also a huge thank you to Kathy Rogers who told me that fixing quilting problems or choices about thread or backing was not my job.  Believe me, anyone out there not doing long arm quilting, the price they charge is worth every minute of their time, you have no idea what goes into quilting on a frame.  Bleeding fingertips covered in plasters and tears threatening to appear any moment are just some of the emotional/physical pain I went through up to now.

But… not wanting to end this post in total negativity, is this not the most stunning quilt top and named so appropriately “shimmering triangles”.