Not ready for March

Like most people, February ended way too soon to suit me. I don't know why we can't borrow a day or two from other months. January can afford to be a day shorter, and March would never miss a day here or there. Too bad those decisions aren't mine to make.

Because of various factors eating up this month, I've decided to forgo the vintage machine swap out and resume it again in April. I'm already happier!

For the past several weeks I've been quilting the Shoo-Fly Leader-Ender project from 2019. I chose a clam-shell pantograph that came with the New Home quilting frame I bought way back when. Because the Glad Press'n Seal is twice as wide as the pantograph strip, I doubled up the pattern so I could trace everything in one go. The paper was long enough that I could loop it around the table and secure everything with binder clips.

No Joy

I knew that pin-basting a quilt sandwich that I'd be hand-quilting in a hoop was a recipe for frustration, so I decided I'd use my New Joy frame to thread-baste the newly-repaired vintage top.

Based on the date of a bunch of information I downloaded from the interwebs, I bought this frame (used, through Craig's List) back in December 2013.

One of several pages of assembly instructions downloaded Dec 7, 2013

Under the Needle

I pin-basted this in January, and it's been folded up and sitting on the quilting table ever since. At some time between then and now, I experimented with some free-form quilting in one of the side triangles

which didn't look awful, so I used that "planned nonchalance" to finish all the side triangles.

There really is a plan: loopy circles along the red edge, then a lazy wave that vaguely echoes the curves of the loops. A second wave sort of echoes the first, then a line of loopy circles nestles into that wave. A third line of loopy circles follows (back-to-back, if you will), and the section is finished off with some more lazy waves.

Seriously: Knock it off

I didn't know why I was letting this machine get to me!

To look at me, you'd think nothing would faze me. I stand nearly 6' tall, and my RPF** is intimidating according to my last boss. (He never used the term RBF, but I can.) I ooze confidence!

But that deep-throat Viking of mine, once again, had me quaking in my proverbial boots for the last several (8!!) months. As I was finishing the quilting on my bowtie coffee/work/wine/repeat quilt (back in November), the motor started in with a discouraging, high-pitched squeal.

Dated 1 Nov 2017. Got the Press 'N' Seal template on the inner borders, ready to finally finish this and get it on the bed.

She's too young to be having these types of problems! Nothing I did--clean, oil, change bobbins, change speeds, put away extra bobbins that might be producing sympathetic vibrations/harmonics (I hold them on one of the spool posts)--changed the fact that my machine was being a bitch. So as soon as I finished the last stitch, I turned her off and set about ignoring her problem as hard as I could. As one does.

Back in the saddle

March. MARCH!

That was the last time I did any quilting on this!!

Yesterday (Saturday) I wandered into the sewing room, thinking I would sew together some of the blocks lurking about on the design wall, but instead I decided to sit down at my quilting machine and get over myself.

True confessions: my quilting machine intimidates me, a little.

Anna's Quilt

Back in August I was asked by Nann if I would consider quilting the Hug being organized for Anna. Well, I have this super deep-throated quilting machine now, and a willing QI, and it's for Anna for heaven's sake, so of course I said YES!

The blocks were made by several Magpies (Anna knows who they are) and sent to MJ, who assembled the top: