Christmas Present

My friend, Sally, and I drove to Jacksonville early December to pick up the longarm. It is small, but fits in my sewing room quite nicely. Plus, it came with the light bar. I didn’t realize the difference the right lighting could make. I’m a happy camper now.

We got it home and set it up with my husband’s help. I played a little bit , but I was under a time crunch to finish a t-shirt quilt and get it to the Quilt Peddler for longarming. Once I am comfortable with my longarm, I will do my own quilting.

I bought a starter kit for practicing free motion quilting. Today I retreaded the machine and loaded the bobbin . That took one instruction book. Then I got the leaders and starter kit quilt loaded on the machine. That took one book and a Leah Day tutorial. So many resources to pull from. I’ll need them all. LOL.

First, I tried basting along outside lines. That took two videos and Bert‘s help. Next I tried free motion quilting following the lines on starter kit. The machine skipped stitches. I discovered I had no extra needles. I ordered a pack. I checked threading. I had threaded the machine correctly. I lowered my hopping foot using the metal guide and problem solved or so I thought. When I checked the bottom fabric, it was a mess. I adjusted the top tension gently 3 times and this time the problem is solved! It quilts like a dream.

You can follow my progress from left to right. I did do echo stitching at least once on first three lines. The first left line was most difficult as I was too timid. I discovered going a little faster with the machine helped.

It’s never too late to start something new!