What a drag!

FMQing is such a drag!  Don't get me wrong, I love the quilting part, but I think that the hardest part of FMQing on a sit-down machine is the pulling, tugging, and manipulation of a heavy quilt;  NOT fitting the quilt into the arm of the machine - to me that's not so hard.  So I found this great invention called a Jennoop.

I do all my quilting on stationary machines, either my Bernina Virtuosa 153 or my Pfaff Powerquilter (shown here- it's like a Sweet 16, but with Pfaff label).  So this Jennoop quilt suspender is a wonder!  I quickly clamp the doggone dragging part of the quilt so I can easily manipulate the section of quilt I am working on.  It is easy to unclamp and shift to reclamp in another spot.

Here is a simpler version of the quilt suspender.  I bought a dog grooming arm for $35 and added another clamp to the strap that came with the arm.  It easily clamps to my  Bernina sewing table so that it is portable.  I can take it off when I don't need it and I can bring it to classes, retreats, and workshops too.

Here is a recent finish.   It was a wholecloth bee challenge.  So I used a piece of purchased tie-dyed fabric that I had for several years and always wanted to do something like this with it.

The quilt is 40 x 40".  It has wool batting over Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton.  

I experimented with lots of different threads, including Wonderfil and Superior metallics, lots of Glide, Bottom Line, and wonderfil Invisafil.  These Amish feathers were lost but so pretty.  The only thing I could think of to make them pop was to paint each feather with Lumiere paint and a fantastix applicator.  That did the trick, but it might have been quicker to rip and re-quilt with a heavier thread!

I had so much fun quilting the "worms" in the background.

And that filigreed-looking flower was a stencil filled with little swirls.  I still don't have a name for this quilt.  Any ideas?

I hope you will come back to see my next post!  I am a little nervous as this is my first one ever...  Karen