Not only a dreary day, but I have had it with this view of my neighbor's roof. When I set up my sewing room, my son and daughter were still living at home and they were in rooms with better views. Those are guest rooms now. So hey, why don't I just move into one or both of those rooms!! Brilliant, oh but what a pain... My husband and I did most of the move over the last couple of weeks - moving beds, dressers, desks, and yes the longarm. Now look at my new view:
still a dreary day, but there is a neighborhood playground and tennis court out this window and
Here I can see the neighborhood pool and my backyard where the dogs are frolicking.
I love my new location, but whew it was a lot of work moving all that.
I put my great-grandmother's quilt top on the longarm after the move.
Here are more pictures of it:
just the top
here is one of the blocks that I repaired, I appliqued the light blue background diamonds over some shredding fabric.
Another background repair with the sage green diamonds.
Here is how the quilt looked on the back, all hand pieced.
She used different colors of threads
I put a layer of muslin underneath the top to help stabilize the aged fabrics. Now many people told me to do this (add the muslin), but no one told me HOW to do that. so I spray basted the muslin to the back of the top. Then when I described my method to a friend who's a longarming genius, she asked me if I had pre-washed the muslin. Well, duh, of course I didn't, what a doofus! Then she asked me why don't I just put the muslin on the longarm and baste the quilt top to it... I could then take it off the longarm and put the backing and batting on as usual. So I took the spray-basted muslin off, washed it, and re-baste it on the machine... a much better method.
I added a pretty blue border AFTER I basted the muslin to the back. That also helps keep the muslin from shifting.
Okay, so it is all together and getting quilted now. Here's a teaser, with more photos to follow as I finish. I am using two battings, a cotton from American Fiber and Hobbs wool on top. I really hope this double batt doesn't make the quilt too stiff. I want it to be cuddly, but pretty too.
another view of my new longarm room, see the room is kinda rounded with those three pretty windows, and it is also gives me two more feet to get around the longarm. Not too sure about the lighting, but I can work on that later. Oh yes, and what a show off, I hung up my ribbons yesterday!
I got some more information about my great grandmother from my Dad last weekend. He remembers playing around her quilting frame as a child. He poked his finger with a needle and she told him he would forget about it soon. Dad is 83 and she was wrong, he still remembers it! He showed me a picture of the house where she lived and pointed out the upstairs room where her frame was, and would ya believe it has 3 rounded windows just like mine! I hope that her spirit will be happy to have this top quilted finally, even if it is on a machine!
Have a good day, I better get back to work, Karen
