Exercising the New machine

In July, while quilting my show exhibit, I decided it was time to move on. The machine and I simply could not come to a happy understanding about tension. Even after a good service I had both back and front of the quilt sufferng.

I went to the exhibition and started looking at machines. I narrowed it down to Brother PQ1600, Husqvarna Mega Quilter or Pfaff Grand Quilter.
The DH only said "yes" when I bargained away all my birthday monies and sold two patterns to the magazines and cleared the Mastercard. (Tough, isn't he??? Never mind, the M/C was clear for a Thursday afternoon only! LOL)

At last the Mega Quilter arrived. Reverently I carried the box in. I unpacked the machine, admired it and then put it away until I had time. Finally, 5 days later I gave it a careful run. Then I put it away again. Reverently. After a full dusting and oiling.

The reverence thing couldn't last. I decided it was way too much fun and I have left it on the dining table to be played with whenever I walk past!
All the sandwiches I had prepared have been used up so I pulled out a class sample from earlier this year. I went to a machine trapunto class with Nicole Bridges.
It was a lot of fun, but I had not done much on the sample as I knew that the old machine and I were not up to the in-fill.

So here are two pictures of my practice runs with the new machine on the trapunto sample. I have done even more practice since. I just need some more ideas of designs to quilt as I now have stipples down to a fine art!

Mysterious Gathering

The most humbling part of my teaching over the last 3 years has been the trust that a group of ladies has put in me as they have continued to enrol in my series of Mystery Block of the Months.
Each year, they pick their colours, with only a scant clue of where the year's quilt will head. Their results have been terrific, I think. I love seeing quilts that are not clones of the class sample.
To celebrate the finishing of a third year we held a Mysterious Gathering. It was a chance to catch up, see some finished quilts and get a preview on next year's Mystery.
This first picture is Michelle Law's quilt from 2004. I love her dusty country colours. I think the suffering she experienced with the stretchy ticking background was worth it!
Next is Jenny's from 2005. it is lovely to see it quilted! She had a feature fabric very similar to Helen's from that year, but her cooler tones made it look quite distinctly different.
Here is Helen with her 2006 quilt. Her last class was only a fortnight before the gathering, so she is forgiven for having only one border on! I love her autumn colours! And her great choice of background fabric. Far more daring than mine.



Then Elaine's quilt with Elaine accidently cut out of the photo. Elaine always comes up with unconventional combinations that always wow us.

Christine, like Elaine and Michelle, is up to her third MBOM.So is Terrie, but I couldn't find her quilts while I was photographing. I think her 2005 MBOM (shown) is my favorite of hers.

The black and white quilt is Joan's. She works with me in the shop and gave herself the challenge of creating a quilt with just two colours. Well done Joan. The fabrics she has chosen for the 2007 MBOM suggests a similar challenge, but in purples.
The next MBOM is going to be the most beautiful. A pretty heavy going one, in terms of quantity of applique. It is going to be MBOM "Seasons". I am having to do mine in blanket stitch just to find time to get it done now that I am working so much. A bit sad :((


Karin's is next in my kind of colours! Deep reds and accent in black.This is the 2006 quilt again.

Next up is Wendy with her 2004 quilt. It looks great finished and she quilted it all by herself on her new janome. I love the colours of her 2006 quilt and can't wait to see it finished.

Finally ( because manipulating photos in this environment is not intuitive!) is Suzanne's quilt. I love it when people make quilts with the fabrics I don't have time to use!

And in case you are wondering, I am the one in a lime shirt at the end of each quilt. Thanks Michelle for taking the photos.

First Post

Ok! I have taken the plunge. Given the scarcity of time, I am not sure a new addiction is a brilliant idea, but maybe a diary is a better use of the spare moment than another game of RIP at
www.netives.com
If you want a word game challenge, give this a go. My best score is 234,000. I only play the free version with time limits. The practice it took to get a score this high is justified. I am sure it is...? I tell myself it is mental health issue.
The quilt pictured is an old quilt that has just come home from its travels in a Canberra Quilters suitcase exhibition. I picked it for no other reason than it was easy to find!
It has taken all morning to prepare this first blog as I had to get the photos from my computer to his computer as mine is too old to cope with blogging.
It took him all morning to get the photos over and then let go of the keyboard. That happened as my mac G3 seized up from too many file transfers.

Quilting plans: I am pondering my quilting options for the backlog of tops that accumulated while I saved for the Mega Quilter. Yesterday I finished quilting the machine trapunto sample that I started in a workshop with Nicole Bridges. This is a big deal as I can not tell you more than one other thing that I have finished that started in a workshop!
Mustn't let this first episode get too long....
Hoorooo