I Saw, It Came, I Failed to Conquer!

This post could also be titled "Here Today; Gone Tomorrow", except that would be in error!  It was here yesterday, and it's gone TODAY!  I guess it could also be titled "Much Ado about Nothing!"

Now for the rest of the story!

While at the Dallas Quilt Show a couple of weeks ago, I made a hurried and unwise (for me) decision to purchase this.  It arrived at my home on March 7.  Now tell me, why would I think I needed to buy this little pile of boards packed in all those white peanuts???  I can't believe I made that mess in the living room!

I moved it to the sunroom, got it set up on my table, and this is how it looked.

It is called the "Easy Quilter" frame, made in Oklahoma.  That stack of boards in the middle of the table is two elements of the thing, each with a set of rollers that allows it to move forward/backward, left/right, diagonal, or circular, with the ease of greased lightening!  My home sewing machine will be sitting on that top section, and the quilt is then attached to a little "stick" on which it will be rolled as the quilt is quilted and the finished quilted roll will then lie in those two silver "hooks" on the front.  Movement is guided by pushing/pulling on two little handles at the front of the stack on rollers. 

Next I put my machine on the center part, and then clipped my "quilt" to the boards going across the ends of the table. (My practice quilt is 2 yards of cheap muslin, a 80/20 batting, and another 2 yards of muslin and pin-basted.)  It looked like this (some of the time).  Pretty nice, huh?  The unquilted portion of a quilt will be rolled around the stick that goes through the harp of the machine, which, on my machine, is only 7"-not much!  Not nearly enough!  I could quilt about 48" left/right before hitting the frame, and about 6.5" forward/backward without hitting the roller poles.  That meant unclipping everything and moving the quilt.  Maybe I never got it all figured out correctly, but I can say for sure that with my stroke-damaged left hand, it was not "easy" for me!



I need to tell you that my machine has a top loading bobbin, does not have a thread cutter, nor a knee control for the power pedal.  I ran out of bobbin after the first trek across the length of the table.  Changing the bobbin and re-threading was difficult for me, but I did it finally.  With no knee pedal thing, I was moving the foot pedal often because of my short legs!  (I told a friends that if skate board wheels weren't so tall, maybe that would work to move the pedal. *giggle*)

I have no doubt it will work for most people, especially if your machine has a deep harp, but I just could not see it helping me with all my problems.  Needless to say, I'm disappointed in myself and in the frame.  So this morning I called the vendor, packed it up, and shipped it back.  They should have it by Monday.   I think I'd be happier just having my big quilts professionally quilted as always, and learning to do free motion on my machine someday maybe.  I was concentrating on that before this thing came along, so now I'm going to try to go back to practicing that again. 

I never knew the Easy Quilter existed until I saw it at the show.  I thought it would be just the thing for me and that I could do it easily.  I made a decision in 45 minutes, which is very unlike me!  I should have known better!  I saw it, loved it, bought it, had it delivered, but failed to conquer it.  I gave up!  I think I have better things to do than stress out over something I know I will never be able to do to my satisfaction.  So ---- on to better things, hopefully!  I don't want to discourage anyone from getting one.  It's just that with my machine, in addition to my hand never knowing what it's doing, (and my feeble brain!),  it wouldn't work for me.  However, I would encourage you to really "try" before you buy.  I have to admit I failed in that area also.  (Dumb!) *frown*!

Something good did come from the experience though.  While my Viking was on the frame and out of use to me for piecing, I decided to sew on an old Singer 3102 I inherited from my old aunt.  It is in a beautiful walnut cabinet, and I hadn't used it in years!  (Yes, that's three quilts awaiting quilting on that rack!)

It did just fine until it just locked up totally!  I read the book and decided to take the cover off and check it out.  What a gummy mess it was!    I got the machine oil, cleaned it and oiled it good, and it runs like a top now.  I put the cover on and now when I don't want to sew in the sunroom at night (no drapes or blinds), I can sew in the back bedroom on the old machine that actually makes a prettier stitch than my Viking!  *big smile*

I've not accomplished any worthwhile sewing or quilting (or anything else!) while the frame was in my house!  I spent all my time fiddling with it, and finally gave up. 

There!  I feel better already!

So now --- back to the real world, and on with life!  I hope to sew most of  Saturday!  More on that another day! 

---"Love"

A Day at the Dallas Show 2012

Last Friday five of us from our church quilting group made the trek to the Dallas Quilt Show, and had a wonderful time together.  For three of the ladies, this was their first quilt show ever!  I think they were almost overwhelmed by all the beautiful quilts and the many vendors!  Our leader did a fantastic job of driving, and the weather cooperated most of the way.

I did really well on spending/purchases, etc.  In cash, I spent $10.28 --- $2 for my share of the valet parking, and $8.28 for my meal on the way home.  Pretty good, don't you think?  (We had gotten our tickets early from a quilt shop.)  However, I'm not telling yet how much, nor what, went on my plastic!  I'll just tell you that it will have to be shipped to me later this week because we couldn't get it in the car!  Country Log Cabin Ruth was there and knows, and she wants to check it out someday when it arrives.  The only thing more I'll say right now is that I've never made a decision like that in less than an hour, but I did this time!  Hope I did the right thing!  (Do you ever have second thoughts???!!)   More later!

I took lots of pictures.  It seemed to me that much of the machine quilting was more detailed than I've ever seen, and the small amount of hand quilting I saw was beautiful.  There were lots of what I would call "art" quilts, some of which were spectacular, even though I personally prefer the more traditional quilts.   There were quite a number of animal quilts this year. Theri included many of the really nice quilts in her blog link, so I'll not repeat those.  Here's a few of the ones that caught my eyes:

Double click to read the description.  See how art and technology were combined!

 White blocks were hand quilted, blue was machine quilted.

 I could almost smell the cinnamon rolls and hot bread here!

 You know how I love Christmas!

 Definitely King of the Jungle!

 Has someone been in my backyard????

 Too cute!

 Such beautiful detailed work! (and my colors!)

 Look closely at the quilting!

Just look at how closely this one's hand quilted!

It was difficult to weed out other pictures, but I'm sure Ruth will have a lot to show too.  It was a great show, and almost like old home week for me.  I ran into my cousin I hadn't seen in over a year and her friend, also another friend from my home town, and of course, Ruth and her husband.  Quilters do go to this show from far and near!  My driver said Sunday she considered taking me back on Saturday, but it was raining!  ---I would have gone with her! *smile*

Got to get lots of things done around here this week, so I can play with my new toy next week!

Have a good week! 

---"Love"

Another Doll Quilt and Two Civil War Blocks

Thank goodness, this week has not been as busy as the last three, so far anyway.

Here are two Civil War blocks I made on Monday, Week 23-Illinois Roads, and Week 24-Ladies' Aid Album. 

Here's a little doll quilt (15 x 21") I made Wednesday from those 2" half-squares from church circle scraps.  I fear I'm going to get tired of those fabrics before I use them all up! (My readers will probably get tired of them too!)   I dug out several old "mini" magazines and found at least three more patterns I want to try. 

I had marked the curved quilting lines with a new water-erasable pen, and most of the ink came out with a damp cloth.  I put it in the dryer for a few minutes, and more ink showed up!  Oh dear!  I decided to wash the whole thing in the sink with liquid Ivory, and it all came out.  I had also used a fusible batting for my first time, and I was wondering how it would react to the laundry.  I threw the quilt in the dryer again with a towel, and it came out all crinkled, just like an old quilt, which is fine for this little quilt.  At least I learned more about the ink pen and the fusible batting.  

I have a couple of fabrics lying on my den coffee table to see if I could live with them as a table topper from circles; I think they will be okay, but those pink roses are so pretty that I hate to cut them until I'm sure that's what I want there.  The circles may not be the right pattern!  Decisions, decisions!  

We may have storms later today, but I hope they don't get too severe; we do need the rain.  I just wish the roads would be dry tomorrow for the trip to the Dallas Show!  I'm so looking forward to that!

Guess I better go start another little quilt!  Hope everyone has a good day!

---"Love"

 

Three Quilts Delivered!

I finally got the two Scripture quilts delivered to my pastor and his wife on Tuesday. (See my February 5 post.) They were very pleased, and so was I, because the colors matched perfectly with their recliners and area rug in their den! I'll need to do something nice for my friend who brought me the paint chips! That idea worked great!

On Wednesday I had lunch with a very interesting lady from The Netherlands. She is involved in mission work there along with her photography/journalism work. She was a friend to my friend who was buried the previous week, and had been to my home with him. She was full of interesting stories about her work, and I thoroughly enjoyed our time together. I had hurriedly made this little wall hanging for her; it is almost a duplicate of the center of the one I had made for my pastor's wife, so it went together very easily! It is about 17 x 21". She seemed pleased, and quite surprised. (This is my third finish for 2012.)

On Thursday, I was with the church quilters most of the day. We determined that we have over 300 circles made (304 required for the quilt), so we watched the video on the project, and then made a trial run with four circles. Some adjustments will have to be made, but we hope to get started in a couple of weeks. Next Friday several of us in the group will be going to the Dallas quilt show, so we won't be quilting until the next week. Here's what we have: (You'll have to wait to see the result.)

On Friday, my Walmart Friend came and spent the day with me. She is visiting her son about 30 miles from me and will be returning to Missouri next week. We just relaxed in the sunroom, talked quilts, and looked at quilt magazines. She did some knitting, and I worked on the binding for a little quilt ---the first of several to come from those half-squares from around the church quilt circles. Slow going, but I finished the machine quilting today; not perfect, but finished! It is 12" square! I'm not sure what I'll do with it just yet. I've named it "A Flock of Birds".  (It is my fourth 2012 finish.)

Saturday, I mowed the front lawn, dug weeds in the back yard, and made (struggled with!) this Civil War block for Week 22, called "Blockade" in Barbara Brackman's blog;
 

After three weeks with schedules similar to this, it's no wonder I'm tired! Sunday afternoon I'll rest (after church).

It's been good to see several nice blog posts recently! Keep up the good work, everyone!

---"Love"