A Little Tweak Here, Another Tweak There....

And finally--success!!

I took some time yesterday and today to play on the quilting beast, and it was so much fun. Of course, being the first time I've really ever stitched on a long arm, I didn't expect to do anything productive, just play and take care of whatever might come up. I didn't have a clue what that might entail, but I figured there were lots of things I didn't know I didn't know, so I was ready for anything.

Fortunately, it went well--I didn't break anything!! However, as you can see, some tweaking of the tension was definitely needed.

The solid green is the back of my test quilt sandwich so you can easily see how the stitches started out, what a bit of tweaking did for it, and how it finally finished today. As I made small-ish changes to the top tension, I would test by trying out a row of loop-de-loops, waves, the alphabet, just getting a feel for the movement and speed. Clearly, making only adjustments to the top tension wasn't going to do it, so today I decided to adjust the bobbin tension. Fortunately, a little more than a quarter turn did the trick.

Then today when I first started stitching, the machine would barely move and sounded terrible! Oh, no. What happened? Did I do something wrong?... RELAX! It's just a simple sewing machine after all--nothing foreign, just a different size and configuration, really. Guess what? All it needed was a drop of oil in the bobbin chase, then all was well again.

So, I'm learning a bit about my LAQ machine, about loading/racking the quilt and moving to each new section, and getting a feel for coordinating my movement and speed with the machine's speed. My final few rows look better than I expected after just a couple hours of actual stitching.

I think I'm going to like this!!

Now to load the next sandwich and see if I can get better at loops and stippling...

Sweet, Sweet Gigi

Nope, not "the" GG, but a new Gigi. She is 90 years old! I hope I'm in this good shape and look this sweet when I am 90!

The "new" quilting beast that fell into my lap last month is supposed to be my focus right now (delayed by travel and illness--all better now), but in a weak moment, I did a little window shopping on Craigslist. A few clicks later, this sweetie came into view. No! Be strong! Got to concentrate on getting to know the quilting beast. I haven't done any of the things I want to do for my long arm set up, haven't started practicing--I don't need any distractions! Look away!

I resisted the temptation to look again for two days. Then just a quick peek. I'm sure someone else already claimed her, and I will be out of my misery. Oh... there she is, still waiting for a home. So there's probably something wrong with her that I'm not seeing in the ad. Hmmm... there is no bobbin winder attached--what else is wrong? Look away!

Yes, she's pretty, do you see how beautiful her decals are? They're in great shape, but she is not the last pretty-Singer-66-red-eye-treadle-for-a-good-price-near-my-own-home that I will see. There will be another when I am really ready for one. Look away!

Yesterday afternoon, I just had to look again. There she was, still just as pretty as ever! Okay, call just to see if they forgot to take the ad down. Uh-oh! She's still available.

I started asking questions, most of which the owner couldn't answer. It was her grandmother's machine that she kept all this time, even though she doesn't sew. She couldn't answer most of my questions, suggesting that I'd really need to come look and see if the bobbin case is there, if this black thing in the drawer is a bobbin winder, or.... Oh, jeez if you come, and if you like it, you can have it for $50!

Who could resist that? She's only a 30 minute drive away. She's in a clean garage, and has been in the house or garage her whole life. She runs and makes a nice stitch, though, of course, she needs a new belt and a thorough cleaning, since the oil and grease has practically solidified, and it looks like all the metal parts are lacquered.

Her wooden cabinet is in far better shape than many I've seen, but the wood is so dried out that when we lifted the front "flap" to lean the machine back to look underneath, the screws holding the hinges literally popped out and flew to the floor. No worries, it will sit back in place well enough to  support the open machine until I can feed the wood and refinish the cabinet. The drawers and drawer "slots" are all intact. There are only a few accessories, a couple of feet, one extra bobbin, but it appears the bobbin winder assembly is there in a drawer.

I'm so happy I found Gigi, and I will look forward to becoming well acquainted with her, but that is going to wait until I get rolling with the quilting beast first!

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

GG's Birthday

Hi! This is GG. I am Gramma's guest blogger on my birthday. At school my teacher gave me a gift pack with a little notebook, pencil, stickers and a birthday bracelet. My friend Allie made me a card. Mom and Dad had a pink bouquet of flowers delivered to me at school. I sure felt special and a little embarrassed.

Tonight we are going to a surprise place for birthday fun, and I am really having a hard time figuring it out. Also this weekend me and Gramma will make gingerbread cookies and curl our hair and have other great fun.