Norma's Baby Quilt

I worked on the baby blanket Norma needed to have quilted for her granddaughter Rachel, whose baby was due most any day.  It takes a lot longer on my Bernina than it would have on the quilting machine, but there are certain things that can be done on the little machine that can’t be done on the HQ 16.  Or at least I can't do them.  Yet.

A man from Illinois wrote while we were at church last Sunday night, offering to help get the HQ 16 retimed (something went wrong with the timing, and it wouldn't pick up bobbin thread) if Larry wanted to call his cell phone.  Larry called him Tuesday.  The man is named Mike, and he owns The Machine Shop in Highland, Illinois.   He's so helpful, and he won't take a thing for his time.  He sells HandiQuilters in his store -- and travels around the country, setting them up for his customers.

Well, Thursday night Larry gave Mike’s timing instructions a try.  It wasn’t long, and my HQ 16 was fixed.  Yes, it woiks, it woiks, it woiks!  In fact, I think it sounds just a little smoother than it did when I first got the machine.  I'm back in business.  I would be done with Norma's quilt in no time.  I finished a border that I'd started on the Bernina, then loaded it back onto the frame… and there I was then, quilting away — and done in about 15 minutes.  Wheeeeee!

A lady on the Yahoo quilt-talk group said she times her own machine.  I replied:

You tryin’ to tell me I could learn to do such a thing??!  <hair standing straight up on end>  But. . . but. . . but. . . <stuttering>  it wasn’t in my job description!  I thought Larry should do stuff like that, and all I should have to do is hold the handles and make the thing go this-a-way and that-a-way.

Actually, I once amazed myself by taking off the dryer door and reinstalling it so that it opened from the other direction.  After I passed smelling salts under Larry’s nose and revived him, he was surprised, too.  And then there was the time I hooked up my entire computer, external hard drives, routers, modem dish, and all – all by me little ownself.  None of us have ever gotten over that, yet.  Now, things that happen on the screen of my ’puter, I cope with, and love doing so.  I can delve into the registry and do all sorts of magical things.  But if the battery on my Yukon goes dead, or if a tire goes flat, or if the back of a kitchen drawer falls out, why, the only thing I know to do is cry out in loud and anguished tones, “Larrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeee!”

Maybe. . . <whispering> . . . maybe I do that, because iffen I done larnt how to do too many things around here, well, then, maybe it could just be that I’d be expected to keep right on a-doin’ them, from now and henceforth.  (But don’t mention it to Larry.)

By midnight, I’d finished the Winnie-the-Pooh baby blanket.  It doesn’t take long at all, with the HQ 16, and it turned out pretty good, I think. 

Quilt back

Yessirree, it turned out pretty good.  Ladies on a certain machine quilting group were all appalled and disapproving when they learned I was actually going to do quilting on someone else's quilt  <gasp> -- and it's only the third quilt I've put on my HQ frame.  They 'strongly discourage' anybody quilting for customers (even family!) (maybe especially family!) before they've done, oh, something like 1,302,626,986 hours of quilting on 'practice quilts', consisting of corn husks and Sears & Roebuck catalogue pages, which they can then donate to the dog pound.

Yeah, well, ugh.  I prefer not to waste time, money, energy, and enthusiasm.  Howz about I jist quilt thees heeuh quilts the vewy, vewy bestest I can, huh huh huh?  I have two big quilts a-waitin' in the wings, and they're a-goin' on my HQ frame -- next.  (One at a time, heh.)  So there.

2nd Quilt on HQ16 -- Red, White, and Blue Panel Quilt

Or 'cheatcloth', as some call it.  A lady on an online quilting group once got hoppin' mad when someone called it that, because she thought the other person was accusing her of cheating.  I wonder if it's hard to get along with a person like that in real life?

I'm using a combination of rulers and FMQ (Free Motion Quilting)  to follow the print on this fabric.  This is fun!

First Quilt on the HQ16

Larry put my quilt table together... put on the tracks... the carriage... and the machine -- a HandiQuilter 16.  And now I've loaded my very first quilt, and am giving it a go!  

I don't know what I'm a-doin', ... ... ... but I'm a-doin' it!  :-D

Meanwhile, Larry put up the knotty pine wall.  It's not done... but other things must come first.

Working on the Harvest Sun Quilt

Harvest Sun Blocks

 

Norma's Panel Throw

The back that I wanted to use was a bit smaller than the printed panel top -- but I couldn't cut the top smaller without messing up the design.  Sooo... I did the unthinkable:

I sewed the binding onto the top first, then pulled it around far enough to cover the edge of the backing, and sewed it down by hand.  I never do that.  But I did.  The back of the binding is therefore twice as wide as the binding on the top.  Makes people stare and ask, "How'd you do that??"  ;-)

Furthermore, I used my magnifier and light floor stand, and thereby wound up taking the teeniest, tiniest stitches ever.  (It was an accident.  I didn't know they were that small -- the magnifier was pulling a trick on me!)  Even Norma was impressed -- and she sews exquisitely by hand!

I quilted it on every printed line and around each of the big flower designs, the better to make it look less like cheat cloth and more like an actual pieced quilt.  The batting has enough loft that it's almost believable.  Almost.

Prequilted Baby Quilt and Teddy Bear

This is for Baby Josiah.  I only had to put the binding on.  Then I fancied up the stuffed teddy bear a bit, and was done.  I found the prequilted panel in a box of fabric my sister-in-law gave me.