T-shirt Quilt has been quilted!

This was a blast!! My very first quilt using Daisy.
I knew exactly how I wanted to quilt the non t-shirt part of it so I drew lines with this nifty little chalk tool I picked up at a nearby sewing machine shop, seriously cool shop by the way, if you're ever in Denver you MUST check it out! Aaaanyway, I digress. So I drew the lines on the quilt which actually took a lot longer that I thought and caused some minor shoulder strain holding up the ruler but I persevered and completed it. Whew.

I am SO stoked on how that part of the quilting turned out. It was worth every aching muscle of marking. :) I didn't really think about the t-shirt quilting other than I knew I was going to stitch in the ditch around each one. Some t-shirts turned out better than others. There are some that flat out just look like scribbles and I have no idea how to make them better so I'm just going to leave it...pretty sure it's going to end up as a cat bed for the majority of it's time so no sweat off my brow? back...what's that saying..aaaaanyway...moving on. 

I'm not a big fan of the whole meander quilting but I gotta tell you that it is a very essential tool in quilting. It really helps make other parts look good and I surprisingly got the hang of it pretty quickly. I used it on a lot of the shirts and probably should have used it on the ones that look like scribbles. So now I know. Meander is your friend. 

It is pretty heavy so I wasn't able to hang it up anywhere to photo so I laid it on the bed and balanced above it on a vanity to take a lopsided photo. The only thing left to do on this bad boy is to add the binding and get the hubs to take some decent shots of it. I hope he likes (& USES) it. 

Scribbling

After finally getting the tension & timing adjusted on Daisy I've been able to spend a little time practicing each evening. Usually only 20 minutes to an hour. I usually try to stop when I start feeling frustrated. I want to enjoy learning and not dread it. There is quite a learning curve to long arm quilting and I'm not a very patient person. I've got LOTS of quilt tops that need finishing and a whole slew of ideas as to how I want to finish each quilt. My mind thinks it'll be easy and then my hands get working and it's a bit tricker than I was anticipating. I'm not quite confidant enough to quilt an actual quilt...but I'm impatient to get started. We'll see which of my two sides wins out...the impatient one or the nit-picky perfectionist. 

I've been working from both the front & the back of the machine and like aspects of both. I just need to get into a rhythm and practice practice practice. 

Some free hand swirls

A new venture

This photo might be a bit dizzying but it's hard to take a picture of something that is twelve feet long in a room that is only fifteen feet long. 

This is Daisy....as in 'Driving Miss Daisy'. I didn't have the honor of naming her, but I thought it was pretty cute, so we're keeping it. :)

My very own long arm quilting machine. It's an A1 Elite and is only 8 years old. We've been getting to know each other since October. She had been looking for a home since March and had been dismantled hanging out in a garage. I've been learning a lot while putting her back together and getting her to run smoothly. Getting the tension right, straightening the leaders and figuring out why I keep shredding thread. Now I just need to get some practice in before I start quilting my quilts. Not quite confident enough to practice on the quilts I've made just yet. 

My ultimate goal will be to start a long arm quilting business. I really love Angela Walters and Jenny Pedigo and am going to aspire to be as accomplished as they are. Their style is one I hope to emulate.