Sunday, August 27, 2006

Frustration Factor....

Virtually eliminated! I quilted the 1 hour quilt on the HQ today. Finished the entire top except for borders. They have been marked and pinned and I'll do them on the Bernina this week. The new metal tracks are great. Thanks to Judy C for telling me about the angle iron others were using to replace the original HQ track. It really does help.
I also had my thread break twice, so switched from a 70/10 needle to an 80/12 and that solved that problem. Had no thread nests on the back at all -- because I remembered every time to put the foot lever back down (vbg). I increased the speed on the handi-handles, because I tend to move my hands faster, and that really helped give me more uniform stitches (I still don't have that hand/foot coordination with my Bernina, but I'll work on it! All in all, I'm not unhappy with the stitching on the quilt -- it could always be better, but I'll take good! I'll post a picture when I have the borders done and the binding on!

Gratitudes:
1. Conversations on blogger -- really a learning experience. I learn from all of you.
2. A relaxed day of quilting - most unusual for machine quilting for me - vbg.
3. Bill's new chain saw works well -- he's worn out two previous saws!
4. Thanks to JudyL for the 1 hour quilt pattern.

4 comments :

quiltpixie said...

glad the improvement worked and your happy with the results of your work :-)

Linda C said...

this sounds like a pretty good day then all in all. The power of the internet and its helpers and helpful suggestions.

We never stop learning, do we?

Libby said...

Sounds like a good day. Can't wait to see the completed quilt.

Judy said...

Yippee!! I'm so glad that the angle iron pieces worked well for you. Did he screw them to the tables??

I'll tell you about another trick just in case you haven't done this either. Alot of the gals had there husbands buy square steel tubing and they slipped it over the aluminum poles that came with the HQ. You can't make them as long as the original poles because the poles have that thingy on the end that slips in the pegs and turns and everything. But they make them long enough and then drill a tiny hole at each end and put a set screw through the new pipe and into the old one to hold them together so they can't move. A lot of the ladies like it better because they can line up their quilts and pinning strips on the edges of a square better than the round pole.

Also someones hubby made a 36" hard steel pole that he used to replace the normal 10" joining bar? that you use when you want to do a king size quilt. They mentioned that when you had both poles slipped together the short pole used to connect both poles didn't support the weight well enough and you got sagging. So they bought steel pipe, made it 36" and then did the same as I noted before. Slip both ends of the pipe onto the new one, pop in a set screw and NO bowing.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you did!!