Lessons Learned

No picture today ;-). I finished quilting Happy Days this afternoon - at least for now. This is what I have learned so far:
1. Clean up the mess around the machine and on the tables before starting a quilt -- you'll spend a whole lot less time trying to find something (scissors, bobbins, etc.).
2. Pay attention to the batting -- this is a big lesson for me. I was going along on my merry way thinking the whole bolt of batting I received with the machine was 3 oz. (I don't normally use polyester, so don't pay a lot of attention). While cleaning up, I found the ticket for the batting -- it's 6.3 oz! The finished quilt looks like a comforter -- not a good look. I think I need to put it back on and quilt all the other elements to tame the batting.
3. I still need to practice, practice, practice and pay attention to the edges of the borders -- it was difficult to quilt to the edge because of the loft of the batting.
4. Next one I'm going to mark the quilt itself and work from there.
5. It takes time to learn your machine -- I did manage to go in and reset the needle positions and that did help the dragging needle problem (I did this yesterday before changing the needle, too -- but not all of them, so the problem returned.)
6. I still love my longarm.

I'm caught up on the Hour a Day quilt, too. Have all the quarter square triangles made, just need to square them all up.

Gratitudes:
1. I'm becoming less afraid of the longarm (was wondering if the terror was going to last forever!) vbg.
2. Our neighbor, Tim, plowed the drive again this morning before we even got out of bed. He's a nice kid (we have a very long drive!).
3. Having my menus made up ahead of time -- really saves me time and aggravation.