I'm working on a large quilt today, 116" x 93"! I haven't sent a post lately about what I'm working on in awhile. I have my new wall hanging where it can be seen easily.
If you're visiting my page looking for information about my services, I would love to help you finish your quilt!
This quilt top is from a friend of mine who is also a customer. She found this top for $15 at the Scrap Exchange! The Scrap Exchange is a thrift store where any type of leftover materials can be donated. You might find a microscope, pool noodles, beakers from UNC or anything you can think of! Businesses, individuals and Colleges donate their leftover scrap/materials and you can buy it for a song.
I haven't posted a quilt top in awhile so I thought I'd show the Quilt of Valor top I'm longarming today. I love QOV quilts. I attended our group's last awards ceremony where we awarded over 25 quilts to deserving veterans. The man I gave my quilt to gave me 3 hugs because he was so grateful.
If you would like to serve veterans in this way you can visit the QOV Foundation website to find a quilt sewing group in your area.
There are groups all across the country! https://www.qovf.org/about-qovf/whos-in-my-area/
The search function on their site doesn't work very well if you enter a zip code. You have better results if you zoom in on your location using their map.
I had a few people ask me to make a video showing how to stitch a pantograph from beginning to end so I made a video showing just that! I hope this helps!
I was asked to make some videos showing how to roll the quilt when using a pantograph. Here they are!
I've been longarming quite a few quilt tops this month, it's the Christmas rush to get quilts finished in time! Here is the one I had on my frame this morning. I stitched a feather design on this one, the fabric collection is from 3 Sisters by Moda. I finished it and now have another one I'm loading this afternoon. It's a great time to be a quilter!
I thought I'd update my blog with the task for this week. I have 5 Quilt of Valor tops to work on before our QOV group meets on Thursday morning. Here's a photo of the one on my frame this afternoon. I'm using a pantograph called Star Streamers on each of the tops.
I'm stitching quilt tops for my Quilt of Valor group this week. There are about 20 women in our group and we sew quite a few tops each year. 3 of us are longarm quilters that finish the tops into quilts. Here's the one I'm working on today!
I started a facebook group for owners of the King Quilter II longarm machine. There isn't much in the way of help for those of us learning how to use the monitor with all the different settings so I thought I'd make some videos to help with that.
Back to longarming! I have a Quilt of Valor on today. On the wall behind the frame you see my current quilt top in progress. It's the Circa 1880 quilt I've been working on since last January.
My first quilt on the new longarm is a customer quilt. I used a basting stitch for the first time and it was a dream! I'm going to love using this machine. This weekend it is cold and rainy in NC, a perfect day to quilt!
My new longarm is set up and running. It took 10 hours total to assemble and level the frame, mount the machine and get it ready to sew. The shipment weighed 440 lbs and now I know why! The frame is all steel and is extremely well built. It is a very heavy frame.
I bought furniture sliders to place under the frame to make it glide over my wood floor. If you are buying a new frame I would recommend furniture sliders over the heavy duty casters. You'll save about $200 and the frame will glide effortlessly across the floor. Mine does and it is extremely heavy!
The only thing left to do is to attach the cloth leaders to the rails and I'll get that done today. After that, I'll load a quilt and be off running!
Update: All set and ready to go!
I am happy to say 700 blocks are finished! If you've been reading my blog you'll know I've been making 2-1/2" blocks for quite some time. They will be assembled into the Circa 1880 quilt but not for a few more months. I'll need to assemble the frame and then get to know my new longarm machine that was delivered today. After that, I have 7 quilt tops from customers waiting for me so it will be awhile before I can piece the 1880 quilt together.
My longarm isn't working and rather than put money in to fixing it I decided to get a new longarm. I bought a King Quilter II Elite made by Handi Quilter. The day after I paid for it they told me it would be backordered until sometime in November. So I'm out of work for a few weeks. I'm going into withdrawal! The good news is I've been able to spend time piecing quilt tops, something I haven't had time to do in a few months.
I'm working on my Circa 1880 quilt. This is a quilt with 2-1/2" blocks when sewn are 2". It a beautiful quilt made with reproduction fabrics. 2 friends of mine from online groups finished their quilts and had them appraised. One appraised for $5,700 and the other one was $7,000. Both quilts had custom longarm designs and that's what I plan on doing to my quilt when I get it finished.
I started the quilt in January. The pattern designer said if you work an hour a day, 5 days a week, the quilt will be done in a year. I'm making a queen size, which will need over 700 blocks and I have 375 finished now!
