A quilt for John

 I finished quilting this quilt for John (aka Quilt Dad) on Friday. The temperature finally dropped below 80 (to 34F that is how it is in Texas. Nice and warm one day and mighty cold the next...no time to prepare), so it actually felt like fall in my quilting studio. I will need to find some sort of heater for winter use for sure. I was decked out in gloves, a wool toboggan, one on my Dale of Norway sweaters and long Johns...oh and my daughters furry house shoes. Quite a sight to behold.

 John made this quilt for Quiltmaker Magazine out of the block he did for Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Magazine.

 John wanted it quilted fairly simple. I find circles so soothing and I wanted the chevrons to be quit simple as well so the focus was on the blocks and not the quilting. I am very happy with how this one turned out. Sharon came over and we were admiring the fabric as I was loading it up onto the frame. I was thinking about how to quilt it and Sharon suggested modernized poppies (basically 3 circles inside one another), so I took that and made this design. It has a bit of a flow to it. It is so nice to have an artist across the street. Sharon is brilliant.

I have 3 more to quilt for John, he is a great piecer. I will show them as soon as I have them finished.

I have ordered some Spare parts for my Lady June (my massive Gammill) and I hope that they will come in Handy eventually. I was having some tension issues with her, but the folks at Gammill were so very helpful. I have had to become somewhat of a sewing machine mechanic. My husband wanted to have that job, but most of the time I have issues I can't wait for him to come home from work, so I just grab my screwdriver and go to town. It is so satisfying to take it apart and fix the problem (in the last case it was a thread jam in the rocking finger) and then go back to awesome tension. I love my long arm.

Anytime I get a new machine I have tension issues at some point. They drive me crazy, but it is so wonderful to figure what the problem is and be able to fix it. Speaking of sewing machines, my Bernina 820 is STILL in the shop. It is making some sort of alarm sound that no one can figure out what it means. That is something I love about my older machines. When they develop bad tension I can sort them out fairly easy. But when my fancy computer ones mess up there is nothing I can do but go to a professional.

OK, have a happy weekend and I will talk to you soon.