slow progress on new quilt

I got all the little blocks cut and stitched for the quilt I started a couple of weeks ago. I had to...after the longarm arrived I no longer had a nice big design 'floor'. Since my new toy arrived I've been playing on that so haven't made any further progress on the quilt. I'll get back to it soon...er...soon-ish?

To finish up, a photo of our vicious guard cat on duty.

new toy has arrived!

I have been a bit stressed and a bit MS-y over the last few weeks. Stressed because the delivery of the longarm machine didn't go as smoothly as hoped, which was totally out of the control of the company and the dealer who was just wonderful. All is well with it now, and it works beautifully. I love it! Just need to get used to the movement which is totally different to quilting on the domestic machine. Lots of PPP (practice, patience and perseverance).


Here's a photo of my new baby and some of my practice quilting. It feels strange to be a quilting beginner again. My first efforts are pretty woeful - it can only get better from here, right? The photos didn't come out very well. Hmm, that could be a good thing.










On the MS front, the muscle spasms in my arms seem to be finished, thank God. Unfortunately they are moving to my face. Only on the right hand side, though. Can you imagine what muscle spasms in your nose and lips feel like? Of course, they probably feel much worse than they are (doesn't everything?). It's not very pronounced and I can usually cover it up. Hopefully no one notices. It feels like I'm doing an impersonation of Billy Idol's sneer. If you can remember what that looks like, you obviously were into music in the 80's, ha ha. I've watched in the mirror and it does look a bit weird. With MS there's never a dull moment.....

longarm and suggestions wanted for photos

Having a quiet time this morning so decided to post again.

Helen, to answer your question, I'm getting an A1 Elite longarm machine. It's not as heavy as some of the others and apparently moves very easily because of the way the wheels are made. It has a 23" throat space which will be fantastic. Supposed to be here by the end of the week but we don't know exactly when.

I'm including some photos that I took in an attempt to capture texture in nature, and to try out my camera which I haven't spent much time with yet. I don't quite know what I'll use them for, but I'm thinking something connected with free form quilting and/or embroidery. I shall have to ponder this for a while longer (possibly even a year or two?) Any ideas for me?

what I'm working on now

I've started a new quilt top this week. I have a bag that was made in India out of cut up pieces of embroidered silks and I wanted to match the colours of the quilt to the bag. I just love the richness of the colours! The photos made the bag look a bit pink. The pink areas are actually red in real life.

I got fairly close, or at least as close as I could considering all the fabric came out of my stash. I chose a pattern that looked fairly easy to construct if you don't consider the number of 1.75" squares that I had to cut - 1056 of them. Then I had to draw a diagonal line on the back of all of them (aaarrgh). I used to just sort of finger press them and stitch on the fold, but I can't see the fold well enough now. I have started stitching today so I feel as if I'm making progress. I hope to have the bulk of it together by the end of the week because that's when the longarm machine is due to arrive. I would still be stitching now if it wasn't so c-c-cold in the studio. There's a guy coming tomorrow to look at the heater out there. He thinks it just needs re-gassing so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

My MS is playing up at the moment. Muscle spasms in my arms (mainly in the middle of the night)and tremors in my arms during the day. What fun. The surface of my legs and lower back is going numb as well, and the good old 'MS hug' has lasted all day for the last week or so instead of just an hour when I get up. I know I'm having a flare up but I'm trying to out last it if I can. Oh well, things could be worse. I can still make quilts .

see ya

cat