Civil War Crossings – Day 4

Got all of the rows put together last night.

Civil War Crossings–Day 3

Got to spend a little time in the quilt room this afternoon.  Finished up the blocks.  At first I didn’t like the beige/tan squares at each corner … but they’re starting to grow on me!

Design Wall Monday (Civil War Crossings – Day 2)

Here’s what’s on my design wall today!

Allspice Tapestry–Quilting Day 2A

Had a little bit of time to slip downstairs and work on this quilt before Gold Rush came on.  Got three more feather blocks done and some ditch quilting done to prepare for tomorrow.

One person asked what the backing fabric looked like, so I said I’d post a picture of that.

Allspice Tapestry – Quilting Day 2

Finally had a chance to get back down to the HQ-16 and work on my quilt again.   This is a combination of regular stitching, freemotion meandering, template work and computerized Pro-Stitcher designs.

Allspice Tapestry – Quilting Day 2

Didn’t have much time at all to work at the machine today.  I think I was only down there for about an hour.  I got the rest of the row of ribbon candy quilting done, and some of the ditch quilting done.

Allspice Tapestry – Quilting Day 1

I am finally up and running. With my upgrade to the new track system for the HQ-16, it meant that I had to upgrade the carriage for my ProStitcher. Unfortunately the new track arrived broken, but not so much that it couldn't be used. Then when everything was FINALLY put together, the computer wouldn't boot up. I called HandiQuilter and it was fixed within 10 minutes. (we also made some adjustments to the screen's appearance) Saturday when I tried to load a quilt on the new system, I quickly discovered that my stitch regulator wasn't working. Another call to HandiQuilter and again, it was solved in less than 10 minutes. So finally, after a looonnnnggg wait ... I was able to get started on this quilt top that I pieced a couple years ago. Here's the top set of borders so far. I've used a combination of freemotion meandering, swag templates and a design called Ribbon Candy done by the Pro-Stitcher. Oh, and another template was used to make a curvy design in border #2, but you can't really see it because of the fabrics used in that border.

I should mention that I’ve had my HQ-16 machine since mid-2006.  And I had NEVER once called tech. support for any reason.  I had never even called my dealer for any kind of problem.  So the two phone calls to HandiQuilter in the past two weeks were my first experience dealing with tech. support at HandiQuilter.  Like I said, I got my HQ-16 (with stitch regulation) in mid-2006, along with the adjustable height / adjustable length table and frame.  When the handlebars were introduced, I added those to my set up.  Awhile later they introduced the micro-handles and I ordered those.  In early 2011, I was able to purchase a used Pro-Stitcher that my dealer had available, and he came to install that.  And then in late January I got the pole upgrade for my frame and the track upgrade for my table.  Because the track was different engineering, it required that I send my Pro-Stitcher carriage back to Utah to be fitted for the new track. 

My first call to tech support last week was because the computer was not booting up.  It turns out a card on the underside of the carriage had become loose (probably during shipping) and just needed to be pushed back in firmly.  No biggie!  The stitch regulator problem was our fault.  Me and my hubby installed the wrong little circuit board attachment when we were preparing the new carriage for the new track system.

Sands Of Time Hourglass Block Swap 2012 – Month 2

I got my February blocks done for the Sands Of Time Hourglass Block Swap 2012.  This is an 8-month block swap – and these are the four color groups that I made this month.  Each month we make 40 blocks to send in.  Actually we make 48, but we keep 8 blocks for ourselves.  I know it sounds like a LOT of blocks, but really it isn’t.  The hourglass blocks finish up at 3½”, and are easily done using nickel squares (5” squares).  And when chain sewing them – the whole process goes super quick.

The swap is being run by Tanya on the Historical Block Swap group on Yahoo!  It’s based on the Scrappy Hourglass quilt by Kathie Holland in the Sew Scrappy magazine (Volume 2) which was out in January 2012.

If you have a lot of half-square or quarter-square triangles to trim up, you need to get the Perfect Half-Square & Quarter-Square Triangles ruler by June Tailor.  It’s a fantastic product.  I got mine at JoAnn’s, and of course used a 40% coupon.  (sorry for the glare in the picture)  It trims blocks down to 1½”, 2½”, 3½”, 4½”, 5½” and 6½”.

In other (bad) news …

1. On Saturday afternoon I loaded a quilt onto my new, updated HQ-16 frame downstairs only to discover that my stitch regulator is NOT working.  I will be on the phone out to Utah on Monday morning!  I called out there last week to find out why the ProStitcher computer wasn’t booting up properly after the upgrade.  Got that fixed, but didn’t feel well the rest of the week and didn’t try turning the machine on until Saturday afternoon.
2. Our kitchen sink is leaking, so we’ll have to do something about that situation this week.  I’ve been wanting to replace the faucet in there for the last couple of years (we have VERY hard water that destroys a lot of things).  So we may end up replacing the sink and faucet as a way to fix that mess. 
3. When hubby came home from work today, he had a strange look on his face.  He dropped his iPad2 on the concrete floor of the garage right after he got out of the car.  The glass in the one corner cracked.  So now we have to see about fixing that too!

Broken Dishes Valentine Quilt – Day 1

To follow along with the smallquilttalk group led by Kathy Tracy, here’s my February small quilt.  The original pattern was a Broken Dishes quilt from one of her books.  She modified the quilt to a more Valentine’s Day theme and added an embroidered patch in the center for a small quilt challenge this month.  But I left out the embroidery.