Saturday, April 5, 2008

New Life for Quilting Machine...aahhhhh

Here is the horrid foot I've been using for at least 3 years on my machine-quilting sewing machine. Why is it horrid? When I purchased the antique machine, the seller ground down the foot because I said something about not having much visibility. He did not consult me before changing its shape. Sewing with it like this is so frustrating. Every time the foot bumped into a seam (which was frequently), it wouldn't smoothly go over the seam. It would tend to just push the seam over and keep sewing a million stitches a minute. Each little faux pau was 20-30 minutes of unsewing while hunched over the quilt frame. It got so frustrating that I just haven't used it for a really long time. Which was a shame seeing it was taking up a lot of room in my bedroom. Here I am replacing the faulty foot with one identical to the original. I tried (in vain) to find a replacement myself, but the machine is just soooooo old. Nobody I contacted had ever seen a machine "that old". I finally decided to see if the man I bought it from could locate one. Of course he could--matter of fact, he had one somewhere there at his shop (although after he said that and we disconnected, I did wonder if he was burning up the phone lines locating one).
Here it is ready for the maiden voyage...vroom vroom...ladies start your engines.

Here I have quilted one width of the quilt. It was so much easier! Hooray!!
I had to park on the French fries while I advanced the quilt in the frame. I do love I Spy quilts.
I just did a simple meandering so I didn't challenge the system right from the get-go.
Usually when I have finished a quilt even this small, from the muscle strength it takes to move my heavy (80 lbs.) machine and the frustration of ripping out 6 zillion stitches nanometers apart (I always get sarcastic and exaggerate when I'm stressed), my shoulders are north of my ears (to quote my b-friend, Lisa) because of the strain.

I am ecstatic to report that my ears are in their usual south of my ears location, and I finished this in record time. This is an I Spy for some lucky baby girl at our church. The backing fabric is white with tiny yellow rosebuds. I have had the backing so long that I can't remember if I bought it or if someone donated it to me. I usually put a simple baby-friendly fabric on the back in case the mother thinks the front is too much for use in public.

~Joan

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love reading your blog. You have so many great ideas!! I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing how you have your quilting frame set up for machine quilting.

Thank you,
Debbie

Anonymous said...

Yay! Wish I had a long-arm, even an oldie but a goody! As long as they do the job, it is alright by me. :o)

Kairle Oaks said...

Great quilt, Joan. How great that you got the new foot!

Jeanne said...

Great quilt! What kind of machine are you using for quilting?

Karen said...

It's great that you have a new foot and you can now quilt with more ease! Enjoy!
Karen