I’m back in quilting mode…

As you know that I have been absent from here and I had also not quit but was almost at a stand still with my quilting. I have been taking care of mom and sadly we lost her to dementia in December 2022. I took me a while to even feel like quilting or even touching my sewing machine. Quilting was something we enjoyed and did together and my heart just was not in in.

June 2021 My oldest son graduated we were fortunate that mom was able to attend his graduation.

In April 2022, I purchased a Gammill Stettler 22″ her last gift to me. I’ve been doing a lot of charity quilting to get to learn the program on the new long arm. I sold my old HQ16 and hope that the new owner will enjoy it as much as I did.

Last May we did something, since the boys were going to be graduated and leaving the house soon. I wanted a dog that would protect me when im alone. Well this is my pup she was born on the same day as my son Willard ( that was a sign that we should get her if I ever saw one). Her name is Bijou (jewel in french). Shes going to be 2 in April.

June 2023 My youngest and last son has graduated and he’s moved out and joined the work world now so I no longer have a time restriction to my sewing room. If I want to go quilt at 5am I now can without bothering him. His room was next to my studio. Hubby and Middle son had to work so they missed getting into the photo booth

I’m feeling pretty confident with the Gammill. I’ve even started doing custom quilting. I’m really enjoying it. Here are some of the custom quilting that I’ve done since

Teaching myself to use the program has been a hit and miss but I’m so proud that I leaned a couple techniques to modify a pattern to really coordinate with the quilt I’m working on. I joined a Gammill FB group that has been a godsend when I need to ask a question if I cant figure it out on my own.

Last week what stumped me was that I only have so large a throat space and i wanted to add a wreath that was larger than the quilting space. I had to divide my nodes and do the wreath in 3 sections. This is my finished quilt along with the quilting diagram.

Friday I finished my OBW quilt, this quilt is made with 7 panels and cut cup into 60 degree triangles and blocks are put back together as a kaleidoscope. I wanted to add humming birds and butterflies to the quilting motif. So I chose 3 different patterns I divided the nodes and deleted the flowers that I did not want. I had to modify the nodes and add an exit point to join up the butterfly to the swirl, then i added in the humming bird that one was easy as it started and ended at the beak to make the motif that I used as a edge to edge pattern. I love how it turned out.

Today im working on a charity quilt from My Pins and Pine needle quilt guild were going to donate it to the senior center where we hold our meeting as a thank you for letting us use their facility. Ill post photos once completed.