The MLQG Quilt Exhibit is only 3 weeks away and it looks like I'm finally going to meet my deadlines. All that's left to do on Haberdashery is to hand-stitch the binding and hanging sleeve to the back of the quilt. Whew!!! This project was tough. I started quilting it a few days before we left for our fishing trip and after several agonizing hours, I quit. I walked away from the machine, folded up the quilt and gave up. For some reason, the Juki I normally use for my quilting absolutely refused to sew more than a few inches without breaking the thread. I tried every trick in the book - nothing worked. It took me 2 hours and many many thread breaks, just to quilt one block. Talk about frustrating!!! So I quit. I don't like quiting... I stewed and stewed about it, then went to visit a quilting friend. It really helps to have another quilter to talk to at times like this. I had so much time invested into this quilt, with hopes of entering it in our exhibit next month, and I couldn't finish it... I could have cried....
Anyway, to make a long story short(er), I decided to give it one more try, but use my Bernina this time. First block, no thread breaks - 2nd block, no breaks - 3rd, still no breaks! Over the next few days I finished the whole quilt with ZERO machine problems!!! Like the ads say - "nothing sews like a Bernina". The only hard part was wrestling this heavy quilt through the small throat space. That's why I bought the Juki - there is more room for the quilt. Most of the time the Juki works great and I love it - but it has it's days... It obviously doesn't like the silks and bulkier necktie fabrics in this quilt, that's for sure!
So now I'm dreaming about the new
Bernina 7 Series coming out in September. Ten Inches of Throat Space!!! They're not as expensive as the previous 8 Series, but still pretty pricey. But I can dream, can't I?
I also finished my AAQI quilt for the Exhibit. All of the entries in this category will be donated to
AAQI at the end of the exhibit. My entry is called "Dare to be Different". The squares are all 1 inch, and it's quilted with a 1/2" grid of straight lines, and the overall size of the quilt is 8 1/2" x 10 1/2". I really love how this one turned out.
So if you're in the Wellsboro PA area during the month of September, stop in and see our exhibit at the
Gmeiner Art Center. You'll be blown away by the quilts, I'm sure! See you there!
