Over the weekend I was able to FINALLY load a quilt top onto the Gammill longarm quilting machine that is sitting in my new studio - whoo-hoo! The machine is here to tape short educational Gammill videos for The Quilt Show. Look for those soon at www.thequiltshow.com. They are called Longarm Lifelines with Linda Thielfoldt.
Most of you know I'm a push-the-quilt sort of guy, the free-motion quilting kind. However, I'm not resistant to trying new things. Well... since there just happens to be a Gammill in my studio, why not give it a go? I'm green when it comes to long arm quilting but not totally green.
About two years ago a friend who owns a Gammill urged me give it a whirl. I loaded one of my dad's quilts and quilted the whole thing. After it was finished I realized that the tension was so bad on the back that I could never bind and finish the quilt. It was sad, and I didn't have the time to invest in picking out all those quilting stitches. The quilt stayed tucked away.
Fast forward... this past February the Gammill was installed in my studio by the Kelly/Terry team from Ft. Collins, CO. Kelly saw the quilt and mentioned that she knew someone who would pick out ALL of the quilting stitches. It was worth the price I paid to have it done and the quilt arrived back to me last week. This photo shows the impressions of what had been the quilting design.
Rewinding... this past May I found some old UFO quilt blocks. These blocks were cowboy boot blocks that had been given to me as a gift from Circle in the Square Quilters back in 1993. I arranged the blocks into a fun quilt and named it Deadwood. Deadwood is the name of a historic mining town in South Dakota. There is an intense HBO series by the same name. Here's the Deadwood quilt top.
Now...back to the quilt I loaded this past weekend - it's the Deadwood quilt. I ordered thread from Superior Threads and those should arrive tomorrow. In the meantime, I was able to at least quilt the cream/white areas of the first two rows. I thought you might like to see how I'm doing - and I'm sure open to suggestion.
For the most part, I'm still plugging along on the Streak of Lightning quilt waiting for my threads to arrive.
Stay tuned! I'm just sayin'....
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Lynn
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