First finishes on the new Millie!

Jonnie generously told me that she was totally fine with this large queen size quilt being the first quilt I've done on the new Millie. I loaded up a sample piece to practice on first. It sure is a different feel moving the machine instead of the quilt. But so smooth. I quilted half of my sample piece before I was tired of practicing and felt confident to start on Jonnie's quilt.

Her only stipulations were dark blue thread and swirls. She wanted the same pattern quilted that you can see in the blue swirls on the white background. If I quilted those directionally, it would mean that I would have quilt back and forth across the length of the frame. The only problem was that the backing fabric was pieced that way as well. Meaning it would have to be rolled onto the frame with a 12 inch pieced section running perpendicularly to the rollers.

I pinned it to the rollers and rolled it up. So the center is tight, the right side is taut, but the left is sagging, grrrr! I did some research online about loading quilts. Squaring up seemed to be important. So I did that, rolled it up again, and the sagging was on the opposite side!

By this point I had spent most of the morning loading and unloading this back. I hadn't even loaded the batting or the top. And of course there wasn't a single quilter that I know that was home. I finally got a hold of some quilters. Take the back off and rotate it so that the seams run perpendicular to the rollers was the advice. Jonnie was fine with non directional swirls. Thank goodness!

So I loaded the back the other way and things ran smoothly after that:)

This small 26 x 26 quilt for Knit One Smock Too was next. This one was great practice for ruler work and a more custom look. Get me into the swing of things without being too large and intimidating.

I've also been wandering around our yard with my iphone, hoping for just the right shot for an art quilt. Here's what I saw:

 Hosta

 Bleeding hearts

 Iris

 Clematis

 Creeping phlox

 Clematis

My Japanese maple, which I don't think has grown an inch since we moved here 10 years ago.

Loving that spring has finally arrived. I could do without with clumps of pollen though. Oh well...

Thanks Jonnie and Knit One!

My first pantograph pics coming up...