Sunny Days .........

.............Are Happy Days!  Its been a lovely weekend here with the sun shining most of the time but a few rather heavy showers in between.  We spent a lot of our time over the weekend in the garden tidying up fallen leaves which we hadn't managed to pick up before now.  The grass was cut and we swept paths and patios, repotted some lovely polyanthus which had been forgotten about at the back of the border and pruned and manicured some of our acers and roses.  All in all a very productive weekend and a much tidier neater looking garden........ for a wee while anyway until the weeds start appearing.

I think a few of you know that I have a Grace Frame for my quilting.  I bought this a couple of years ago with all good intentions.  It was to help me master free motion quilting and allow me to lay out a quilt and quilt it with my Elna 740 which is a mid arm domestic sewing machine with a slightly larger than normal harp space.

Excitement overtook me and as always when in a rush to try a new piece of kit I didn't spend the proper amount of time researching it all before jumping head first into this new to me method of sandwiching and quilting quilts.  Techie helped me build the frame which was great, however I now know it wasn't set up at the correct height for me.  The thread I was using kept snapping, needles kept breaking and my tension was all over the place with loops appearing everywhere on the quilt.  Then family life took over and I was too busy doing other things to spend the time needed to get things right and practice did not happen.

I joined the Facebook page for Grace Frame owners and lurked there, reading up on everyones tips, what tension they used, what threads were best etc etc.  I also spoke to a lovely lady when I was on holiday last September who gave me a tremendous amount of tips and ideas to try and how I should go about getting things just right so that I could actually enjoy the process.  So since last September when Techie moved to his new home I have gradually been sorting out the room where my Grace Frame lives.  I started all over again.  The height has been adjusted, it now has locking castors, so I can move it with ease should I need to.  My machine has been fully cleaned, needle changed tension fixed, feed dogs lowered and this week I took the plunge (special thanks K for giving me that final push and encouragement).

I loaded up a quilt sandwich - no it wasn't a real quilt, just calico for the top and an ikea fabric for the back and an offcut of warm and natural.

The thread is Glide, yes its a polyester and the needle is one the lady in Canada suggested I try Inspira Topstitch 90/14.    Well all I can say is Thank You everybody!  it worked like a dream - none of the previous issues and best of all I had Fun!  Here is the proof.

I know I have a long way to go but at least it is now looking brighter and I know I can do it all I need is practise.