Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Frame and July's challenge

What excitement! Today, the Cruise Control for Squiggy came in and I left work a little early to run out to the shop to pick it up before they closed. The lady at the shop also gave me 6 bobbins for free when I looked to see if they had any extra ones for the machine. This should tide me over for a while. I have been looking online for a good source of the right size bobbins. I haven't found anything yet that will sell less than 100 at a time.

Anyway, while I was at the shop, I stopped at the Joann's that is in the same shopping center and bought some fabric to make leaders with. This is several shades of pink on a white background with a light green mixed in. Very pretty! And the lines will help load the quilts in straight. I already learned that trick from the Viking Mega Quilter Yahoo group that I joined.

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After I got home, I ate dinner and spent about 30 minutes moving the frame and then trying to level it out so that the carriage would ride smoothly. Once I had it pretty level, I finished the assembly of the carriage by adding Squiggy and the laser pointer and a couple of other things that will hold Squiggy in place. Then, I got the box for the Cruise Control. It turns out that I should've done this first because I had to take Squiggy off the frame and then load him right back on it. Oh well, it's all done now.

Here is Lenny and Squiggy. Basically ready for a quilt to work on.

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And a closer view of Squiggy. All of the black pieces around the top of the machine remind me of a halo that they put accident victims in. Very odd. I will have to try to not think about that.

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Now, onto the challenge. I have been doing fairly well with my one hour a day challenge for June. I am hoping for some more time to actually sew one of these weekends. Well, Jen and Moneik and I were talking about this challenge in May and we decided that we would have a challenge between the three of us in July. We had to wait until July because Moneik went and got married and Jen up and moved in June. I haven't done anything exciting except work and buy a Viking Mega Quilter and Next Generation Gracie frame. Well, that and cut my foot open while assembling said frame.

Anyway, we are doing this challenge and the losers have to send the winner a present. So far this week, there has been a ton of trash talk about how Jen thinks that she is going to outsew Moneik and how Moneik is going to outquilt Jen ... They should just relax and send me the presents since it is obvious that I am gonna win! :) We also have come up with rules about what counts as quilting time and what doesn't and we have a google spreadsheet with the rules and marks to show who has agreed and who has not.

And now, we have tickers. We have already loaded the tickers onto our sidebars in anticipation of the work that will be done starting in 2 weeks. Jen put all of our tickers together and we have an emblem and you can check all of our progress from each of our blogs. It's all very high tech, I can assure you!

Tune in to see how it all goes! And to watch me wipe out the competition! :D

5 comments:

Beth said...

Congrats on the new set up! Can I make one suggestion? ( will limit myself to one UNREQUESTED piece of advice! PROMISE!) just remember there is a pretty steep learning curve. I learned to just address one nagging little problem at a time. Every time you have tension probs...or pokies...or something, see it as a lesson in trouble shooting. use your Yahoo group to help you solve those,,,but DON"T BEAT YOURSELF UP! :1. glass of wine,2: lots of practice pieces you DON"T really care about so you can play, 3. try to get your hands on a copy of The Pajama Quilter. She is a confidence builder! oh..that is more than one! sorry! have FUN! lolol

Michelle said...

You are just so funny, Jill. I can feel your excitement. Have fun!
Michelle

Jen said...

Wipe out the competition my A$$!! I'm going to kick your arse all the way to Rapid City and let Moneik wipe up the remains of you. Oh, but when I kick you, take your frame so Moneik can use it! LOL.

I'm glad to hear that Lenny & Squiggy are ready to roll.

Oh yeah, and I agree with everything that Beth said. To save yourself loads of frustration, maybe you should have Patrice come over and help you out the first time you load a quilt and then explain how the rollers need to be moved up and down and such. That's something that the web, video or anything I read didn't tell me. The couple of quilts I did with Michelle right there was a HUGE help. I'd probably still be scared of my frame had it not been for her instruction.

Moneik said...

There is absolutely no way that either of you will beat me! I have big plans and I'm going to sew the socks right off both you and Jen! Can't wait to hear how your frame set up works and how much practice you get in before July. Have fun!

Regina said...

So can the rest of us take bets on who will win??? - and the ones who pick the winner get entered in a drawing or something???

My bet is on you, Jill!!