The Big Girl Bed Quilt Continued...

I've finished up the stippling in the centre of the quilt plus the free hand flowers in the border on both sides so needed to flip the quilt around in order to quilt the top and bottom borders.   This is the largest quilt I have put on this frame so far and I can't say I am super impressed.  The rods are only aluminum and seem to sag pretty badly in the middle so the fabric tension is off and I ended up with some puckers.  I also ended up with fairly small quiltable area by the time I finished the stippling in the middle, even though I mounted the quilt on the frame lengthwise (so I had the length of the quilt attached to the frame and rolled the width of the quilt).  I am a little nervous about the king size I have planned next.


 

I know I mentioned my uncertainty about the density of my quilting in my last post on this one and I'm still questioning it!  The border flowers are a little less dense and I think it may end up laying funny and bunching between the stippling and the border flowers.  Oh well.  Live and learn! 



Just thought I would show an updated photo with the double fluorescent lights and my new chair!  Really just a roly desk chair that my husband took the back off of so that I end up straddling the chair and have really good movement along the frame.  This is actually helping to take some of the strain off of my back and neck when I'm quilting.  One of my biggest challenges yet is visibility when moving right to left.  Left to right seems to be okay, but when going the opposite direction, my machine's built in walking foot and foot lift lever are in the way and I can't see where I have already quilted.  My husband helped me to lower the frame to the shortest setting which allowed me to use the chair instead of standing.  Standing was very awkward and forced me to bend down to see where I was quilting.  I keep wondering if the sight lines are that much better on a mid arm or long arm since there wouldn't be the built in foot and lever to contend with.  I'll add a long arm to my wish list but in the meantime am open to suggestions if anyone has any!