On Order

The den has been rearranged to make room for the newly acquired quilting frame. Well, mostly. I still haven't figured out where to put the treadle sewing machine that is sitting in the corner along the wall where the quilting frame will go. And lest anyone should be silly enough to suggest getting rid of said treadle sewing machine, not on your life. I'd sooner give up the 55 gallon aquarium or the television. I made progress, though. Today I opened the box and took out the assembly instructions to look over, carefully re-taping the box back so Butch can't get at any of the pieces. He tries to eat the strangest things. We're always finding rocks and pieces of wood that he has brought in from outside to chew on. When we take stuff like that away from him, he takes it very philosophically. He knows he can always just go back outside and bring in another rock or hunk of firewood.

Today we ordered the parts from here to make the necessary pieces to turn the hand quilting frame into a machine quilting frame. Of course, if we had ever won the lottery, we wouldn't have to cobble something together like this, but considering that a new quilting machine/frame setup can cost around $8k-$14k, I didn't see any way I could make enough quilts to justify spending that kind of money.

I did see an interesting website today that offers "stretched arm" quilting machines for as little as $1,899, and the company is just a hop and a skip from my place back in Tulsa. They take vintage Singer model 201 sewing machines and cut/paste them into long-arm sewing machines. Okay, it's a little more complicated than cut and paste, but you get the idea.

I have a mostly-completed quilt top that will likely become my practice/learning quilt, and depending on how badly it turns out, it could end up in the dog house. Meanwhile, the t-shirt quilt for DDIL is patiently waiting for me to come to sort of decision regarding the quilting of it. Bobbie and Gracie are in no hurry; they think it sleeps very nicely as is.