...And the Rainbow Lighted the Sky

The case of the missing batting (60 yards total) is now solved. I've been chasing down the company I ordered this from wholesale, but thanks to all the hoopla in Houston, the response had been slow. This morning, because I wanted to try actually quilting a top, I braved the trip to Joann's. I generally try to avoid it with kids in tow, especially 2 weeks before Halloween. I expected the worst, but was pleasantly home in less than an hour with 2 yards of batting. Only about 20 minutes later did I see this...
...and my mail lady dragging them one by one on her back to our door! Nice to finally have a lifetime supply (I know, yea right!) in my possession! And happy daughter modelling her birthday dress with all the batting rolls. Always the camera ham.

On to the more interesting stuff now- After a few days of battling my machine on tension, and thinking it was really going to win, I found that tension adjustment is pretty simple with the Superior So Fine threads. I have many spools/cones of 40 and 50 wt cottons that I really like and want to quilt with. But I have gotten VERY disgusted trying to adjust tensions on bobbin and top thread to get appropriate tension without thread breakage. I had to throw my hands up at one point and accept that I can live with quilting with the finer polyester threads for a while. On the plus side, they leave virtually NO lint, unlike their dirtier cotton cousins. I just miss the look of the heavier thread...

To get on with the process of learning to long arm quilt, I loaded my Rainbow Colorblocks quilt onto the frame. This is free quilted in swirls in a tan So Fine thread - the only color I have until an order of a few cones arrives, hopefully next week. I am very pleased with how the quilt turned out for it being just an allover pattern. The tan thread just mostly disappears in all the colored squares, and blends with the backing.

Here it is on the frame. Notice that the dungeon is not so dark anymore. $200 later, I have a dedicated outlet, and some nice bright lights that run the length of the machine. It's much nicer now!

Here's a quick peek at the backing. It's very bold and fun - definitely a quilt geared for a young to teenage girl, but then all those bright colors were not really intended for the guys anyhow. I happened to have just 3 yards of this fabric and it coordinated so I used it. I have no idea what will become of this 1st quilt of mine so I was not going to put additional $$ into finding that perfect backing. I think that this is it!

Where to from here?? Not really sure. I have many more tops to conquer but they rely on a perticular color thread. I suspect I will play with cotton thread tensions again in hopes of mastering it so I can move onto one of these other quilts.

Have a great weekend.