This is Lucky.

Lucky is an APQS long arm quilting machine that has been living with me since May 2005.

You may think that naming a piece of machinery is a little odd. However, it is tradition in the long-arming industry to name your machine. Other quilters have come up with names like: the obvious, Millie, Glinda (the Good Witch), Polly-Ester, Lucy (after Lucille Ball), and Patience. If you are interested in reading about some other names for long arm machines and the stories behind them, have a look at the APQS site by clicking here: http://www.apqs.com/quiltboard/viewthread.php?tid=2046#pid15359

I named my machine Lucky because it has a 13 foot table. Standard sizes are 12 foot and 14 foot when it comes to table length. I wanted the largest table I could get and 14 foot was just too long for the room that I was going to use without taking out a wall and doing some major renovations. I thought 12 foot would be too small and I would be sacrificing something I would regret later. The dealer suggested that I go with a custom table length and I ended up with a 13 foot table. ………………hence, Lucky 13 came to mind and the name stuck.

For me, naming things that are not human is not unusual. I named my Ford Explorer Suvy because she is an SUV. Last April, when the price of gas rose to levels equaling the price of gold, I bought a Honda Civic and named her, Maggie, because she is the colour of magnesium. I named my Singer sewing machine, Zip because he only had two speeds–very, very fast and stop. Zip was replaced by Heidi on April 17, 1999. Heidi is my Bernina sewing machine (of Swiss origin) and her and I have logged many happy hours together. Naming the items we spend a great deal of time with gives them personality.

Have you noticed the trend? The things that “challenge” me the most have male personalities and those objects that provide trouble-free service are female. Hmmmmmmmm.

The quilt on the frame shown in the picture with Lucky is the raffle quilt from the PieceMakers Quilt Guild. This is just a sneak peek. I will post more pictures of the completed quilt after Lucky and I finish working on it.

This is yet another picture of a UFO that I am working on.

The center of the blocks is a small snowman panel. I have surrounded the panels with logs to make Courthouse Step blocks.

The quilt top is only half complete.
I have taken a picture of the layout of the remainder of the blocks that I want to make. This digital image serves as an electronic design wall. I keep this picture next to my sewing machine as a reference for which block to join to which to finish the design I want.

My digital camera is my newest quilting gadget.

I am not sure how other quilters store their UFOs but I have mine stored in various ways. I have most of my larger UFOs stored in pizza-type boxes with a label on the end identifying what is in the box. I keep the UFO and all fabric and patterns related to that UFO in that box. This way when I want to work on a project, I can just take out the box and go to work.

Smaller projects are kept together in a large tote that is identified with a label on the end of it showing that it contains works in progress.

I also have two hand-work UFO projects that live in a basket in the living room next to my chair. It is amazing how old these ones are!
One of the projects is a kit that I bought at Woolco here in Canada before it was bought by Wal-Mart. This project is at least 11 years old. I looked on Wal-Mart Canada’s web site and found out that “Wal-Mart Canada was founded in March 1994 with the acquisition of the Woolco division of Woolworth Canada Inc. A total of 122 stores were converted in less than eight months to the Wal-Mart format.”
This project was a whole cloth quilt with a cross stitch design stamped on it. After the cross stitch is completed, it can be sandwiched with batting and backing and is ready to quilt. Even the quilting lines are marked in blue on the top. This picture shows the progress I have made on the top – it is only about half complete.
This is a closeup of one of the stars.

The second UFO project in the basket is an English Paper Pieced Star quilt made out of diamond shapes. Each piece is hand basted to a freezer paper template and then they are hand sewn together into a star shape.This project was started as a gift for my son. I believe I started this one in 1998.

I thought I might have it finished in time for my son’s High School Graduation. He graduated two years ago. Then I thought I might finish it in time for his Graduation from University. He graduates from University in three years. With the slow progress I have made so far, this might be an ambitious goal. Some of the rows are put together. Each of the stars is made from a different fabric. My son was very specific that there should be no flowers or “girlie stuff” in this quilt. It was difficult to find enough fabrics to keep each block unique while staying way from anything with a flower in it or any hint of something feminine.

I have started a second Crumb Quilt. These blocks are so easy to make and do not require any concentration at all. They are great blocks to make when you only have a few minutes to spare.

Sometimes quilt inspiration is like a dry well and you just can’t get motivated to quilt. This is the perfect prescription for the un-inspired quilter. Working with leftover bits of previous projects jump starts the creative process again as you reflect on the memories of quilt projects past. (This is where the Ghost of Quilting Past appears!)

Instead of just sticking to one particular colour like I did with the green crumb block quilt, I have decided that anything goes with these blocks. It is hard to believe that a tangled mess like this………………

……………………………turns into beautiful blocks like these!

I have made 30 blocks so far. I plan on making this into a queen size quilt so I will have to soon decide on the setting so that I know how many blocks to make in total.

I have set these blocks on a black background to take their picture. I am playing with the idea of alternate blocks of black or black sashing strips between the blocks. The advantage of plain alternate blocks is that there is room to showcase some quilting.

Since this quilt looks like it will have quite a bit of black in it, there is no danger of it being snatched by the quilt-napper, my mother. That means that this one will likely make it to the prospective gift pile. I need to get a few quilts ahead as I have two nieces that were recently engaged and are planning weddings for next Spring.

This is a picture of my first quilt that was quilted by machine. This quilt is called Fall Log Cabin. This quilt was pieced in November 1997 during one of our group’s Pre-Christmas Quilt Weekends.

This top sat for years – until 1999 – in an un-quilted state until I took some machine quilting lessons and tackled the quilting.

This quilt was also entered in our Fall Fair that year and won first place in the Medium Patchwork category.