Sunday 10 March 2013

Transformation

Today was a non-sewing day for me. I have been thinking for a while now about setting my sewing machine up with a flatbed table, for years, actually, but now it has become serious for me. It's hard to believe I've been sewing for such a long time this way.

I've realized lately that if I'm to be doing my own quilting on my big quilts, I need to get this done. I don't know how I quilted anything before this. Actually I do know. I did all straight lines and no free-motion, which isn't how I want to quilt anymore. I thought I might be able to wait until the weather was nicer so I could do all the sawing outside the house, but I could not tolerate my setup a minute longer!

I was working yesterday on this red and denim quilt, doing some meandering hearts, stopped right in the middle, and went out to get supplies. I recently stumbled across Marta's blog, link here, with a really good tutorial on how to do this to an Ikea table. She has a great idea for getting the machine level with the top of the table using bolts and nuts, so I did that.

I had to make adjustments for my front loading bobbin, for the size of my base plate, and for my plug-in, but I did it pretty much the way she said. I did most of it myself, too, with only a little help from Mr. Sweet, and a lot of help from his tools which he loves getting out for any project! So I now have a flatbed, and can't wait to see what happens next on it.

2 comments:

  1. You are gonna love it! So much easier on the body!!! And much easier to get really good quilting done!!!!! Hugs, Doreen

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Ilene, It was really interesting to hear you speak at the guild this afternoon and to view your incredible quilts. I'm just getting into free motion quilting and am inspired by your efforts, especially with the full sized quilt.
    Quilt On!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by to read about my quilting world. Your comments mean so much to me, so feel free to let me know what you think, about anything!