Wrestling

My upper body workout of the week occurred for multiple hours yesterday afternoon as I quilted my DH's 72 x 84" quilt through the 5" arm of my Viking sewing machine. Originally I was only going to machine quilt the diagonal lines of the design, which are 12 inches apart, and hand quilt within the blocks. I just wasn't satisfied with the amount of machine quilting even though I knew I was in for a wrestling match to follow the center diamond shape of the blocks. But I listened to my inner voice and dedicated the hours to it. I knew I would always wish I had done it if I had just let it go!

My sewing desk is an old metal desk, vintage 50's, but small--my husband used it as a kid! I often set up a card table to extend surface area beyond the desk to hold the weight of the quilt. For the last several months, however, thanks to Bonnie Hunter's tip-sharing at Quiltville, I have also set up my ironing board to my left. I can't believe I never thought of it myself before, but, DUH. It makes it so much easier to work with instead of throwing it over my shoulder or wadding it in my lap. Of course I did have to get up 40 times and re-roll and rearrange so the quilt would fit through that 5" opening!

Binding will go on next so I don't have quite so much weight and bulk to work with as I add the hand quilting. Pics to come...