Lemon Tree Tales

A little IQ in our life

Freddie now has his IntelliQuilter (IQ) upgrade. Of course the installation wasn't a smooth one for any of us. IQ shipped us the box filled with goodies and it arrived late Monday afternoon. On Tuesday morning I picked up Cristyn from the airport so that she could install it. Of course wouldn't you know it, but a silly mistake was made and we were shipped the incorrect bracket for my type of table. Cristyn tried her best to jerry-rig something. We even were all set and ready to head over to Dave's racing shop to see if we could use his angle grinder and welding equipment. Sadly it just wasn't getting together. Instead we took Cristyn back to the airport. Early Wednesday morning the correct brackets arrived via FedEx. Yay! Then Steve and I spent about five hours figuring out how to install the brackets and adjust the motors properly. There were quite a few runs to the hardware store for tools that we didn't have. Nice to have a set of box wrenches and allen keys now. :-)

Steve was quite the trooper and got it all done. I then turned it on and calibrated the machine and did the performance and drift tests. It passed all three of those. I even managed to quickly stitch out a quilt block design. Yay! The next couple weeks will be filled with practice quilts. After that keep watch on this site for the big quilting announcement. Gather your quilt tops in the meantime. Cheers my friends!

Introducing Freddie the Longarm Quilting Machine

On Tuesday noon, we picked up APQS rep Mark from the airport. Sadly his tool box didn't make the flight so we stopped by the hardware store on the way home. After spending hours of opening boxes and putting together interesting looking parts, Mark presented us with Freddie. He and his 12' table fit rather nicely in the family room plus there's still plenty of room for us to walk around it on one side.

We loaded up a practice muslin and a navy thread and began doodling. Steve even took a whirl. So far the stitches are great. The table needed a bit of fine tuning in leveling because Freddie would travel about 4' without the needle down. I anticipate that we'll be repeating that in the next few weeks as the floor settles under the frame. But all is well. And if you're wondering why he's called Freddie, it's because the full name is the APQS Freedom. They've written 'Freddie" on the side in a lovely red handwriting font. The only thing I'm not too fond of is the 3-D dove that is on both sides of the machine head. It won't come off so I'll need to put something over it. Since I persist in thinking of Freddie Mercury I do believe that a cool crown would be appropriate, wouldn't you think?

Here's our first bit of doodling:

'SRF' stands for 'Spec Racer Ford' ... that's Steve's contribution. We're both having fun filling up the practice muslin. I'll bind it and turn it into a dog quilt once we're done. Now the next step is to practice on a quilt top. Luckily I have one ready, just need to get a backing made for it and we'll be good to go.

Installation Day

After waiting a few weeks, today's the day ... installation day! Mark from APQS will be here in a few hours to begin putting together Freddie the longarm quilting machine. Yay! 

Steve and I cleared out the family room and have it ready. Our friends needed the futon so the guys took it apart, drove it to their house in two separate vehicles (wouldn't you know that just when you need a pickup no one owns one anymore?) and reassambled it. Thanks Steve and Lance! The little retro 50s dinette set is awaiting news of a possible new home. If not then I'll give it away. It served its purpose well but we haven't made use of it in a long time. The only items remaining is the old dining room table from Steve's childhood home. It's where we store all the doggie supplies. We took down one dog pen since Fiona is no longer a pup and needs to be separated and moved the remaining pen into the dining room along with the crates. So I think we're all set and ready to go.

I forget what the name of the yellow paint is called. But it's a nice warm honey yellow with a tiny tinge of orange cast to it. It changes with the lighting conditions. We picked it because the kitchen laminate countertops were a pale yellow. Since a kitchen remodel wasn't in the works we opted to make the most of the yellow. I have to say that I'm very happy with it. It's cheerful. Plus when all the blinds are opened, our lemon tree is centered in the view through the sliding glass doors. Lots of fantastic natural light but it will get hot in the summertime so I don't usually open all the blinds then.

 

Yesterday I got new surge protectors, floor protectors to reduce any vibrations from being on a laminate floor and to keep it from being "sanded", as well as two spools of Superior So Fine 50wt thread in contrasting colors, batting and muslin. All set for the first practice muslin quilt. Can't wait to show you pics of Freddie. Wish us luck!