A few weeks ago I received a box in the mail from my mom. She had sent me a quilt flimsy that she pieced about 18 years ago or so. It's a rail fence pattern done in black/white and white and grey fabrics. There's also a piece of cross-stitch with my sister Nicole's name. My mom recalls making this in a class at JoAnn's back when my sister and she were sharing a condo. Now that I have Freddie, my mom wanted the top all finished. I sewed a few of the grey borders that were just pinned on and the final black border. Then I loaded it on Freddie and away we went.
The backing is a busy multi colored ditsy floral on a black with white pindot ground. You can barely see the quilting on it. I used Superior Threads So Fine #50 thread in a light grey color. Hobbs 80/20 batting. The quilting pantograph is Chartreuse by Patricia Ritter of Urban Elementz. All quilted on the APQS Freddie with IntelliQuilter robotics system. The quilt measures 74" x 96" so not quite a queen but bigger than a twin.
And for those who have asked to see Freddie in action, here's a video of him working away:
Isn't Freddie loud?! Luckily Fearghus and Fiona don't seem to bark at it thank goodness. You should hear Miss Fiona when the vacuum cleaner is running. She's crazy!
You'll notice in the final quilt picture that we added a cushioned floor mat. It helps so much with standing for long periods of time in front of the machine. Also in the video you have a glimpse of a blue pool noodle. If you're wondering what in the heck that is for ... well it's to prop up the side clamps a bit more so that the edge of the quilt is level. The pool noodles have curtain rods inserted in them and they sit on top of Freddie's roller bars. So there you have it, what Freddie sounds like when he's happily stitching along. Of course I still have to supervise him. On this quilt I had five thread breaks. When that happens I stop the machine, fix the break (or refill the bobbin), and then back up and restart the stitching where it left off. Once I take the quilt off the frame I go back and tie knots and bury them.
Now I have to figure out what fabric to get for the binding. What do you think about either a black with white dot? Or perhaps a white with black dot? What do you think?
