The Quilting of the Irish Chain Baby Quilt

This is the first Irish Chain quilt we made, this one being a baby quilt.  I added 4 borders and considered it adaptable to boy or girl.  I found an expectant recipient, a girl baby, so used the pink binding, and a pink flannel backing. This is the first one I've washed and dried, and I like the antique look of the shrinkage.

Because I had a "free" valet service left on my Rental Card, I took this in on Monday afternoon and picked out the thread and pantograph to use. On Wednesday Morning, I walked into the store at 9:00 AM and there it was completely and perfectly loaded on a new long arm machine!  My local quilt shop now has 3 new models of Long Arms, including GEORGE!  George is the machine I've been entering EVERY day to win!

I've been using an APQS Millie machine.  They had swapped out one of the Millie's for a Lucy, a less computerized machine, but same size.  I liked the idea of less is more, but it sure made a lot of clunking noise!  I chose a heart design, thinking it would be nice for baby quilt.  It was a bit more of a challenge than others, because of the many tight curves and "V" angles, but I think I did well!   Becky who loaded the machine was impressed with how nicely the patchwork was pieced!  She has followed my journey from the start of my quilting at the shop.  It's nice to see progress! And, the quilting came out beautiful for the quilt!

As always, there is something to learn.  This time, the quilt was loaded a bit low. Or, the pantograph was loaded low. Either way, I had a bit more gap at the top than usual.  They have told me that I can come back to the top at the end and fill in the open space, but I have never felt that the space needed it.  I didn't even give it a thought when I finished.  I took it off the machine and hurried home to put it on my design board to examine, and measure for binding.  Well, after studying it off and on for a couple hours, I decided I just couldn't live with it that way.

I brought it back into the quilt store and asked if I could use the pantograph and draw the missing parts on and use GEORGE to free motion quilt it :)  I REALLY wanted an opportunity to try out this machine, as I have set my heart on owning one some day. hehe.  Well,  winning one in June, actually. lol.

Although I did not finish quilting all the tops by my goal of May 1, I am REALLY close. I have the borders attached on the second Irish Chain (scrap) quilt  and have also been working on the Final Exam!  Woo Hoo,  Even though I am ready to go with the quilting of the last project top, I don't think I can finish before the graduation guests arrive.  I will soon be breaking down the Quilting Room, in exchange for the Guest Room.  But, I DO know that while Mom is here, I WILL be getting her help on the Dreadful Mitered Table Runner!  :)