Mistakes happen

I have been longarm quilting for over 10 years now.  I would say in those 10 years there have been only few customer quilts where something bad happened.  A crease in the back, wrong color of thread in the bobbin (forgot to change it), thread that just wouldn't cooperate and left loops or just kept breaking, etc.  But last week was the first time that this ever happened.  I was moving the machine across the quilt when all of a sudden the needle went up/down.  It did it with such force that not only did a rip a hole in the quilt, but the whole machine came off the track!  I was shocked!  This was such a large quilt that there wasn't much space on each side so getting the machine back on track was really difficult.  Then I went to see what damage was caused in the quilt.  There was about a 1/4" hole ripped in the sashing border.  And of all places it was in the solid colored fabric.  If it had been in the printed fabric, after a repair job you probably never could have found it.  To repair it (while still on the machine), I fused some fusible interfacing to the back side of the tear.  Then I used seam sealant on the raw edges.  That should keep it from every fraying.  When I came to that part in the quilting, I put a leaf design around the hole.  It will have extra stability and hopefully never get any larger even when washed.  Finally, the customer got a discount on the quilting.  Here's a couple photos of the quilt and an upclose photo of the hole.  Hopefully nothing like this will ever happen to any of you longarm quilters.  It would be fun, though, to share horror stories -- let me know if you have one :)

Recent Customer Quilts

Here's a couple recent customer quilts.  Simple designs but really nice on these quilts.  It's so wonderful to have a machine that is working top-notch again.  It does makes quilting a lot more fun. 

Vacation, Quilting, and other things that are occupying my time

I finished my first quilt after a 3 week break.  It's good to have extended breaks in life.  I spent part of a week at my parent's home.  It was a really great time.  They are in their 80's and thinking of selling their home and moving to a senior living center.  We visited the place -- really nice.  They are excited about the prospect of living there.
I also spent part of a week with my sister visiting.  We had so much fun.  She is also a longarm quilter so there was lots of time discussing quilting, sewing together and visiting quilt shops.  We watched BBC movies, visited some cute shops, ate out, saw a friends beautiful yard and garden, went to a farmer's market and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
The last week off was consumed with two new little family members.  We got 2 new kittens.  In the last two years we lost two cats and our dog so now our house is once again filled with 'pet activity'.  Even as I type this, one is regularly stalking and pouncing on my keyboard (makes for lots of spelling errors).  Here's a couple pictures of these cuties.  We names the orange and white one Wolverine and the black and white one Tux.
By the way, my longarm is back in service.  It runs beautifully.  Feels like it's brand new.  It has made quilting a joy again.  I am booked into October and that means I only have 2 months of spots to fill before the Christmas season (I take December off).  They usually go very quickly so if you want something quilted before Christmas you better let me know soon.