My First Quilt on the Long Arm - FINISHED!!!

Well, it's official...I'm a long arm quilter!!!  I showed you some of my practice yesterday after getting the machine home and set up.  I finished quilting the living daylights out of that second larger piece...so much so that I was afraid I'd break the needle if I layered anymore thread up.  I just don't have tons of fabric laying around to burn up...so I decided it was time to try a real quilt.

I still had some adjusting to do before I could get the machine to move fluidly.  I had to clean down the entire track front and back...and since I have an older machine I read on the APQS forums that it is suggested to clean the tracks with alchohol and then rub with CAR WAX!!  Hahaha - I don't know why I find that so funny...I polish up my vintage machines with wax so I was prepared!  :)  THAT made the HUGEST difference!!!  Once I did that I had enough control that I was no longer making square circles...I can finally MOVE!!!  Yay!!!

So here's what I DID!!!

I think it turned out pretty good for my first shot!  I'm so happy!!!

It's definitely going to take a lot more practice to get the control that is needed to backtrack over stitches for feathers and intricate designs, but I'm feeling really great about what I've done so far and this is SO MUCH FUN I have to tell you!!!  Tension really wasn't a problem either as it's pretty much similar to how my older sewing machines work.  I used the white Isacord thread I was given for Christmas.  I'd like to try some smaller needles as those holes are kind of big but to start, I'm really excited.  :)

I'm going to quilt my Mother's quilt tomorrow...so...more to come!!!  :)