Monday, June 11, 2012

Loving Every Minute Of It!



I am very please to report that my Innova is all assembled and working well.  The instructions and videos make it really quite easy.

Friday night we were able to get everything all assembled, except for the leveling and small fine tuning of the stitch regulator.   We decided we were both too tired and felt we would do a much better job on Saturday.  We didn't get at things too early on Saturday as we spent the day building a shed for our local chapter of Habitat for Humanity.  It was a fun, productive and rewarding experience.


On Saturday evening we got everything finished and some fabric loaded on. I was a little scared to turn the thing on, but after taking a deep breath I went for it. Here I am taking my first few stitches.  (Please ignore who fetching I look after a day of construction!)


The girls gave it a little try.  I think the whole thing will come very easily to them.

 I was so impressed with how easily the Innova moved.  I have lots to learn, but I was pretty pleased with the results of my play time. I am pleased that my swirls are more round than square and that with some practice I may actually be able to quilt some decent feathers.  I really was having fun!


First lesson learned was not to make the quilt layers too tight on the machine.  (You don't need to be able to bounce a quarter off of it!) I had some thread shredding issues and decided to phone a friend to see what to try first to fix the problem.  Kathy suggested I loosen it up and bit and problem solved!  Thanks Kathy - you rock!

I tried my hand at stitching out the Keukenhof panto too.

Maybe I will get brave enough to load a real quilt later today!



5 comments:

  1. Looks great! Knew you had the perfect spot for your machine! Enjoy!

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  2. Glad I could help!
    Your practice piece looks great. I don't think my first feathers on the longarm looked that good!!
    Oh and one of the perks of longarm quilting is you can look as fetching or as ragged as you want!

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  3. Wow, I am really impressed, you will be so busy doing quilts for others that you won't have time to do anything for yourself. Robin

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  4. I have been eagerly awaiting this post. You have been having lots of fun. Your girls and you do look like naturals. Has your better half tried yet? Enjoy.

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  5. Those look like very fine feathers to me!! and swirls and a complicated looking panto...you're ready for a real quilt!

    Love that word fetching. Have you ever seen the Pyjama quilter DVDs? You can quilt in your pyjamas if you want!

    At one point, I just kept putting a new top fabric on my practice piece--(that's what they did in the Innova booth at the show when they ran out of batting) and that worked pretty well too for trying new patterns, and then I could just use smaller strips of fabric, they didn't need to be large enough to load.

    Glad you're having fun!

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