Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Wonderful Wednesday - The Beast Comes Alive - A UFO Club Finish, too!

Welcome to another edition of Wonderful Wednesday!!  Today is a special day here in Joyful Quilterland.  If you visit often, you know that the longarm was recently reassembled and had assumed pride of place in my new studio.

Well, after some minor adjustments and a short trip...

The Beast has come alive!!  For those of you who are new here, The Beast is my longarm's (affectionate) nickname.  You see, it's a bit of a space hog and ate up more than its fair share of the room!

Leading up to this point, several things had to happen...  

It started like this at the beginning of the month when I added the border of my great niece's baby quilt...


At that time, I also pieced the backing and (a few weeks later) loaded it on the rails:


Finally...

The quilt top was pressed to prepare it for quilting:


I pulled an ancient package of Thermore batting that was just the right size for the project...


And layered it up on the longarm:


Not without issues...

I hit a button (accidentally) and the stitch regulator stopped working.  Not normally a problem, as it should simply reengage.  Unfortunately, not this time!  I had to turn the machine off and back on, which still didn't work, so an encoder wheel adjustment was necessary:


What on Earth?!?!

(While cleaning the bobbin area...) The cover plate for the shaft fell off... Twice... Before I realized that I needed to call in reinforcements.  Fortunately, my in-house tech support was on duty:


(Insert screaming here.)  I only had TWO passes left to complete the quilt:


But at the end of the night...

I had (somehow) managed to finish the quilting:


The next day I trimmed it up:



Testing out binding options...

The backing or the border fabric were the two main contenders:


Ultimately, I went with the border fabric:

~ 40" x 50"

Needleb's suggestion was taken under advisement and implemented.  It looks great:


Special thanks to Angela @ Thread Waggle Quilting!! She answered my frantic late night text and helped my in-house tech guy solve the problem.


Enjoy the porch swing photos above and below.  Yes.  The colors really are that vibrant:


Another big thank you goes out to LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color for the layout suggestion!  I'm not sure that I ever would have thought to blend the colors of the rainbow as rows progressed.  (Orange in the red row, as well as in the yellow row, etc.)  It really made the entire quilt sparkle!

And that, friends, is my ONE finish for the Winter 2022 (Ravelry) UFO Club.  Just in the nick of time.  Rainbow, Baby! is a wrap.

Sharing with Cynthia
for

Until next time...
Let's go QUILT!!! 

15 comments:

  1. Rainbow Baby is so colorful and happy! Hooray for a finish (and for getting past those challenges)!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rainbow Baby is fabulous!!!! Love the cheery colors.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Such a bright, fun, happy quilt! The colors are fabulously intense. Luckily you knew exactly where to go to begin shooting troubles. It’s a WIN for sure. I love the scrappy design look.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A pretty, pretty finish! I hope you do a happy dance, I think you've earned it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's always a challenge with something going haywire right near the end!!! lol Glad you were able to stick with it and finished it--just beautifully vibrant!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Such a fun happy quilt. So glad you got the bugs worked out of the Beast. Now it's onward & quilting. You go girl. Betty the quilter

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wonderful job and congrats on the finish this quarter! Lets hope the beast is all fixed up and ready to go for the next project.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great that the in-house tech support was on duty. That is a fun, happy and a very lovely quilt!

    -Soma

    ReplyDelete
  9. Fantastic! I'm so glad you're finally up and running. And on such a lovely, happy quilt, too!

    ReplyDelete
  10. So glad The Beast is up and running and working, finally, again! It is so frustrating to have problems when the quilt is so close to being done. But you persevered and it is darling! I love the way the rows interlock using the colors. ~Jeanne

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's beautiful! I love the colors. I know how happy you are to have your "Beast" going again, and glad you got your technical issue solved.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Applause and cheers for s great first finish! Kudos for solving the challenges! There might have been screaming and tears at my house if that happened! Rainbow Baby is fabulous!! The arrangement is splendid. LeeAnna does have a great eye for color and placement!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi, just caught up on your posts and so enjoyed reading them and also seeing your joyful face too. This was so interesting to hear you work through getting a long arm set up and working. I'm not great with machines so it would be a challenge for me. But look at the great quilting it did for you in the end. A wonderful vibrant finish!

    ReplyDelete
  14. It is such a great idea to merge the colors a bit , and the quilt is so vibrant! I do indeed, "insert screaming" too on occasion. A great stress reliever! Stay safe and sew on !

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh happy Quilt! and beautifyl quilting. Love it!!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting! If you are a NO REPLY blogger, please add your email address, as I reply to each one individually.