Harder than Chinese math...

Typically, a longarmer does pantographs from the back of the machine.  This is kind of awkward because you can't see the quilt top as you quilt...you have to trust it is going OK.  What really happens is you run out of bobbin thread and quilt along for quite a while before you notice the problem.  Or you bump the laser light and quilt over your last row of quilting...etc.  Also, my machine doesn't have an on/off button on the side where I hold my hands on the back (both hands on the left side) so I have to have one hand on each handle to start it, then slyly move the right hand to the left without wonking out the quilting.

Solution:  A QuiltCam by R-n-S designs.  A camera is mounted near the laser light on the back of the machine and a 7" display screen is mounted to the front of the machine and now the quilter can see the panto from the front and quilt from the front...Yeah, right!!  How hard is it to teach an old dog new tricks???  Very hard...

I think this is terribly hard...and that I suck at it so far.  I'm working on the quilt that Alli started two years ago and I just finished this week.  It looks like Halloween threw up all over the place....LOL!!  My first two rows were marginal, at best, but I will not quit!!!

My Dad came over the other day to help me improve  my machine glide/performance.  One thing he did was polish the needle plate....you could put your lipstick on in this plate right now.  Honestly, it is almost chrome....the gray area you see in the middle is the reflection of the quilt machine....less friction, more glide??  We also raised the "dead rail" about 1/2" to ensure that I didn't have any drag between the bottom of the quilt and the machine head....And I tightened the wheels...

And we raised the table height several inches.  Who knew that you could adjust it up to 9" higher than the standard height??  I didn't...my last machine had hydraulic lifts so I just did whatever I wanted.  I kind of thought this one had no wiggle room, but it does!!  Less back pain....

Though I was supposed to be sewing today, I spent several hours watching my new addiction, Breaking Bad, and checking out this awesome quilter's blog Threadtales.  Very inspiring (intimidating).  She has been quilting 7 years and it looks wonderful.  I'd take my own stuff there...lol!

I'll let you know how the panto from the front goes tomorrow. 

But let me tell you, it is harder than Chinese math...And everyone knows Chinese math is damn hard!!