Handi quilting

I am in possession of one of the original Handiquilter frames. My mother bought it at the AQS show in Paducah the first year we saw it there. She had it set up in an extra bedroom at her home. She used it a few times, but can no longer handle it, due to back and knee surgeries. So, last winter I had my husband transport it to our house.
In the process of moving it, he managed to lose two of the three poles and cogs. They flew from the bed of his pick-up truck out onto a busy expressway. He felt it wasn't worth the risk to himself to try to recover them. I was fortunate enough to get replacement cogs from the company, and with some poles bought at a home improvment store, I managed to get the frame set up. It has taken me until just a couple of days ago to finally load a quilt onto the frame.
With my set up, I think I will best be able to handle lap size or twin sized quilts. The quilt I have put on the frame is lap sized. I have just a standard machine on the frame, so I am opting to use an all over scallop pattern for the quilting. I have traced a quilting stencil to use as a guide to follow. I hope it works out ok, asIhave several other quilt tops of similar size thatI would love to finish into quilts.

My on-line quilt groups

I belong to several on-line quilt groups/message boards. I have put a list on the sidebar. One of the groups, is my own creation. I am the list mom at Pieced Together. I started the group in late August of this year, when the group I had been helping to manage closed down unexpectedly. In an attempt to keep in contact with some of the friends I had made in that group, I started a new one, and invited as many members as I had contact information for. So far we are a small group, only around 30 members.
I am hoping that the group will grow some. Right now it is hard to keep people interested, as there are small numbers of people to swap with. But, it is nice to have some friends to connect with who share some common interests.

Greetings, and thanks for joining me!

Hello, and welcome! I am new to Blogger, but thought I might give this a try. My name is Jane, and I live in Michigan. I am a wife and mother, and although my family may get mentioned on occasion, they will not be the focus of this blog. This space is for my self expression, and for sharing with all of you my love of all things quilting.

I have been quilting for close to 15 years now. I have learned to quilt mostly from watching the how to quilt shows on PBS and from reading lots and lots of books on quilting. I do all of my work on my sewing machine if at all possible. I really have no patience for hand work. I have managed to learn a lot about the quilting process through trial and error. Here is a picture of my first quilt. It is a sampler quilt. I got the block patterns from a book called "Lapquilting with Georgia Bonesteel". I made this quilt for my daughter. She no longer keeps it on her bed, as it is stained and some of the fabrics have worn through. I did not know any better about choosing fabrics back then. I am more particular now. Someday she will get a new quilt that will fit better with her tastes now that she is an adult.

This is my latest quilt. It was made for my son. He chose the pattern and had input on the color use. As you can see, my skills have progressed some since that first quilt. This quilt replaced one I had made him when he was younger. He loved that other quilt to death. It is in shreds because I used fabrics that were inexpensive and not top quality. So, now he has a new quilt that he took with him to college. Hopefully he will be more careful of this one. ;)