Thank Goodness for Bonnie Hunter!

 Have I not already mentioned that I'm a quilting magpie, someone who loves to start new projects?  So even though I have 3 unfinished Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts, of course, I decided to jump in and start this year's mystery "Rhododendron Trail".

If you've never tried one, they are an exceptional and challenging gift from an amazing quilt designer.  Bonnie is known for her scrappy quilts and every year for a number of years now, she has released a mystery quilt pattern to her followers.  Starting with US Black Friday (last Friday in November), and weekly until sometime in the new year, she releases a clue a week for the legions of fans to complete using either her recommended palette of colours or your own choices and either as scrappy or with yardage (so many choices!).

Her instructions are always clear and your piecing will definitely improve through the course of completing the clues.  While many people are completing Clue #6 at present, I'm still back on Clue #2.  It's not a race for me, but an enjoyable journey.  I am trimming flying geese tonight (and distracting myself from my longarm woe's (see my previous post).

4 of a lot of flying geese

The key is the quantities.  You may see something like, make 3" half square triangles - a relatively straightforward block for many quilters.  Now repeat 982 times (ok, slight exaggeration on my part) and you'll get a new clue in 7 days!  😟  That scares off many, but I promise you that making a lot of whatever the block is, based on Bonnie's instructions, the quality of your piecing will improve every time.  Some people elect to make half the number of blocks as most of her quilts are queen size when done.

I encourage you to check it out for yourself and I'll keep you posted on how my efforts go in the coming weeks.   You can go here to check it out:  Quiltville 2021-2022 Mystery Quilt

Happy Quilting!

A frustrating start to the new year - Welcome 2022

I hope, if you are reading this, that you have enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to your quilting adventures in 2022.

I am off to a frustrating start with my new-to-me longarm HandiQuilter Avante.  After getting a massive thread jam in December that could only be cleared by throwing off the timing, I had it in to the local shop to get the timing adjusted 

On December 23rd, I got my machine back and the needle moved up and down beautifully.  I got the machine home and realized I had company coming for the holidays and needed to house someone in my long-arm room.  (OK, technically, it was my daughter coming home from college for the holidays and looking to sleep in her own room, but let's not get caught up on semantics here).

After Christmas, I got the machine set up once again on the track, with a new needle, and oiled and threaded, it started to move like a flowy dancer and my heart was filled with joy.  Ever hear that sound of a balloon deflating slowly, that was me when I realized that not a single stitch was actually being made.  I sent an email to the store, thinking they were closed for a holiday break, but within 24 hours they called me to try to help.  They had me reseat the needle, check the needle was at 6pm position, rethread the machine, change the needle.  I finally got it to lock a stitch - hooray.

Hang up the phone, push the machine back while in regulated mode (as it had been before).....and no stitch lock.  I have tried everything I can think of and I suspect I'm back to some kind of timing issue as I can get a locked stitch going back to front, but not front to back.  The machine will stitch nicely going from back to front, but it won't stitch from front to back and side-to-side is hit and miss (mostly miss).

I've inserted a photo for any brilliant ideas you may have but my husband is looking at this thing as a very expensive and very large boat anchor and I'd love to change his opinion.  

Avante Timing Issue?

I have tried all I can think of and have reached out to an online HandiQuilter community to get some advice and will see if they can assist.

In the meantime, I have started in on "Rhododendron Trail", the 2021-2022 Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt and I'm looking to the month of January to finish by "Triad Fiesta" (it's "on" Elm Street Quilts - see picture below).