Welcome to the Quilting Board!
You and your husband are an inspiration to us all! Him for being willing to figure out how to please you and you for appreciating him. and I think your quilting long arm is wonderful. I hope you have a great time learning those muscle movements the longarmers have mastered!
What a beautiful set-up, especially Lavender Linda (or whatever you will name her). Hugs to your husband for his creativity and his support of you and your hobby!
Wow! Necessity is the mother of invention, and your husband is clearly the father! What a guy! I can only imagine how proud you both are of what you've created here. The machine alone is a beaut! CONGRATULATIONS!
You and your husband are a wonderful inspiration, I have so much admiration for you both! Your machine and set up are beautiful!
Wow, I am so impressed. Your husband is so innovative and what great use of what was available to make something totally new. Keep us posted on your quilting progress and don't look outside your door. There may be a line forming! How precious must be your husband and you must be a precious wife for him to want to please you so. Inspiring.
Great set up, and awesome husband! Happy quilting!
And you probably get more pleasure out of your Lavender Lady adn Gracie frame than those spending 1000s o dollars. Contratst to both of you.Originally Posted by twinkie
First, I want to say that we are on a senior citizen budget and cannot afford one of the beautiful "fancy" long arm set ups we see on this board. We also have some difficulty paying to have my quilts quilted by you very talented ladies. My desire was to be able to quilt some of my own quilts. Not fancy, just quilted. I had never been talented enough to do anything more than small projects on my domestic. My DH has a brillant mind when it comes to creating ways to make my quilt projects easier and more enjoyable. Here is what he came up with.
One of the QB members (don't remember her board name but her first name is Susan) advertised a Lil Gracie frame on the board. She was located in Tennessee (about 2 hours away from us). I looked at the ad and said "Oh well, it would be nice but I could't afford a machine for it. Meanwhile, my DH was on Craigs List and saw an ad for a Lil Gracie located in Tennessee. He mentioned it to me and it turned out to be the same frame as was on the board. I was to get a small bonus at work and it would cover the cost of the frame which was $250. We called and decided to go look at it. I was real excited when we got there and I saw the frame. Susan was very gracious and we did buy the frame. Now to get it set up and locate a machine that would work on the frame. DH came up with a great idea. We had an old 1926 Singer model 66 that was in great condition mechanically but well worn appearance wise. It had a throat which was almost 9", which is good for quilting. And, like he said, what do we have to lose. He stripped it down to the bare metal and sprayed it lavender. He put new decals on and sprayed a clear finish on it. Then came the mounting process.
He added a bicycle brake lever on the right handle and the cable is attached to an old foot pedal mounted on top of the carriage frame so I can control the speed with my right hand. He also added miniature flood lights on goose neck adapters to give me more lighting. He replaced the ball bearings with percision ones to make the movement smoother.
This is what the finished machine looks like. I have been practicing for about a week to 10 days (not as frequently as I want to) and this is some of what I have done. I don't have any pantos yet but he is working on a set up for me to use one. This is done free hand and I now have a greater appreciation of the gorgeous work some of you ladies do free hand. Far from perfect but I am making progress and I am SEW excited.
Not a Gammill or an Innova, but it is ours and I love it. We probably have about $400 invested in it. Thanks for looking
Bad Spellers of the World
U N T I E
Congratulations and so happy for you. You have a very talented partner there.
You are so lucky to have a loving and talented hubby. Would love to have mine do something like this for me. Enjoy your new baby and please show us wome of your work down the road.
What a sweet story and your work is really nice.
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