New from Kansas with KenQuilt 622
 

Hi. I just joined today but have been quilting since I was about 12. My mom was a member of a quilting club. The ladies taught my sister and me to hand-quilt along with them. Later I did some tied quilts before tackling a queen-sized quilt on my own. I made a Texas Star for our bed and then hand-quilted it. After that, I made a Friendship Knot queen for our daughter when she got married. I had barely finished it before our son got married. I quickly started a king-sized Rail Fence for him. Daughter #2 announced her engagement so I got to work on a king-sized Double Irish Chain. They were married for about 2 yrs before I got that one finished and had to start one for daughter #3 who had gotten married a yr after #2 had. They were not spacing these weddings out enough for me to finish one project before another was due. But that last one took 9 yrs for me to finish it. Son-in-law teased that they would never get a quilt. In my defense, we moved during that time and arthritis in my left hand got so bad that I could no longer hand-quilt. I had to stop for surgery and then rehab/recovery. I could finally return to the project but only quilt for about 20 min before my right hand started hurting. I gave it to them just before their 11th anniversary.
That was the last quilt I did by hand. After that, I quilted another queen-size on my home machine. That was work. Then I found a KenQuilt with a table-frame and machine. Arthritis reared its ugly head on my right hand then so had to stop to get that fixed. I am now back to quilting and just finished my second quilt on it. I need to redesign the roller cart the machine sits on to make it easier to roll and replace the take-up bars. The bars are from a table older than my machine. They have bowed over the years. I just have to figure out where to get 12' pipes and have the gears moved to the new pipes and then I can get started again.

Hi and welcome from Southern CA! In the long run, quilting will give you relief from arthritis, just because it is so much fun and a great distraction. Welcome to the QB!

A warm welcome from a Delaware farm girl! I'm sorry to hear about the arthritis in your hands. I am having some issues with Uncle Arthur in my right hand. Certainly not bad enough for surgery yet though. I can only imagine how much pain you must have been in to give up on something you enjoy so much. Personally, I can't imagine hand quilting anything larger than a wall hanging! LOL

Welcome from Michigan!:)

Wow...that is totally impressive KS Farm Girl. Many, many years ago---and I do mean MANY! I made and hand quilted 4 double wedding ring quilts, and they were only standard size, for one son, 2 nephews and a niece and I thought that was hard...but I could not fathom that many queen and king sized quilts that close together! Amazing! I have since become a fan of quilt as you go and most recent was a patriotic king sized quilt for my son-in-law---with a walking foot, THAT was tough! Right now working on a hexagon baby quilt for my newest grandson, which I had hoped to have finished before he arrived---NOT! The Easy Hexagon, finished hexagons, 6" x 7". My first ever hexagon...boy did I take on a project! Hand stitching them together has been the most time consuming EVER, but have to say I am enjoying it. Would love to see pics of your finished quilts.

Welcome to the QB from SE Michigan! It sounds like you have always enjoyed quilting and that arthritis has been your worst enemy. I hear you when it comes to arthritis. I have limited use of my right thumb and that can be a big challenge with trying to hand quilt. I bought a Grace Original Quilt frame and a machine to go with it and used that for many years. Right now it is out of commission as the machine needs some repair. The last few quilt I have done I sent out for the quilting. That can get costly. I have a number of quilts that need repair and they will need to be repaired by hand so I figure that right hand will get the work out. I also had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands and that too has helped a great deal. I haven't tried for years to fit a quilt through one of my DM's. So for now I guess I will continue to send them out and repairs will have to take their time.
I look forward to seeing a great deal here. It is a great place to be with other quilters and so much is shared all the time. Again Welcome to the QB!

Hey KS Farm Girl from Topeka. I am not a quilter, but I love wrenching on pre 1950 machines and doing demos with them. Did you know Wichita just opened up a sewing museum on 3-19? GF is the fashion sewist and we do Demos of hand cranks over Eastern Ks.

Howdy! Welcome from So. California! I am originally from Kansas - born in KS and my family was transferred to Seattle by Boeing in 1962.