Geraldine contacted me to work on this incredible Farmer's Wife quilt.   She had seen some of my work on Instagram and wanted to work with me.  I was so flattered and totally up for this one!  

This quilt was meticulously pieced.  There are 111 unique blocks in this quilt.   

 Here are sampling of some of the blocks:

 I wanted to quilt them in a way that would showcase the piecing of the blocks - some areas quilted more heavily than others - allowing designs to pop.

  

 The black sashing was quilted with ribbon candy design, allowing the centre red squares to pop.

I know....a ton of eye candy right?  

I have to admit that about 3/4 of the way through the blocks my new mantra was 'Just Keep Swimming'  - Dory's song..  ha! 

  

 The backing showcased a lot of the quilting as well.... 

The details:

Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt

Pieced by Geraldine H.

Size  81" x 100" 

Batting:   Hobbs Heirloom 100% wool

Thread -  Superior Magnifico on top to match the piecing.   Wonderfil Decobob bobbin thread. 

Hand guided quilting on my APQS machine.

Thank you Geraldine for a spectacular piecing job, and giving me the opportunity to work on this quilt!  

Over the holidays I had a bit of time to 'play' with the kids and this one especially was keen on trying Millie.  He knew exactly which fabrics he wanted to use, and how he wanted them assembled.

He was an expert from the start. Relaxed, focussed, and he knew what and where he was going to run those stitches.

I was equally impressed with how he caught on to using the controls of the machine. I was not allowed to help. So we practiced saying, toggle blue, toggle green..and away he went. 

He chose the colour - Aurifil 50wt in a turquoise blue. 

As I opened the drawer of thread, he gasped at all the colours and zoomed directly to the colour he wanted. No second guessing at all. 

I know right?  Like mother like son....thread candy!  Can you imagine his reaction in the Aurifil Warehouse?  

And even though it looks like someone scribbled the design...he really thought about filling the space and keeping the curves nice and rounded and flowy.

I made his little sample piece into a zipper pouch for his handheld device. 

I am so not a garment, bag, pouch sewer. 

at all. 

such a project reminds me of this always. 

And now I get reminders of my inept pouch making skills every time I see it. LOL

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I did the same project with my other son. It is remarkable at how different this experience went. 

How he had no interest in being part of the camera action. 

How he had little patience and was indecisive of fabric and thread colour.

And how with his experience, I learned that my mag wheel adjustment from a few months ago is slightly incorrect - when the cutter is activated, it catches and jams on the needle - meaning, I need to re do my mag wheel adjustment and possibly retime my machine again. ARGHGHGHGHGH!

Totally not his fault, he just pushed the cutter button and the cutter jammed because of the needle positioning (my fault -mag wheel adjustment)

All for the love of my kids, right? 

And you thought my story had a happy ending!!!!

 A pictorial tour of the 4 hour assembly process of my new APQS Millennium!   I could have paid someone to come out and do it for me, but it was important for me to know the ins and outs of this setup...plus,  500 dollars can buy a lot of thread! ;-)  

 We did our setup in two sessions.

Session 1 after dinner:  

 Trent tightening everything up...

Session 2:  a morning fresh start:

Helper #2 greeted me this morning with:  are we ready to setup Millie now?  Coffee first, buddy!

 Poser pretending like he is so accurate and careful in laying down the table. 

 Assembling Millie's carriage - easy

 She's on the rails, and she moves and glides! - easy - you need two people to make sure the wheels all align when you slide her onto the carriage

 Trent doing some kind of connection. There were plugs to plug in and ground wires to mount. -easy

 Two of the leader bars have been put into place.  These were really easy to do except for silly errors.

We were cracking jokes at this point about the poles - there's a 'male' end and a 'female end to the poles, and sometimes we had to swing the 12 ft poles all the way around because we had the wrong end....so the jokes started flying.  You know the point you start getting giddy because you're tired and ready to be done?

 The brake was installed...

 Reading how to install the fabric advance.  This part we forgot to take photos of.  It was relatively easy.  The motor fits onto the 'male end' of the leader pole.   The only difficulty we came up with was the actual connection couldn't be tightened because the motor was in an awkward position.  Trent had the brainy idea to plug the motor in and advance the mechanism so it could fit properly.

 Loading a practice quilt.  Loaded it wrong...ha!

 I love my Millie!

I love my man...we did it!