Injuries

Well, the last few weeks have been interesting for me and mom and the family.  Mom was working on a quilt about three weeks ago, basting it down along the top side, getting it ready to go, when the needle jumped and went through her middle finger.  She yanked her hand back so fast that (gross out factor here, FYI, in case you get...you know, grossed out) and pulled it out through the front of the finger from where it went it.  It was a reflex action and all happened so quickly that she didn't realize how bad it was until she ran into the bathroom to wash it out.

Well, it was very bad and off to the Urgent Care she went with my "dad." They were, somehow, left sitting in the waiting room while they saw person after person who had come in behind them be taken in, which didn't sit well with mom and she started making comments out loud about it (I would've done more, like hiss and spit and done other unsavory things to get the humans' attention if it had been me or I had been with them...maybe a well placed yowl would've worked...).  They finally got in to the exam room after about 90 minutes in a place that had an empty, basically, waiting room. 

Anyway, after having it x-rayed and cleaned out, it turned out that the few stitches it needed couldn't be done because the (gross out number 2 here) tissue was, basically, hamburger.  I know.  I know.  GROSS!  Mom's a trooper though and she was back at work within a few days, wearing a splint over the finger to protect it from getting banged against something. 

She worked really hard on the quilt she was doing, but found that it had some difficulties she'd never encountered before.  She ended up having to unpick her stitch in the ditch in different areas and it took her three tries before she threw her hands up in the air and decided to quilt the quilt old-school style.  She says it was kind of freeing to realize she didn't have to follow all of the "rules" about how to quilt on a frame.  The quilt turned out really nice too.  I gave it a good look over and was very pleased. 

Mom's also been working on a few other quilts at the same time and has a recommendation for a quick way to load/unload and change quilts on the frame (I hardily concur, by the way):

RED SNAPPERS by Renae Haddadin (from over at quiltsonthecorner.com) as well as her Red-E-Edge Side Clamps!

Mom has moved her loading time down from over an hour (for a King Sized quilt) to just over 40 minutes (counting the basting and side clamping).  These are, in the kitty vernacular, cool as a catnip mouse!  They are these plastic rods attached together with dowels that are then fed into a sleeve-like area on the edge of the canvas leaders on the frame.  Once in there, the quilt is laid over the area with the rods and in no time at all a "snapper" is clipped over the quilt on the canvassed rod and the quilt is attached!  How much faster than pins is that?  I've told mom to put in a link to Renae's Video on this amazing product, which will be posted at the end of this...post. 

These side clamps don't just take a small bite out of the side of the loaded quilt, but clamps the whole length of whatever size you've ordered!  This provides a full, even tension, with NO GAPS where it's on the quilt at making the tensioning of the quilt on the frame SO much easier! 

I have to say that most of the other kitties don't appreciate the snapping sound when she applies them to her quilts, but I love to hear it and watch her apply them...when I'm allowed in the quilt room when she's working on her own quilts.  I do feel badly, a bit, for nagging her to death to be in the room with her when she's working because she then has to thoroughly clean it again before starting a customer quilt.  She says it makes her be extremely picky and thorough when she does her cleaning, so I guess I won't feel too bad about it.  It is, after all, my business to.  Otherwise it wouldn't be named after me!

Anyway, I'm digressing again, as I so often do.  Mom wanted me to let everyone know she's not affiliated in any way with Quilts on the Corner.  She just wanted to share what she thinks is one of the coolest products she's ever used for her quilting.  Anyway, if you're a longarm quilter, please take a look at these products.  They can really speed up your load times.  Mom says she just wishes she'd found them a lot sooner.

So, as I've said, an interesting week.  We had something that could've been very bad happen and we've had something that really improved mom's work time.  It's almost like it was meant to balance each other out!  So, here's the link to the YouTube video of Renae's amazing product, Red Snappers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udj94FQ1juE

As well as the Red - E - Edge video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6l5lq_lttI

Let us know if you try these products.  I know mom would really like to know, as would I.

Oh, on the unposted tutorials, well, you can understand why she hasn't done that yet, I hope.  She's realized that she might go with a more basic first tutorial than loading a quilt on the longarm, but will focus more on what to do to add borders to quilts to get a nice square quilt when you're finished, which makes it turn out better when longarm quilted.

So, until then, remember:

Paws are best used for quilting!