Friday after work, my husband and I took my quilt top, batting and backing to a local long arm quilter. I have never taken my work to her before, but I have heard she is good, and it's all she does. Her name is Linda, and her place is called The Creative Stitch in North Manchester.
The town of North Manchester is a college town with old houses and quaint little shops. They are in the process of painting the store fronts, so the sign for her business had actually been taken down that day. We drove up and then down the street, but couldn't find it. I typed the address in my iPhone mapping app, and my husband pulled into a parking spot in what he felt was the near vicinity of the business.
I got out of the car with my garbage bag holding the quilt and batting and backing and started walking. It's hard to find the place you are looking for when you are right up to it on the sidewalk. I remember trying to find certain places while walking the streets of Chicago. An aerial or street view is much easier. Luckily, just as I was about to walk past the store, the woman in my phone said, "Arrived." I turned and saw spools of thread in the window, smiled and grabbed the door handle.
As I entered, I was greeted by Linda, who had so graciously agreed by phone to stay past her closing time of 4pm, to wait for me. She was friendly and welcoming, and I felt immediately at home.
We laid the quilt out on the table, so she could see what we were working with. I told her since it is a flag quilt that I wanted an edge to edge meandering star design. She had me come to her display on the machine and go through several star designs that she had. We went through thread colors and finally decided on a gray/taupe.
I was disappointed to hear that she uses the same color on the bottom as she does on the top. The backing of the quilt is dark brown, and I was hoping she would use dark brown bobbin thread. She said the backing thread tends to show on the top, so she always uses the same color. I didn't like this idea, but I decided that she was the professional, and, afterall, the back is the back, right? The frustration of it all was really that the reason I had decided to have her do it was that when I was trying to do it myself, I was getting poke throughs of the top thread to the back, and I couldn't get my tension adjusted right to avoid this. Now we were intentionally having the thread showing on the back.
Since the quilt is so large, and I was already there, I went ahead and left it. Her turn around time is great - four weeks! And she seemed to know what she was talking about, and she came highly recommended. She must be good if that's all she does, right?
I am a bit nervous, and hope and pray that it turns out okay. I spent a lot of time cutting and piecing it. Not to mention the cost of all the fabric, right? Fabric is so expensive these days - as is everything else! I don't know about you, but I am shocked every time I get my total at the grocery store!
Anyway, I've been working on this quilt for so long that it feels weird not to have it to work on. I've started some little owl projects, and am debating doing a craft show with my sister, whose business is called Nine Oh Nine, https://www.facebook.com/9OHNine?ref=br_tf.
My other option is to spend time making a quilt for my son-in-law. He is the last to join our family and last in line to get a quilt. The problem is that I am still not sure what quilt to make for him. My daughter is supposed to let me know.
I guess I will let you know my decision soon. Happy Creating!
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