First Quiltathon - lets call it the mini quiltathon

Yesterday we had our first quiltathon for the Bush Fire Quilt Project. What a wonderful time we had. Margaret and Apples took home 13 quilts and quilted them all up over the Easter Weekend (wow...so much work) They both have frames. I thought they were long arms, but they are not since the machines used to quilt the quilts are more or less regular machines and not the massive long throated long arm quilt machine. Nevertheless I think they are AWESOME! Wow. Apples was so patient and showed me how to use hers and I got to quilt one of the quilts on the frame. I have thousands of quilting hours on my sewing machines (with my little bag gig and all) but I was really impressed with the long arm technique. So much so that it got me thinking....and I tried out a new technique on my home machine today and quilted an entire quilt in about 2 hours (more on that tomorrow, so I can have some pictures to show you).



Anyhow this is a BIG AWESOME THANK YOU TO Apples and Margaret for your stunning skill with your quilting frames. Your both went above and beyond the Bush Fire Quilt Project call. Not only did they quilt all the quilts, Margaret let us use her Studio for the Quiltathon and Apples made labels for the quilt backs (which is a feat all in itself). The rest of us spent the day binding the quilts, stitching on labels, clipping spare threads. I tried to help Apples set up her quilt frame because I was so curious about it, but I think I caused a great more trouble than I was worth. Sorry about that...but I have always wanted to see one in action.



OK, here are some pictures....

Here we are having a tea break in the shade.

Here we are in Margaret's studio around her massive sewing table

And here are the quilts that are all finished with labels and bindings and are all ready to go down to Victoria....

Don't these look great too? Are you loving how these are turning out as much as I am? Or am I just some crazy bias woman and am looking on these are my babies? More and more and more to come folks! This is just the beginning....the third weekend in May we will be having another (bigger) quiltathon a 24 hour one we just need to find a venue. Oh and I know why we had to stop yesterday... we have used up all our batting (or wadding). If you are wondering what you can do to help out...we need a bit of $$ so we can get another roll or 3 of batting. Email me and I will let you know how to send paypal money if you are interested.

OK, tomorrow both boys are back in school and Emma and I are back at Home school. I better hit the hay and get some rest. We had a great time, I wish you all could have been there!

XO,

Tia