One last post on the wonders of long arm quilting. At the end of last week, Quilters Newsletter contacted me about using one of my proposed table runners for their website (hurrah!!!). I'd already pieced the quilt top, but it's been awaiting quilting for longer than I care to admit. The kicker was that QN wanted to have the quilt finished and in their hands by the end of July. Not much time. And to complicate matters, I'm scheduled to go on a family camping trip the last week of July. Really not much time.
After much internal debate (and some external -- to the chagrin of my husband, my kids, my sister, my mom, and the dog) about whether to attempt to quilt it by hand or seek help, I finally gave in and decided to call Joyce, the long arm quilter who has done a few quilts for me lately. When she didn't answer, I left a message and waited to hear back from her. I figured that if she wasn't available, I would just have to drop everything and hand quilt around the clock to finish the quilt. Actually the thought of having to abandon housework, meal prep, and exercise for a major quilt-a-thon sounded pretty appealing. But alas, ahem -- luckily, Joyce actually called me from her vacation (amazing woman!) to let me know that she would be able to meet the deadline.
And so Monday morning I delivered the quilt to Joyce. After an hour of deliberating over designs and thread colors, we parted ways. "I'll try to give you a call tomorrow afternoon," she assured me. Surprised and somewhat dubious I said "Wow, that would be great!", but in my mind I was prepared to wait until the end of the week.
Not 6 hours later -- NO EXAGGERATION -- the phone rang. I picked it up, said "Hello" and Joyce responded, "Jen, it's done." Alleluia!!
And now it's Wednesday and I'm almost finished binding the quilt and on schedule to ship it by the end of the week.
There are three things I know to be true:
1. Joyce is a wonder.
2. If I'd tried to hand quilt the runner, I'd be unshowered, wild-eyed, and listening to Under the Tuscan Sun for the 10th time, while swimming in filth and preparing to eat take-out pizza for the 5th night in a row. (Instead I'm clean, the house is passable, and we're having pasta for dinner.)
3. It's time for me to dust off the dream of having a long arm quilting machine of my own!
