clamps/rods, Diamond Dash loaded

We were both up super early on Tuesday (3/7) with lots of items to check off of our to-do lists :~).  I finally felt much more like myself Tuesday morning (I really had a hard time motivating myself on Monday and some tasks just seemed overwhelming), so dove back into the paperwork needed to turn in our personal (and my QUILT DEVO LLC business) taxes.  Michael left to hit the chiro and ALDI’s and KFC and LOWES before coming home in time for his 1:10 PM tee time.  Pat stopped by for a tiny bit of help with her binding and we got to talk for over an hour and got caught up on everything before she had to leave for golf!  I also talked for quite a bit with Loree (Thursday quilting) and can’t wait to see her on Thursday (so many fun things going on at quilting!)  My honey came home with pot pies from KFC, so that was my breakfast, lunch and possibly dinner :~).  I finally got back downstairs at 11:30 AM and the clamps were once again working on Miss Scarlett (once they have stayed open for that long, they just have to be closed for 24 hours before they will work again….I know….WEIRD!!)

So….one of my readers questioned this sentence from yesterday’s blog: ‘’but I had mistakenly left my clamps open while I was in Connecticut, so my rods wouldn’t catch :~(. ‘’  Like so many things, this is much easier to explain with pictures, so Cathy, here you go:

This is a picture of one of my clamps in the open position:

The long white rods that I load my quilt on go into these clamps: 

see the white rod and the quilt rolling up on it?

and when the clamps are closed, the “teeth” on the rod and the clamp engage and then the rod will be held tightly, unable to unravel.  You want your quilt to be somewhat taut on the frame, so there are clamps on the beginning rod and the take up rod.  For some strange reason (there are SO MANY strange things about this machine :~), if you leave the clamp open for any period of time, when  you first close it: 

clamp in closed position

it will not catch the teeth inside the clamp and on the end of the rod to keep it from unraveling.  Once it sits in the closed position for a period of time…it just start working again.  So…there you go….clear as mud, right???  

Anyway, I got my quilt top/batting/backing all laid out: 

before leaving at 12:30 for a meeting at the Lake House.  The meeting took about an hour, then I made a quick stop at the library before getting home around 2 PM.  One of my neighbors stopped down to drop off a quilt and I finally got back to my studio around 3:00.  I got the quilt all basted once I got home (this is the Diamond Dash quilt I worked on at retreat last year) 

and worked on setting up the program, getting my bobbins wound and kicking things off!  Setting up the program took FOREVER….I just couldn’t get the density right for a long time, and changed my mind on the pattern several times, AND when there are over 100,000 stitches in the pattern/quilt (as in this one and many others I've done), it takes FOREVER to save the program (I think they need a bigger buffer in the software I am using), but finally by 4 PM I was ready to go.  I started quilting, and decided I wanted to keep a close eye on it because the bobbins run out every 1-1/2 rows, so I started to put the binding on my butterfly/tulip quilt:  

Michael came home TOTALLY happy with a scorching 78 and he just had time to take a shower and make us grilled cheese sandwiches before heading out the door for the movies.  He picked up Larry and they went to see LOGAN.  I got 4 rows done on the Diamond Dash:

go the binding done on most of one side of the quilt and stitched out a label: 

before heading upstairs to wind yarn until Michael finally got home at 10:30.  We watched a little TV then fell into bed :~).