Don't laugh...

But you know what my three very favorite features are on my new Millennium?

The motorized fabric advance is number one.  This is hands down, the best feature!  See that foot pedal on the floor?  One side makes it go forward, the other side put it in reverse.  It rolls a quilt up absolutely perfectly!

There’s also a hand switch at one end of the frame.

My next favorite feature?

The quilt tensioner on the rollers.  What a silly thing to love, but my how I adore this feature!  You lift the lever to release tension, or clamp it down to increase it. No more floppy quilts when you advance the quilt.  Priceless!

And last, but certainly not least, I can’t say how much I love having both horizontal and vertical channel locks. I’m going to have way too much fun with both!

By the way, my HQ16 is still up for sale.  When it sells, I will have room to add a great big work table for cutting and pressing, something I am really looking forward too!

HQ16 - Back on the market

Just wanted to let everyone know, my HQ16 is still for sale, my buyer fell through.

I’m getting ready to start on a baby quilt, one of Jim’s coworkers is expecting in about six months, I might get lucky and have time to start cutting out the fabric tomorrow.

I scored the other day at Walmart and was able to pick up eight full size flat sheets for $4.50 a piece!  Perfect for me to practice with the Millennium on, so I’m having a ball playing!

Could we be any slower?

“A few hours is all”, everyone says, that it takes to set up the APQS Millennium.  Ha!  I guess Jim and I work slower than snails because we are still not finished!

It’s mostly setup though.  The hydraulic lift (which is OMG sooooo cool!) was rather challenging.  APQS doesn’t include any instructions.  The manufacturer’s instructions are general and not applicable to the longarm.  Since I opted for a 14 foot table, there was just enough cable… just barely.

Most of the pictures we were able to find showed the legs mounted to the outside.  That didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to either of us, so mine are mounted on the inside of the table.

Today I finished installing the ruler base plate, the motorized fabric advancer (also too cool!) and the Quiltazoid.

Tomorrow I am going to power it up and take it for a spin!

It’s so crowded in here.  The Millennium, my treadmill, and the HQ16… overload!

I got an email today from “Quilts for Kids” thanking me for my quilts, so I know they arrived safely!  I also have finished piecing another top that’s waiting to be quilted.  I’ll try and post a picture of it tomorrow, today I am plum tuckered out!  Excited though!

It's a GIRL!

Yep, yesterday was the momentous day.  Around two o’clock, the phone rang.  The FedEx guy called for unloading instructions.  “DON’T pull into our driveway”!  That was all I had for him.  So here I am, patiently waiting…

I didn’t have to wait long!  Mr. FedEx arrived shortly after I backed the truck down to the end of the driveway.

He happened to be the same driver that delivered our TV when we moved in.  Fortunately Jim was home yesterday to help unload.  I have to say, it was a bit of a let down… I had built this up in my head to where the boxes were going to be bigger than the truck!

The rail boxes were.  That’s what Jim is pulling out of the truck in the above picture.  Those suckers were heavy!  We lifted those over the toolbox in the bed of our truck because they were way too heavy to carry up to the house.

All loaded up!  How can so few and such small boxes take up so much space once set up?

Jim is installing new overhead lights in the garage, so that it’s absolutely blinding out there.  Honestly, you need sunglasses.  But hey I can SEE now, and I should be able to photograph quilts inside instead of dragging them out, hauling a ladder out, and draping them over the fence.  I purchased a Savage Port-a-stand to hang my quilts from for photographing.

Today we will move the HQ16 to the other side of the garage, install the second light, and hopefully (if we think both longarms will fit) Jim will start setting up the Millennium.  It’s going to be tight though, there’s no way to move my treadmill without disassembling it, which we’ve no desire to do!