More fun ahead

Well, I am very excited about tomorrow.

It started last week when I had an orthodontic appointment. (Yep, more braces adjustments and a new PINK rubber band chain to yank my teeth around even more.) But I got talking with my favorite orthodontic assistant Shelley, a single mom with 2 kids. And she announced with a big smile that she has re-entered the dating pool by placing a personal's ad on Craig's List.
(The whole conversation reminded me of how glad I am to be married to an all around nice and easy-going guy, and how really really glad I am not to be worrying about dating. Remember how much energy that took?!)
Anyway. I got laughing pretty hard at some of her date stories, but she is now dating a guy she likes a lot and things are looking good for her, which is rather nice.

But that, I guess, planted Craig's List in the back of my brain. I never go there. I think I've looked at the site twice in my whole life. But, for some inexplicable (and fateful!) reason, last Sunday I was at my computer and popped over to Craig's List. And, don't ask me why, I searched "quilting." (Well, what else would I search? Did you think I was going to say I searched the personals and I have a date tomorrow?!)

And there it was: an ad for a Hinterberg Stretch machine quilting frame, for sale for a really, really bargainous price by a quilter who was moving and was going to upgrade to a big old professional machine when she relocated.

I have this thing about long arm machines. I want one. I don't want to quilt professionally, and really, we don't have the space (not to mention the huge hunk of money those big ones cost). But still, it looks like so much fun! I always try them out at quilt shows. A friend in town who has one gave me lessons on hers and lets me rent time, but I'm sort of self-conscious about working on her machine, in her garage, and I feel compelled to rush so I don't leave something on there overnight. So I've not used it much.

I took to lurking on a great yahoo group about home quilting machines hosted by my friend Angie, to learn about the various smaller machine systems that are becoming available now. And, a while ago, I decided on what I'd get if I could get one. You know, just in case.

My system of choice? The Hinterberg stretch machine quilting frame with Hinterberg's Voyager 17 machine. Just hypothetically speaking, you understand.

You see why that ad for the Hinterberg frame leapt right out at me. AND such a bargain! I called Roger to the computer, we looked at the Hinterberg frame info, we looked at the ad, and he said "Go for it!" (See? Just what one wants in a husband...)

I called Angie, to pick her brain about questions to ask, then called the seller...and 30 minutes later we had a deal.

So, tomorrow I'm going to pick THIS up:



The beauty of this frame is that it is take-downable. It doesn't have to be up all the time. So I can put it up to do a few quilts and then take it down for storage in the garage. (The manufacturer claims it can go under the bed...but they haven't seen how much fabric I have under there.)

It doesn't come with the machine, of course. I'll use my zippy Juki TL98e on it, which won't be as ideal as a bigger machine, but which will work wonderfully I'm told.

And now I'm gonna have to pop into Craig's List more often to look for a bargainous Voyager 17.
Ooh, I can hardly wait!