Saturday, September 4, 2010

Day 3

So this is Day 3 of my goal of 21 days!  In my last post I said I would do a giveaway when I posted for 21 days in a row.  Keep me on track!

I had a couple of comments asking what exactly was the carriage that I posted about yesterday.  So I thought I would explain in better today.

I few years ago I purchased the GMQ Pro Grace frame and Janome 1600 machine.  The Grace frame came with a carriage like this.



When I purchased the PC Quilter, the carriage had to be changed to this.


 I didn't have to change the machine or the frame, only the carriage.  After I got my machine on this carriage, I plugged the PC Quilter carriage into my Janome 1600 machine.  This is what that looks like.


 Then I have all these wires going from the machine to the computer.  I will tidy those up after the excitement wears off.  Looks like a jumbled up mess doesn't it!


Only one of those wires goes to the computer.  Others are power supplies and such.  That one wire goes to a USB port on the computer.  Don't look at the mess!


You load your quilt on the frame just as you normally would.  My frame was altered slightly.  I had an issue with the poles bowing inward when a quilt was loaded.  So my dear husband was so nice to slide a piece of electrical conduit over my poles and then screw the conduit to the poles.  No, we didn't think of this on our own.  The woman I purchased the PC Quilter had already done this to her poles.  So here is my frame all set up with the PC Quilter.  If you are wondering how the carriage is moved, there is a timing belt that runs from one end of the frame to the other.  It can best be seen in the second photo or the photo below.  The timing belt goes right through the carriage.



Yesterday evening I loaded up some fabric that I had found at one time really cheap and this is what I did with my machine and the PC Quilter.  This is just a practice piece but I hope you can see the design.  I still need practice too but you will be able to tell that! 


Pretty neat, huh!

Hope that explains it all better!  I am off to load another piece to practice on.  Already got the groceries this morning, did some laundry, and did the floors!  I think I deserve to go play now!

See you tomorrow!

Rhonda

4 comments:

Barb said...

Fun! fun! fun!

Now I have a question, I was offered an excellent deal of that very LQ...but my husband went on line and said that it skips stitches? Said it was common for that...if you have great reviews, I just might go back to that same place and buy it when I get back home.

Needled Mom said...

How fun!!!!

LuAnn said...

What a nice quilting machine, and it looks like you're having fun. I found you looking for more bloggers from Indiana, and I had to google Deputy to see where you are....and I've lived in Indiana all my life. Looking forward to seeing more of your quilting.

Cyndi said...

Oh, now I understand it better, Rhonda. That is pretty awesome, and I really like those star designs! All this quilting stuff is just amazing to me! Hope you're having fun, too!

XOXO,

Cyndi