What did I do? I bought a small long-arm machine around New Year’s. I guess someone needs to make me a shirt that says “Old Quilt Lady,” similar to those “cat lady” memes. Behind the intention to finish my own quilts was also the fact that the long-arm quilters near me are in their 80s. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, but I have to wonder if they will still be working in five years. So, this year I plan to work on learning how to free-motion quilt with this new machine.

I purchased (financed) a Baby Lock Coronet from a Birmingham store. If you aren’t familiar, it is the kind of machine people use to free-motion quilt, meaning a person basically scribbles with thread. You can make the machine go faster or slower, more stitches per inch or less. There are fancy add-ons for purchase as well, but for now, I need to work on lots and lots of scraps before tacking anything too fancy. If you’ve read my posts, you know that I always start with great expectations, then reality sets in and I have to buckle down. So I know my first quilt with the machine won’t be how I imagined it, but knowing I made the parts and then quilted the “sandwich” will be a personal triumph!