Allietare Ready for The Longarm

Three weeks after shoulder surgery I was back at the sewing machine last night. Of course my chosen project a very large quilt requiring final borders is a challenge to wrestle around with only one fully operational shoulder. The surgery turned out to be a doozy, not one but three major rotator cuff tears requiring biodegradable anchor screws, suturing etc. and a lengthy rehab.
It has been a very difficult time, I am unable to tolerate narcotic pain meds or even NSAIDS, and tylenol just doesn't cut it after such an extensive surgery. I begin rehab Thursday at the 4 week mark and I know that will not be very pleasant but the restriction on my activity has been the final blow so I hope to be able to ease back into the quilting world now.

 First I tried to hang the quilt, but it's so large[103"x117"] and I am mostly limited to the use of only the hand on my left side and finding this rather unsatisfactory I decided to hang it over the longarm.

Even so it was a struggle and my longarm table is 14ft. Overall I am quite happy with the addition of the piano key and other borders and now it will fit Wes's bed.
Tomorrow I hope to play on the longarm a bit, I have all these lovely new toys tools that are begging to be used!

Linking up with Heather for "Needlework Tuesday"

Ash Wednesday

 Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return

Life Happens!

It does seem that life events are conspiring to keep me away from the computer though I have managed to do some quilty oriented web surfing and a little associated retail therapy from bed using the iPad.
Before I went under the knife last week for the third time on the left shoulder, I finished the piano key border on Allietare now there are just two more rows to add, a 5"dark blue and 2" blue star final strip.

Entertaining myself on the iPad I browsed through the website of Tracey Browning  http://www.constantinequilts.com Australia who has a lot of longarm "No Frills Rulers" and her prices are super reasonable especially now they are all on sale even with shipping from Aus. I ended up ordering a few small circles, two right angle rulers for crosshatching etc. and three of her CC Triarc rulers, I am hoping that by the time they arrive I will be able to get back on the big machine. I am quite adept at using one hand to guide my A-1 which is super smooth, light and easy to move.

This is what the CC rulers look like and you can see a video of their use here, I ordered the 1.5", 2" and 3"CC Triarcs.

This is a multi purpose template I chose, the top is for curved crosshatching with the addition of some very small circles. I am anticipating doing some crosshatching soon on a quilt so I will be well prepared.
On another site I also ordered two crosshatch stencils, what I have already is too large for most of my work.

These are one inch and two inch grids.

Then I came across a YouTube video of a "rope tool" which became my final "recuperation" purchase. It is a handy little rope template that comes in two sizes, I think from the video I saw it will be faster and more accurate than marking with a stencil. I decided on the smaller tool that makes 1.5" -3" ropes most useful for sashings and narrow stop borders.

This is pretty cool, check out the video here

All of these tools would work for DSM quilting so if they interest you and you quilt on your DSM check them out and also come back to see when I post about their actual use.

That concluded my shopping spree and I can hardly wait to get all these new toys and try them out! I will have to wait a week or two at least but you can be very sure that I will be back at work while my left side is still restrained in this bulky contraption!

What do you do when you are recuperating from illness/surgery etc, how do you fill the waking hours when boredom sets in?

Linking up with Heather at "Needlework Tuesday"