Louise and Short Arm Quilting in my Empty Nest

Hi all!  My name is Sheila and I am a mom of 3, wife, daughter, sister and nurse practitioner.  I have a ton of interests, many of which don't seem to go together in any cohesive sort of way.  I love sewing, miniatures, dolls, reading, gardening, electronics and computer gaming.  I also am a newbie beekeeper.  I want to have a record of my interests and exploits in some way other than my bullet journal, so, I decided to document with a blog.  Here are a couple pictures of my sewing room just because it's my happy place

Cissy's head has since been returned to her body

I will likely be using affiliate links too, just so you know. With that skimpy intro, I will just jump right in.

    Empty Nest Syndrome...anybody experiencing it now or in the past?  It’s rougher than the nomenclature suggests.  I spent the last year anticipating ways to manage the sadness and feelings of loss when my last chick leaves the nest.  I felt I was prepared but found myself weeping days before the dorm move in date.  The dreaded day has come and gone, and I’m still standing, but let me tell you that it is impossible to prepare for your little ones leaving home.
     My coping mechanisms varied from avoidance of anything that reminded me of the impending doom to hosting droves of teenagers for days on end at our lake house to experience those last carefree days of boyhood.  The lake trips were memorable and fun, the stuff of sweet memories for years to come, but my “head in the sand” approach wasn’t effective or productive, hence this blog.

Boys on a boat

     Truly though, it isn’t as bad as I’m making it sound.  My son is only 20 minutes away and will likely be home at least weekly for laundry and food services.  Has already been home twice weekly since he left.  I know there will be days that the loneliness is worse than others, and I fully expect sadness to jump out and surprise both my husband and myself at the worst possible times.
     Of my preparations and plans for dealing with the loss of my little (big, grown up) boy, most failed miserably or peetered out before they got off the ground.  But, I have had some modest success with one of my endeavors.  Are you ready for the big reveal?  It’s quilting.  Or, more specifically, learning to quilt.  I have been sewing for nearly 20 years and have taken a couple of quilt classes, made a few wall hangings and even  made 2 quilts, one of which I even use.  The quilting aspect of sewing never really appealed to me because I didn’t really get the whole idea of cutting yards of fabric in pieces, only to sew it back into one large piece again.  I also didn’t know what to do with tons of quilts.  I don’t dislike quilts, it just wasn’t my thing.  I preferred to sew doll clothes, home dec items or crafty things like this dress that I sold on Etsy...

American Girl  colonial style dress

     The quilting bug snuck up and bit me disguised as precuts and cotton batting.   I took a jelly roll class with my mom and the rest is recent history.  Once we finished our quilt tops, we were faced with quilting it.  I wasn't interested in shoving a twin size quilt through my Brother NX 2000, so a lady in a local quilt shop suggested we have them quilted on a long arm machine and gave us several names and phone numbers.
     We arrived at the home of a local quilter, tops in tow, and made a new friend.  (quilting people are the nicest sort of people) Oh, and we also ended up with two beautifully quilted works of beginner art! What stuck with me during this experience was that our new quilting friend had a quilting set up that intrigued me.  It was a wooden frame with a domestic machine on a carriage!  An affordable and easier way to quilt! My curiosity was piqued. Cindy, our "long arm" quilting friend generously printed a specification sheet for both her frame and machine and gave me a demo of how they worked.  I was enchanted!  I didn't seriously think I would ever purchase something like that, but loved it nonetheless.  (I already own 2 sergers, 4 sewing machines and 2 sewing/embroidery machines).

Little Gracie 2 frame with domestic sewing machine

This is a Little Gracie 2 quilting frame with an upgraded metal carriage and a domestic sewing machine.  Cool right?  This particular frame has been discontinued, but The Grace Company is still making a variety of quilting frames.  You can purchase packages similar to the above for around $2000 new and can sometimes find a deal on craigslist for a secondhand set.
After about 6 months of research, I found a used Little Gracie 2 frame and a new Brother PQ1500SL straight stitch machine.

Hubs with my secondhand treasure!

I christened my new machine Louise and lovingly call her Wheezy from time to time.  I'll describe what I learned from my quilt frame and machine research in upcoming posts.

So that's the story of how Louise came to live with me once my last little chick went into the world.  So far, she has been a fantastic distraction and eased my transition from full to empty nest.  I never thought I would be looking forward to the Fall of 2018, but thanks to Louise, smiles are the new normal for me.  Please feel free to comment, tell me your own story or ask questions!