Double Irish Chain - #10

Double Irish Chain

I pieced this green Double Irish Chain quite a while ago.  It has been in the quilt top stage for a long time, waiting for me to get my long arm.  Don't worry, it had plenty of company!

Close up of the quilting.  There is quite a bit of quilting in it.  The pattern is Bayside by Lorien Quilting (Hermione Agee).  This provides nice texture and a good amount of the design shows up on the light areas.  One of the things I like about this design is that is isn't particularly feminine.  This quilt is very gender neutral.  I did have some difficulty quilting this design.  As I quilted out to the top of the arcs, the machine wanted to track straight.  I had flat tops and some arcs that looked more like squares.

Because of this difficulty, I decided to purchase new wheels.  I bought Edge Rider wheels from A Touch of Thread.  I went to the National Quilting Association's show in Columbus last week.  I was hoping to find the wheels there, but really didn't expect to.  I was a happy, but tired, quilter when I came home.  I finished quilting the quilt Saturday so the new wheels could be installed.  Sunday was Fathers' Day, so tonight was Wheel Night!

Ta Da!!!!!  New Wheels!  I think I am thrilled with them.  There is no play at all and they move very smoothly.  I bought new clamps too and installed them tonight too.  All is good except one little problem...

The new wheels don't fit on the carriage.  You can see them on the machine, but not the carriage.  The machine rolls very smoothly on the carriage.  But, the carriage is still wobbly on the long tracks.  Even still, I'm anxious to try this new set up.  I have 50% of my movement much improved!  I imagine that I'll just get a new carriage and put the fancy wheels on it.  Brad said it perfectly tonight as he was test driving the new wheels:  "This way is like a Mercedes, this way is like a Chevrolet"