Spending a Day with Thomas, the Longarm

Leaf quilting pattern

Earlier this week, I spent a day quilting on Thomas, the Longarm. Thomas is a computerized Innova longarm. His original owner quilted quilted more than 500 quilts for the Clark County Quilters (CCQ) comfort/charity group. Last Spring, cancer killed his owner. His owner wanted the guild to have his longarm and to continue quilting comfort quilts.

Back and front of quilt

Alvera invited Thomas, the longarm, to share her shop which is her garage. She put together a proposal so CCQ guild members could quilt tops that members make for comfort quilts. Thomas moved at the end of June. 

In July, he quilted 19 quilts. In August, he quilted 11 quilts. I'm part of the outreach group that longarms the comfort quilts. There are about 13 of us. We are all learning how to longarm.  

Closer view of the back

A couple people quilted once and decided that longarming wasn't a skill they wanted to sharpen. Before June, I had quilted on a longarm about three times. The rest of the group have had a similar quilting experience. Two guild members, Sue and Alvera are our trainers. 

We arrive about 10AM on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and leave about 2PM. Up to two people can quilt on the same day. This time, I quilted a big quilt. It measured 60 inches by 80 inches.  

When I saw it, I immediately thought brown thread and leaves. Then I saw the back which was a grey flower print on a white background. I was thinking gray thread and that was what Alvera thought too!

This was the first project I've quilted that was square and flat. I couldn't believe what a difference that made in the distribution of the quilting. Some turned these scraps into a beautiful quilt!

View of the texture in the quilted border

Introducing Thomas to Pat, a new outreach member; trimming the backing and batting a bit before loading; loading the quilt, quilting having a lunch break; quilting another pass; removing the quilt; trimming the quilt and cleaning up after the quilt took three and a half hours. I'm getting a little faster. I'm feeling a little more confident about my abilities. I like quilting on Thomas. I picked another day in September to quilt. This is the fifth quilt that I have quilted for comfort quilts. Quilting a day on Thomas was goal number 11 on my September list.

I'm also linking to Cynthia over at Oh Scrap/Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework. I'm headed there now to see what other people are creating.

Regarding COVID:

Worldwide: 219M cases; 4.55M deaths United States: 40M cases; 648K deaths Oregon: 248K cases; 3,281 deaths

Finished 

The number of cases and the number of deaths continue to rise at alarming rates everywhere. The European Union has now dropped American travelers from the EU's safe list and have recommended that Americans should be banned from non essential travel. 

In the United States with schools returning to in person learning, there is an increase in cases. Both in students and in staff.

In Oregon our vaccination rate is slowly rising. Sixty-four percent of the population have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 58% of the population is fully vaccinated. This is about a two percent increase in at least one vaccination and a one percent increase in fully vaccinated over the last three weeks.

The hospitals continue to be over run with COVID cases. People, who had their elective surgeries canceled, are exasperated that they have to live in pain because there is no room for them to stay to recover from their surgery. Since 90 percent of the hospitalizations are non vaccinated people, those waiting for their elective surgery are asking why hospitalizing the unvaccinated who may have protested against the vaccine should continue to take precedence. They feel their elective surgery is in a life or death place as well. Providence Hospital in Portland requested a refrigerated truck as projected deaths in the coming weeks will fill their morgue. 

My quilt guild in Washington is meeting virtually this month. My quilt guild in Oregon is meeting in person and indoors for the first time since March 2020. We met the previous two months outdoors at a park. The first month I went, I sat in the back by myself because people were clustered together. The second month I went, I sat next to three people I knew were vaccinated; but, still at the back of the group because people again were clustered together.

I voiced my disappointment to the guild president in an e-mail that the board had decided to meet indoors. Her response was thank you for your concern. The president went on to state that the board would be following guidelines of social distancing, mask wearing and hand sanitizing as well as signing in for the meeting. She went on to state that a Zoom option will be available for those that are uncomfortable meeting in person.

The Oregon health authority has requested people to limit the number of large gatherings. I've returned to staying home, meeting with people in my pod and continue to wear my mask. I won't be attending the in person guild meeting; but, I will watch the Zoom session.