Meet Monique

So who's Monique?

Monique is my new to me Grace Q'Nique 14+ mid arm quilting machine.

This was a rather unexpected addition to my sewing room.

It has always been in the back of my mind that it would be a nice thing to have a quilting frame, as I am not confident in quilting my own large quilts on my domestic machine, and I would like to expand my skills in quilting.  However, it was always one of those "it would be nice, but......." things.

So how did Monique come into my life?

While randomly browsing Facebook Marketplace while we were on holidays, I saw her advertised in Orange (about an hour from home) as having been purchased in 2015, but never used and at a really good price.  We were on holidays in Queensland, so couldn't go and have a look and I had nowhere to put one, so thought no more of it.

Later, Mick and I were talking about the possibility of getting a machine and I had another look, but couldn't see the machine, so assumed it had sold.  No worries, it was just a thought.......

On Sunday afternoon, just over a week ago, I was having another random browse through Facebook Marketplace and there she was.  She hadn't sold.  That was about 4 o'clock.  We were in Orange by 5 o'clock and did the deal.  She had already been disassembled and packed up, so we couldn't see her run, so took a gamble.  I just had the Facebook photos to go off.

The story goes that it was owned by a little old lady (that sounds like a used car sales pitch). She has been quilting for years and had an earlier machine and frame.  She has owned this Grace frame for quite a few years and added this machine in 2015.  However, her husband then became ill and she never got around to using the machine.  She is now relocating to a retirement village, so no room for this machine.

Mick popped back up on the Monday to pick her up.  

So why Monique?

While we were having our afternoon tea that day I announced that she needed a name.

Me:        What about "Princess"?  She is a Grace.  Name her after Princess Grace of Monaco.

Mick:    No.  That sounds too prissy.

Mick:    What about "Bertha"?  She's big, so "Big Bertha".

Me:        No.  Yuck.  We'll think on it.

Shortly after.......

Mick:    What about "Monica", after Monico?

Me:        I know, "Monique", as she is a Q'Nique.

So, Monique it is.  We got there in the end.

Next came the task of fitting her into my sewing room.

There was a big couple of days of moving stuff around.  I have taken over a spare bedroom as my store room to free up the sewing room.  This wasn't a destash at this stage....... more like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

This photo was taken back in August, showing my very messy room. This photo is taken from the door, which has a kitchen dresser either side of it. You can see more here.

We moved one of the dressers, the glass fronted cabinet on the right, a table behind the drawers and a small bookcase into the spare room.  

Joey had to check out the view from the store room window.  Fortunately, he didn't knock any of the bobbins over.  I'm not showing the rest of that room, as it is still such a mess.  A job for another day.

This is where we were up to on Saturday afternoon.

We moved the pine dresser to the opposite side of the door.   The other cupboards on this wall didn't have to move. I didn't need to move anything off the walls, which was a relief.

My sewing table and the drawers with the cutting board on it are now on the wall where the glass fronted cabinet, bookcase and dresser were.  Mick has mounted a shelf above my cutting table for my rulers and we added two more shelves with plastic tubs.  My plan is to finally sort my scraps by colour.  Small tubs, so they can't build up too much.  This will be so much easier for RSC.

Grandma's armchair was moved to the other window. Of course Mick had to see if it was OK.  He deserved a sit down after the day we had. I was also finally able to find a place for the hooked rug that came from my Grandma's.  She would have made it in the 40s or 50s.  

Joey's bed was moved away from the chair, so he doesn't shred it. It took him a little while to adjust to the move, but now he is very happy in there.  The boxes on the floor had to move, as he likes to sit on them and look out the window.

An overview from the room before we built the quilting frame.

The plan is that I will just have current projects that I am working on in here and store things in the other room.

Sunday was another huge day.

It's big.

Mick wanted to make sure it was level.  I think he enjoyed putting it all together.

Ta da!  The frame was built by lunch........a very late lunch at 3 0'clock.

Mounting the machine was much quicker.

The final bit, adding the cloth leaders.

This is how things look now.  Yes, Mick needed to sit down and relax after another big day.

Now for the bit test.....

It started OK, but as I moved the machine towards the middle of the frame it stopped working.  It sounded like the motor was struggling to drive the needle.  Firstly, I added oil, as that was something I had planned to do first up, but forgot about in the excitement.  

It sounded quieter, but no better.  We unthreaded her and tried that, to see if it was the thread causing a problem.  No.

We then ran it beside the quilt.  It worked fine.

We then tried at other end of the rail.  It worked fine.

We now realised it was something causing it not to work in the middle of the frame, not a problem with the machine's motor.  

Finally, Mick noticed that the lower encoder wheel wasn't running along the track in the middle of the frame.  He lifted the centre leg a little, but that still didn't help much, so added an extra flat washer to the mounting of the encoder and it now works just fine.

Phew!

Time to finally have a play and then call it a day.

This is going to be a very steep learning curve, but I am really looking forward to it.

The timing of all this happening is rather ideal, as now I will have something to keep me occupied once I finish up at work later in the year. It certainly is a change and I’ll have to adapt, and all rather unexpected.