"Box Kites" -- close to finished!

Funny how sometimes a project seems kinda blah, but you MAKE yourself work on it, and by the time it's finished, it's looking pretty GOOD!  DH teases me how frequently I say, "Hmmmmm, it turned out much better than I thought ."  Is this because it's finished (or in this case, almost finished)?

This was my planned border, and it made up nicely but it just didn't "do"!  Tooooo overwhelming.  So, now I have a border with no quilt! 

I MQ with my domestic machine, a Janome MC6500.  It's a treasure!

So then I decided on an almost plain border.  White with little squiggles in it - much better.  Had to purchase this piece.  That last border is not quilted yet, but I DO have the binding made up, a stripe to match that inner border, only the stripe is on the bias - looks great!

I was inspired by Bonnie Hunter's quilt of the same name.  I wonder if she plans to include this project in her coming book?  I think this would look wonderful if the maker would gather similar colors in the diagonal rows.  Note that the kites are all light while background is color. 

 I included a couple of "cutesies".  This would be a great little girl's quilt.  Measures 72 x 88. 

This backing is wonderful - on sale when a quilt vendor wanted to go back home!  The stripes run vertical.  I quilted it all with Essential Pro creamy white on top and bobbin - this stuff is thin and quilts like buttah!

Sprockets, a Linus Quilt, and THE Solution to Janome 6500 skipping stitches problem

DONE!  This is one of Bonnie Hunter's patterns.  I added a row of 4-patches to the top and the bottom to give it some length.  I'm liking it!  I quilted it in "sprockets" my own name for what started as a posey or daisy, but I liked the squarish angles better.  This will be a Linus Quilt. 

Solution for Skipped Stitches for MY Janome MC 6500
If you can stand the last time I'm going to talk about the solution to MY issue with skipped stitches on my much-loved Janome MC 6500. 

My machine is 10 years old and has always machine quilted beautifully, until about 8 months ago, when it started skipping stitches.  OK, I used a thread conditioner, Sewer's Aid, which helped for a while.  Then I unfairly blamed the basting spray, then I blamed my Senior Citizenship, possibly my own failing skills, then ????.  Finally, I took it for servicing with a hopeful spirit,  but despite the tech's beautiful practice stitches and assurance that all was back to manufacturer's tolerances, it skipped stitches when MQ'ing.   Back again to the repair shop  a 2nd time, to recheck if  "something" is wrapped around the tension disks - like invisible thread.  "Nope" -- "Elaine Adair, you have just worn her out!"  Surely not, but ... there were many, many quilts quilted on this machine.  ???   How many is too many??? I finally decided to try a new motor - while not terribly expensive (under $100.00). That idea seemed unlikely but it was worth a try, before investing in a new machine.   

Nope, no difference with a new motor - still bad, skipped stitches when MQ'ing.  (Fine stitches on regular stitching).  Depression, lost my enthusiasm, and my current projects all came to standstills. 

I finally decided to begin looking for another machine and found an excellent tutorial/review from Leah Day on the Janome 7700.   To my surprise, she said to leave the feed dogs up, set stitch to zero for machine quilting.  Uh say what?

So, with nothing to lose, that is what I tried on the above quilt -with my Janome 6500 and ...  Not a skipped stitch in the entire project - NOT ONE!  I quilted it in 2 days, envisioning flames and smoke erupting from my machine with all my quilting efforts!

In the meantime, I've been hearing of other MQ'ers on DSM, that they also leave the dogs up - who knew?  I presume my machine IS worn and this solution might do for a few more years.   None of my quilting books mention it, nor "famous" pro quilters, except for Leah Day. 

So, this is the end of my whining, griping, tears and complaining on this subject.  8-)))))))  Several other bloggers have listened to my tale of woe and needed to know if I'd found a solution.  Yeahhhh!  Hope this helps someone with similar issues.