So long to you ‘Grace’, my fickle friend and foe!

We had a relationship that started off so full of promise.

But alas, I can no longer deny the obvious: you demand deserve more time than I have to give.

Ok – the simple truth is that after several years and a handful of well-intentioned efforts, I’m giving up on my mid-arm Grace Quilter. I’m letting go of the idea that I’ll ever become proficient at quilting on it. It just wasn’t meant to be!

I used her for extra table top space…

…and for storing under, on and around.

Instead, I’ve decided to play to my strengths. Each of us has our favorite part of the quilting process and for me it’s the creation of the image. I love choosing fabrics and arranging design elements. I enjoy putting it all together. I like piecing! And while I certainly appreciate beautiful quilting as an integral design element, it’s always been somewhat anxiety inducing to contemplate stitching on a successfully completed quilt top. Aargh!

In thinking on it, I considered that all of my 12″x12″ challenge quilts were done from start to finish on a home sewing machine. In fact, I’ve found that quilting smaller sized quilts with my Janome Horizon works just fine… and I can be okay with that!

Grace Q, we grew apart, you and I. These things happen. It’s not you – it’s me 😉