not Irish chain exactly, just because I don't tend to what that much blank space.  but I have some variations with 9 patches that kind of get the idea of Irish chain.

I have my Mama's Bernina at my house! I have NO WHERE to set it up, sniff... shall have to evict something, but unknown what. I think its a Record but will have to look it up in the manual. It came with a side-cutter (turns it into a quasi-serger!)  and a bunch of feet! And a sewing stool! It also has the knee lift bar. I probably need to give it a 'spa day' - it has not been used much in the last 20 years - I used it about 3 years ago when I was staying at my parents to mend some blanket bindings - but that was the last time it was even plugged in. Sis says she located the bill of sale so that will be interesting to see.

My nephew brought a bunch of stuff from my parents house...which is going to my sister. He and his wife are moving in to the downstairs wing - they are expecting a baby a day after my son and daughter-in-law! (the two boys were born a couple of weeks apart 40 years ago and they both are having boy babies!) So.. Sis is putting in new carpeting next week and nephew is moving in before the end of Feb! They needed the room so he hauled all the stuff I indicated I wanted to keep from my parents... including all the quilts that I gave my parents over the years!

One of the things I found in Mama's sewing box is a manual for a Singer 99 in excellent condition. I did not get a manual when I bought my 99...so that is going to go into its sewing box. Oddly, I don't REMEMBER Mama even having a 99, but she must have. I wonder if that was the machine she had when I first started sewing, under the kitchen table.

i am excited to be working my my Dear Jane borders!

2 triangles to finish piecing.  And then 4 kite shaped corners.  Two of these started on the hand stitching…..yippee!

the corner kites are a challenge!  Here are the started two….

Keep on plugging away!  At a quilt show yesterday,  a Dear Jane quilt was shown.  The quilter said that it took her 8? 10? years to finish, but she did!  And you will too.

The light at the end of the tunnel is shining brighter!  And I have been keeping myself focused on only this!   No “squirrel” allowed for me!   
(although a pattern has surfaced that I want to make for a class at work!   BUT, I really want to get DJ together!)
i need to dig around in my paperwork to see if I can get an idea of the year I started.  But I know it has been 10 years or more.

thanks for everyone’s encouragement to keep going….posting now and then about progress has helped me stay determined!

I am pretty sure that there was a topic and a lot of people on about.com that jumped on the Dear Jane bandwagon when it came out. I considered it myself and did a swap for 9 inch blocks but never started the little 4" inches. Maybe you started back then.

Dont really know how to describe this, but Ill try. We had that problem on almost all the long arms we owned. We had to even make some them ourselves as they weren't available like today. Make sure your thread is going straight into the needle eye, Dont have your thread guide off to the side. Try anyway of having it go straight into the eye. Another trick to use for a temporary fix to finish a job is to wrap the thread around your needle one time and sew slower. It may let you finish a project.

ohh...ok, will try the wrapping around the needle... I go pretty slow anyway...so no problem with that (maybe I need to speed up a bit?)

On the thread guide - what do you mean? What I am using is a cone on a stand behind the machine. If it's in line with the needle, I will be running into it with the quilt top. There are no other thread path adjustments I can make - its an 'Easy Load' where I just lay the thread in the path. It is curious that the direction that breaks is the opposite of where the thread stand is located....

I am going to try my Mama's Bernina soon (the machine I have been working on is a Singer 9100 Slant with a Westalee ruler foot) - I expect I will have another whole raft of questions when I try that machine! The ruler foot gets here on Monday. Don't know yet on that one if I will need to use the cone stand behind the machine or not - but probably will.

I wonder if someone makes a thread stand the attaches to the machine like on the long arms for a domestic...

Ill almost bet that the Bernina will do the job for you. The slant needle has some inherent problems of its own. Great machine for most sewing projects, but wasn't designed to do out of the ordinary .

The thead quides Im talking about are on the machine by the needle. You wouldn't have the ones I was talking about on your slant.

I'm sure Sandy loved seeing you, too.  Nice to have a chance to go back and see friends.  I'm glad my daughter still lives in the DFW area so I can visit old friends when we see her.