New Tricks
Sep 21st, 2008 by Sandy
The other day I was over at my friend Lisa’s (who just opened a new store on Etsy and has some great patterns and fat quarters you should check out!). She was showing me more about how to use my Bernina Stitch Regulator, which was the last thing on my new machine that I was afraid of. This was really sad because this feature was one of the reasons that I bought this machine.
I have wanted to do free motion quilting since the first time that I ever saw it. I have had the machine for a year or so, but when I tried it, it didn’t turn out the way I expected, so I put it back in its box and vowed to try it again after receiving a little more instruction. Lisa, who sold me my machine, was the perfect person to tell me to get over it and just do it.
Before we even got started, I told her that I just wanted to watch (because I knew she would make me try too and I didn’t want her to see how bad this was going to be). She sat down, plugged everything in, and showed me how simple it actually is.
Lisa: “It is that simple. And, it would be so much easier with my gloves. Where are those gloves?”
Me: “Wait, you use gloves? I see all these women on the blogs I read using gloves, and I never know what the deal is. Why do you need them?”
Lisa: “You don’t have gloves! Oh Sandy! Now, you have to sit down and try it!”
And, after trying it with and without, now I see what the big deal is! Working with the gloves is like trying to open a jar with one of those little rubber thingies. Everything is much easier to hold on to.
When I got home from Lisa’s, I decided I was going to start knocking out the Christmas list with one of the things I knew that I could free motion quilt. This is just a simple baby’s quilt for a friend’s new little girl. It is a floor quilt, so I used drapery fabric on one side and flannel on the other. I put a piece of batting between and just went to town. Super simple gift, and I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. The stitches and pattern are far from perfect, and I started out a little tighter than I wanted to, but I am okay with all that. I think that the fabric pattern and the matching thread mask all those tiny imperfections enough. All I have to do now is bind it!
How Fun!!! This looks great! Is it what the writing on that one quilt I have is? Could be!!
I’m glad you are enjoying learning new things.
~A
It is indeed what I think she did. She is just more advanced than I am right now! I would love to work up to the writing stuff! I love that look.
Welcome to free motion-ing! It’s so much fun – it’s become my favorite step of making a quilt. Yours looks great!
Nice quilting! You’re right, it is easier with gloves. But don’t feel you need the expensive “quilting” ones. You can use the $.99 ones you can get at Walmart or wherever.
[...] I decided to finally bind this quilt. And, I have never really hand-bound a quilt before, so I thought that I would give it a shot. [...]