Life... why must it always get in the way...

So, I know most are probably thinking I stopped blogging, but honestly that is not my intention.  But it seems I have spent much of the first half of the year on the road and then heads down on deadlines for one show or another.

So I won't bore you with a long update, but I will share some of my work from the past few months.

just pics, no long verbiage for now... but I am hoping to do better going forward.  Yes, I WANT to blog more :-)...

 The result of all of my experimentation on my Silhouette cutter:

Currently on display at View's exhibit "For the Birds" in Old Forge, NY

I have two others that I've finished this year, but can't seem to find a picture of those.

Here is one that I started at retreat in April, but haven't touched since...  guess I need a deadline to get me moving on it :-)

Ok, lunch break is over :-)  Hope you enjoyed!

Playing with Aurifil... first time fpr pebbles

I just finished two major projects and haven't had a time to just sit and play at the machine for awhile.  So I did so last night.  Boy was it fun!

I decided to cut a piece of fabric and play with my free motion machine quilting.  I have a couple of designs I use over and over again.  But working on Raven's piece (yes I know I owe you guys a finished picture..  just need the right light.) I decided I needed to add to the designs that I do without thought.  I also decided that I needed to play with the Auriifil Thread I have, as I have really only used the 40wt cotton.

So this is what I came up with....

I love the little leaves in the center.  This was one of the designs I picked up from 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting.  I thought it was pretty.  DH loved the spins in each of the leaves.  Not sure mine really look like hers, but I like them anyway.  I love the way they swirl, so decided to add the circular design around the leaves.  Isn't it interesting how this makes a nice little center design for a circular piece.  I will definitely need to remember this the next time I work on a circular project.  Next I decided to play with free form feathers around the circle.  I have a hard time doing feathers with a spine first, then adding the feathers.  I can always make the right side look great, but can never match the look on the left.  If I start on the left, the feathers on the right are ok, but they don't match the look on the left.  So I practiced making feathers without a spine.  Wow!  what difference it made for me.  My free form feathers took on a totally different look and feel.  It gave me the freedom to turn them any way I wanted and my feathers looked more natural as I wasn't always trying to hit the spine at the right angle :-). 

As I got closer to the edge of the piece of fabric, I decided to try my hand a pebbles.  I always like the tight look and feel they have and the added dimension they give the feathers...  contrasting the big and free feathers with the small and tight circle of the pebbles.  Take a look... 

I really like the way the pebbles frame the other quilting.  Having never played with the pebble design before, I experimented with making them all the same size and then mixing the size.  I also had to stop doing them all in a line and change up on how I circled back over the stitching line to move in a different direction.  I didn't like leaving a gap, so I had to figure out a way to ease smaller pebbles in between larger existing ones.  Fun...  I think I will start adding pebbles into my work, but will have to be careful to make sure I have even quilting across the top, so it doesn't warp the piece.

Now onto the thread.  I used Aurifil 50 wt with a Topstitch 90/14 needle.  On my Bernina 830, I dropped my tension to 1.5, which is typical for what I use with other threads.  To be honest, I wanted to use up bobbins, so there is a mix of bobbin threads.  Well to my surprise, I had NO tension problems.  I ended up using three different bobbins, with three different threads and each stitched as nicely as the last. I have never been able to do this with any other brand of thread....  NEVER!   Oh yeah, these was also almost NO LINT in the bobbin area.  Wow...  what a shock.  I usually have to clean out the lint in the bobbin area after an hour of quilting.  Not with Aurifil :-) 

I did not use the BSR functionality, I just used my round open toe applique foot and had at it!

Here comes one of my 'inquiring minds' questions....  How many people use Aurifil thread?  Do you like it?  What weight do you find works best for free motion quilting?  Do you find one needle size or type works better than the other?  Do you use the same thread in the bobbin?

Let me know.....

The Quilt Scene - Miami, Florida

UPDATED 08/2013:  THIS SHOP HAS SINCE CLOSED

So, we made it to Miami just in time for DH to see the games on Sunday. We spent yesterday with DD and since she has to work today, we did some exploring. So, I found a quilt shop!

I did my usual and Goggled quilt shops in Miami. To my surprise there is only one shop in the Miami area.... The Quilt Scene. What a vibrant personality it has! I walked into the shop and was immediately greeted by a cheery staff member. (Not the lady below, she was the one who checked me out.) We chatted, she shared an overview of the store and their 'celebrity' staff member and then left me alone to browse. There was a group standing around one of the tables in the back discussing fabric choices with a new quilter.... quilters and staff alike were helping walk her through the process of choosing fabrics.


There is a large, bright room in the back where a class was going on, so I didn't explore too much back there. As usual I was on the hunt for threads..... they carried a good selection of Superior... King Tut, Razzle Dazzle, Masterpiece and Rainbows. They also carried YLI and a good selection of YLI Silks. Of course they carried Sulky Blendables, and Mettler and other thread for machine embroidery and sergers. Much more variety than many quilt shop I have visited. This is a good thing. To me, many shops focus on fabric, patterns and gadgets, but for those of us who tend more to contemporary or art quilting, a good variety of thread is a must!

The Quilt Scene is a dealer for both Bernina and HandiQuilter16. My husband was intrigued by all the old Bernina machines they had on display. They showed old popular machines dating back to 1950 along a shelve on the perimeter of the store. Don't know if you can see them on the shelve in the back.

These quilts are by Jane Hardy Miller, who works at the shop and is also their 'celebrity' staffer. Jane has a pattern line and is also the author of of the "French Braid Quilts" books.

I brought one of Jane's patterns, as well as another from ToadQuilts and some more black & white. Both of the patterns are good for quick, easy, but yet vibrant quilts. Great for gifts. Yes, this was a good trip for B&W's, I have built up my stash. I didn't have much room in my luggage for alot of fabric, so I had to keep my fabric purchases to a minimum on this trip, but I will be back:-).

I must say, I really liked the feeling of this shop. I told my DD that she now has a place to buy me presents :-). My DH and I were intrigued by some sample wallhangings they had with Angelina film (not the fibers)... really neat. Definitely need to get me some of that!

So 2 shops in Florida worth visiting as you travel down (and past) I-95 South....

Oh well, back to NY tomorrow... I will miss the 75+ degree weather!

Hands or Feet?

Have you ever used the BSR on a Bernina? I have an 830 and have played with it now and then and have not yet found my rhythm. Some folks say if you are good at free motion quilting then it isn't really helpful. Others love it for the speed control and stitch length regulation, no matter how fast or slow they go.

I do quite a bit of free motion quilting, so this weekend, I decided to play. I spent an hour or so using the BSR with the foot pedal and another couple of hours using my hands to control the speed. You know, I like the fact that I only have to think about my hands, but I find that when I need to move my hands I am just not coordinated enough (yet :-)) not to cause a noticeable stop/start in my quilting. I think that when I use the foot peddle my mind already knows to slow the machine down so I can use my hands... hey it is what I have been doing for years.

Yes, I know like anything else, I will have to play with it a bit more to get comfortable. I am just looking for any pointers or thoughts you might feel comfortable sharing...

Do you use a BSR? How long did it take you to get comfortable with it?

Foot or Hand control or both, depending on what you are quilting?

Yes, this inquiring mind wants to know ?

Thread, Thread, Thread...

Thread... I think just about every 'art' quilter or fiber artist or quilter or whatever we call ourselves have a love affair with thread. We have cotton thread, rayon thread, polyester thread, wool thread, metallic thread and silk thread. Thread with sheen, thread that is thick and thread that is thin. Thread made by Isacord or Sulky or Madiera or Gutterman or Aurifil or Superior or YLI or Coats & Clark, or... or... or....

I for one, have some of every type, every brand above, plus some. I think I love my thread as much as I love my fabric. Well almost :-)... But one thing that I have noticed as I started really using my Bernina 830, is that thread that was almost lint free on my old Viking throws off tons of lint on the Bernina. Some, so much so, that I have to clean the machine in between bobbin changes. On my Viking, using the same assortment of threads, I almost never saw a buildup of lint. In fact, I could go two full quilts before I realized... OOPS!, I haven't cleaned the machine since I worked on that other project.

I wonder why that is? I know many of you have multiple machines. Do you see a difference in the lint build-up on one type vs another? Or even on one model vs another?

Yes, those same inquiring minds want to know...... Oh, but wait, no one had a thought on the last question this inquiring blogger posted. Oh well... I guess I will just have to ponder this thought on my own for awhile.

98% Done....

Well, it is quilted, blocked (no more wonkiness :-)) and bound! My experiment has just three more steps: some crystals in the star centers, a label and maybe some crystals outlinging the center star (which is barely visible in the photos). Unfortunately, I really didn't want this piece to be a square. I thought Octagon or Hexagon... but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't to so without cutting off a ribbon and I wasn't about to do that. So here it is....


The ribbon effect moving around the top was fun to do. I learned not to use tear away stabilizer in these as it is now a permanent part of the quilt. Good thing it is Ricky Tims stabilizer, as it is soft and scrunchy.. you don't feel it inside of the quilt. Next time I will use a hoop and not worry about a stabilizer. I do like the highlighting done on the edge. The pink segment has two shades of pink. The green segments are highlighted in white as I couldn't get a light enough green to show enough of a difference.


I like the purple waves in the center square. I used the width of my open toe embroidery foot to help keep an even distance, but I learned that when free motion quilting on the 830, speed control is key! It was very easy to control the movement at the right speed, since you had plenty of room for the quilt and didn't have to stop and re-adjust constantly. Gotta love that large quilting area :-).


The swirly-ques were easy as I do these all the time, but you will notice I added starburst inside the stars since the last post. When the top was all quilted, I decided they 1) really needed something and 2) they were a little puffy, so they needed something to hold them down.


I liked the fact that I changed the quilting motif with every round of the square in a square. These loops are soo easy to do and provide a great motif for when you need to quilt around other design elements. I used a mix of Madiera, Isacord and Superior threads on this piece. All worked equally well, although I definitely needed to lower the tension setting on the 830.

Now... feathers... sorry the photos aren't very clear....


And here are my freeform feathers. Yes! I think I am finally starting to get in the groove with these. Although they are pretty basic, I was able to turn and twist them to fill in the space as needed. I really felt good making these.


I do think I will practice other type of feathers, but for now am ok with my progress. Oh another thing... if I made this a hexagon or an octagon I would have lost all of these... hmmpphhh... maybe there was a reason why those shapes didn't work.

So now, to add some pizzazz in those stars. Oh, by the way... I have named my experiment. Celestial Enlightenment. This practice piece taught me alot. As I said in an earlier post, funny how when you let yourself just go, what you can come up with :-).

Yes, I am smiling...

How many times does something that you thought was ruined or a waste of your time turn out to be so much fun? Well, that is how I feel about my 'experiment'. You know the quilt where I didn't measure twice, cut once, so it is wonky, because two sides of a square are longer than the other two :-).

Anyway, I quilted the pink square (the wonky one) tonight and it went pleasantly well. I feel as if I have found my groove on my 830. I know the right speed, I can hear when I am going to fast or too slow, and my foot doesn't get tired. I quess all that playing and practicing has paid off. Here is a close up of the pink round.



Then looking at the black, I sat wondering what to do. The bobbin play going around the 'sphlat' began to look like the spine of a feather, so I decided that I was going to do feathers in the black. Hey, I have been practicing them quite a bit. Well, I must say, I am pretty pleased with the first go round.



I have gone all around the quilt, with one row of feathers. Now, I have to decide, if I continue adding feathers mirroring the first round, do free form feathers in the remaining black area, or if I echo quilt the first row of feathers, or ???? But as usual, I will go to bed and let the quilt talk to me in my sleep.

Good night all!

On with the experiment...

So, I did get in a little bit of quilting while home on vacation. Not as much as I had hoped for, but unfortunately, the night we returned from Aruba, my son injured his knee while working with his football trainer. We have had x-ray's and know that there is no broken bones, but the Orthopedic said it is definitely NOT nothing. We are going for a MRI, but at this point, he says it could be anything from a severe sprain to a torn ACL. As you can imagine, we are praying for the former.

Anyway, with the hiccups of life, I did get some quilting in. I added stars to my experimental piece, using a variegated Superior Rainbows thread. I had to play quite a bit with the tension, to keep the bottom thread from showing through (got to go buy some extra bobbins for the 830... I am wasting much too much thread as I move from color to color). I have the tension set to 1, which seems to be my standard, whenever working with the Superior Rainbows thread on the 830. I think I when I quilt this piece, I will quilt stars inside of the thread appliqued stars. We'll see....
Next, I finished adding the highlights to the green ribbon segments. I got impatient and didn't wait until I picked up the light green Madeira. Instead, I just used white. I think it works fine.

Then I decided to figure out how to loosen the bobbin tension on the 830, so I could try Bobbin Play. Hey, this is an experimental piece.. right? Much to my surprise, after actually doing it, it is much easier than I thought it would be... the directions gave me a little scare. First, in the USA, not sure many of us know what a 'lug' is, screw, nut, bolt... yes, but a lug? So it took me a second to figure out what they were talking about. Once I did, I used the universal tool, moved the bobbin lug 2 spaces to the left and away I went.


I am not sure I like the look. It is a Superior Razzle Dazzle. While I like the Razzle Dazzle and the effect, I think this particular color may be too dark for this piece. But I will wait a day or two to decided before ripping it out.


What do you think?

Now remember this piece is wonky, because the pink piece was cut the wrong size. (If you missed the earlier post... I couldn't get the top squared to save my life. After ripping it out more than a couple of times, I realized that the pink piece is actually 1/2" larger than it should be. Of course, since the black was on, I decided to leave it.) The piece was not being made for any particular purpose, so instead, it became a learning or experimental piece. None of the thread play techniques had I done before. When it is finished, I will do a 'lessons learned' post, as I have learned quite a bit on this piece.

I am going to try to block it tomorrow. First to try and get it to behave a little and second to give me some time to think about how I will quilt it. I have been thinking about trying a square feather inside the center square. But who knows..... I know I am thinking about not making this a square piece... if I can at least get it to lay flat, I don't care it is a square, rectangle or ??????

OK... Good Night... it is back to work tomorrow :-)

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You...

I had the ladies over this afternoon for my second annual quilting get together. Well we do more socializing than anything else, but we at least talk about quilting :-). What a wonderful afternoon it was! It is so nice to spend a day with quilting friends, with no outside interruptions... (my son and DH are off playing Paint Ball :-).

But I do want to share with you why I am Thankful. I am Thankful, because Anne, one of my friends who does quite a bit of sewing, looked at my problem with the Superior Rainbow thread on the Bernina 830 and suggested I try one of two things. Either I switch to a single whole plate or I move my needle over two positions to the left. Since the machine was all set up. I moved the needle. And what do you know.... NO MORE SKIPPED STITCHES and NO MORE SPIT UP ON THE BACK WITH THREAD BREAKAGE!!! I am so excited!!! Teri, my friend who teaches machine quilting sat down at my 'Baby' as she puts it, and gave it a spin.... it worked like a charm. Of course, I had to prove it for myself, and it ran smoothly.

So what was the difference... why the needle position? Anne says that sometimes it is just the way the thread comes down and makes contact with the bobbin. She has experienced the same thing on broadcloth, and needed to make the change.

So... time to clean up the kitchen and get to stitching. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You Anne...

BTW, now I have to let Bob at Superior Thread and Alex Anderson know that the problem is fixed. Both tried suggestion, after suggestion and none of their ideas worked :-)

Mother Natures Inspiration

Last Saturday I walked out my front door and stopped... my perennial garden was just coming into mid bloom and I had to take a picture. I was too lazy to go back in the house to find my camera, so I grabbed my cell phone and took some shots. After a week of looking at the photo as my wallpaper on my cell phone it hit me... ah ha....
I had been working on this play piece. Something to play with while I got acquainted with my 830 and the Aurifil thread my friend Alex Veronelli (link for those of you one facebook) sent me last month. (If anyone knows of an Aurifil shop in southern NY... Please let me know.) Anyway... I had been working on this piece, making feathers around the center flower (I am just learning how to make feathers freehand), but couldn't decide what to do as the background quilting, or in the boarders. Well as I gazed at my flowers (all yellow and pink and green) it hit me. The play piece was of a large pink and yellow flower... why not applique daisy's in the boarder squares and use a freeform continuous line leaf pattern for the background.... sort of flowers and leaves and feathers... all from Mother Nature.

And so this week, that is what I did. I ripped out all the original background echo quilting that I wasn't happy with and used the same pink, yellow and orange variegated Aurifil Mako Cotton thread to make the daisy's and the leaves in the boarder. Then I used Sulky cotton in a brown to match the background and did the leaves all around the center flower and feathers I had previously done.While I am still learning what tension settings to use on what thread on the 830, I was happy with my play. I've decided I like the weight of the Aurifl Mako thread for quilting you want to show. Next I need to play with the lighter weight for quilting I want to sink into the top. Anyway, here are some more pics....

This last picture I took this morning, so the color is better. It was just so funny, that Alex had sent me a variegated, yellow and pink thread.... it worked really well with the fabrics I had already pulled together. The boarder fabric is a piece of Ricky Tims hand dyes... I love this particular piece so much I bought 3 yds when at his Super Seminar this past spring. Yummm...

Ok, so not perfect, but a play peice is just that... I learned alot about the stitch speed on the Bernina 830 and tension setting depending on the thread. I guess it is about time I went back to work on all those UFO's I started in the last 6 months. I think I have at least 3 :-)... definitely not my style. I feel guilty... but hey I had to play with my new machine. RIGHT!!!

I am still alive....

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth... I have just been real busy!

Work has picked up and we are getting ready to move my daughter Raven down to Miami, to start her professional career. It is really stressful to have your first born move away. Practically my entire family still lives in Mt. Vernon, NY, a small town of 4 sq miles. I live across the street from the house that I was born in. So, to have my baby move 24 hours away by car... OMG!!! We went down to Phili today to help her load the car. She will drive to Washington and put her car on the Auto Train in the morning. My husband and I will fly down on Tuesday to meet her and help her get settled. So it has been a crazy weekend on top of a crazy month.

But I have done some quilting... I have been playing with my Bernina 830, trying to figure out why I am having such a hard time getting the machine to stitch properly with my favorite thread. The LQS where I brought my machine has told me to bring it in. It appears that there is a new software patch that does some tweaks, so I am hoping that is the problem. But today on facebook, I met another local quilter who has an 830 and it appears she and a few others with the 830 are having some of the same problems, especially when using the BSR. So if the patch doesn't fix the problem, I hope Bernina is reading all the comments on the web and working on a fix.

But, Thursday I decided to stop playing around and started a small piece... just a play piece to actually see how the 830 works on a real project vs on test sandwiches. I received some Aurifil thread from my Italian facebook friend that I wanted to try out. So I have put together a small piece and am quilting in. I LOVE the colors. The piece is brown, pink and yellow and I am quilting it with a variegated Aurifil cotton in pink, orange and yellow. I like it alot. I promise pictures of both the new thread and the piece when we get back from Miami.

For tonight, I just wanted to let you know, that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Two weeks with no posts, is indeed a long time for me :-).

Progress!

So after a wonderful sunny afternoon seeing my niece graduate from the same Catholic High School (Our Lady of Good Counsel Academy) that my daughter graduated from 4 years ago, I spent the evening playing again with my 830. And yes, I think I made good progress.

I realized that I was threading the top thread wrong.... through the wrong spindle. You see, the 830 has 3 cone holders, one that is considered the front spindle and uses two guides when you are winding the bobbin and two additional spindles that each have their own guide. Well of course, once I wound the bobbin, I just assumed that when you threaded the top thread, that you used two guides as well. WRONG! As I was sewing I noticed that every time the thread broke, if I looked up the thread was twisted over the guides. So I looked in the book and the picture that went along with loading top thread showed only one guide in use, vs the picture for winding the bobbin. And if I had bothered to read the text, vs assuming I knew what I was doing after winding the bobbin, then I would have known that it says use 'the' corresponding guide for the 'spindle' you placed the cone on... duh!@!@!. 'the', 'spindle' these are singular parts of speech, singular as in ONE, not two!@!@!.

With this new knowledge under my belt, I attempted once again to free motion quilt using my favorite Superior Rainbow thread. Much better... but still every once and a while the error message indicating I was out of top thread would appear. Since I knew I had a full cone, something had to be wrong. Taking a closer look, I noticed that the thread was no longer in the round whole on the side of the machine... somehow it had slipped out of the sensor that detects the top thread. So I lowered the tension to 1, vs the 2 or 2.25 that was working so well on the YLI and Coats and Clark threads. Whoo Hoo!!! no more breaks, no more spit ups... just smooth sailing.
I feel much better!! Tomorrow, I will try a larger piece to ensure I have cracked the mystery. But for now I fell good. :-)

I've been playing...

As you can imagine, I have been playing whenever I can get a free moment with my new Bernina 830. OMG... this thing does so much, I will never figure it all out. So this week, I decided to play with the BSR and some of my favorite threads to see what it is like to free motion quilt on this baby.

Well, first I had to figure out how the BSR works... took me a few seconds, but it wasn't hard. The book, DVD and screen do a good job of walking you through how to use it. Next came the actual quilting. First I used Superior Masterpiece with Bottomline in the bobbin. Once I adjusted the tension to 3.5, all was fine... it purred like a baby. Quilting was smooth, just as long as I didn't try to go to fast. Then it peeped at me :-). Next, still with Bottomline in the bobbin, I tried one of my favorite threads, Superior Rainbow... ughhh... talk about breakage and spit up. No, 3.5 was not going to make it. After trying tension settings ranging from 1.0 to 4.0 (the default) I gave up and tried another thread. The YLI variegated worked like a charm at a tension setting of 2.25. I was able to do feathers, swirls and echoed swirls, with no issues, still with the Bottomline as the bobbin thread. Next up was Coats and Clarks twisted variegated. It too like the Rainbow was problematic... spit up on the back, jumped stitches, breakage... you name it, it did it. I wonder if because the Superior Rainbow and CC twisted variegated have a sheen, unlike the flat Masterpeice and YLI, if it causes the problem... or maybe because they are a heavier thread. I tried changing needles to a Sharp 90/14 (I don't know what comes in the 830 straight out of the box, so I thought maybe a new needle.)... no help!

I tried re-threading the bobbin, and top thread... no luck. Has anyone had this issue? Is there a secret tension setting guide for the 830? Or a 830 blog, that I should join??

I will try to make it to the shop tomorrow where I purchased my machine, but my schedule is tight and the person who knows it all, isn't there on Sundays. So any insight by anyone reading this is appreciated...

Finally!

OK... what a weekend this turned out to be. On Friday night I told everyone that my new Bernina 830 was in, but with the Craft Show on Saturday, I wouldn't be able to pick it up until Sunday... ughhh!

As it turned out, we would have had time to pick up my new baby, if my DH wasn't in such a hurry to get me home to my Surprise Birthday Party!! My children, under the direction of my oldest, Raven, who snuck into town, organized and threw me a surprise 50th Birthday Party. My birthday was actually on the 5th, but we haven't been home a single weekend in May. Actually, she had started planning this in December, but yes, the first 3 weekends of May, were already booked by then... sorry Sweetie :-)

Anyway, so Saturday afternoon, no go, but for good reason :-).... Sunday, with recuperation, I didn't think I would get my DH up and out to go help me get it... but he did... good thing. There were no men in the store with the long weekend and we definitely needed muscle to move this baby... yeah! So home it came, but with dinner and spending time at my Mom's, there wasn't much play time.

But boy, oh boy... taking this baby out of the box is overwhelming. Talk about a lot of stuff!! By the time I was able to set it up and listen to the first 50 minutes of the instructional DVD, it was time to get dinner going. But here are some pics of the boxes as they moved into my studio, and the Thank You message that is right under the top of the box with the machine in it. Yes, there is more than one huge box. The biggest is the 830 of course, but the embroidery module box is also a pretty good size as you can see.

Here is a picture of it sitting in place in my studio. They say you need a 20" x 7" hole for this baby, but it is really more like 20.5". This baby just made it in the opening in my sewing table top.... boy was it close! Here are some of the pictures of the stuff that comes with it. 10 feet in all, including the BSR and 5 of those nice large bobbins. Supposedly they hold 40% more thread than the other Bernina bobbins, but I am not sure it is more than 10-20% larger than the Viking bobbins I have been using over the last 10 years.I really like the 3 large spool holders. I use a lot of Superior Threads and it is definitely more economical to but the large cones, which before meant I had to use one of their Cone Stands, which is still sitting off to the side. Now I can have my bobbin spool loaded as well as two different spools for the top. Sweet!

So after watching the DVD, it was time for dinner and then off to my Mom's. So it was after 9pm before I was able to sit back down and play. I followed the directions for threading the machine and loading the bobbin, and of course I had issues at first, but got that up and going. Now it was time to sew.... I played with the straight, zigzag and satin stitches.... the ones I use the most and although my baby sews extremely smooth, there is a definite difference to the feel of the Bernina 830 then my old Viking 535. It will take some time to learn, but I had to use what seemed like a smaller satin stitch setting to get the look I aim for on my Viking. But hey, that's ok with me.

I didn't fool with too many stitches, because I was anxious to try free motion quilting... with and without the BSR. I played last night, using the BSR and the foot control. Here is my initial attempt. I have had heard some machine quilters are who pretty good, say they didn't like the BSR, so I was anxious. It definitely felt clumsy initially, but I think with some time at the machine, I can get the hang of it.
Today, I picked up where I left off and played with the BSR, but with no foot control... boy oh boy, much smoother. But it still will take some getting used to. Here is a view of today's work. Notice, not as many white pebbles caused by stopping to long as you change directions....
I found that today, using a bobbin loaded with Superiors Bottomline and Superior Masterpiece in the top, I had to adjust the tension a little. Otherwise, it kept skipping stitches, breaking or indicating that the top thread was out. I didn't have to do that last night, when I was using the preloaded bobbin vs the Bottomline.

A couple of things to note from my first few hours of play.... why don't machine manufacturers include the basic quilting feet with the machine? I had to buy the 1/4" foot for my Viking and it looks like I will have to buy the 1/4" foot for the Bernina as well. I just think with 10 feet, the least expensive would probably be the 1/4" or patchwork foot as they call it. So why not include it??? Additionally, I could definitely see time I would like to quilt without the BSR.... why not include the open toe free motion quilting foot as well.... it is a machine sold in quilt stores... quilters are one of the top 2 primary markets for the machine. So again, why not include it in the box??? You know I am making a list of needed feet.... 1/4" open toe free motion, piping... and I am sure it will grow. Good think, there were plenty of envelopes at the B'Day party :-).

Oh well... enough for tonight.... I will have to find time to play tomorrow as well :-)