A little try (quilting)

My friend has a new sewing machine, one with some bells and whistles, well with some fancy things mine has not.

It has a needle down setting, so it always stops with the needle down, it has a stitch speed setting and a stop start button so you don't need a pedal to make it go.  Just push the button and guide things gently through.

After a suitable period learning her new machine and developing that special relationship of trust, she let me have a try, an opportunity to test my resolve in keeping the tenth commandment.

As previously mentioned I dislike waste so having a try needs to be on a project of some sort, in this instance it needed to be something that could be finished in one night.  Just a few hours of sharing the new machine.  So a doll house quilt it was to be.

The first thing I noticed was the twitch in my right foot as it tried to get involved but with no pedal action required it was feeling very left out.  I kept forgetting there was a button for stop. It took awhile to get a speed setting I could settle to.  Very eerily it was possible on the longer edges to just let it get on with it, I did some unpicking whilst sewing, strange. (unpicking a seam on a scrap, not on the project I was working on).

Mini Quilt and Cushion

Top made with the straight stitch it was time to try out a couple of the fancy stitches to both quilt and decorate.  Fun and on this mini quilt looks good, and with a different bottom thread to the top a rather pleasant effect on the back as well as the front. 

Fancy stitches on the reverse

Fancy stitches on the front

So little quilt finished how am I doing with that commandment, not too bad actually.  It is nice, it has some smart functions however, just now I don't need it in my life, I don't surprisingly even want it all that much,  Of course given it lives at Best Friend's house and should I "need" any of its snazzy functions a visitation rights have been offered best of both worlds.    

What it did do was make me have another try with one of the features on my own machine, the embroidery foot, with feed dogs down.  Another mini quilt from scraps as a tester.  A tentative step towards trying free motion quilting instead of hand quilting.  Tentative is a good description and I feel a few more mini quilts may be required before I feel comfortable moving up to something a bit larger.   

Mini quilt and pillow

Free motion quilting on mini quilt