So we’re still making friends here, my new Bernina and I. Doing some free motion quilting and getting to know each other better. When I used the machine in the workshop at the Museum, I was working on sample sandwiches with no patchwork, just two pieces of plain fabric with batting in between. The quilt sandwiches moved and glided like a hot knife through butter. I’m having some issues with that gliding thing here at home though, when I’m working on an actual quilt, and it’s more like slogging through mud sometimes than gliding. Some of this can probably be attributed to the difference in size: the samples were about 18″ square, and this Irish Chain quilt is, well, lots bigger obviously.

The foot on the Bernina sits lower and closer to the quilt than the free motion foot on the Pfaff…

I ordered a Free Motion Supreme Slider to hopefully help with the drag. I thought maybe just the difference in the machine bed texture and angle could be causing me some adjustment issues. Got the Slider, love it (the Supreme is way better than the first edition, BTW, since it has the self adhesive back, you have to get one of these things!), and things are better, but free motion quilting is still a drag in spots. What is this??? I’ve finally realized today that the problem is the free motion foot! The foot on the Bernina sits lower and closer to the quilt than the free motion foot on the Pfaff, and the Bernina foot catches on thick seam allowances sometimes, and creates way more drag on the whole quilt. I’m quilting along just fine, and then the drag starts, and I get smaller stitches. Then when the foot finally makes it over the lump of the seam allowance, the whole quilt jumps and I get a giant stitch before I can compensate. Even on wide open spaces, I also notice the fabric being pushed around by the foot more sometimes than it ever was on the Pfaff, just from the thickness of the batting. What to do??

I begin to wonder if the people who design and engineer these machines ever actually make a real quilt with them. Do they have real quilters test them out at all? If they did, wouldn’t this kind of thing have been noticed before? Read the rest of this entry »

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One day, I’m in love with it, and a few days later, we’re still making friends! Well, I am still in love with my new Bernina, but I’m also still trying to be friends with it for machine quilting. The embroidery part is absolutely awesome, and I like it much better than the Pfaff, so that’s not the issue. Free motion machine quilting is the issue, and it’s a biggie, since that’s what I do most, and the major reason I wanted the machine. I had such a great time with it in Paducah, so I wasn’t thinking that the adjustment from the Pfaff would be all that difficult. In my mind, there was no adjustment period, I think. In reality, it’s a huge change, and I’m still getting used to it.

Part of the problem is that in Paducah, I was doing a completely different type of quilting than I usually do (which is why I took the class in the first place!). So now, when I’m home and working on quilting in my (mostly) normal style, it’s proving more challenging than I thought it would be to produce the same quality work on the Bernina as I can on the Pfaff. I say “mostly” normal style, because I did decide to quilt the Irish Chain quilt with silk thread in the needle and Aurifil 50/2 in the bobbin, so I’m making smaller stitches than I usually do, and that’s undoubtedly contributing to the problem a bit. When I’m making smaller stitches, it’s not the rhythmic sound of one stitch at a time from the machine that I’m listening to and trying to coordinate with, but the pitch of the motor at a certain speed. Totally different ballgame here. Maybe I’m trying to get used to too many things at once.

I’m beginning to feel like a beginning machine quilter again! Aaack! Read the rest of this entry »

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I ran across a “Thursday Thirteen” entry on a recent trip through the blogosphere (I think it was at Quilt Nut Creations, Rhonda’s home on the ‘Net) and I thought it might be a cool way to get a bit more personal here. The idea, as I am able to interpret it anyway, is to share 13 things about yourself every Thursday, and then leave a comment with a link to your post over at Thursday Thirteen’s Blog, where all the TT’ers connect. Everyone bloghops around to the TT lists, leaving comments about the contents along the way, and we all get to know each other better. So without further ado, I give you:

1. I just started practicing yoga. Now that the big 4-0 is here, it’s past time to do something in the physical fitness department, so maybe I can tolerate a bit of yoga. I’ve never found anything else that I can make myself do on a regular basis.
2. I don’t watch TV. Ever.
3. I go to a movie at a theater about once a year, and only then if it’s something really good that I’m absolutely dying to see, like the third Lord of the Rings or something.
4. I like to play games, but don’t do it enough. I like card games and board games, like Yahtzee, Life, Flinch, Uno and Pinochle.
5. I can get really addicted to Mario Kart on the Game Cube, but I don’t do that often enough either, because it makes the tenosynovitis in my hands flare up. I press on the accelerator button so hard that I get an “A” imprinted in my thumb when I play that game. My kids just laugh at me.
6. If there’s an item without a price tag in the store, I’ll zero in on it and try to buy it, every time. If there’s an entire rack of all the same items, I will always pick up the only one without a price and then get hung up at the register waiting for the price check. I’m talented that way.
7. I can hold my hand over the bin of grapefruit at the store, meditate a bit, and always pick out the most sour specimens on the first try (according to my husband, who only eats grapefruit when forced, and becomes the “dinner show” on grapefruit night with his comical pucker up faces).
8. I prefer the telephone to email. Something to do with being an instant gratification girl, I think. With email, you have to wait for a response, and I’d rather just call and get the response right away.
9. I’m basically an indoor girl. I don’t do outside things.
10. I have a temperature comfort zone of about three degrees in my house, which is really hard to maintain without central heat and air (we’re stuck with radiators and windows here).
11. My youngest daughter has just started a new school: an online private academy that she does here at home. Should be interesting after all these years of public/private traditional schools for both of my children.
12. My very favorite beverage is a Cosmopolitan, which I have one of daily. It’s only really good if I make it myself, so it’s an at-home thing only.
13. I LOVE to drive. Fast. And in a spirited, yet defensive, way. Driving a car is sometimes the only thing that makes leaving the house worthwhile, which is why I don’t do public transportation. Even when I had a rather dumpy little Hyundai, I still loved to drive. After that I had SUV’s for six years, and now it’s the Mustang, so it’s even more fun!

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Gabriella Hewitt
2. Danielle
3. Naeva - I love my kids!
4. Miss Positive
5. Nicole
6. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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