A New Free Motion Quilting Foot

I have a new toy!  I am so excited - a new darning foot for my sewing machine.  No big deal, except that my machine was a wedding present oh so long ago and some accessories can be a little challenging to hunt down.

This was my third attempt.  I'm not a huge Internet shopper for stuff like this.  One, I want instant gratification - I had a top all sandwiched together and ready to go after all.  And two, I wanted to know it would fit, and work.  I finally had to take my machine into the shop and try on various accessories.  Almost as good as shoe shopping.  Almost.

I also purchased a walking foot, but need to see if we can track down a longer shank screw.  No instant gratification there, but I already had one new toy that I quickly put to good use.

A half dozen You Tube videos and some practice pieces - which look awful and I was on my way. 

Some observations: 

• Free motion quilting uses a lot of thread - and bobbin.  I learned I cannot wind the bobbin with the darning foot on.  I have to switch to a 'regular' foot first.  I now wind several bobbins at once to save time.

• Walk away when I become tired or it will be do-over time.  My stitch quality and stitch length becomes erratic when I become even a little fatigued.  It's then time to get up and do something else for a few minutes.  I had to rip out quilting three times using the "Oh, I'll just sew a few minutes more" approach.  This almost never works out for me.  You'd think I'd have figured this out by now.  Seriously.

• Breathe and don't hunch.  As with anything new, it is harder and takes longer until I become proficient.  Duh, I knew that.  But while I know this intellectually, in practice I had my nose inches away from the darning foot, holding my breathe and all hunched up.  Between that and yard work, I am a bit stiff this morning. 

Free motion quilting is pretty fun.  It seems to take longer than straight line machine quilting, but I think that will improve with practice.  I'm liking how it looks.  I hope to be able to try (practice) other stitch patterns soon!

Max, one of my Unusually Helpful Helpers decided the sewing table was a nice place to sit this morning.  Right on the piece I am working on!



It was sunny yesterday - on a weekend.  How cool it that!?  It is time to get into the garden before it warms up too much and everything explodes.  My garden is a bit junglely (my Sweetie will snort at the gross understatement when he reads this post!) so I need to get out and whack stuff back before new growth takes off.  I have only a small window of opportunity to get ahead of the game.  It takes almost no time to fill up the yard waste bin to the very brim this time of year.  Here are a few photos from this week:

Hellebore - they are in full bloom right now, with great big flowers. Isn't this gorgeous?

Spirea sending out tiny new leaves

 King Edward VII Flowering Currant.  This is supposed to be slow growing, but has zoomed to full height in only 3 years! (I can't believe I took this photo!)

Another hellebore, white, green and a tiny bit of pink.

Think Spring!