Stitch, stitch, quilt

The bobbins for my Bernina 820 are a lot bigger than a normal bobbin and they've been rattling around in a tin which is not good for the senser thingymigig part. You know what they say, "neccesity is the mother of invention"

Mr Quiltsalott and I got our heads together and came up with this simple little number. It's made from a scrap piece of wood and some dowling. No Nails, no glue because he has power tools to do the job. As soon as the prototype was knocked up, I ordered another one quick smart because there's no flies on me.

I suggested some stain to flash it up but the comment was that then I wouldn't be able to smell the wood. Silly me, what was I thinking.

I just about wrecked myself getting all the blocks made for the scrapalicious quilt so I'll just wait for a little bit before I sew the them together. I'm glad I got this far because in the middle of sewing, I was beginning to doubt it was anything but a mish mash. I'm sure it'll look great on a bed, it's not art people!

Some thought I was really dedicated to make pieced blocks, sorry to dissapoint you but this is cheater fabric, it's pretty effective and did a lot of work for me.

What else have I been up to? Well I've spent a fair bit of time practicing some more machine quilting which means that my applique was put on the back burner.

I'm going to keep it real and show the good, the bad and the plain ugly. I'm going to be self critiqueing so that I can improve and learn.

The lesson here is to figure out better paths from one motif to another so it flows more naturally.

This one was a play with a feather and look, look, circles blobs! We shouldn't be afraid to experiment, it could lead to something great.

This piece has a wool batting and I washed it to see how it would look. I was attempting to make a branched feather. More circular blobs this time.

With every bit of practice, I'm learning. To keep it up, I've decided to try and give myself time at the machine. I'm calling it free motion Friday. I may just have ordered some bits and pieces to help me. I'll wait to tell you when they get here.

I think my next goal will be to do something that's not so heavy with thread and more casual and airy.

There are a couple of generous bloggers who are helping us with free motion quilting. Leah has a blog called 365 days of free motion quilting and Christina over at A Few Scraps is hosting a beginners machine quilting party you can join.

So why do I want to learn?

Because I can't afford to send the tops out  to get done by a proffessional.

I want to retain ownership of the quilt by doing it by myself.

It's a challenge and a new skill to learn.
I have more quilt tops than I can get through by hand quilting even though it's still my preference.

Thanks for visiting, until next time, find some time for stitching.