*!!!!*******!!!!

The expletives have been deleted! Well almost!

I went to my local sewing club on Tuesday and as I hadn't been for a while, it was good to catch up with some old friends. The demo was yet another quilted bag. but strangely I found myself truly interested in doing something simple that  I could then show off! 

So I bought some fabric, not that I actually needed to, but most of my fabric is packed away ready for the MOVE and I just couldn't be bothered to drag it all out. I cut out the pieces and the wadding and thought, I'll have a go at free machine quilting. As the bag does not need to be shown to anyone it won't matter if I go a bit wrong.

Out comes the machine and the perspex table but where is the free hand lever? Searched all the places I could think of but no joy. "What's it look like?" says the DH joining in. Well it's a lever. Realisation dawns that I'm going to have to go through all the boxes and the cupboard to find where exactly I've put it. Ah, here's the box with all the sewing bits and pieces and it would be logical to suppose that it's in there. No, I remembered that actually it didn't fit, and eventually I found it in with my weaving bits and pieces, but only after I had unpacked nearly all the boxes. Well they won't take long to pack again says the dear DH.

So I'm set up and ready, but then I remembered that there had been some very interesting posts on the CQ message board about the Bernina BSR system and that not many people liked it. In fact I had tried to use it a couple of times, but it's not easy and my attachment has been sitting in it's tin and of course is now packed away safely for the MOVE. Why not use it so you can then say with conviction that it's rubbish I thought? Now where did I put it? Not with the sewing stuff, obviously that would have been just too easy, and at last I found it in the box with the dyeing stuff!


There are videos on You Tube showing how the BSR system works so I decided it would help to watch a few. In fact, I just got angry with these people who just sit there and do lovely even stitches,  when my stitches are all over the place. GRRRR***** and worse!

By now the day has advanced  and my temper has become somewhat frayed. My quilt sandwhich is still in it's pristine unquilted state and the light is going!

But, after some practice here is the work in progress.

Moving the fabric smoothly is quite difficult, even with the "Supreme Slider" in place and it will take practice. It's balancing the fabric while keeping an even pressure when moving that is so tricky. but as always, practice is the key.

I've rather overdone the quilting on this piece

so I've been a bit more minimalist on the second.

So the quilting will be finished today and I hope the bag will be completed by tomorrow. The next task is to get some samples done for our next CQ regional meeting. We're using crayons, Inktense sticks, oil sticks and the like to make marks on the fabric that will then be used for our first group challenge.

Pictures to follow. It's more fun than packing!