Never say never

Just when you think, "I can't do this" and you're about to give up, suddenly you find that after a bit of practice, you actually can do it after all. Gives you a nice warm glow!

The Bernina BSR attachment came "free" with my Artista 640, and I tried to use it a couple of times, but without success. Now that I'm doing "ART" and free machine quilting is de rigeur, I decided that I really must give it another try at least to be able to judge if it makes any difference.

So after a couple of very frustrating afternoons, I have begun to get to grips with it. Not to say that it is without problems, but I have started to get used to the way it works.

The key is to remember that the machine doesn't start to stitch until you move the fabric and the key is to move the fabric gently and evenly so that the machine runs at an even speed.  If you stop, it stops and if the fabric doesn't move,  after a minute or so, it will switch itself off.  However, if you stop and move the fabric accidentally before it's switched off, it will start up and that's the bit that has taken me a while to master. If this happens, the stitches can go anywhere and they're difficult to unpick.

A while ago, I was lucky enough to be given an experimental pack of thread and fabric by my friend Sandra, with instructions to "play". So I did and because my pack contained shades of blue, green and purple, I chose a sea theme. This was the inspiration,  a lovely estuary on the Isle of Harris. The photo really doesn't do credit to the fantastic range of colours in the sea.

Sandra posted some images of the results from other members of the NW weekend group here  and here's a photo of my effort to date. I used the BSR for the limited amount of machine quilting, but I'm quite pleased with it. All that it needs now is some sort of binding to finish it off and I'll need to give that some thought.

Unfortunately these photos are somewhat out of focus so the detail of the quilting is a bit indistinct, but you can get the idea! Better photos when the piece is finished.

And some hand stitching including couching my handspun silk throwsters waste for the breaking waves.

My bag is finished and ready to us. It's in a different league because it's not exactly "ART", but enjoyable to make!

 So after I've taken my new bag off to the shop and had my lunch, I'm going on to try making some more samples using my BSR attachment and really get to grips with it this time. In the meantime, I feel someone is sneaking up on me....

..
BOO!