Hey All!
I’ve looked on the calendar and I can hardly believe Christmas is 10 days away!!!! Yikes! I have been working feverishly quilting the baby quilt top I designed and sewed together earlier this summer. Jim and I will be seeing our new niece this Christmas and I want to get this finished up!
So no time to chat, I’ll be working on this until it is finished!
I am quilting this on my Bernina Sport set up on the dining table (it’s the only space available around here!). The quilting is a simple design but somewhat time consuming.
Just two patterns. Pebbles and a back and forth accordion in the X’s and O’s.
I have finished the largest part of the quilt and will be moving on to the borders this afternoon in the hopes to start binding tomorrow!
On a side note, our cat Miss Chloe hasn’t been feeling well lately…
She went through a bout of lethargy about a month or so ago and I chalked that up to her eating a bad mouse or something. She snapped back to herself in a few days but since Thursday she’s been having a hard go of things. She hasn’t eaten, has been sleeping a lot, a little uncoordinated, and has thrown up.
I took her to the vet’s yesterday and after a lengthy wait (2-1/2 hours) we discovered she has an extremely low calcium count (nearly not even on the chart). She was also running a high fever and after much discussion as to what she could be suffering from we ordered a few more tests to be sent off to an outside lab. Our veterinarian thinks it could be inflammation of the pancreas but we don’t know for sure, not until the tests come back.
I’m glad I brought her in (not glad to see the invoice at the check out counter) and we hope she gets better. She’s been sleeping non stop ever since and is now curled up on my side of the bed.
Let’s just say…stress!!! I have to give her two medicines, which I’ve not had to do yet so wish me luck getting her to take them!
I’m off to walk around an indoor track and then I’ll be quilting later again today!
More later!
~Cathy
Sewing.for.Life! 
Hi there, I’m extremely new to quilting but with some time on my hands and what I thought was the right equipment (a Singer quilting attachment and a Singer ‘Walking foot’) I decided to give it a go. My machine of choice was my Singer 201k being one of the best straight stitch machines but firstly I had trouble fitting the walking foot and then found it difficult to get the material under the walking foot and when I did the stitch was awful (the machine normally sews perfectly). What am I doing wrong? I have many other machines to choose from including Singer fashionmate (368), Novums, Vikings and a slant needle 401G (the walking foot wont fit this machine) low shank, high shank. Any advice much appreciated. thanks, Mike from windy &, wet South Wales
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Hi Mike,
I use a darning foot. Is that the same thing as your quilting attachment? Your 201 will work just fine for quilting, or most likely any of your other machines as well.
Do you want to do free motion quilting or straight line with your walking foot? The two methods are handled differently. I can offer you my experience with free motion mostly. I have used my walking foot with my Bernina for some straight line quilting and it was very straight forward.
I guess since you love your 201 go back to it and set yourself up with a sample. The loft height of your batting needs to be ‘low loft’. If it is too high you will have serious problems trying to quilt it. That right there might be your problem (batting too thick!).
I use either a cotton batting or a recycled plastic batting. Both bats ‘stick’ to the fabric fairly well. I use spray basting to sandwich the layers. This keeps them from slipping and tremendously reduces the amount of puckers I get!
I will also use safety pins to help hold things together.
I have a supreme slider to lay over the bed of the machine. This is a slippery mat that helps the fabric glide freely.
I use machinger gloves that help me ‘grip’ the quilt.
I lower my feed dogs.
I loosen the screw slightly to my bobbin casing so the thread comes out without a lot of tension.
I thread the bobbin as if I were embroidering or darning, Bernina bobbins have a little arm with a thread hole for this set up.
My stitch length doesn’t matter, I just keep it at 3.
For the 201 I believe you have to lower the feed dogs with a screw that is under the machine. If you don’t lower the feed dogs you can tape over them. That is for free motion only though, if you are trying your walking foot you’ll need the feed dogs.
I use an embroidery needle.
I’ve used different threads but in these photos I’m using a 40wt embroidery thread.
I like the methods of: Leah Day for setting up, equipment, technical geekiness, and her can do attitude, I love Patsy Thompson’s method for spray basting a quilt. She has a youtube video which is great, and Ricky Tims because he uses a Bernina and his videos are at my library plus he responds either on facebook or right here on my blog!!! There are others but if you were to sit and watch some of these folk’s videos I’ll bet you will learn a lot!
Then you just have to practice! Let me know how it goes okay!
Cathy
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I love the colours of your quilt and your pebbles are perfect, I am still trying to get to grips with mine… I hope Miss Chloe is feeling better soon- Jo a fellow Quilt & Cat lover.
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Thanks Jo! Chloe is on the mend. After 4 days of meds she is finally eating and feeling better. A battery of tests later we don’t know exactly what the problem is. We’ll keep you all posted! Are you working on a quilt too? This quilt is finally finished, just pictures left now! Thanks for the comment.
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Just finishing off my own king size quilt Christmas and planning my next. Going to try an Amish design for the next one maybe, hence my latest post on my wordpress see what you think as found some great patterns on the link at the bottom of the post (whoisjoblogs) ! Glad Chloe is doing better x
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I have not had much interest in doing an Amish style quilt as of yet, maybe someday. I may do an interpretation of one, but it would all be done by machine!!! LOL!!! I do love the ones that have the bright colors set off of the black backgrounds. I have a double wedding ring quilt, my 1st, that is still in incomplete status…so there’s hope for me!
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