Until it was time to begin quilting my latest quilt - the Paint Chip Challenge quilt I've named Cipher - I didn't realize how long it's been since I quilted! When I began to set up my Bernina 770QE for quilting, I couldn't find my free motion quilting (FMQ) foot - the transparent one that's foot #29. After looking among stored sewing machine feet and in other usual places, I thought to check my Bernina 440QE machine. There it was. It made me realized that the last time I used that foot was demonstrating FMQ when I taught a workshop last September 24! I haven't quilted a quilt since before then! How did that happen?!
So when I started quilting this quilt, I wondered how long it would take until I felt comfortable at it. Well happily, it was no time at all!
I liken FMQ to riding a bicycle. When you first begin to ride a two-wheeled bike, you practice. By repeatedly trying, you learn how to balance and simultaneously pedal. Perhaps there's a tip-over or fall, but you begin to get the hang of it. Remember the exhilaration of riding freely? Being able to go wherever you wished? And even now, if you haven't bicycled for years you can get back on a bike and remember what to do. You might be a little wobbly at first, but you quickly remember how to find that balance and pedaling rhythm.
And oh my... how fun it is! Feel the wind in your face? Remember the delicious freedom and joy it brings?
It's exactly like that with quilting. FMQ feels like that. Though walking foot quilting doesn't bring me the same joy, I do that too when it suits a quilt, as is the case with this quilt.
I began with with walking foot quilting to define and continue the visual curves started by partial bias tape curves. Feeling bold, I used 28-weight black thread to emphasize those curves. My Bernina stitch length is set at 3.2 for walking foot quilting.
I changed the foot to the Bernina #72 ruler quilting foot, and with a ruler quilting straight edge ruler (Westalee brand, backed with skate board tape), filled in angular spaces with straight line quilting.
This is my preferred method for quilting straight lines because I don't have to continually rotate the quilt to follow a straight path.
You've probably noticed many thread tails. Typically, I prefer to tie and bury those as I go, but since Big Cypress Quilters meet for an open sew on Tuesday, I thought that time could be perfectly spent knotting and thread-burying while visiting with friends. I'll be using my favorite: 1) tweezers to tie the knots; 2) Sench side-threading needles to bury threads; and 3) new LDH curved blade scissors to snip threads. The scissors are lightweight, and work perfectly to clip threads close to the quilt top without nicking fabric.
I'm more than halfway finished machine quilting. When that's done I'll add big stitch hand quilting using black Wonderfil Eleganza size-8 perle cotton. (For those who want to know, I ordered Eleganza from an Etsy shop. Two balls of perle cotton were $5.60 and shipping was $5. Ergh.) With two weeks until the Paint Chip Challenge deadline, Cipher will be a finish right down to the wire!
My not-at-the-machine time has been spent knitting. Though I've still been making Tiny Dolls, and finishing a round loom knitted poncho for myself, I came across a free pattern for a single-piece, rectangle-shaped knitted poncho. The YouTube video is here. I like this poncho design because it can be worn as a boat neck or V-neck.
I'm making the poncho for a Christmas gift and am using two skeins of Yarn Bee (by Hobby Lobby) super chunky #6 coconut-colored yarn. The knitting pattern is simple - perfect to work on during TV-watching time. Have you been watching The Count of Monte Cristo 8-part TV series on Masterpiece? It's fabulous! I think I need to read the book.
While golf-carting to line dancing, I stopped to take a picture, thinking you'd enjoy seeing our local wildlife. Can you spot him?
A 'gator along the bank of a pond... a pond that's becoming shallower each day. Thus far in 2026, our rainfall total is short 13" (79cm), and on Saturday, April 18 we broke a temperature record with a new high of 91℉ (32.8℃).
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