Machine quilting class

Saturday I attended a class on Machine Quilting with the Bernina BSR foot. I went with Sherry, Gloria, and Teresa from my quilt guild. Wish I had taken a camera to show what the classroom looked like. There were about 20 women and two teachers in a large classroom. 4 people sat at each table which was large enough for your machine and all the other stuff like fabrics, battings and threads. The BSR is a stitch regulator that helps to keep the stitch length consistent while machine quilting. If you've ever machine quilted, you know how difficult it is to regulate the length of the stitch with the speed of the machine while still keeping track of your sewing design. I must say, I'm loving my new Bernina 440 for this very reason. So we started off very simply with the basic meander and then a wide meander.


Next I did a looping meander and some meandering peacock leaves.


Here is a meandering leaf, peacock feathers (my favorite), and hosta leaves on the right.


We did some other stitches similar to these, all free-motion designs, just to get comfortable with moving the fabric and following a mental design. That was the morning class. We had a quick lunch and then went on with the afternoon class. Here we learned quite a bit about different threads and how to use them successfully. Some of this info I already knew, but working with metallics and then using thicker threads for bobbin work were new to me. Here I experimented with metallic thread. I outlined the flowers and then just kind of free-motioned around them to emphasize their shape. This was pretty easy since it's almost like scribbling or doodling with an outline to go by. The metallic thread is a copper color. I probably should have used a contrasting color for it to show up better.


Here is the back side of the flowers. I used a variegated red in the bobbin. I love this side much more than the front! I'm a bit irritated that the teacher didn't have us put a real backing on the sample (this is just the batting layer), because I could have used this for something.


All in all, it was a good class just because I now feel empowered to create even more with my machine. It missed being a great class because it needed a bit more organization and focus - the teacher had us bring fabrics that were never used and the project that was mentioned, she didn't give a pattern for. Also, something should be done about the student who monopolizes class time with conversations about their/someone else's health, where they live/vacationed, other classes they've taken, "organizations" they belong to, and other mindless chatter. That is so annoying, especially when the teacher herself gets sucked into it.