Meet Roxanne, my Bernina Aurora 440QE! She sewed like a dream today! The lighting is so much better on this machine than my old one, it was just amazing. The stitches were perfect. I had to look in the manual a few times to see how to make the needle stop down and such. They went over those things when I picked up the machine, but there was so much information presented it was hard to remember it all. I wanted to get some time to sew on her, so if I have any questions I can ask at my Mastery class on Tuesday. I also have a CD that presents a bunch of information as well as the manual. Since I already had a Bernina, the mechanical aspects are pretty much the same, changing the presser foot, threading it, making a bobbin. I can still use my 1080 bobbins in this machine, though the presser feet are not compatible. My patchwork seam guide works on this machine too, but I may end up buying another, so I can have one for both machines.
I don't have my new cabinet insert yet, so I raised the machine and just used the extension table that came with it.
Here is the quilt top I put borders on today. The center has been done for months. When making this quilt I was thinking of warm fiery colors, but although the quilt looks bright, there are actually several pastels in it. I used any shade of red, yellow, and orange. I think the variation of shades makes the quilt have a sparkly look to it, and it creates motion. Yes, this is yet another four patch and Indian Hatchet quilt.
I realized I had no leader/ender projects ready, and this was my last quilt center waiting for borders. I have finished 9 quilt tops in the last week! I looked through my orphan blocks, and my other projects that weren't as far along. My orphan block container is almost full again, with some ingenuity I could probably get a few quilts out of there. I decided to work with my Quiltmaker blocks, from when I tested for Volume 3 and Volume 4 of Quiltmaker's 100 blocks. One of the blocks I tested is a penguin, and I made four of the blocks (finished except for appliqueing the eyes), and I had planned to make 5 star blocks with some penguin fabric in the centers. I had cut the centers, but not the rest of the pieces, so I cut those out today and used it as my leader/ender. It will just be a baby quilt, and won't take long to get the top made. I also took out 12 of the other Quiltmaker blocks I made, and I will make a sampler quilt out of those.
All of those have black backgrounds so they will work well with the dark piecing thread I am using. The next wedding quilt is in black and hot pink, and it has between 8 and 9 thousand pieces, so I will going through lots and lots of dark piecing thread. I think I can get away with dark piecing thread on one of the other quilts I need to make too, so I will try to get it cut out soon, so it can go together as a leader/ender project. With the wedding quilt having so many pieces, I would imagine I can get together several other projects while I am working on it. I need to get my fabrics pre-washed for that, so I can start cutting it out. I think it's going to be hard to just to keep track of how many pieces of each I cut. To give an actual example for that quilt, I need 1,832 black 1.5 inch squares, and 1,968 pink 1.5 inch squares! It's a lot of pieces, but I think cutting it out will be harder than sewing it together. I think it will be amazing when done! If I didn't think it would be amazing, I would have chosen an easier pattern :-)
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