After filling a piece with practicing I decided to practice on something useful. I had a nice soft flannel panel a friend gave me to quilt for Toys for Tots sometime. I was all set to loaded it when I realized I had no idea whether it was pre-washed. Then when I tried to load it I realized it was so far off of a true rectangle that I wasn't sure it was even possible to get it vaguely ready to be quilted. But I washed it and blocked it while it was still damp, and it is now at least close enough for government work, as my mother used to say (or was it my husband?)
Anyhow, it is a fun piece to practice on. I am learning a lot about trying to follow pre-existing lines (my control still needs practice. The border is great for simple meandering, and I added little hearts to the inner border space.
I am having fun with the little flower pattern around the diamonds. Consistency of size is not great, but taken all together its not too bad.
With this quilt, I had to change thread, thus threading the machine for the first time by myself. It turns out to be a fairly simple almost intuitive process. I also had to wind a bobbin to get the right color thread. It is also very easy to do. It turns out though, that while the machine will tell me when my bobbin is empty (maybe), it seems to do it based on knowing the bobbin was full and calculating how much thread you have used. You have to tell it it is a full bobbin when you put the new one in. I didn't and now it is telling me my bobbin is close to empty. I don't think it is. But I haven't actually looked.
Anyhow, I am having a very good time with this cute little project.
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