One week in - Bernina 820 update

So, I've been sewing on the 820 for a week now, and I'm definitely happy - althugh there are additions to the dislike list! The main one is that I had a lengthy battle one evening trying to get the top thread sensor to stop telling me I was out of thread and allow me to keep sewing more than a few inches at a time. I eventually resorted to googling it, and discovered that a recent update has an over-ride feature for this, so I disabled it and have been happily sewing ever since.

This is going to be a fairly text-heavy post, so I'm going to try and find some interesting, but probably unrelated images to break it up. I'm not taking anything outside to photograph in today's awful heat - our overnight minimum was 28C at 5.30 this morning, and we got within a fraction of 40C about an hour ago. The photos are from Christmas morning.

Eleanor sees her Christmas present; the Orginal Funky Monkey Bars

I got very used to piecing with a clear foot on my Pfaff, and the 820 doesn't come with one, so I've been using the 1/4in patchwork foot. I like several of its features, but it doesn't cope well over any seams without the dual feed engaged. However, once the dual feet is in operation it sews beautifully. It does concern me that with this foot, the right-hand lower feed dogs don't come in contact with the fabric at all - but as yet that hasn't actually caused a problem, so maybe it's not an issue.

Without the dual-feed in operation, the 820 really objects to even small seams (possibly a factor of the point above, now I think about it), but once I remembered and engaged the dual-feed foot, it sews across them beautifully. It'll be interesting to challenge it with some bulky seams at some point.

A point I touched on in my first post is that it takes a while for the presser foot to raise to the hover position. I have it set so that when I stop sewing, the needle remains down and the presser foot hovers; this is ideal for a lot of things, and I used it all the time on my last machine. Then when you start sewing, it lowers automatically - but both features on this machine have a few seconds' pause whileyou hear it whirring in preparation - not a lot, but enough to be frustrating. I think that because this really is a computer, it wants to think a little about everything first (it seriously takes between 20 and 30 seconds after switching it on to be ready to do anything at all - that's a LONG time; my last machine was fully computerised, and took took 1/10 of that). I've tried using the knee-lift, but don't like it so far (again, possibly that's just because it works differently from what I'm used to, and so far doesn't do as I expect) - and it didn't make a shred of difference with this issue.

Eleanor climbing on her new monkey bars

Some adivce for anyone buying a new sewing machine - don't just test it thoroughly before makig your decision, have a go at doing for yourself all the things you would normally want to do (threading, changing feet, personalising settings, etc...) before you take it home - especially if it's a make you're not used to! I thought I remembered, but have been wasting time trying to figure out some of the basics. For example, I'm pretty sure there's a way to set the default stitch length shorter on a specific stitch, but I haven't been able to figure out how, so I have to do it maually each time I turn it on. Just watching someone else do it isn't enough - actually try yourself.

Someone did ask me whether the 820 is the next step from the 440QE. I can't really answer that, having only very briefly used the latter once several years ago. Logically the answer would be yes, given the features and increase in space, but I really have no idea what the two have in common or what has improved/changed between them. From my perspective (as someone who really only makes quilts) any other Bernina is not a consideration, as the space is one of my key requirements. I'm also one of those who don't see the BSR as a selling point personally - I have promised myself I'll try it out, but I really don't intend to use it. It's hard to say this without appearing both big-headed and critical of the BSR, but put simply, with the years of experience I have quilting, I think it's more likely to hamper rather than help me. However, it does seem to work nicely, and I can see how some quilters could find it of enormous benefit, especially while learning to FMQ.

James testing Eleanor's present

I've stuck carefully to piecing this week, giving myself the chance to familiarise myself with the 820 before moving to free motion quilting. This is really what I've bought it for (if it were just the piecing and applique, the Pfaff was perfect) and I'm hoping it will live up to the test and my expectations in the coming days (and years!). I'll share my thoughts on its FMQ abilities next week.

Word verification apologies

Firstly, apologies to anyone trying to comment on this blog and being stymied by the awful new word verifications blogger has instituted. I have tried to turn it off for you, but that functionality has mysteriously disappeared - as have any help pages which might assist. I suspect my inability to turn it off is linked to the recent (and unannounced) change which has seen Australian-based blogspot blogs gain the '.au' extension which appears to have caused other blips, such as the loss of our quick-edit facility. I've logged my complaints with Google / Blogger regarding both issues, and the more people who do, the sooner we can hope for it to be fixed. In the meantime, I hope you'll persist if you do want to leave a comment!
Meanwhile, I've been working on this nautical themed quilt. The sashings are all trimmed, and I've removed the foundations. The cornerstones I'd made before - excpet for the 4 outer corner ones, which will be slightly different fabric in the centres; I was waiting until I cut and pieced the main blocks before I cut those. Today I made the main blocks, and now I'm in the process of joining them with the sashings.

The centres of these blocks were cut on-point, and I only had a limited amount of the feature fabric for them. I did have enough, with a little left over (though nowhere near enough for my orginal design). I'm easily about to cut the extras I need for the corner cornerstones from the offcuts left from cutting these on point. I remembered the bolt of solid navy I've had for years and only recently cut into. It's an almost perfect match for the navy background of the feature print, and has been the ideal substitute elsewhere in the quilt.

Pieced sashings

I didn't fully realised when I designed the quilt I'm working on just how many sashing sections would need piecing. The quilt is a 4-6 layout, but with a sashing border as well, that means 58 sections! And 35 pieced sashing cornerstones although I pieced those ages ago. Now I get to trim all 93 of them!

And here is my 820 in situ:

Bernina 820 - Day 1

Wow, there's a steep learning-curve on this machine!. Oops, it's not a sewing machine, it's a 'sewing computer'. That sounds a but pretentious, but it's a fair call!

I spent the afternoon setting it up and looking through the manual, and have done some foundation-pieicng this evening. Here are my thoughts so far; I'll continue to give a few updates as I try new things out and get more familiar with it.

Likes:

• The lighting - wow!
• Smooth stitching
• Curved extension table
• Good vision of the needle due to the shaped head
• Built-in clock
• The denstist's mirror that comes with the accessories - just because it's fun!

Dislikes:

• It's a bit too computer-y, but I'll probably get used to it
• The presser-foot is slooow to lift (hover) when I pause stiching - fine for chain-piecing, but slow for appliqueing curves
• It's just so different from my last machine that for now the basics are taking me too long - but again, I'll get used to it
• The buttons near the needle (e.g. needle up/down, presser-foor up/down, reverse, etc.) are hard to read - the shaped head means the buttons face slightly downwards, and the images on the buttons are mostly obscured from view

Matching too well

While I was busy making flannel quilts, I made a third. This one has  plain blaocks of the feature owl print alternated with 9-patch blocks in matching colours - but they matched too well, and when I spread out the blocks, I quickly realised they'd need sashing:



They have since been sashed in a deeper blue (a vast improvement) and the quilt has been sandwiched in preparation for the new quilting machine

Stepping back

This evening I pieced this 12-inch block on my old sewing machine. I designed it myself and though it came together nicely, I don't think I'd want to do a lot of them due to the mixed construction techniques.

I am thrilled to announce I sold the QE 4.0 over the weekend (although it was kind of sad to let it go) and am piecing on this machine for the week, until I get my new machine this weekend - yay! It pieces beautifully, but I keep forgetting about the manual presser-foot, and start sewing with it up! I'm missing a few of the extra features of the QE, but for the most part it makes no real difference for piecing, once I rememeber, and somehow this one actually seems smoother and steadier. I won't be doing any quilting on it, but I've plenty of cutting, piecing and other work to do.

For my DQS12 partner

Sorry I've been absent lately; I have no real reason or excuse, and hope to get back into it once my second summer cold has past.


I always find it easier to start on a swap quilt if my partner has provided lots of information about their likes and dislikes - not that everything needs to be taken into account, but I find it all helps.

So here's some expanded information; I hope you find it helpful (it's not meant to be prescriptive) and not daunting!

• First, let's get the negatives out of the way: I don't like murky colours, shabby chic, naive, country, '30s or civil war repros. I don't like buttons or yoyos, and am not keen on ricrac. I never got into the red/aqua colour combo. You won't find any Denyse Schmidt, Aneela Hoey or Heather Ross in my stash - for good reason!
•  If you can't think of a colour for the solid: I'm not into pinks or oranges, I like any shade of blue from greeny-turquoises to purples and I've discovered a recent fondness for greys.
• I love fresh lines and colours. Generally I prefer colours which have some contrast, so you can actually see the design of the piecing. Althernatively, designs where the piecing is 'hidden' but a pattern emerges from the fabric selection and placement is wonderful (think Paula Nadelstern).
• I would love something with a little cuteness/whimsy - it's not something that tends to come out in my own quilts, but I think it's fantastic.
• I love detail and texture added through quilting.
• I love New York Beauty blocks and the options for adapting them.
• I love frogs, pandas and anything to do with snow.
• What always gives a quilt some zing is something unexpected - whether in the quilting, the colours or the piecing. I like a quilt to make my eyes travel around, finding new things.
• My favourite fabric designers are Sandi Henderson Kate Spain and Paula Nadelstern.

And because I can't have a post without photos, below is a sneak look at Reflections:

It was returned to me today, along with an advance copy of the magazine it's in. Full photos soon.

Sale

I'm having a sale in my Etsy Shop between now and the 14th of February (midnight, central Australian summer time) in the hopes of selling a few more quilts to help fund the purchase of the sewing machine I need to continue developing my quilting.

So head on over to the shop and use the code 820HELP for 10% off everything for the next 2 weeks.

That includes some newly-listed and about-to-be listed quilts:

(If there's something you're looking for and it's not there drop me a line!)

I'll be back later with some photos of what I've been up to - which isn't as much as it should be just at the moment, because 4 migraines in 3 days is enough to slow anyone's progress!

On a roll

While I had my flannels out, I cut the pieces for a second baby quilt. This one will be almost identical in design, but with a more limited and structured colour palette. And because of the narrow strip I had remaining of one print I wanted to use, the block borders are 1/4in narrower. Since the first quilt was about as small as I like to go for baby quilts, I'll add a narrow border to this one, too. The squares in both are 6.5in, to finish at 6in. Why? Well it works quite well for the quilt size and the size of the print - but mostly because it's really easy, because I have a 6.5in square ruler!

I've decided to try a new quilting pattern on this quilt as well, possibly some sort of swirl. I love piecing and quilting flannels; they run through the machine so softly. And because there are minimal seams (I press the seams on flannel quilts open by the way, to spread the bulk) the quilting is even easier.

I'll get a bit done tomorrow; it's Australia Day and so a public holiday. We plan to do a few things around the house, having been spurred into action by our parents - Simon's father was here today, ostensibly to look after James and Eleanor, since its still school holidays and I'm back at work. He asked me to organise a skip, so I happily obliged - knowing that when he's here, he tears through jobs like a hurricane! James and Eleanor might not get overly close supervision, but he gets an incredible amount done. My father offered to come and help out, and when Simon and I got home, we found that both my parents had spent the day here, and together they'd done all sorts of things (pruning, fence fixing, odd-jobs, sorting the shed, clearing wood, sweeping, wiring, preparing for further activities...). I only wish I'd orderd the next size skip! I'm immensely grateful to have such wonderful parents and parents-in-law!

Quick!

This afternoon and evening, I cut, pieced sandwiched and quilted this baby's play quilt! It just needs binding and it's ready for a label when the baby arrives, which is a really good feeling. This quick quilt is fulfilling one of my intentions to make simpler baby quilts at least some of the time. It's just that more often than not the designing bug takes over! Using flannels encourages me to keep it simple, because much of my flannel stash is large-scale prints, and I find flannels don't work the best in intricate piecing anyway - I'll save that for the regular quilters' cottons for now.

Even though it's quick and simple, I still put time into fabric selection and placement. A baby doesn't care how many pieces of fabric there are in her quilt, or how many hours went into its construction; she'll just enjoy the colours and patterns. And since there's quite an influx of babies requiring quilts in the first half of the year all ready, this is helping me catch up instead of leaving me further behind!

The quilting is my allover feather meander, but I've varied it by changing the shape of the feathers. I've seen these described as 'tooth' feathers, and now I can't get the name out of my head.

White Sands

My beach quilt White Sands is in the current issue of Australian Patchwork & Quilting (Vol 21 No 2) - but I had no idea it was going to be on the cover, so I was thrilled to see this!

I've been looking at it all day!

Here's the whole quilt:

I tried something a little different with the sand section on this one; it was pieced separately, then appliqued in place.

The one thing I'd change is to ensure the sandcastle was properly vertical - oops! It's only a small detail, but because I'm aware of it, it's the first thing I see every time!

I'm really pleased with the sun and they way I incorporated the pinker shades of the sunrise/sunset - I'll definitely do that again! I was also happy to be able to incorporate the fabric with the sun's rays below it

This section of the sky is a bit of fun - it's the perfect colour, but a closer look reveals palm trees, a moon and a sailboat in the batik print. Is the sand section an island, with more sea behind???

Above is a photo of my sewing area while I'm selecting fabrics. This is how it always looks at this stage of a beach quilt. I leave out and unfolded all the options until I've finished on that section, then I'll fold up the water prints and pull out all the sands.

Fabric selection is a major part of my beach quilts - below are a few photos which show what careful selection can achieve:

Even though they're not necessarily the same type of fish/coral, the red bits at the bottom of the fabric with the turtle help tie it to the pieces below.

The matching sections of green seaweed in these two fabrics make the join practically seamless.

The orange fishtail on the bottom fabric gives the similarly-coloured fish in the upper print a comically long nose - but helps blend them together anyway!

The pink and red coral on either side of this fish link the three fabrics together.

I quilt closely around the larger creatures for a few reasons - partly to maintain even quilting across the quilt, and partly to emphasise them. Thread matching the water blends well and has the added advantage that it can be done without a thread-break if you let the water quilting go close enough to just take a 'detour' around the creature!

Dimension

All those little pieces of batting resulted in this amazing texture and dimension on the finished quilt top:

The silver thread I used above (and below - the little circles around the circle) is Superior's Glitter. It's actually holographic, and is smooth and ribbon-like. It quilts up beautifully, and has a gorgeous sparkle! The only thing I shoudl mention is that if you have the thread coming off over the end of the reel (rather than straight off it sideways) it twists, so don't keep quilting with it too long before you let it untwist. I bought quite a bit of this thread for a planned large wholecloth, and am thrilled with how it looks and sews.

Little Possum

I received word today that my latest commission had arrived, and been gifted, so now I can share it in full. I kept part of it hidden before, because the baby's name is on the quilt top, and I would hate to have given anything away.

I do love this quilt, so there are quite a few photos...

I blogged a series of photos of the possum as I was making it; here she is sitting with her strawberry on the finished quilt top:

I've included a few detail shots, to show how I did the quiting and applique.

This one of the tail shows quite distinctly the two colours of applique. I ended up quilting around the possum using a regular free-motion stitch to create a zigzag sitch which blended with the applique stitches - a 'straight' line would have ruined the softening effect of the applique stitches.

On request, I quilted 'love is everything' into the top, underneath the tree.

This quiltling was done in a pale pinky-purple thread to help it stand out from the background a lttle. It shows better in real life, but could probably have done with being a little darker. However, this colour of thread was almost impossisble to find, so this was probably the ebst  option.

I appliqued the little girl's name with the aid of a super-enlarged font print-out:

Either side of Poet's name I quilted a little bird, again in a contrasting light pinky-purple thread. You may recognise this image; it came from an album cover. I originally intended to seek permission to use it, but on finding the recipient was the artist herself, decided that it would ruin the surprise, and that this was probably one occasion it would be ok to use it! Being a line-drawing to start with, it converted perfectly to a quilting design.

Pluming from the birds' tails I quilted a trio of feather plumes. They are intentionally slightly different form each other, but similar enough to appear balanced. I drew the spines freehand, then quilted the actual feathers without any markings.

Because the quilt is wider than the standard 44in fabric, I use two fabrics for the top; one very subtle cream tone-on-tone for the centre, and a slightly draker one with a little more pattern for a wide 'border'.  I probably should have chosen a border fabric with just a little more contrast, since it's almost indistinguishable once quilted, but it still looks perfectly fine.

To help anchor the base of the quilt and tie in the border, I appliqued a pair of blossoms, matching those in the tree, with a few leaves.

I filled the background with my current favourite - the combination triple-paisley, swirl and double-feather pattern. It's not ideal for filing small gaps, though it worked quite well between the branches, but it's wonderful fun to quilt in the larger open areas.

I'll be back tomorrow night with another peek at the top of the white and aqua quilt - it's quilted and trimmed and ready for me to add the binding, but I'm having an early night tonight - hopefully before midnight.

(ps - remember to click on any image for a closer look!)

The next layer

I've been busy on this quilt:

The areas of dense quilting left lots of waves in the quilt top, which can be seen above. This meant that sandwiching (the next step) was quite a challenge. But with plenty of smoothing and tugging and encouragement, I got it flat without much fuss.

From the front

Just a quick peek of part of the front tonight:

The area shown is under 2in square; the turquoise quilting lines are about 1mm apart. Threads are Superior Rainbows 831 - Mediterranean (40wt trilobal polyester) and Wonderfil metallic 881. The Superior stitched up perfectly. The Wonderfil was ok, but I prefer the Superior metallic which I usually use; it glides better, can be quilted a bit faster and barely shreds. I also tried a Wonderfil metallic silver mixed with white Rayon, but it shredded shockingly, and I ended up ripping it out.

From the back

This is the back of the whoelcloth quilt which has been keeping me up all night (last 'night' I went to ebd at 5.15am, and it's currently 4.30, and I'm hoping for an 'early' night).

I roughly cut out loads of pieces of batting and pinned them in place to the back of the quilt.

This piece has been sewn and trimmed. It's 1 1/4in wide and 2 3/8in long.