Some Good, Bad and Ugly Stuff

The lingering cold that I had after my Glasgow trip turned out to be Covid. I was not especially unwell but lacking in energy and had no sense of taste. I hunkered down in the workshop and just got on with some quilting. It was not that easy actually, because my machine keeps conking out and giving me error messages which I tell it to ignore before starting again. New wiring has been ordered which should arrive in mid-October so hopefully we will keep limping along. 

I received a letter from Police Scotland informing me that I was caught by a speed camera on the motorway near Stirling. I really have no excuse because the car has cruise control. I hope I don’t receive a huge fine or have to appear in court!

I had to come up with firmer ideas and a list of requirements for the Quilt Retreat that I will be doing at Quilt Direct in Devon next June and it reminded me that I will have to be an absolute Q-Matic expert so I can answer any question that someone might ask. I have set myself the task of going through every single page in the ArtnStitch manual and have bought all of the advanced online classes. I did a couple of classes at Bernina University in 2019 but there is only so much you can learn in short sessions in a large class. I also took a couple of Zoom classes a while back but I confess that I did not really understand them at the time. The answer, just like with free motion quilting is PRACTISE!

Speaking of free motion - when I taught my class in Glasgow I noticed that one participant had a BSR (Bernina stitch regulator). I thought that would be a handy tool to have when I give demos or lessons on domestic quilting so I looked them up online. I was shocked to discover that they are currently priced at £625.00 and even on Ebay they are selling for over £300.00 plus postage from the USA. I spotted one for sale in the UK with no bidders and “won” my auction for considerably less than that:) 

I decided to spend my whole Saturday experimenting with ideas in my workshop. These are not necessarily ideas that will go anywhere but I wanted to see what would happen. As is often the case, gadgets and feet don’t always work as well as they say in their blurb and need some adjustments to be made. My current fascination is ruffles which are usually seen on garments, not quilts. I also wanted to have a go at making fringes and test out the BSR which arrived by post. By the end of the day I had not produced anything impressive but it was worth doing. I often think that is a useful exercise because some ideas turn out not to be good ones, while others need some developing. There was one good thing though - the “bargain" BSR works perfectly!