New Machine!!!

I started machine quilting on a project for one of my godSons. It is a simple channel stitch going horizontally, plus a couple of stitches around the borders. I am so impressed at how easily it is sewing! Tension is consistent too!

Only half of the quilt is channel stitched, and not quite all of that done with the two borders. The quilt went through the machine so smoothly & without any puckering on the back. The whole key is simply a well-working machine! Here I was, taking blame and finding fault with myself when things didn't work.

I loaded all the bobbins with red so when one runs out, another is dropped in the bobbin holder. There is no hurry to finish this, as it won't really go out until Fall, even though it will be done by mid-May. I may even go back and add more channel stitches between what is there now! There are two more quilts ready to baste; the last one for this year is ready for a flange and final border. There is most likely enough batting leftover to piece for that last sandwich. 

There is enough in life that puts us down that it is heartbreaking when we do it to ourselves. My machines work just fine when I get them and little by little they go the route of most mechanical things these days and within 3-5 years, they start to fail. They are throw away appliances. All of them. 

Yet, without fail, I take the credit for a lovely quilt, and think it is my waning skills that cannot get them to perfection. Well, few quilters achieve perfection even with high end tools. We are not made that way. We strive for it, but its hard.

I might like to take this as a lesson learned and not do it again, but the human condition seems to open us up to repeating our choices and mistakes...as well as our successes. It really does work both ways. I think I do learn. I bought this new machine before the old one stopped working. That was progress.