I ran out of ideas for the delicate border of the doilie, so left that alone. If I had stitched that down I think it would have turned out too flat. Could not resist though and hyperquilted a little bit in the feathers, then decided that that was enough.
If you have read my previous posts, I used Bethanne Nemesh’ Lily Line ruler 3 for the frame around the doilie. The frame turned a bit into an overall background fill, but I like it. The ruler was an incredible time saver and the design was easy to execute (once I had decided on which parts of the ruler I was going to use). Fantastic tool!
Had a few issues with my tension for the pebbles on the new Capri. Lots of flatlining and cursing. I used Aurifil 50/2 for the quilting and similar to the Sweet 16, the thread behaved quite fiddly. I recently purchased the horizontal spool holder and ended up putting the almost empty spool on that, this time threading the thread straight down rather than looping the thread around the thread guide (as you are
supposed to do)...and to my utter surprise, no more tension issues! Have long suspected that the fiddliness of the aurifil thread has to do with the thread path rather than the tension setting. Will do some more testing around this...tried it the other day with a different colour thread, but with the spool on the ‘normal’ thread mast, again threading the thread straight down the thread guide and again had much better tension. Go figure...
Karin
Wow! This is absolutely gorgeous! The quilting is so perfect! Very nice finish, Karin!
ReplyDeleteWOW it is a very beautiful quilt !
ReplyDeleteI have a question please? I am new here and have been reading a lot of the older posts. I have a Quilt Expression 4.0 and that is what drew me to your blog is reading of your problems of your 4.0 and you getting the 4.2 .I was wondering if you still have the 4.2 ? And was it worth trading up or should I stay with my 4.0? Free motion quilting is an experience with 4.0 that's for sure. But once you get all the bugs worked out then it does a fair job. I still have a messy back even bringing bobbin thread to the top when I start. I have thread break but after 12 years of this machine I have gotten use to it. But I would love to read your comments on this machine as well as the 4.2 also. Thank you
Hi Debbe
DeleteYou are a no reply blogger, so I am commenting here in the hope that you see it.
Yes, still have my 4.2...it’s a beautiful machine. Had to actually go to my blog and read up on when I made that transition from the 4.0 to the 4.2. My reason was mainly that it had added another FMQ mode, the Dynamic Spring Foot mode. This allowed me to purchase the Dynamic Spring foot which was round and the fact that my 4.0 had some problem with my sustained FMQ (made clunking noise after a while). To be truthful, that update was not entirely necessary...I was happy with the 4.0 but I am a bit of a sucker for the latest and newest, trying different feet etc. As I only have had Pfaff machines I was very happy with the upgrade and it’s performance. Interestingly it never went on to make this clunking noise, even after months of FMQ (apparently this was connected in the 4.0 to its feed). I think the Pfaff gives a very good FMQ experience however can be temperamental when you don’t get it right.
As to your issues...mess on the back...watch on YouTube how longarmers do it...I.e. you hold both threads and kind of wiggle a bit as you make tiny stitches to start off. Does not work always for me either. I often start like this...make my first stitch a bit further in, then go backwards with tiny stitches and then start off forwards with normal stitching. As to thread breaks...don’t be afraid to change your bobbin tension if there are no adjustments to be made on top (although start with the top tension first).