free-motion and a mini

After the kids went to bed last night I finally got brave enough to try free-motion quilting on my new machine. It took a few tweeks with the thread tension and sewing speed, but once it was just right I was totally amazed-- I could never get even stitches on my old machine like this.

Even the back looks good. No eyelashing!

Granted, this is a mini quilt and only about the size of a placemat so it was easy to keep control of things. But I'm relieved to see good results. There is a yahoo group for the Janome Horizon that has seemed to focus on problems more than successes. If you've been looking and seen these too, don't be discouraged. After a few weeks of reading I've come to see that a lot of the issues stem from not adjusting the machine's settings, and there are more glowing reports every day on what the machine can do. Leah Day of the fabulous 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting just bought one too! I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a new machine.

getting back into the swing of things

I've spent a few hours over the last week getting caught up on more Bee blocks that were overdue.

An airplane block for The Fussy Cut Love Bee

and liberated baskets for Bee Liberated

I also started putting together a little mini quilt with some low volume strips (leftover from my brush with the Quilt As You Go Quilt Along) and a tobacco shot cotton. See, I needed something that I could piece quickly, and practice quilting on, because...

ROB GOT ME A NEW SEWING MACHINE!!!

It's a Janome Horizon. It moved to the top of my dream-machine-for-life list when it was released in May, and Rob took note. I'm still in shock about it. I thought I was going to get either a bike or a vacuum for my birthday. I would have been thrilled with either of those, but needless to say, this is soooo much better.