New Adventure

My newest adventure is learning to free motion quilt.  Dan bought me a Gracie Quilting Frame for my birthday this year and I used it with my Bernina a few times to see if I liked the idea of doing free motion.  It was really fun and I was horrible at it.  I knew I needed tons of practice.  So I spent some time every few days working on the free motion quilting with just my Bernina, lowering the feed dogs.  I started to see some improvement and I felt better about my designs.

After talking with Dan about how enjoyable the quilting was for me and how much passion I felt about creating, he suggested we get a really good machine for me to work on - since it makes creating even more enjoyable when you have good tools to work with.  Wow! How lucky am I to have such a supportive husband! :)

{Annie - not loving the lighting in this picture!}

I've had my HQ Avante for about a week now.  I named her Annie.   She's set up on an 8 ft. frame that can extend to 12 ft. if I want to quilt a king size.   So far, I've finished 2 practice quilts and I took an online class about Free Motion Quilting on Craftsy this last week.  WOW!  I am in heaven!  Annie is so fun!  There is nothing I can't quilt on her (if I practice) and my designs are getting better - huge confidence builder for me!

I struggle the most with swirls - at first they were looking kind of square, but now they are rounding out more.  Once you get the rhythm it is so fun to do.  I can't wait to get a real quilt on there and map out the space with different designs.  Right now I'm working on a superhero quilt for Casey and I have a few baby quilts in the works too - I'm still practicing the designs on a "practice quilt" for now.

Speaking of babies.....look at this little guy :)  Isn't he the sweetest?  I have the cutest quilt planned for him :)

{Liam looking unimpressed}