Happy Feet!

Although I have been taking a Block-of-the-Month Quilting class for the past several months, my daughters tease me saying it's really the "Tool-of-the-Month" class.  I suppose I have to admit it.  I have been learning how to use many new tools and feet - and have purchased several that I never had before.  I am amazed at how important sewing machine feet are to the successful outcome of a project.  I have learned so much about "feet" and technique in this class.  I have learned that my machine can do things I never thought possible. I have already posted about the amazing walking foot, used to feed several layers of fabric without pinching and bunching.  I have used this for every quilt block and several other projects as well.  It is really indispensable in my opinion.

 I have also posted about the clear foot used for intricate applique work that must be precise.  It allows you to see through the foot and exactly where you are stitching.

Below are several more feet I purchased this past month.

This foot is a cording foot, which I also used for couching.  Bernina does sell a couching foot as well, but I thought I would try to be thrifty and let this one do double duty.  It worked well.  I don't know how I have gotten by without this one for so long.

Foot 7 is used for tailor tacking.  The special techniques which this foot is used for will be demonstrated in one of my upcoming blog posts.  It is pretty cool, though!

This is the button foot which I featured in my last blog post.  Love it!  Enough said.

Sorry this picture is a bit blurry, but this is a five row pintuck foot.  This foot will be used for my next quilt block.  It is used for sewing perfectly straight rows, or pintucks, in fabric, adding visual detail to garments, quilts, etc.  You can get them with more or less rows, depending what you want to do with it.

 Below is a picture of free-motion sewing of a monogram!  I am so excited because I never knew I could do this on my machine, and I didn't even buy anything new for this.  I already had these tools - the embroidery hoop and darning foot (#9)

Below is a quilting template I bought to practice some free-motion sewing.  I first traced the line with a pilot frixion heat-erase pen.  As soon as the ink is heated, it disappears!  I use it for almost everything now.  The pictures show my progress,  It is harder than it looks, so be gracious, lol.

Below are some fancy cords and trims I purchased to practice some couching techniques with the cording foot.  Embroidery floss can also be used as well as many other trims.

 There are several different stitches that can be used to attach the cord or trim.  Invisible thread can also be used.  I didn't have any on hand, so I just tried to match the trim color

Bernina sells a three volume set of "Feetures" books, which feature each foot made for all their machines, and what they are used for.  Although you can see a brief tutorial video for their feet on their website, this book goes into a lot more detail and gives many other ideas for beautiful techniques the feet can be used for other than their primary use.  They were updated from the original printing, so be careful if you buy them used.  The older ones may not include feet for newer machines.  The new books, however, include all the feet for both the older style and newer machines.  Volume One covers feet 0- 30 something.

Quilt Block-of-the-Month #5

This month, I made two blocks.  They block preparation was different than the blocks I have completed so far.  The background was constructed of two coordinating fabrics cut and arranged in quarters, and then quilted.  The appliqued design was then applied.  Here is the first block.  The pieces are set on the block and I am deciding how to applique it.  You can see the coordinating background fabrics.

After applying the pieces with fusible web, I begin the applique process, creating detail and depth.

There were three new techniques introduced this month; the first one was free-motion quilting.  The quilting in the center of the leaves is an example of free-motion quilting.  "Free-motion" means that you drop the feed teeth on the sewing machine and move the fabric freely in any direction you wish, as you sew.  You use a darning foot for this technique.  It is sort of like "free-hand drawing" with your sewing machine.  I know this looks pretty simple, but it takes a bit of practice to keep the speed of your movement consistent as you continually change directions.  Eventually, the quilt will be quilted through all layers using this technique.

The next technique used on these two blocks, is "couching"; that is applying a decorative cord or trim with a special couching foot and stitch.  This was my first attempt at it, and I simply applied the silk cording around the flower edges, but I could really get creative and think of many ways to use this technique, especially in trimming garments. 

The third technique I learned this month was how to sew buttons with my machine; all you need is the right foot.  The machine is then set to a wide stitch (aligned with the space between the holes in the buttons), and a zero stitch length (so it doesn't feed forward), and watch it sew!  Amazing, eh?  How have I lived without this foot for so long?

 

Here is the finished block.  Of course, I still need to add the borders.

The second block was prepared and assembled much the same: