I've been playing with my Handi Quilter Infinity, learning how to use it, trying out different threads and practising various free motion quilting designs. I'm sure that this machine is smarter than me and it works its hardest at making my attempts look as good as it can. Having said that, I definitely need to practice more to achieve the perfect quilt motifs I hope to one day create.
While filming my on-line course, The Joy of Vintage Sewing Machines, I needed to create several samples of the projects created in the class. I hadn't yet quilted some of these samples, so they were perfect to play with on the Infinity. The only challenge with this particular sample (the vintage sewing machine cabinet cover) was that I had used the pillowcase method to create it, so the quilt top, batting and backing were already stitched together. I attached extra fabric on both sides so I could use my grippy things to hold the edges of the quilt out to each side. Yes, "grippy things" is a quilting term. This worked very well and I had no issues with tension in quilting this project.
I used the seamed fabric as a registration mark for the bumps, hill, monster's teeth quilting: I put two of these motifs in each fabric strip - or tried to.
If I'd really wanted the centre squiggle design to be even, I could've marked it. Maybe I'll try that next time.
I like swirls, but am used to making them over a larger area. The challenge with these was to keep them in the white strip of fabric. I need to work on making them look rounder, rather than an oval or deflated O.
I stitched in the ditch around each seam - always difficult to do without a vertical locking system on the long-arm. I winged it and didn't do too bad. Maybe next time I'll try to use a ruler for this part of the quilting. I suppose you don't have to SID on a long-arm machine, but it does stabilize the quilt more and can make certain areas of the quilt more prominent.
As you can see, I used simple designs on this project. I could've stitched it with white thread and smaller motifs to just give texture, but I wanted to try out the Superior Thread's So Fine variegated thread that I had recently purchase. Plus, I love the green and aqua colour of the thread.
Let me know your favourite quilt motifs so I can try them on the Infinity. Just leave a comment below.
Creatively,
