D265: What a marvellous entrance, folks...

Sort of...

The practise run.  This is really easy! Why am I doing this? Yeah, don't get ahead of yourself, A...

Practise run, back & front, with different stitch lengths.

I'll do 4mm stitches, I thought, which will mean I'll go quicker! But the longer the stitch the harder it is to match it to the vertical seam, which is a pivot point.  It's a 7cm sewing line, so 2.5mm is a much more sensible stitch length, if you're going to be all mathy about it.

Things we're going so swimmingly with the practise that I decided to get on with the actual real deal.  Then, on the first zig, the machine took in the bobbin tail and chewed on the thread.  Hmph.  I trust that's what happened anyway - it looks suspiciously like the symptom of a not-properly-loaded bobbin case, or one that's popped out but since I've been sewing on this bobbin for quite some days that should be unlikely.  Hmmm. 

Anyway, after that inauspicious beginning, I was off and things looked pretty swish.

One thing the practise run doesn't help with is managing a larger quilt on the machine.  The rolled portions need pinning to be held in place, which I only did at the ends.  Here's my quilt at the end of a quilting line, folded for the easiest management.

It also took a while to realise that a zigzag pattern means you feed rolls of quilt through the machine throat, only to pull it back through after a pivot.  The last few zigzags are quite awkward.

I intended to work in the same direction for every zigzag so that any pulling of the fabric (which shouldn't happen much with a walking foot, but it's not magic) would be less apparent.  Going back and forth, while maybe helping to square the quilt, might created a sort of pulling of the fabric between the quilting lines.  However, it might be something I'm willing to risk when it comes to the edges so I don't have to manoeuvre a whole quilt through the throat of the machine.

Actual quilting!

The back looks nice.  It's a friendly  and soft fabric but I wish I'd had more conviction and chosen either a plain grey or persisted with a finer geometric pattern.  The zigzag lines are going to be really striking and unfortunately lost in this woodland print.  I'm quite annoyed about it but it's likely something the recipients won't even think of, thankfully.

One quilting line takes me 10minutes... That's 6 hours and 40 mins to go! Wheeee!