In hopes of getting to know my new quilting machine, whom I have named Aster, I pulled this lovely purple donation quilt out of the closet. It was put together by some ladies at church who were just learning to quilt and since it was rather plain fabrics, I knew it needed some special quilting to bring it to life. A perfect opportunity for Aster and I to do some bonding.

I chose a purple variegated thread and added a large variety of blocks to my pattern pad. All of the patterns were already in my machine when it came from the dealer so I can’t give you any information about where to purchase them, sorry. This feather wreath is maybe my favorite. It stitched up so nicely!

These butterflies are lovely too. It was very time consuming to place each block. This quilt is only 40 X 50 and I was at the quilting machine for almost 5 hours. My thread kept breaking which I am tempted to blame on the thread since my tension seemed perfect and loosening it a bit never did improve the breaking. It was Mettler quilting thread, the first time I had ever used that brand. I will try it again in a different color and if I still have breakage like I did, it will be removed from future purchase. Let me know if you love or hate that thread…

These daisies sewed out nicely too but were particularly prone to breaking thread.

Here is a glance at the flannel back with all the quilty goodness. I love how it looks and feels. I am still going to stitch in the ditch on my sit-down machine before I bind it and take it off to Project Linus. You can see where I “basted” those four patch corners with safety pins before I took it off my frame.

I am thinking that in another month or so, Aster and I might be ready to do some quilting for others. We need a few more quilts under our belt before a decision is made…