'Cos baby I'm free, to do what I want.....


Learning to free-motion quilt, originally uploaded by soja.

Another thing on the list. I bought a darning foot about this time last year, but apart from quilting just enough fabric to make an oven glove in February, I hadn't used it. I was a little intimidated by the constant jumping and noise it made. And all the stuff on the internet about the process being difficult.

So I decided I'd just make up a few quilt sandwiches with some cotton from Ikea and some more of that fleece blanket and have a go - this way no precious quilt tops or projects damaged!

Well, it was fine, strangely, my machine didn't seem to mind at all - no tension problems or chewing of fabric, thank-you Miss Machine. Really, she had been so moody recently I actually kissed her.

I also decided to try out some different thread, though not quilting thread as I can't buy it here, and only have a little left, so it's precious stuff. I used 100% cotton thread from Ikea for the first two attempts, on the red and yellow fabric, 100% polyester Gutermann thread on the blue and 35% cotton, 65% polyester Coats Duet thread on the orange.

I need to practise to get my stitch lengths equal, and the curves, especially when I was getting adventurous and trying to make circle like swirls on the orange, need to be smoother, but for a first proper go, I'm pretty encouraged.

The only bad thing, is that the all metal darning foot that I had bought from Jaycotts last year has broken! Already! The metal spoke that sits on top of the needle screw snapped. I'm not sure whether I should contact the company and tell them, it seems a bit bad for it to break after so little use. I managed to continue by using some picture hanging wire and a nail and sort of wiring this onto the foot in place of the spoke. Any quilters out there have a recommendation for a decent foot?

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