Thanks for the compliments! I did them freehand. I've been drawing & drawing & drawing & drawing & studying. I also picked out the best part of the feathers to photograph (big grin).

By the way, I just picked up Lee Cleland's book Feathers that Fly. She has some great ideas for quilts that get in good practice & will be a decent usable quilts when finished. Her feathers presented in this book are very traditional, lots of Amish style feathers.

My biggest frustration right now is keeping my back in shape to quilt. It's giving me fits. I think I'll start a thread on who's got the best adjustable chairs....

Very impressive Sue, did you mark the feathers? or do them free hand, whichever, they look fab!
Lynn

Looks spot on to me Sue, I'd be over the moon if I have results like that. Thanks for showing.

Have fun trying to scrutinise the show quilts.

I posted a couple of photos in my personal photos, of practice samples. I'm happy with the top. (the first two pictures) I think I'm happy with the back...no tracks or loose threads. (third picture) The LQS tells me that's what the back should look like. Anyone care to critique? I'm going to be checking the backs of quilts at the Annapolis Quilt Show tomorrow...can't wait!

I, too, turn my speed down and my stitch length to 1.50. I am not proficient yet but I am getting better.

PS, I'm using a straight stitch throat plate.

My BSR story:
I learned to free-motion embroider a long time ago by thread painting, but I sure didn’t need the nice even stitches needed for machine quilting. When I got my Bernina 730, I was really excited by the concept of the BSR, but it has taken me a long time to get used to it. (6 months?) Finally, (geez, did I already say this somewhere? I’ve been thinking about posting this for awhile, so I hope I’m not being dementiaish and repeating myself), I went in for a demo on the new 830, because I want to be a part of the drawing for the 820. While I was practicing with the shop’s BSR, (which by the way was tuned up totally wrong tension wise), the shop owner turned the machine speed down. Wow did that make a difference for my control. So, I went home with machine speed at the back of my brain & here’s the set-up I came up with that gave me what I wanted.

Organ embroidery needle size 80
Supreme Slider
Bottomline in the bobbin, with the bobbin sensor turned OFF or it will beep continually and tell me to check the bobbin. This is because of weight of the Bottomline thread is too thin to be read properly by the bobbin sensor. (LQS shop owner info)
Isacord in the top
Machine speed is turned down to 530. This is about half-speed.
I used BSR1 with the foot control (thank you Margo for the suggestion)
Rubber finger tips from rubber gloves
I made no adjustments to the top tension.

I didn’t get any of the jerky starts & stops and am well-pleased with the consistency of the stitches.

I’ve found that the more I stop, the more successful I am. I have to stop & plan where I’m going next…kind of like that dot-to-dot continuous quilting style. The foot control allows me to stop on a dime to plan the next move. I’m going to post some freehand feathers that I think are pretty decent for a real novice. They’ll be in my personal photos…tomorrow, got a meeting tonight.

I’m excited by this. I have piles of practice squares & have been drawing feathers in a sketch book for months. It’s finally paying off. Maybe I’ll be able to turn the machine speed up someday with more practice.

Finished! Both completed, including labels which I nearly forgot, washed & dried, all that's left is wrapping. Unveiling tomorrow night!! (lucky me, I don't have to shoot pics before I give these, since they'll still be at my house until fall )

Florence

(picture of the "unveiling" on my profile now...)

yep, the foot definately needs to be up, the tension discs are closed tight when the foot is down so the thread cannot get into them!!! As you will have noticed, if you pull the thread when foot up, it pulls easily, but if you try when it is down, it either breaks or the needle bends if the thread is strong!
Also, I read on this site another tip that might be relevant, that is to run a $1 bill down through the path thread from the take up lever to the bottom, I am guessing that a £5 note will do as well for us brits . It seems that a lot of lint can build up in there, I ha vent tried it yet as my sewing is guest room at moment as son is visiting from the Falklands so not sewing this week or last!!!!! Anyway, back to the machine, I get loads of lint in the bobbin area, so seems reasonable that it would collect by the tension discs as well.
Hope that helps,
Best wishes
Lynn

Lynn, does that mean when ever you move the thread through the tension discs, threading up or tensioning, you should have the foot up? I think I read somewhere else on here something similar but it didn't stick. (These techno machines!!! Oh for my first Singer the I could thread with cat hair and leave the dog to use it and the results were perfect every time!!)

I'm glad you've come to an agreeable conclusion Florence. I'm sending you 'In The Groove' vibes to help you finish and clear up afterwards!!

HA! I didn't have a glass of wine, but the wine glass quilting DID loosen me up some & took away some frustration!! And no calories, no headache!

Seriously tho', I went back to it today, used the shorter stitch length and it did ok. I'm not thrilled with the look of the shorter stitches, but I AM thrilled to say all that's left to do is whipstitch the binding!

Lyn, you could be right, I was assuming the top tension was too loose b/c I was loosening it up, but the tension threading could have been awry, I guess I won't know b/c I changed the thread for another bit before I went back to this, but at least you've got it on here for the next person (or me another time!) who's having difficulty!!

So, 2 bindings to complete, 4 days. Oh, not to mention that the sewing room has to revert to guest room for MIL, that could be an all-day job unto itself! And I work full-time...Lord give me strength!!

Thanks to all for the solid help & kind words, Y'all are the BEST!

Florence

Hi
Sorry you are still having problems, but, when you say that the bobbin thread is lying across the back and not pulled up into the quilt, isn't that the top tension too loose???? Could it be that you have the foot down when changing tension, so the thread is not going through the discs properly? I know that sounds simple, but if you are free motioning, the foot tends to be up further than when sewing regular. Anyway, just a thought, only this happened to me when I was free motioning couple of months ago (without the bsr) and I pulled out thread and started again, oh, and changed the bobbin thread to the same one in the top.
Best of luck
Lynn

florence wrote:
Florence...with all the problems you're having, sounds like you might benefit from opening a *real* wine glass!

Everyone...thanks for the many tips. I have a 640/BSR, but haven't used it much as I got my midarm machine at about the same time. I will definitely have to revisit it with all these new ideas in hand.

Tight curves are always the most difficult part to get the tenson right, and I'm thinking that the shorter stitch length will help. Try it on your sample first....with tight curves, and let us know if it's any better.