I'm a BERNINA Q 20 Ambassador for New Zealand!

It’s been seven weeks since my new baby came to live with me….my new BERNINA Q 20 sit down long-arm quilting machine!

The BERNINA Q 20 is a quilting machine with a 20 inch throat. You sit on a chair to use it and guide the fabric under the needle, just like free-motion quilting on a small domestic machine. You can also put the Q 20 on a frame and use it like a stand up long-arm, where you guide the machine over the fabric. BERNINA also makes a Q 24 (with a 24" throat) that is specifically designed to be used in a stand up frame.

 

I have been a BERNINA convert since I bought my first ‘real’ sewing machine 15 years ago – a BERNINA Aurora 440. BERNINA stole my heart with the quality of their machines, the beauty of the stitches and the ease of use. So when the lovely crew at BERNINA NZ contacted me and asked if I’d consider becoming a BERNINA Ambassador for them, you can guess what the answer was…hellooooooo dream role!

 

My role as an ambassador is to share my experiences using the machine, to publicise any neat and unique features that I particularly love and to basically 'share the love' by showing you all what I create with the machine. You might also see me sometimes at shows where BERNINA has a stand (cool! I love demoing) and perhaps even doing a teaching tour or two.

*Sneaky advance notice - teaching tour coming up in October - watch this space!*

 

So here’s me sharing the love with pictures of the day she arrived.

 

Nick and Sandy came up from BERNINA Sewing Centre in Whangarei to deliver and install the machine for me. They were equally excited for me, and so helpful, with lots of tips.

 

My Q 20 sits in a Horn table. These tables have been designed particularly for this machine as an option for smaller spaces; they are large and pretty robust tables, but foldaway (with the machine still on them) for effective space saving. Nick tells me that most people opt for these tables now, but there is also the choice of a Koala table; a very solid table that has the option to expand larger than the Horn.

 

Apparently in the U.S. you can get fancy electric tables that lift up and convert from seated height to standing height. I’ll keep my eyes peeled to see if they ever come to NZ.

 

Anyhoo. Back to installation day. I was shown how to use the machine, how to set my bobbin tension with the nifty little tension gadget, how to oil and clean her (super easy), and how to use the fancy-pants needle threader. Then it was practice time. 

 

With any new machine it takes time to get to know it. For example, it took me a little while to get my movements coordinated with using the kickback on the foot pedal to lift the needle and then the button on the screen to lift the foot because it’s a different set of movements from my other machine. But once you get quilting, the free-motion movements are all the same and it just flows like silk!

 

It has also taken me a little while to get used to the BSR – the BERNINA stitch regulator function. My BERNINA Aurora 440 has a BSR, but I never really use it. When I first bought that machine, I was just learning to free-motion quilt and it felt like learning to use the BSR was just as much effort as learning to free-motion without it. Over the years I have mastered free-motion quilting and can easily regulate my stitch length without needing a BSR. But I was determined to try it and get to know it well on the Q 20 – if I’m ever going to be demoing the machine I have to know what I’m talking about, right?!

 

And now I LUUUUURVE it! She has three BSR modes. BSR 1 regulates your stitch length to the speed you move the fabric but also stitches in place when you stop moving the fabric. BSR 2 is the same as BSR 1 but with no idling stitching. BSR 3 is a basting stitch, which you can set to do one, two or four stitches per inch. I’m looking forward to trying the four stitches per inch with a heavy thread to imitate big-stitch hand quilting.

 

The BSR helps with keeping the quality of my stitches beautiful. It really helps with ruler quilting, which I’m just starting to explore, and it just makes life a little bit easier, giving you more energy to spend on creating beautiful quilts rather than worrying about stitch length. 

 

If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen many of my practice pieces. I’ve made several bassinet quilts, as they are a good size for practice sandwiches, and then I can donate them to the maternity unit once they are finished. I've also been working on some smaller projects with intensive quilting, like the swallow below.

 

But yesterday I finished a little sample that I made entirely on the BERNINA Q 20. It’s a wholecloth quilt, thread sketched, then coloured with water soluble pencils, and fixed with a textile medium. I call it Dragon Moon.

 

Size is 18 1/2 inches wide by 20 inches tall. It's intensively stitched, but the BERNINA Q 20 handled that with ease. 

Here's the back. I thought it would be interesting to use black fabric to give it a totally different look. I usually use the same colour threads top and bobbin so I almost get a two-sided quilt.

And a couple of detail shots for you. My meandering on the moon looks a little odd closeup, but I was trying to go for an irregular pocked moon surface, rather than a beautifully even meander, not quite sure I achieved it! I'm super happy with the scaling pattern on the body, and the pattern I used on the wings (although I didn't get much of a closeup of that.)

In conclusion, I'm delighted with the machine. She is lovely to use and creates a lovely stitch, just like I've come to expect from BERNINA. I'm really excited to be able to be part of the BERNINA family and I look forward to being able to show you all the projects I create with the Q 20. 

P.S. Next time I'm asked to fill in my occupation on a form, do you think I could get away with writing 'Ambassador'?!

Bits and Bobs

The NZ National Quilt Symposium exhibition deadline is looming.  I'm sewing in threads and sewing down facings and hanging sleeves and I'm confident I'll finish up the quilts I'm working on in time.  But that work is all hand sewing and I'm keeping it for evenings on the boat with my family, or for snatches of time in between dinner cooking and homework.

So in the studio this past weekend (it was Queen's Birthday weekend here in NZ so we got Monday off too) I've been doing little catchup jobs.  Bits and bobs.

I put together two bassinet quilt tops and spray basted them.  A friend is running a free-motion quilting class soon and instead of practice quilt sandwiches, she suggests we use bassinet quilts made from orphan blocks.  They are a good size to practice, the orphan blocks give the feeling of working on actual blocks, and they can be donated to the maternity unit after we are done to brighten up the postnatal ward.

I really like the one above.  Very modern.  Made from half-rectangle units that I was practicing technique with (and I've put fun crocodile fabric on the back!).

I have a bit of a pink overload in my stash and some of them are really old-fashioned.  But they look sweet in a simple little quilt like this.  Must make more and use them up!

Then I used my new big pressing surface to fuse down this dragon that has been waiting in the wings.    I sell the appliqué pattern for this panel on Etsy (both PDF downloads and paper copies), but I've been wanting to update my samples for a while.  This is the second dragon I'm doing.

Here's the first updated one I did.  I can't remember whether I showed you or not, so I'll show it again just in case.  She's made from my hand-dyed fabrics and I love how she glows!

Then I found some positive/negative blocks that I had put together as samples for my Aotearoa Tote bag class but never finished into the final bag, so I finished up the free-motion quilting on them and I've sewed them together ready for straps and binding.

I chose a random wood grain pattern to quilt them with.  It's a very 'zen' pattern to quilt.  And one you can do with your walking foot too.

It's very satisfying to make progress on a whole pile of jobs.  I'm not one of those quilters who work exclusively on one or two projects until they are completely finished, but lately, with the symposium deadline coming up fast, that's what I've been doing.  It feels restricting in a way, so to rebel and take steps on a stack of different projects has soothed my spirit a bit.

In fact, I've made such good progress on all my symposium entries that I've decided to make a stab at my unrealistic symposium project.  Do you do that?  A few weeks out, decide on a project that you know will be perfect and start work on it even though you also know it will be totally unrealistic to get it finished?

Here's an Instagram pic of that project I posted a couple of days ago.  It's a little further on than that now, but still in the piecing stage.  Do you think I can do it?!  The race is on!

Double Dragons

I received a request from a buyer on Etsy for patterns for the other elements of my Dragon Quilt.  I've been planning to write these up for ages, but planning isn't doing!  So this morning I set to and I've got my Double Dragon Silhouette appliqué pattern up and ready to go on both Etsy and Felt.

It's always surprising how long something like that takes.  It's pretty simple, but I need to check and recheck (and unblock the jammed printer) before I'm satisfied.  Next I need to work on getting patterns for the sword, the sun and the moon written up.  I'm dreading the castle - that was horribly complicated when I did it myself and it'll take me a while to try and simplify the process, but I'll get there.

Other things occupying brain space at the moment is how to catch the bunny that I've spotted nibbling on my lettuces, or how to find the hole in the garden fence where it must be getting through.  And what classes to take at the Taupo Symposium in July next year.  The class booklet arrived about a week ago and they all look very enticing!

Tomorrow is the last day of school for the year for my kids.  Eight weeks of summer holidays is looming!  Hopefully we'll fit in some relaxation, some swimming, some camping, a few barbecues,  good food and maybe a few glasses of cold white wine (must try and plant a grape vine next winter).  So I'll apologise in advance if transmission is patchy round here and I wish you all a very merry and safe Christmas and New Year's.