Moving on

I bought the small red ruler at MQS and have been trying to use it to guide my quilting around this applique – unfortunately I obviously need more practice because it’s not working too well for me. I remembered I had some leaf shaped templates I bought when I first got the longarm and tried that too – better but still very awkward.

I tried stitch regulated mode and quilting slowly and got wobbles.
I tried non stitch regulated mode and quilting faster and ran up on the applique.

Finally, I put the rulers away, put the machine in non stitch regulated mode, and started quilting my first line of echoing a little further away from the leaves.

Believe it or not practicing something REALLY does make a difference – I’ve quilted 21 of these blocks now and the last set wasn’t half bad not particularly great but not bad.

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On a completely different topic – the new laptop

I’d read that people didn’t like Windows Vista – I have to admit I’m still getting used to it but it has some seriously cool stuff. In Explorer, instead of having to open multiple windows you can open new pages in tabs – now if I can just remember to click on the tab instead of hitting ALT + TAB to switch between open pages!

Also, I was telling Keith the other day I needed to get a small drive to take with me when I travel so I can transfer photos from the camera’s memory card to the laptop. Imagine my surprise and delight last night when I found the laptop has an SD/MMC slot built in.