Finished Watermelon Topper and Sunshine 16 progress on Purple Layer Cake

  I added some "seeds" and some labels to the watermelon topper to finish it up.  (Link goes to original post)

You may be interested in this next part if you have a Sunshine 16 midarm quilting machine or are thinking of purchasing one.  I've had mine for 2 years and had difficulty with it.  Recently I found another owner (Ronna Gilani) who lives about an hour away and she kindly invited me to her home and gave me some pointers.

Ronna's machine set up for my lesson.  Ronna's machine worked so smoothly for me and I got a little better idea about adjusting tension, thread, moving the machine.  So if you're having trouble, you might see if there is another owner nearby that could help.

Ronna and me.  You can see Ronna's quilts at Dancing Lady Quilts on Facebook.  She will have a booth at the Piecemakers  of Southern Alameda County Quilt Show in Newark, CA    Links included to Ronna's facebook page and info. on the Piecemakers quilt show.

When I got home I loaded one of my purple sampler quilts.  One of my main problems is thread breaking.  Ronna's Tip #1 is to use Glide thread and she gave me a spool.  Sure enough you can see that I was able to start quilting swirls right off the bat.

I was able to quilt the whole thing in about 3 hours.  The pattern I attempted to follow is from Wendy at Ivory Spring-- her Thread Talk #12 Swirly Swirls.  I love to see Wendy's thread talk tutorials!

It's far from perfect and I did still have the thread break on occasion but the experience was a hundred times better than usual!  And I have hope of improving.

Ronna encouraged me to move the machine in a very controlled motion to make sure the stitches are very even and I knew that, but I like now that when I start going too fast and the stitches get long, I hear Ronna's voice in my head, reminding me.

Needless to say, I went online and purchased a bunch of Glide thread.  It's polyester and shiny and fine to the touch!  I've included a lot of links in this post and want to clarify that I do not sell or make any money or get any compensation of any sort from posting to this blog.  Links are FYI only.