Hi Everyone - I've been on the board for a couple of weeks, and finally decided to dive it! I've done a little quilting - mostly flannel baby quilts - over the past several years, but this year took a class at my LQS. Then my DD volunteered me to make a baby quilt for a lady in our SS class, using plain white blocks decorated by other ladies in our church. Which of course meant I had to buy a new sewing machine. I had a 39 year old Kenmore which still works, but I wanted something a little fancier. I got an Elna Pro Quilting Queen, and so far, love her! My baby quilt isn't the greatest, and I'm still working it out, but I'm learning a lot.
I think I really need a class in perfecting the basics - how to accurately measure, cut, stitch, press, etc.
So a couple of questions:
Anyone else have an Elna Queen and can share tips, hints, etc?
Also, I kind of went crazy and bought tons of 1/2 yard pieces (plus a few 1-2 yds), mostly from fabric.com. I got lots of Christmas fabrics, baby fabrics, and a most everything they had available from collections that really spoke to me, like Krakow, Riviera, Hey Sugar. This probably wasn't the brightest thing to do. I was afraid to commit to buying very much of anything, and now I'm not sure what to do with all these 1/2 yd pieces. I also bought a Figgy Pudding Charm Pack, plus a lot of 1/2 - 2 yd pieces from the collection.
I very much want to FMQ, and am playing around with that. I have found that I don't have to lower the feed dogs on the Elna. I haven't tried lowering them yet, though.
Love all the hints on the board, and how wonderfully searchable it is.
Also, LOVE the pictures! What a gifted bunch of quilters!