great fabric you got the 'eye' for mixing --i am not so good at choosing colour so love show and tell+++++

I use whatever thread is on sale and have never had any problems and I use them on many different machines. As the others have said, your fabric choices are great and hope you will share with us whatever you make with them. Welcome to the board.

In the "old days" we used to be able to cover our throat plate with another throat plate designed to "cover" (actually rise to the level of the top of) the feed dogs so that you could "darn" or FMQ. Could this be an option for your machine; ask your repair person. Maybe he is not all that familiar with quilters and their need to FMQ.

Jan in VA

I had a look on google and if you scroll through this link (book not available though) it shows the quilt that I think you are talking about? http://www.softexpressions.com/softw...oks/4K1958.php If you spend some time looking through fabric sites or quilterscache.com you may find a block similar that you could use.

I think show & tell of acquisitions is part of the fun. Great fabric.

Beautiful fabric. I hope you have fun with it!...

Really LOVE your fabrics! Am partial to roosters/chickens and you did a beautiful job of picking coordinates for it! That will be a lovely, sunny quilt! Am wondering about your Kenmore 385.....is it a 158.385 or what is the complete model name? Jan's suggestion for covering the feed dogs would prob work if you can't drop the feed dogs. But some have said they FMQ without dropping the FD's, just turning stitch length down to 0.

Amazon has the book for $13.39 + shipping

Hi T-Bug,
Yes, that's the book, but I didn't feel right taking down much information about the pattern structure; that's just not kosher. My husband is actually out in the garage right now with a giant piece of brown paper trying to make it work. I gave him what I found online, and the overall measurements of the quilt. I guess we'll have to wing it on the true measurements.

Polly- Model is 385 1254180

I love the fact that you are excited about quilting! And I love those fabrics ... continue to share your progress!!