This Saturday, TOMORROW, is the start of the two, count them, TWO classes by Elizabeth Hartman at Modern Domestic. I feel kind of selfish leaving for what will amount to 2 whole Saturdays…hopefully everyone will survive at home. EEEK.
I almost didn’t, and almost grabbed the pink and purple Konas I have like in the Sorbetto post, but I settled on the mustardy-yellows with the gray print and also from FQS.
Mustard and Slate
What do you think? I have two classes, so next week I can take a different color combo…maybe I’ll venture back to my purples and pinks then?
I also picked up some Elizabeth Hartman patterns…how can you NOT want this bag? And if you don’t have any of her books, her Modern Patchwork book is great. I have the iBook version, it’s available for Kindle, and I know lots of local shops have it.
Oh, wow. Between that and working on the Laurel pattern, I seem all local stalker-y. Before you go there, go here. I am SOOOO getting the Pavlova pattern next for my knits. The lovely StephC is alllll the way in Australia now, and look how simple it is! I’ll tell you, like with music, more complicated is not necessarily better. I prefer a good, simple pattern. With pockets.
It came with a walking foot, a 1/4 inch plastic piecing foot and an open-circle, spring free motion quilting foot. I thought I would be ho-hum about the walking foot, and really into the new FMQ foot, but I’m actually reversed on that.
The walking foot is substantial.
Viking Walking Foot FrontViking Walking Foot Side
It should have come with a longer bolt to attach it to the machine shank, I’m a bit irked about that, but it works really well. I’ll have to hunt down a longer bolt – right now it stays on if I tighten it down perfectly, but I don’t trust it….there’s just no way there’s enough threads of the bolt in there to sustain it for any lengthy period.
It sure makes for pretty and easy stitching though. These are the feather blocks I’ve been working on, pattern by Anna Maria Horner.
I have no idea what those blocks will be turned into; it has batting and stiff canvas as the backing ala Oh, Fransson!, thinking I’ll want a bag or a dust cover for my KitchenAid or something.
but it seems like everyone else uses these spring-loaded ones, so I thought I’d give it a whirl.
It’s….well, it…it makes me scream “WTF??” a LOT.
It will work great…
Viking Spring FMQ Pebbles
And then suddenly my upper tension will go just crazy, like the tension disks are stuck together and will not adjust down no matter what. I didn’t take any photos of the craziness it did on my feather blocks…I just ripped out the crazy stitches put it away before I cried.
But then I used it in class….we intentionally used contrasting threads to watch the tension. I was using 50 wt cotton yellow and gray on white muslin and cotton low-loft batting…
nonono
Then, there’s the back…see what I mean by WTF?
suckage
So, then I moved back to my little clip on plastic foot….and it was fine.
Paisley FMQPaisley FMQ back
So…I don’t now. There’s an entire Yahoo Sapphire Group and I swear 90% of the threads (no pun intended) are on this topic alone – the tension and the FMQ foot. I’m seriously considering a Juki for quilting by this time next year….I will not put up with a machine not performing its function. Ms. Viking may just turn into a garment only machine if she keeps this up.
Lastly, it came with a plastic 1/4″ piecing foot. It’s too bad that it’s plastic, but I have to admit, I like it. I’d almost rather switch feet than remember to move the needle to the 1/4″ and back…Ms. Viking resets its needle position all too often, so this is a nice tool. I like the metal guide that comes down and keeps me in place. I like it a lot.
This photo was taken before I forgot I changed to a zig-zag stitch on something else and left this foot on…and put the microtex/sharp needle right through the plastic…so…that hole is a little wider now.
quarter inch foot
So….there’s my novella on the Viking Quilt Kit for now. I’ll let you know if that spring foot gets me mad enough to chuck it.
