A lovely day

My two favourite things about quilting are learning and the design process and yesterday I managed to fit both in.
As usual I did a tension piece first, this didn't look too bad until I saw the back and there were a couple of loops and broken thread on the top.
See what I mean? But I got this sorted and then started to play.
The first lesson was to do organic feathers with no spine and only the central line marked as a guide. I found this contra intuitive as I had to do each lobe of the feather in the opposite direction that I'm used to. My very first one is the one on the left. I'm pleased with this. The 2nd one wasn't quite as good as I started to relax a little and the needle took my down it's 'known' route (a bit like when your car goes on auto pilot (grin).
This 2nd lesson is done the same way but with little curlicues interspersed.

And then WOW! This one is called fireworks and isn't this cool. I love it. This is the very first feather reworked. I took the sample piece to bed with me and didn't sleep just because I was thinking how to use this in a quilt.
The lessons were on a DVD from Patsy Thompson. I don't recommend it until you have got to the point where you are happy moving the fabric round under the needle, but then go for it. I have a link to her site in the column on the right, 'Blogs I read' I haven't felt this fired up for weeks about my quilting. I hope it rains again today (except over those places where it's flooding) just so I don't feel obliged to work in the garden when I want to be stitching....

Bottomline Thread

I'm trying to use Bottomline Thread in both the bobbin and as a top thread for freemotion quilting. I'm sure I've used it before but this time I've been fiddling with the top and bottom tensions for about an hour, does anyone have a magic formula?
Sally

Freemotion couching

As far as I know this foot is only available for Berninas and then not every model.
It's so much fun to play with though finding suitable things which will fit through the hole can be difficult and then one which don't unravel make it even harder.
You can tell I'm new at this blogging business, the photos are in the reverse order I wished and not within the text. I might get better (or not).
The top photo was my very first play with the foot. The next one is a work in progress which I'm feeling in two minds about. The 3rd shows the foot and the 4th is a lovely soft knitting yarn.
It doesn't seem to matter too much what thread you use as it gets buried in the yarn.