Finally Finished 2026 - first quilt finish of the year
It's a digitizing class exercise!
Oh, I was a happy girl last Sunday. I watched a couple of Lisa Shaw's videos about creating motif fills and decided I really didn't need to do it on this particular quilt. I wanted to, and I want to on other quilts, but this one will reside on the top of our dining table and it doesn't need the foo-foo. I managed to finish digitizing the center design as well as the edge-to-edge design.
For background, four years ago I signed up for Sarah Vedeler’s Master Digitizing course. I was so excited because I loved her background fills and wanted to do the same. I also had sold my longarm and needed to start quilting on my domestic machines and knew this was a step in the right direction.
And y'all know what happened--life happened. I became overwhelmed with work, building a house, surviving in a tiny apartment—and I did not deal well. The digitizing course was one of the casualties of that time. I had paid a lot of money for the course and the required software, and knew I had to go back to it at some point.
Almost two years ago I happened upon Becky Thompson’s videos about using Embrilliance StitchArtist to digitize appliqué cutting files and embroidery files, and transmitting those files to the Brother Luminaire and Brother ScanNCut. I was hooked, and bought the Luminaire that came with the ScanNCut. While I already owned the Hatch embroidery software and my two Berninas, I felt this was the direction I should go due to the ease of the functions on the Brother machines.
You already know that I took classes with Lisa Shaw this summer focusing on Embrilliance StitchArtist. The classes were fabulous and enabled me to create some quilting designs that I used in the Cabanas quilt. I am enrolled in her classes scheduled for mid-April 2026 in Pensacola. I was also able to digitize embroidery designs that were used in last year's secret project. She is a fabulous teacher and the StitchArtist evening workshop she offers is a gold mine of tips and techniques.
In August, I received an email from Sarah Vedeler promoting a refresher class for those of us that didn’t complete her 2022 class. Her classes focus on using the Hatch Designer and Bernina V8 or V9 applications. For $47, I joined. I feel much less intimidated this time around and this quilt was the first assignment. Prior to the first class we had to pick some items from our stash—a fabric we couldn’t figure out how to use, another fabric that we couldn’t bring ourselves to cut, and thread in our favorite color. Here’s what I brought:
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| Photo posted in the Facebook group of my selections... |
And wouldn’t you know it, she issued a challenge to use all three of those items together in a project, and we had to digitize something for it with the thread. Dear Lord.
The red fabric on the right is the one I couldn’t bear to cut, and the wild fabric on the left is the one I couldn’t figure out how to use (although once I pulled it from the stash, ideas started pinging). The thread in the photo is a plum color. Purple is my favorite color.
And that brings me to the last thing the attendees had to do—post a photo of what we had submitted for the fabrics and thread, and tell everyone where we are currently on the creativity scale (0-10). When I uploaded the photo into the Facebook group, I told the members that I was a negative 1 a year earlier—but since at that point I had been retired for almost a year, I was at a positive 6 thanks to being able to quilt almost every day. And that’s a very good thing!
I am trying to not overthink things. I decided to do a four patch along the blooming nine patch style. In progress:
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| Making all the cuts--I charted it in EQ8, but decided it didn't need to be that big... |
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| On the design wall and hoping it looks good... |
And while it was on the design wall, I started getting a French vibe with the colors. I think I finished piecing the top before we went to Myrtle Beach in October; it didn’t take long. Upon our return, I attempted to get into the digitizing of the quilting designs, but life intervened. I finally got to sit down and do the digitizing last weekend. I had an initial idea to make a plum motif and use it as background filling on the quilt. Because the color and weight of the thread will stand out in a not so good way, I created a large plum to be stitched in the center of the quilt after I used my edge-to-edge design with smaller plums (and used a blending thread). Once I finished the edge-to-edge quilting, I decided to not stitch the center plum motif—I felt that everyone’s eye would be drawn to that motif and then ask me, why is that purple? No overthinking!
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| Edge-to-edge design |
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| Center motif design |
And while I tested my designs and all seemed well, I noticed an issue with tension. I was using prewound bobbins and So Fine 50 wt on top. When I see something wrong on the top, I know the problem is typically the bobbin. Underneath, everything looked beautiful. I had been using a Schmetz embroidery needle sized 11/75. I tried a quilting needle sized 11/75, and wound a bobbin with DIME's Fine Line by Exquisite (60 wt) but more importantly, I changed the bobbin case in the Luminaire to the one with the adjustable screw. It was smooth sailing from that point on.
I spent most of this week attempting to finish this project by Wednesday. On Thursday, I had cataract removal surgery on my right eye and I honestly did not know when my eye would feel well enough to sew and quilt, let alone see to do it. I have worn glasses since second grade, and while my eyesight has improved over the last 5 years, in the last few months I haven’t been able to thread a needle, and I told my optometrist that was not acceptable. The cataracts showed up a few years ago and my doc said that I may never need surgery. That changed when I saw her for my annual exam in November—she took one look at my right eye and reared back. She asked me if I had noticed any changes, and I said, “Um, yeah—everything got dark and I can’t thread a needle!” She referred me to an ophthalmic surgeon. I met with him a week ago Wednesday and they scheduled the surgery for this past Thursday.
I’m happy to report that the surgery went well—I went back to the surgeon’s office on Friday for the removal of the eye patch (ouch), and now I’m on a regiment of drops four times each day. And, I’m already seeing better. I know a lot of people get the corrective lenses when they have their surgery so they don’t have to wear glasses again. My optometrist counseled me on the idea of keeping my nearsightedness so I could continue to see up close to read and thread a needle, and continue wearing glasses for driving and watching TV. I told the surgeon that was what I wanted, and he told me I was joining four other patients (over his career) that requested the same. He doesn’t know if they’re all quilters, but I’m betting at least one of them does some type of handwork.
The edge-to-edge was stitched with So Fine #452; I love quilting with So Fine (and piecing, too) because it tends to sink into the quilt and has a matte finish; for me, it's more about the texture.
And here is the quilt on top of our dining table. I think it is a good fit and will stay there until I make something else for the table (I have my eye on Jennifer Sampou's table runner).
Thanks for reading. So, what's next? Stay tuned and I'll let you know--go make!
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