HQ Adventures-What I just learned

Here are the results from my latest adventures using my HQ Avante longarm quilting machine.

Let me share with you what I learned!

As you can see here, there is alot going on in this quilt!

Small pieces with lots of small patterns. 

(My quilting group had just finished making these as a gift to another group member who just gave birth to twins - a boy and a girl!)

As I was quilting it, I kept loosing my place. 

I couldn't tell how far away from the last pass of quilting stitches I was with my needle.

After several periods of crossing over previous stitches, ripping out and restarting, I finally figured something out.  By turning OFF my machine lights, the visibility improved immensely!

Then, I went so far as to turn off all the room lights, except for a lamp placed at the far right end of my machine. This created wonderful shadows over the entire top - allowing all of the stitching to be seen easily.

I finished quilting both of these tops, and never lost my place in the design again!

This is one of those things that you look back on, wishing someone had told you earlier.

These aren't the best pictures, but you can see that the shadowing makes quick work of the whole task.

Whew!

Now, on to the next adventure. . .