Getting to Know the Q20

I had a few items to take care of yesterday before I could sit down and quilt at the Q20. The owner of the quilt store had loaned the husband a moving blanket to bring the table and machine home, and I wanted to return it to her before I forgot. While I was in the store, I noticed that she had just gotten a shipment of Accuquilt dies, including that adorable gnome die. I bought it. I also ordered the ruler foot for my machine because she didn’t have one in stock.

[This is a true free-motion quilt machine. If I want to do straight lines, I either have to do them on my Janome with the walking foot—which is not as difficult as I’m not moving the quilt around as much—or use a ruler foot on the Q20 that glides along the edge of an acrylic template.]

I grabbed a quilt sandwich left over from my class with Angela Walters in Spokane in 2019 and sat down at the machine. Loops are easy for me. I need to force myself to branch out to other designs. I tried a pointy swirl design and was pleasantly surprised at how good it looked on the first try, especially in the middle. (The outside edges get a bit janky.)

This looks like a mess only because of the thread tails and because I quilted over my initial quilting. This is the only quilt sandwich I had and I was too lazy to go upstairs and make more. I was more interested in learning the feel of making swirls than how the quilting looked. For instance, I learned that I need to keep my swirling motions bigger and wider than I think I do, or I get myself stuck into tight spaces.

Along the way, I tinkered with the some of the settings, including the tension, which is all digital. I was using Signature cotton 40wt in the top and Mettler 50wt in the bobbin. The Mettler thread came with the machine. I haven’t used it before, but it seems nice.

Putting this machine in my office was the right decision. I was able to pop in and out and quilt while I was making dinner. I haven’t decided whether I want to practice on more quilt sandwiches or go right to a quilt. I may split the difference and quilt some of the wallhangings I made last spring when I was trying to use up orphan blocks. The quilting goes ridiculously fast on this machine, both because of the machine and because of the workspace. I could have quilted faster on my Janome were it not for having to rearrange the bulk of the quilt constantly.

I am so glad that I took that class with Angela Walters; so much of what I learned then is beginning to coalesce in my brain. I’d love to take another one. She’s done some YouTube videos, though, and that’s almost as good.

The husband and I were watching an Essential Craftsman video the other night. Scott, the EC, is selling a kit to make a leather axe sheath, and he noted in the video that making something small is a good introduction to a craft that might lead to something bigger. The husband laughed and said, “Yes, and the next thing you know, you’ve got $50,000 worth of tools.” (My machine did not cost anywhere near that, but I know what he was getting at. Also pot, meet kettle.) And this is going to sound horribly conceited, but I don’t know how else to say it: Talented people master things so quickly that it becomes harder and harder (and progressively more expensive) to find things to challenge them and keep them occupied. Tera and I both find it interesting that many of the the doctors we know—she’s married to one—are taking up farming as they retire from medicine. People who operate at a certain level all their lives simply aren’t content to retire and do nothing.

I’ve long held the philosophy that better tools do not automatically make one better at something. A talented pianist can make the most humble instrument sound lovely; someone who is just learning to play is not instantly going to sound better on a baby grand just because it’s a nicer instrument. A better tool in the hands of someone who has reached a certain level of mastery, though, is a game changer.