Sigh..............

 Sometimes it seems as though nothing is going to be quick and easy.

After I finished basting the center panel of the Alphabet quilt, I stitched 2 more letter sections. I went much easier than removing pins but all the turning I had to do using the walking foot turned out to be a huge struggle, much more than I expected it to be.  I came to the conclusion that it could not be any worse to do it free motion and it might be better, and it was. 

The numbat and octopus were done with the walking foot and the reindeer and the sheep were done free motion. I had a little less control that I wanted but it was no harder on my hands than with the walking foot. From that point the quilting process moved along much faster.

I took a break to do something and when I returned to my machine the foot control would not work. I checked everything, it was plugged in, I could move the needle up and down manually by turning the wheel ,the machine turned on and off the way it always does, there was nothing that appeared to obstruct the full compression of the pedal. This pedal is not a genuine Bernina but it was half as much less than the cost of the Bernina and all the reviews on amazon were good. It worked perfectly from the day I started using it until that day. I was completely frustrated and needed to consider what to do next. I moved furniture and set up my other machine for quilting.  I have never used this machine for quilting and though it was far from ideal, I thought it would work. It did not. I could not get a decent stitch.

I asked my friends for help and one of them was going to let me try her foot pedal to see if the problem was my machine or my foot pedal.  I go my Bernina up on the tale again and just on the off chance that the foot pedal would work I tried it and it worked.

So..... back to work. I had about an hour to sew and I got ready and found this on the back of the quilt.

Somehow a sheet of wrapping paper found its way onto the table next to my machine. There it is, stitched right on to the back of the quilt. I started to cut it away but looked at the stitches and saw that they needed to be removed. I have no idea where that wrapping paper came from. I don't remember seeing it in the last 15 years. The 4 foot table next to my machine is right inside my sewing room door and often I will set things there that I need to put away somewhere else. I had been digging in my hall closet for something and that is probably where the wrapping paper was hiding before it flew across the hall onto my table.

Well, the wrapping paper stitching is gone and I have another hour or so to quilt. I may not finish this quilt this month but I might.

We'll See.