Machine quilting! Yeah, I did that!

So I'm traditionally a hand quilting kind of girl, but if course, at some point one realizes that I could get a whole lot more done if I let my machine do most of the work. So last week I started a long overdue project - a sewing machine cover - and let that act as my first foray into machine quilting.

Before I could do that, though, I had to get my machine ready. I work on a 1978 Singer Stylist 543. Her name is Marsha Sue and she belonged to my mother. This is the machine I learned to sew on, and the only one I've ever used.

Now, Marsha Sue is a workhorse, that's fo sho, but since I've only ever done piecing, I don't have any fancy feet, like a walking foot or a free motion foot. I didn't even know if I would be able to find feet that would be compatible. Long story short, after some research about shanks, I was able to find both of those feet very easily and for less than $30 for both. Win.

So thus begins the machine quilting. I started out doing some straight line quilting with the walking foot, which actually turned out pretty well.

After the straight line quilting (which Marsha Sue didn't appreciate), I just traced the flowers in the center panel design as my first free motion attempt. Not too shabby - I expected MUCH worse!

The finished product turned out better than I expected!