Stippling--Not for the Faint of Heart!

    I thought it was a good idea to check in here. Lately I have been working on my daughter's t-shirt quilt for her graduation gift but decided that was a story for another day since today's stippling about stopped my heart! I have made 3 floral "watercolor" style quilts which I hope to sell. I have started stipple quilting the first one which is king size. It is HARD pushing that thing into the machine. So today I came back to the stippling and my back and shoulders are definitely feeling it! There is something definitely wrong with my foot pedal and it only works fast for stippling if my foot is in the perfect position and when I hit that sweet spot I go as fast and as far as I can! So today I was zooming along when CLUNK the extension table fell off and scared me to death. Last time I worked on it the darning foot actually fell off mid-stipple and shattered the needle. I would say this is the only design flaw I have ever seen with a Bernina. Scary. Not for the faint of heart!

    I love to stipple and it is my favorite quilting technique. Sometimes I do a traditional round style and decide what size based on the quilt. I have also done what I call the "heart" where I do heart motifs as I go along, or the "flower" where I squiggle around and make flowers. I also do the "loop" where I loop over and under and another favorite is the square stipple like the block on the left. I love to use variegated threads and in this quilt I used the primary colored thread which really looked great on the black.
     While I am stippling I invariable crack myself up with the shapes I accidentally come up with. Most common is the heart but I can't believe how often I make Florida or Idaho and today I made a very cute ducky and a bunny but my personal "favorite" is when I accidentally make a penis! Always cracks me up and I have to just leave it there and hope no one else sees it! So Happy and Safe Stippling everyone!