New Sugaridoo BERNINA adventures

At the end of my final blog post for the Sugaridoo BERNINA quilt along, I said that that blog post would not be my last post on the BERNINA blog. And here we are. Right at the start of a whole new adventure. I am going to take you with my on my journey of exploring the world of quilting on a sit down long-arm machine.

Today I would like to introduce you to my new BERNINA friend, the BERNINA Q 16!

Unboxing the BERNINA Q16

First things first. Let’s start by taking the machine out of the box and setting it up. In this video I show you what’s inside the boxes and talk you through my plans with the BERNINA Q16.

The Q16 comes in two big boxes. One holds the foldable table. And the other one contains the machine. 

The foldable table is very easy to set up. You can fold down the two halves of the table top to save space while leaving the machine on the table. Or, when you lift off the machine, you can easily fold in the table even further and store it away.

Once you plug in the power cable, attach the foot pedal and set up the spool holder, you are ready to start quilting. On the BERNINA YouTube channel you can find all of instruction videos to get everything set up for the Q20, like this one, which can also be used for the BERNINA Q16. I found these videos very clear and helpful.

There are different settings and options to choose from when you want to start working on the BERNINA Q16. I’d love to dive a little bit deeper in to how I set up my machine in a next blog post. 

Ideas and tutorials for your next sewing adventure

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My first project

In the video I’m talking a bout quilting a ice cream mini quilt as a first project on my BERNINA Q16. But I got a little bit sidetracked. I first started on a practice sandwich to get a bit of a feel with the new machine.

Then I noticed two quilts on the shelves in my sewing room that were nearly finished, so I finished those first.

It went so fast with the Q16! And I could really see the difference in the quilting. Since the BERNINA Q16 has stitch regulation when you do ruler work, all stitches that you quilt will be the same length. 

On the left you see stitches I made along a straight ruler on my 770QE, quilted when I just started out with ruler work. And on the right you see some lines I quilted with the same ruler on that same quilt with the Q16. 

I don’t have ton of experience with quilting with rulers. I only started quilting with rulers less then 2 years ago. So I do think that consistency in stitch length would improve with practice. But not having to pay attention to the stitch length while quilting does feel like a big luxury.  

Ice Cream, Yes Please!

After finishing those two quilts I started on my ice cream mini quilt. A mini quilt is such a great canvas to try out different quilting techniques! I chose to use rulers for this mini. And had so much fun quilting it.

The pattern is my new ‘Ice Cream? Yes Please!’ mini quilt, which is now available in the Sugaridoo Webshop.

I used different sizes circle rulers and a straight ruler to quilt this mini. There will follow a video + blog post on how exactly to quilt these textures on the ice cream. Just keep an eye on the BERNINA blog for that if you want to quilt this little quilt with me. 

First thoughts on the BERNINA Q16

So, my first thought on the Q16? I LOVE it! Quilting with this machine is so incredibly comfortable. (And I though my 770 was already very comfy with it’s large throat space!)

The big table surface, the machine that points to the back instead of the side, the perfect stitch regulation, the big throat space. It’s all really as wonderful as it sounds. 

So I guess I can say that I fell in love with BERNINA all over again after my first days with the Q16!

Plans for this year

I have a ton of ideas for future adventures with the BERNINA Q16. First I want to get to know the machine a little better. Going through all the settings, trying out all options for free motion quilting and ruler work. And while doing that, I’d love to share the tips and tricks that I come across with you here on the BERNINA blog. 

Also, I’m planning a new quilt along. This time it will be a quilt along focused on the quilting of a quilt. So we will start with a simple quilt block pattern, to make a quilt that we can use as a canvas to practice quilting on. That quilt along would probably start towards the end of 2021. 

Due to being pregnant, and Covid still having such an influence on changing our day to day life, I’m not really setting any deadlines for myself this year. Just going with the flow until after our baby girl is here and the pandemic is a bit more under control in The Netherlands.

So keep en eye out for the BERNINA newsletter, to know when and what Sugaridoo+BERNINA adventures are happening.

See you soon!
Irene