Happy New Year to Technology: Bernina Q24, Accuquilt Go Cutter, Epic....

My first project for 2019 !  Hope everyone has a healthy year filled with many sewing projects using all the latest technology!

Back in October of 2018 this little boy was being baptized at our church.  What a handsome little guy!  I really wanted to make something special for him.  I came across a really cute car fabric and it seemed so appropriate since his family has a car dealership.  SCORE !

As it turned out I was able to find several great colors that worked with this vintage car design.  I bought a ton of fabrics because I didn't know what I was going to create.  Left overs always find their way into other projects.

I scanned Pinterest for days trying to find pattern ideas.  And if you have a sewing buddy friend you can bounce ideas off one another.  The busy car print fabric forced me to keep things as simple as possible.

I pulled out my Accuquilt Go-Big electric cutter for the alphabet letters and the strips.  I also have the Accuquilt software with a blanket stitch for the lettering.   I must say,  these die cutters sure do a great job! If you have any arthritis or carpel tunnel issues these cutters are a blessing.

These applique embroidered car designs are a Floriani collection.

The charcoal dotted fabric looked just like pavement so I decided to make some roads.  Then of course we needed to add road stripes.  Ah yes, yellow grosgrain ribbon!  The black and white check fabric looked like those racing car flags. No, I didn't have a pattern.  Ideas just sort of evolve as you proceed.  I stopped at four cars because the quilt was growing quickly!

Naturally this created another opportunity for me to experiment with my Bernina longarm Q-24  with that fantastic computer automation.  Wow!!   I absolutely love that machine!!!!  I'm learning something new every time I have an opportunity to explore and play.   The quilt pattern I chose has circles and curves which reminded me of curvy roads and wheels.

I used my Floriani software to create a simple star design.  I uploaded the star design with the built in Wi-Fi on the Viking Epic.  This allowed me to fill in the blank areas around the lettering where I wasn't able to use the long arm.  (The long arm quilting would have stitched through the lettering.)  Hopefully there's a way to meet that challenge.  Time will tell.

Bernina Q-24 with Q Matic

So how long did this take to create ???  That question always comes from someone who does not sew and doesn't have a clue how involved these projects are.  The greatest gift you can give anyone is your time.  And believe me, this took quite a bit of time!  This also gave me an opportunity to learn more with all this technology.  ( Like the hangers? )