Squiggy and Shorty

 

Take a good look at this quilt top.  Notice all that pieced sashing in between the white blocks. It's what I've been machine quilting for the past few days and I am so over it. 

I finished all the white center blocks last week. I put a fancy thing in the middle and just outlined the white. Ages ago I started stitching a wiggly thing down all that pieced sashing not realizing how much work it was going to be. I have to mark every section as I go so it's stop and start. Stop and start. Yesterday I tried to freehand it to lighten the load but as you can see it didn't go so well. I had to pick it out and go back to marking it. 

Then I broke the needle. I spent a half hour trying to get the new one in. I couldn't find the little hole and when I did it just wouldn't stay in. It took me that long to figure out that the needle holding thingy doesn't work if the pressure foot is down. Who knew? I know now. 

While searching for my needles I found Shorty and Squiggy two machine quilting rulers I spent a fortune on ages ago. I found the special foot that you have to use too-also very pricey. I've never tried them. Maybe they could be the answer to all this stopping and starting you have to do through when you mark a quilt. I'm in too deep now with that Fall Batik thing but I'm thinking The Big Ugly might just be good for some experimenting. I've heard there's a pretty steep learning curve with these things but as awful as I am with all of this machine quilting stuff it couldn't hurt.