My dad surprised my mom in getting her a brand new Sweet Sixteen this past fall. How cool is that?! She did some rearranging and found her new machine a home in her cave (mom’s sewing space hehehe).
When I was up there in December, we finished setting the Sweet Sixteen up and figured out the bobbin winder. We finally felt like we knew what we were doing and were ready to get started!
Mom wasn’t used to “driving” the fabric around to quilt it, so it was rather strange the first time. She did really good though for her first time. The first time I tried FMQ, I kept pausing with my foot on the pedal and forgetting to “drive” the fabric. It was difficult to train your brain and hands into actually “driving” the fabric, rather than guiding it along.
While mom was getting comfortable with Molly, I was cutting a panel up for us to use as our first project.
Oh. What do we call her Molly? Well, mom likes to name her machines and knew her new Sweet Sixteen needed a name. We went back and forth for a few days, but I kept wanting to say Sixteen Candles instead of Sweet Sixteen. So to make the long journey short, we decided to call her Molly after Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles. Now it all makes sense, right? LOL
There were 5 smaller blocks and 1 larger block of autumn lake images. I had gotten 2 panels, so we each had the same blocks to quilt on. Mom was getting very comfortable and brave after those first couple smaller blocks.
After mom was done, it was my turn. I took these photos myself, so they are closer up. You can see we used gold thread to quilt these. It was perfect for these panel pieces!
I had FMQ’d on my small machine before, so I already had some practice “driving” the fabric around. I played with tracing and echoing on these. I have found panels easiest to practice FMQ on because there are already images and not seams to worry about. Gives you one less thing to worry about when you are just beginning.
How fun are they?! The gold thread just popped on these panel pieces. I didn’t take a photo of the backing fabric, but it is a forest of trees in an array of autumn colors. They gold thread blended in very nicely. So I guess you could say that these are reversible đŸ™‚
The Girls Get Creative 
Looks like you girl’s had a fun time!! Love how you got the “Molly” name too … know that Movie! & loved it too… How nice you got to spend time with your Mom too! & that you helped her get used to her new addition đŸ˜€ Knoooow GREAT Heart Memories were made too.
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