Trying out the Juki

I suppose one way of dividing the world up would be to group people into those who have never heard of a JUKI, and those who have.  For the latter, a JUKI is a very fine mechanical sewing machine; it has no bells and whistles (fancy stitches) but it is known among quilters for its excellent stitches in piecing and free-motion quilting.  It is larger than most domestic sewing machines, with a bigger throat space (very helpful when one is working on a large quilt.)

I am continuing to practice free motion quilting, this time following suggestions from Ann Fahl's tutorial on SewCalGal's website.  The busy fabric makes the quilting harder to see, although I used a contrasting thread.  
 

 This 'ripple-stipple' and 'frond' are designs I learned from a class with Diane Gaudynski.  I was using pink thread for this practice session.

 Ann Fahl suggested loops and squiggles with little shapes like stars and hearts interspersed.  I was having a hard time not making jerky motions.  One must have 'slow hands' for this work. 

I was more comfortable with spirals.  This is the back of the work, where I had white thread in the bobbin.  

Ann Fahl freely crosses her lines of quilting; I am not entirely comfortable doing that.   

This shows the back of 'ripple-stipple' and the 'frond.'

 Loops meandering over the work.  Again, one is crossing the stitching lines.  I believe I will continue to avoid doing that, but this is an assignment.  See?  Sometimes I follow directions.  This was actually the first design I worked on, but my photos uploaded in reverse order.