Less Coordination is Required

I had my first Bernina for 20 years. It was good to me and I was good to it. Then one day I heard about the Bernina Stitch Regulator or BSR as those of us 'in the know' refer to it. 

 

For free motion quilting, the BSR takes over the speed of the machine to match how quickly the quilt top is moved under the needle. That means for those of us who are lacking a bit in coordination (that was politely stated, wasn't it?), we wouldn't have to worry about coordinating the pressure on the foot peddle with the movement of the fabric. Ah ha! What's not to like with that concept.

So I went online to look at the BSR and found it was not compatible with my machine (i.e., my Bernina was too old) (once again, politely said). My Bernina was dependable  so it was hard to justify a new machine. Until...

I went to a Ricky Tims/Alex Anderson/Libby Lehman 2-day program that was hosted by Bernina. Guess what...machines were 25% off. A DEAL! I love deals. Hmmmm, but do I need two machines? Would they take a trade in? YES they would! Okay quick call to my husband to fill him in and off I went to get my new Bernina QE440. (We don't call them 'sewing machines', they are "Bernina".) (La Di Da as Diane Keaton said in Annie Hall.)

So now onto the BSR...It attaches like a presser foot and has an attachment that hooks up into the machine.  When I went to my first class, I learned to look into the reflection of the underside of the machine and the attachment goes into the area where there is a green glow. 

 

 

It's not as hard as it sounds. When women put the bobbin into a Bernina 830, they have to use a mirror with a handle kind of like dentist's use to see where to insert it!

The BSR comes with three different attachments. One is like the darning foot most of us are used to using for free motion quilting, the other is open toed, and the third is a clear round disk. This last one is nice if there are loose threads and I don't want the open toe foot to catch on them. Also, it's easy to see where I've been and where I might want to go next since it's clear.

 

There are two settings for the BSR. One will stop the needle from going up and down when I stop moving the quilt top. The other setting keeps the needle going up and down even when I stop moving the fabric. I find this setting easier to use.  The other one  was really jerky. Maybe with more experience I'd be happy with it.

Once the BSR is nestled in the machine, drop the feed dogs, unhook the foot peddle, hit the BSR button and I'm off to the races. Am I great at free motion yet? "No" would be the answer but at least I can concentrate on what I see in front of me and not worry about how fast I'm going with the foot peddle. There is hope for me yet so out comes the quilt sandwich and practice, practice, practice!