Quilt Accompli

Outside of the very amateur machine quilting (I wonder if using quilting thread in the machine will help with the thread breakage... hmmmm), I think this Pinwheel Baby Quilt turned out very well indeed. I love the primary colors (Moda Summer Fun Charm Packs) set against the white. The border fabric was purchased locally but it matches very well (only missing some orange in the mix). This quilt is going to my good friend Melanie's first grandchild.

All I need to do is put a label on, but I've run into a snag.My sewing machine is a Viking 6690, which was state of the art amazing when I bought it back in the early '80s. It was one of the first computerized sewing machines- you could program in words and letters, and do fancy sewing and everything with it. I sort of outgrew the thread letter writing excitement, but it occurred to me that would be a great way to make quilt labels. Problem is, I can't find the manual, and I can't remember how to program the words into the machine. I tried for over an hour last night, but could only get it to sew 1 letter, repeatedly, not sequences of letters (and it's only letters, no numbers, so I'm going to have to date it in Roman Numerals). I did an extensive search online last night for 6690 manuals but they only seem to be available for money, and I don't want to spend money if I can help it (well, I love to spend money, but not $10 for a paragraph on how to get the machine to write words). Any of you have this machine and remember how to program it? I would be eternally grateful for any hints.

I'm not quite ready to tackle the Figgy Pudding quilt yet (though I do have the fabrics- fall tree colors, rather than Christmas shades, with a lighter background), and I need more practice with the machine quilting, so I used both the Moda Hannah and Simplicity charm packs to assemble another pinwheel baby quilt. The Hannah and Simplicity color lines are very similar, with the Hannah being a bit more muted, so I was able to blend squares from both packs. I wanted to experiment further with Bunny's triangle sewing method- and boy is that slick. I put the whole quilt top together last night. This one is much more pastel and girly and the pinwheel effect is more subtle than the first, and it would have been a bit more effective with a solid color border, but I wanted to use up some fabrics that I had in the stash (for about 5 years). I do like it the way it is, even knowing that it could have been more striking.

My problem with this quilt is that I would like to hand quilt it, but I need more practice with the machine quilting, so I will probably do that (and put together another bag for hand quilting- I have a long Christmas list, I'll wear through my fingers before I run out of recipients).