Quilting with Cowboys

I have finished a quilt this week, but I can't show it to you.  And it involves this "Cowboy Hunk" fabric.  Nope, I'm not kidding -- but I can at least add that I didn't choose this stuff.  (If you must have some for yourself, you can find it on Equilter.com by searching "cowboy hunks."  I'm not kidding.  And you can even get it in different colorways.)

This coming week, I'll be off on my twice-yearly quilting retreat at the Bishop's Ranch.  A few years ago, we started doing a challenge for the spring retreat, and last April someone chose THIS cowboy fabric as the challenge fabric.  So our task was to use it in a quilt, any way we chose.  It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do, and I came up with an idea I love -- so I've been finishing that up and I'm delighted with it.  I can't wait for the reveal at the retreat, which will happen at the tail end of it all.

I'll show you the quilt when I'm back.

BUT I can say that I had some new and exciting adventures with my Bernina 830 which I am continuing to love.  I had a good experience sewing with monofilament thread on it, even sewing through fusibles with it which can be tricky on any machine.  I incorporated some lettering in the quilt which I machine embroidered, and figured out how to embroider a long sentence and make it all line up despite having to move the hoop.  So the whole thing was a fun experience, and isn't that what it's all about, after all?