I’m sorry for the gap in posts.  When comparing the Boston Marathon bombings with my longarm practicing, I felt my practicing wasn’t worth a comment.  However, to explain my absences, as I don’t want to bore you excessively, this is what I have been and will be working on:
It is the usual practice sandwich: muslin, batting, muslin.  This particular sample is the least expensive muslin I could find ($1.99 per yard) and inexpensive polyester batting ($35.00 for a rolled package).  In my quilts, I always use a natural material, generally cotton, but for practice cotton makes no sense as it is not cost efficient to trash it!  I make several runs through an entire muslin sandwich.  I have made three runs so far on this sample, each in a different colored thread so I can see my progression.  I am having a hard time co-ordinating the shifting of my feet with the movement of the machine.  Inevitably, I have to shuffle my feet when I am in the long curve, which I have not mastered.  There are moments when I feel as if I am practicing Tai Chi, slow and graceful, one with the machine.  The next moment I’m stumbling along.  I never thought there would be footwork involved with quilting! Nonetheless, I can see the improvement. This is supposed to be a scroll and leaf design, but it looks more like a whale’s tail to me.If you look at the blue stitching at the top of the picture, the curve shows you where I had to take a step when I was not one with my machine.  The black followed the blue and here I have mastered my step, if only temporarily.  So you see, not an exciting post, but it is about necessary work to be done.  Any suggestions to coordinate my footwork with my body, arms and machine is more than welcome!