Hand quilting vs. Free motion machine quilting

There is always this fear of treading into new horizons. I'm very at home with hand quilting because you can do it anywhere and you are in full control of your stitching. Then I told myself I have to overcome the fear of machine quilting which actually looks very formidable and signed up for Anna's class last year when I went back to Malaysia. Forever ambitious, I thought I'd try it out on the borders of my hand quilted single comforter.

As with anything new, practice makes perfect. I'm rather fastidious and won't settle for anything less. So it was first try, unpick, second try, unpick, third try.....you get the picture. 

I bought some basic equipment to make the free-motion quilting easier.

(1) A wide table for my sewing machine

(2) A quilting foot

With the leftover material, I came up with 2 cushions

Having completed the quilt, I still wanted to do more free motion quilting, so I made a plastic bag dispenser. I stuff all the plastic bags into this bolster looking thing and hang it up. The bottom is scrunched together by elastic. Plastic bags can be pulled from the bottom when needed.