Quilt Quilted....New Toy for Cat....

Wondering where I have been? I finished some projects that had been laying around, mostly mending, and then I spent time for the last several weeks working on my quilt - and now I can tell you the first free motion quilt I have done, in fact the first quilt I have made at all, is finished except for binding. I will put the project of the binding on hold until after Summer much loved family visits and after a few weeks practice again.  There may be room to sew a skirt and maybe even a shirt in that time period.  In other news, the Vermont Quilt Festival came around again, and the two days were a whirl of fun, class and spending,oh dear, I mean judiciously choosing of necessities. I did purchase the Quilter's tool called the Fabulous Fabric Guide  and instead of buying thread at the Superior Threads booth, I bought the thread cards for Masterpiece and King Tut. Who knows what color thread I will want next project, so this lets me hold actual thread next to fabric - I love the cards.

As you may know I have been looking at sewing machines for some time now because the two things I wanted if I ever spent on another machine were more harp space and faster speed, and a knee lift. The knee lift is just so handy. 

I had been following the dropping price on the Brother 1500S at AMAZON, and it had dropped pretty low when I found a really good price on a Janome MC6300.  I am so glad I bought the MC6300 Professional from Janome. The accessories are plentiful, and the fact that it comes with a large acrylic extension table is frosting on the cake. I have it in a Gidget II Arrow table. I don't need more stitches than the 6300 has, and I don't need the other additions of the other machines in the line. My Viking more than has all the extras I need for any type of garment or utility sewing. The 6300 is going to take some time to totally test out and sewing several projects is for the next several months. After all that I'll review it on PatternReview. Meanwhile, here is an excellent review from another site! Janome MC6300P Review            

Quilt '93 Moves Forward...

I have had some help with my quilt as you can see. This is at the pinning stage. Pearl helped me by keeping the quilt on that table. This is the first quilt I have pinned, but true to my first teacher, Sue Nickels, and then Leah Day and the rest of the good online resources I have read, I pinned the heck out of the quilt sandwich. That time investment really pays off I can tell you now. In between sewing up the straight lines I am running top to bottom down the lines of geese, I fold it up and Pearl sleeps on it on the sewing table - that way the quilt won't escape. Little by little, in the evenings, I have been completing the straight lines. Not perfect by any means, but I am enjoying the sewing very much. I do use the smooshing method rather than carefully rolling the quilt - it is just more my style. I am so glad my Pfaff has a large harp area, and the walking foot now called IDT. So very used to good feed top and bottom by having IDT all these years. Straightening the whole quilt sandwich and keeping it moving smoothly requires stopping quite a bit, removing pins, and making sure all is smooth under the quilt as it moves through. And my space is cramped, but I am used to that anyway, so it's really not a problem for me. I am thankful for the years of sewing experience that allow me to keep watch on 1. the fabric feed, 2. the positioning of the quilt, and 3. the sound and flow of the machine as it goes along. Being able to hear the changes can save you some troubles. The one thing I would love is to know when my bobbin is low, but that is a problem for all types of sewing when you have a vertical bobbin. And, I have been known to not check a horizontal bobbin as well, so that doesn't always do me any good either! In the pictures you might have spotted the Superior Threads Thread Stand. A wonderful gadget. I have an inexpensive thread stand I picked up at JoAnn's years ago, but the edges were a bit rough - yes, really! Not a good thing with thread running across it. So I thought why not go all the way and get this really flexible item from Superior. It can be used many ways, and made to work for my C&C thread I am using now as well. I think I am going to get a lot of use out of it. Meanwhile I did purchase a Sew Slip as well, but haven't had a lot of love for it. I had to remove it to get a visual on the bobbin area of my machine when I ran out of thread last week one night. I wanted to move the Sew Steady Table away so I could do the bobbin, and the Sew Slip made that process worse, so I just rolled it on up and put it away for now. I will try it later on again. Meanwhile, back at the proverbial ranch, I have ordered a Sew Steady table for my Janome 8050 because sometimes I am going to want to place it in the table and use it for free motion. For example, when I get my Pfaff out and take her in for servicing.

Tiny quilt made from sample effort at Free Motion. I see I really need to study up on binding. I used pre-packaged wide bias tape and I just couldn't seem to get it to miter the corners. SO - the other piece I made I sewed strips on each end, then on the sides and then tucked in the corners, and made two other sample pieces into a cat pad. The cat loves it, so that is sufficient gratification for now. Imagine me even putting this picture up. Being brave. I love the Seattle fabric I got at Hancock's in Seattle a few years back. Next is to scope out a Lutterloh pattern for some summer pants and get my quilt quilted.

Place Mats Are Fun...

Another set of place mats. This one took a long time to finally get done. Other projects interjected themselves into my schedule and other interests got in the way, but finally the Italian/French set is done. I enjoyed the fabrics in this, both of which were designer cottons gotten at the now defunct local fabric shop. I really liked doing the free motion on these. I used Coats & Clarke cotton thread, and used that on both top and bottom on my Pfaff. The Pfaff lets me use heavier threads in the bobbin as well, whereas the Janome and the Viking do not like heavier threads in the bobbin. I see that the picture looks like the chili patterned mat has double binding or something, but there are three placemats in a pile there on top of the French wines fabric side on the fourth one! I made four. I find that four is fine for our family, and if there are more folks than that I put on a table cloth instead!