Thursday, January 19, 2012

By the way... NEW Machine!

For Christmas, I received the most wonderful gift ever.....


My new beautiful Janome QDC4030!!!!
I had my old Brother machine for 12 years; the same machine sewed every curtain, every quilt, every costume for every show I've been in or costumed for the last 12 years. And that's a lot. And never a problem, it was a midlevel machine and did everything I asked it to....but alas, the quiltmaking was starting to prove too much. Tension was never right, no matter what, thread breaking, rough edges on the bobbin case, you name it. Wobbly seams, the works.

The End came when I was frantically sewing the final touches on Adult size Onesie Superhero Jammies (yep, Christmas gift, from the KWIK Sew pattern and they're supercute) and my Brother ATE the elastic fabric. Yep. Ate it. Right down thru the feed dogs past the point of no return. And....yep, you guessed it...the Tantrum commenced. With the yelling and the screaming and the throwing of the thread....and of COURSE that was the moment J decided to arrive home...aaaaand witnessed the Horrible Tantrum In Progress.

And that was that. Tears were dried, boots were put on, and off we went to the local mall. I thought, to distract me from the events. Nope. Went to the Singer store.....and ... there She was.

I absolutely LOVE her....she's not named yet...but My Precious keeps coming to mind...(not in a creepy way)!
I love her though, did I mention that??? Great stitch functions, ALL the feet I will ever need ( oh yeah...1/4 inch, walking, open toe, you name it) auto needle up/down, the COOLEST thing where i can UNPLUG the electric pedal and go foot free with the easy start/stop button, that's so neat. I love it.  Best of all, it sews a straight line. LAUGH.

I've got a few projects in progress, more later. I teach tonite, this semester we're taking on some SHAKESPEARE and gulp, SWORDFIGHTING!!!! Aiee. Fun though!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

My first WIP Wednesday of 2012!

I Did It!

I finished my Vintage-y Rail Fence queen sized quilt. I used several bits of Bunny Hill Designs mixed in with some fabrics I had and others whose names I don't remember (sorry!).

This is a custom order for a FABULOUS gal pal of mine for a gift for one of her equally fabulous gal pals.

Work in progress; the layout process. Too bad these pics don't do the colours justice

These colours are gorgeous; pinks, browns, creams, golds and blues

I FMQ'd in a big swirly pattern, bordered it with a nice print, backed it with a heavyweight cotton, white

And finished it off with caramel coloured binding!

Sewed on my BRAND NEW Janome QDC 4030 which I'm LOVING....this is probably the best quilt I've ever done...straight, even, edged....THANKS, Santa...it's PERFECT!

I've been kinda stalled on a lot of projects; INCLUDING getting really good pics up of all the baby quilts I did for the craft show, and some other pics of the various Christmas projects - little drawstring bags and my all time fav - adult Onesie Pyjamas...oh yeah. Hysterical. So awesome though...totally worth the cost! Stalled cuz I have a Very Painful tooth ...ouchie...yeah it needs a (shudder) root canal but first the meds...whee! Anyway. It's hard to sew with a throbbing molar.

Hopefully more sewing to come cuz I still have ONE MORE quilt to make...then...maybe I'll catch up on some personal UFOS. My scrap bin runneth over; and the Quilt Cave is still a disaster from the Christmas chaos.

Let's see; these are my WIPS:

Clean the Cave
Organize my fabrics & scraps
Purple Queen Quilt - to start
Finish MY rail fence - needs to be fixed and quilted
Take better pics of finished quilts
Sleep!


Have a great week everyone, I hope yours is happy and bright!