Archive for the ‘Janome’ Category

New Design Board

June 28, 2011

I just spent a wonderful weekend with family, relaxing and enjoying the sunshine and visit!  Well, actually I just finished recuperating (I spent the first day back relaxing and doing nothing).  So today I got moving.  I forced myself to get out of bed earlier than I have been and actually making the most of the day.  I was determined to “accomplish” something today.  I had been eyeing a couple pieces of fabric that I had in my sewing room that would make some nice pillowcases, so that is what I was determined to do!  But, first I had to spend the first hour or so letting my body recuperate from the night’s sleep…have to sit in my chair and have a cup of coffee, then get off to the shower.  Then I was ready for work.  I pulled out the fabric and since I was not going to embroider these pillowcases I didn’t need to do much but cut the fabric and sew them together.  Not quite sure why this has taken me most of the day, but I do have to rest in between steps I guess.   Anyway, on to the title of this post.  Over the weekend my sister so kindly gave me a metal thing (I tried to call it a board), but it hangs on the wall and you can attach magnets to it and I thought when I saw it that I could attach items that I make to be photographed or I could use it for a design board for quilting, just need to use a magnet to attach things.  So Doug put it on the wall in my embroidery room and stuck the magnet things that she threw in with the deal.  I was anxious to get going on putting something on it to take a picture of , so here it is:

So, what I found was that the magnets were not as strong as I thought, so it took a lot of them to hold the pillowcase up.  Oh, by the way, this is one of the pillowcases that I made today.  I made a set of two, but will sell them separately if needed.  I will be posting these to my Etsy store.  As for the new design board, I believe I will need to find some very strong magnets to hold my designs!  But, thank you to my sister for the board!

Machines

June 20, 2011

I have several sewing and crafting machines in my house.  I have a mid arm quilting machine (Babylock Quilter’s Choice Professional), a sewing machine (Babylock Quilter’s Choice), a serger (Babylock Imagine), two embroidery machines (Janome MB 4 and a Brother Disney machine).  One of the things I sometimes forget until the machine tells me is that I need to clean and oil the machines!  My MB4 is often cleaned as I want to make sure my embroidery is perfect.  I was making my pillowcase dresses and using my serger.  I don’t use the serger all the time, but I do when I am sewing garments and whatnot.  When I was putting the dresses together I noticed a “sound” when it serged through the thicker portions of the garment.  The “sound” is hard to describe, but seemed odd to me, so I thought, hmmmm wonder if I should see if this thing needs some oil or new needles or something!  I know it does and I know I have not been good about doing it, but it has been getting a workout this spring with the dresses for the wedding and now these dresses.  These are just some random thoughts.

I love my machines.  I first got a White serger nearly 20 years ago!  I had a love/hate relationship with that machine!  It was extremely difficult to thread and seemed like the tension was always needing adjustment.  I finally got rid of it at a yard sale….big mistake.  I could have traded it in on the one I now have that I have a love relationship with!  If I don’t oil it I may develop a hate relationship, but I don’t think anyone could convince me that there is a better machine out there.  The reason is that threading it is a breeze (literally) and the tension is never out of sync!  The other machine I don’t think I will ever give up is my embroidery machine.  I truly love my machine and yes, I do wish I had one that had more heads to it (mine is a 4 head) but boy it does some beautiful embroidery and I cannot imagine a life with out it!

Just some weird random thoughts!  I guess I am trying to convey the fact that we need to take care of our machines and use them to their full potential!


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