Archive for the ‘Quilting’ Category

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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!

Posted in Babylock, Embroidery, Janome, pillowcase dress, Quilting | Leave a Comment »

A Day’s Work

June 15, 2011

Since having surgery my days work can sometimes be finished by 9 a.m.! That is how it is today. Yesterday I went to town which is a huge thing these days since I don’t get out much. Anyway, yesterday I went to the fabric store to return the fabric cutter that doesn’t work and then went to visit the school that I work at. I thought I was arriving at school during an assembly with the hope that I would see only a few people, but the assembly had not begun, so I ended up being barraged with kids and staff! It was nice, but I did get a bit tired. Then I went to my doctors appointment and to the grocery store. It was a long day of being out, but I felt pretty good and got along walking better than I had anytime before. But, I was worried that I would pay for it today and perhaps I will! I got up at 7 a.m. and had my coffee, let my bones rest sitting up a bit ate my breakfast, then went to work since I think my daughter is coming down to do some embroidery and I had some embroidery to do before she arrived! At this point (now 9:30 a.m.) I have finished the dress I posted yesterday (forgot to embroider on the top of the dress…looks much better now!), got a roast, potatoes, and carrots in the crock pot to cook for dinner, embroidered a quilt label and got it ready to ship out! Now it is time for a rest! I may spend the rest of my day planning my next pillowcase dress sitting in my easy chair.

Here is the quilt label I made today:

Sorry my pictures are not coming out as good as they used to…my camera is in my car and I have used my phone to take the pictures…obviously not a high quality camera!

Posted in electric cutter, Embroidery, pillowcase dress, Quilting | Leave a Comment »

Granddaughter Dilemma

June 14, 2011

Having 4 granddaughters presents a bit of a dilemma. As I wrote a bit ago I have decided to try making Pillowcase Dresses. Well, when you have so many granddaughters it is difficult to make something like that without making multiples! This presents a dilemma because when Olivia saw the first pillowcase dress she immediately claimed it…she called me a few days after I showed it to her and her mother and she said to me “grandma, do you have my dress finished?” Well, what can I do???? So I guess dress # 1 is Olivia’s. Then there is Brenna….she is the same size a Olivia and I so wanted to try the dress (Olivia’s) on Brenna last weekend to see how it actually looks on a child, but if I did that then Brenna would claim the same dress. And the last thing I want is MORE competition between two 5 year old girls! So now I have spent days trying to get the embroidery machine working as I know the mothers of my other 2 granddaughters want a dress for their girls too! I now have finished dress # 2, but it as I said took days to make as the issue of thread breaking caused me to spend hours trying to get the embroidery to work. Here is a picture of that dress:

This dress is the one that I had trouble with the green thread.  I think it came out nice in spite of all the frustration.  Once I get all the dresses done for the granddaughters then I can make one to put in my etsy store!

Posted in Embroidery, pillowcase dress, Quilting | Leave a Comment »

It will work this week

June 13, 2011

I have several things to talk about today.  One of them is the frustration I have had in making my second pillowcase dress!  Of course the second dress is not made due to those frustrations.  I have a 4 needle embroidery machine which is very nice…I can put 4 colors of thread on it and let it go with the embroidery.  The embroidery design I am using for the second dress has 5 colors in it and the color #1 is a shade of green that I would describe as between green and teal.  It is beautiful and I assumed that the spool I had was one of the best threads I could use.  But, low and behold, I was constantly re-threading my needle.  The thread continuously shredded every few stitches.  This is very frustrating and annoying.  Of course, there are several things that can cause shredding of the thread, so I tried everything I could think of such as changing the needle, turning the thread over, running floss through the thread track, etc.  I thought I had done everything to stop the thread shred, but no.  Just more frustration.  Then the fact that I didn’t have the same color thread in a different brand meant I had to wait to go to a fabric store to get another color.  So I gave up for a few days.  I finally got to the fabric store on Friday, but did not have a chance to test out the new thread until Sunday afternoon.  But the first thing that happened was that the thread shredded!  Boy I am going to give up on this design if the new thread does this same thing!  But I found that the thread had been caught in spring thus shredding it!  So, I am optimistic that this will work this week!  My plan is to have 2-3 pillowcase dresses finished by the weekend!  Wish me luck!

The other thing I want to talk about is the danger of taking a husband to the fabric store.  Not only is it distracting to see him seemingly bored and just wandering.  This causes a person to think they need to hurry up and get him out!  Well, before we got out of the store he discovered this machine that could cut fabric and was electric!  Looked nice, and boy was the price right.  It was a $90 machine marked down to $25.  Now really, that should have been a clue that something was wrong, but he seemed so excited and he picked it up and said “happy anniversary”.  Well, this is not quite what I wanted for my anniversary, but it was just kind of cute that he thought he was getting me the best gift he could find!  I think he has a hard time figuring out what to get me sometimes!  Anyway, we bought the machine and a table to fit around it that was also marked down dramatically.  I didn’t have a chance to use the machine until Sunday afternoon, so I was anxious to see how well it would cut fabric.  I pulled it out and plugged it in, stepped on the foot pedal, and ran a piece of fabric through it.  It did nothing!  So, I went back to the 1 page instruction that was included with the unit and discovered that I needed to tighten a screw.  So I found the flat head screwdriver and set about tightening it.  Now I run another piece of fabric through and it came out looking like a perforated piece of paper.  So I was able to pull the pieces of fabric apart, but should I have to do that with a fabric cutter???  So back to the instruction paper and tightening the unit again, but when I turned the screw to tighten it I watched it turn itself back!  That isn’t good.  So I tried and tried and got nothing but perforated fabric!  So to the computer I went to look up information about this fabric cutter and what did I find?  13 bad reviews!  and 3 good reviews!  This is not encouraging to me at all.  All the “bad” reviews stated the same issues I was having.  It seemed to be more work than it should be to cut a piece of fabric!  So, I packed it back up in the box and will return it to the store and hopefully get my money back.  Wish me luck!  And don’t fall for too good to be true bargains!

Posted in Adventure, electric cutter, Embroidery, pillowcase dress, Quilting | 1 Comment »

After Effects of Surgery

May 30, 2011

4 weeks ago I had back surgery.  Since then I have been “taking it easy” and conjuring up many projects.  It is making me anxious as I want to get busy, but just don’t have the energy to make all the ideas come to fruition!  But, I have accomplished a few.  One of the bad parts of having to sit around idle is that I have had more time to sit and order things online!  I put in an order for aprons and can wraps.  I attempted to order some cafe koozies too, but found them to be very hard to find.  I can find all kinds of neoprene koozies, but I like the insulated fabric koozies and had found them last year at Bag Works.  This was very frustrating, so I resorted to making my own.  I am very pleased with the outcome!  Please watch for a Deb’s Sewing Room Etsy store coming soon!

                          

Posted in Embroidery, Quilting | Leave a Comment »

More Aprons

May 18, 2010

I am making more aprons for our school greenhouse!  These are so fun to make.

City School Greenhouse Apron

Posted in Embroidery, Quilting | Leave a Comment »

Quilt top

May 16, 2010

Red, White, & Black Quilt

I just finished the quilt top! I really like this quilt.

Posted in Embroidery, Quilting | Leave a Comment »

A Sneak Peak

May 14, 2010

I have had a difficult time deciding on a quilt pattern and fabric for my next quilt. I make some blocks from a pattern that my daughter had used a few times with great success. I was not satisfied with the outcome of my attempts. I tried one using some fat quarters I had laying about. They were all in shades of purple. I wasn’t terribly unhappy with the outcome, but the shades were not contrasting enough to have the effect that I wanted in the block, and since I did not have enough of those particular fat quarters to complete a quilt I decided to try something different. So, taking the same pattern, I tried some other fabric I had. I wanted to use 3 colors, but the fabric I used for the 2nd block were not coordinating enough, so that one was out! I guess I am just plain too picky. But, I have always wanted to make a red, white and black quilt, so my quest began for fabric for a quilt using those colors. I went to a quilt shop to look for fabric, but leaving my husband in the car waiting for me always makes it difficult to shop for fabric. I did find 2 fabrics that caught my eye. One was black with white flowers and the other was white with a smattering of red and black flowers. I looked and looked, but could not find a 3rd fabric that would go with those two, so I gave up for that day. I still had not decided what pattern I would use, but was determined to go home and find a 2 fabric quilt pattern. Well, I still could not decide on a pattern, so thought perhaps just a solid red would work. I had a little bit of red fabric and it looked ok with the other fabric and of course a rail fence patter always looks great! So, off to the quilt shop again (a different one this time) I went the next day. I looked and looked, found one fabric that caught my eye, but I didn’t think the texture was what I was looking for and of course the red fabrics were not the “right” shade of red…there seem to be so many shades of red that it seemed I should be able to match it, but couldn’t. So, I found a fabric that would work and was waiting to get it cut when I looked up and low and behold there was a quilt block using the first fabric that I had been drawn to and I really liked that fabric. So, I decided to get that fabric since it would not go to waste as I would find something to make out of it. Well, here is a sneak peak at what I have created with the 3 fabrics.

Sneak Peak

Posted in Embroidery, Quilting | Leave a Comment »

Busy Times

May 8, 2010

Apron for City School Greenhouse

We are in our last 24 days of school for students, 31 days of work for me. Why do schools try to pack everything into the last 2 months? After dealing with middle school students with spring fever, I get pretty exhausted by the end of the week, so really look forward to weekends! My weekends are reserved for my embroidery and quilting! That is my relaxation. This week I finished a quilt, designed an apron for our greenhouse teacher, created a label for a co-worker who is making a banner for the high school drama department. All these things keep me going! Now I have my next quilt planned, so will begin cutting fabrics this weekend. It is one that I will make out of my current stash of fabric, so hopefully it will turn out as imagined in my mind!

Quilt May 2010

Posted in Embroidery, Quilting | Leave a Comment »

Help!

August 23, 2009

Shortly after my mother-in-law passed away 4 years ago I was given several quilt blocks that had been completed by some unknown ancestor.  These blocks were all hand stitched and are quite beautiful.  I purchased a couple of pieces of material to hopefully put these blocks together with, but have been hesitant to do the job (or lack motivation to do it).  I am a bit concerned as I DON’T HAND STITCH ANYMORE THAN I HAVE TO!  Will I ruin the hand stitched blocks by using machine stitching to finish them?  How about the final quilting?  Please give me suggestions.  I don’t want to ruin all of these blocks that had to have taken a lot of work to make.  Please help me with this as I am certain that my father-in-law would like to see the finished quilt soon.

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Posted in Quilting | 4 Comments »

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