Recently in Sewing Category
My dad is not the only creative person in my parents house. While my dad works on his wood working projects, my mother does a lot of things with her sewing machine. This time, however, she did something with my sewing machine! Since she's never worked with a Bernina before, she wanted to do a small project to try out my machine. That little project was something I got to take home with me to celebrate my entry into sewing: a turtle pincushion in Hawaiian print fabrics that my mother has collected -- some of which were even purchased on her recent trips to the Big Island.
I picked three fabrics, all with a hibiscus motif. The pattern itself is a nice simple pattern where the turtle is supposed to have a quilt-pieced shell. However, since time was of the essence (we really only had Sunday afternoon) and there are many fun stitches to play with on my sewing machine, Mom decided to try a different approach -- the blue fabric and the purple fabrics are actually connected via some fusable interfacing and then stitched onto the body using a decorative stitch to help mimic a patchwork seam. Pretty clever, I thought! And to think all I did while I was in Ann Arbor was work on my second Sprung sock and played with my new walking foot for my sewing machine!
He still needs a little embellishing -- but I'm fresh out of fun googly eyes, so that will have to wait until my next trip to JoAnn's. In the meantime, I still have a great new little buddy to help hold my pins while I sew.
* The turtle is sitting on a little gift brought back from Hawaii for Ms. Z -- her first bib and burp cloth set and first official gift from her grandparents. Yes, we do like the turtles in my family. And, yes, I think my parents are a little excited about the upcoming grandbaby...
While there's never a substitute for good technique, having good tools isn't such a bad thing, either. One of the things that became readily apparent as I was working on my quilting projects in class was that a nice sewing machine really does make a project go more smoothly. I worked on my first quilt project with my mom's travelling machine, a Husqvarna Romeo. Romeo is a fine machine, but he was lacking a few things that make quilting easier -- which is my way of saying that I got spoiled by the nice machines that Colette has available in the Quiltology sewing workshop and started jonesing for one of my own.
For my birthday, my dear sweet husband told me that I could go pick out a new video iPod of my choice. But I started my quilting classes before I got to the Apple store and I asked him if I could invest in a different sort of hardware. I think I traded on options for anniversary and Christmas presents as well in order to be able to ask Colette to order a Bernina Activa 230 Patchwork Edition for me, but I think it's well worth it. This machine has some lovely things on it that make it perfect for quilting, but it's also an excellent general purpose machine that will be great for other home dec and garment projects. I love that it has a nice pre-programmed stitch library, which means that it can do applique work and some fancy embroidery stitches, and I can purchase the walking foot if I decide I want to quilt my own quilt projects with it.
This machine has lots of room for me to grow into. Truth be told, it's probably more machine than a newbie quilter ought to be investing in. But almost everyone I talked to who had a sewing machine of their own suggested that I wouldn't regret getting a machine a step or so above what I thought I needed. And from what I understand of Berninas, they are the sort of machine that can last a sewer, if not a lifetime, then at least a good long time.
So now I don't have any excuse for not getting all my 9 patches pieced together before my next class!
P.S. I just installed a new plug in to help with the annoying comment spam problems that I've been having. So far it seems to be doing a good job of blocking some of the crap that was hitting my site. It should be invisible to anyone who leaves me a comment, but if you suddenly start to have problems, please drop me an email (email address in my sidebar). I'm hoping that between this plugin and another one that helps me shut off the comments on old posts, none of us will have to see any more stupid "G'night" comments or advertisements for financial services, pharmeceuticals or pornographic materials.
Sometimes I have the distinct pleasure of getting to show off something that someone else has made. I would love to be able to take credit for this lovely fabric box, but instead I must give my Mom a big round of applause. While my Dad and I were making beer (more on this later in the week) or working on Sudoku puzzles together over Father's Day weekend, Mom was working on getting very neat box finished up for me to take home. It's very fun to have crafty parents!
This box was constructed with two fabrics that I bought during the last trip to Ann Arbor. I found it in the "kids" section of the quilting store and I love the bright and happy yarn ball print contrasted with the yellow fabric with the running black stitch. Mom made the box edging red to give it a little extra zing. And it gets it's structure from some very thick interfacing.
Want to take a look inside?
This 6-sided box is lined with more of that great yarn ball print. I haven't quite decided what I am going to put in it yet. I think it might be nice for holding a sock project or keeping some of my knitting notions that are getting scattered across my work room. It's got enough structure to actually be useful.
Where did this little project come from? How can you get one of your very own? Well, if you're handy with your sewing machine, you can pick up a copy of this book:
It gets mixed reviews on Amazon, and Mom also suggested that there were many ways to make the projects go together more smoothly now that she's completed one. There are lots of nifty boxes to choose from -- squares, pentgons, hexagons and a Chinese take out box. Yet another way to use up some of that fabric stash if you have one!
