Back & Busy

Well it was an eventful weekend. My oldest son turned 4 and we painted pottery for his birthday.












I got my sewing room semi-clean in anticipation of my new machine and my parents visit.



















And I managed to finish a new purse of my own design for my friend's up coming birthday this Sat.










































A busy and eventful weekend. As for the machine I chose. I went with a Babylock Quest Plus machine.
It is wonderful. It came with 15 feet, 383 stitches and is so very quite. Perfect for a sewer with young children. And since I already own two other Babylocks I benefit from an easy foot exchange. I still love the Pfaffs but this was a better value for the money and Oh I completely forgot to mention. My wonderful loving husband offered to buy it for me. We aren't a couple that is big on gift giving and in fact we rarely buy each other anything as we have just never found that to be important. So aside from my engagement ring this is the only real gift he has ever given me. And I have to say it is the best and I love it. Not getting gifts at every occasion really makes the surprise ones very special indeed.

Read more...

Another Hits the Dust

Okay, I am going to finally admit this to myself. I am very hard on sewing machines especially lower end models. I have a very nice high end embroidery/sewing machine, a nice serger and really cheap everyday sewing machine that I use about 80% of the time on my projects and well it seems that about every two years the cheap one totally dies on me. One year I paid 175 dollars twice to fix this Janome that I loved and then after it died for the third time, I bought a Singer from Walmart. Well after battling for months with the Singer it died or not really, but I am giving up on it. I am just tired of dealing with the jamming bobbin and I don't think it is worth fixing. So I am in the market for a new cheap machine. I think I am upping my budget from 200 dollars to a max of 600 dollars. Hoping price buys a little more years of life. If you have any suggestion please let me know. Until then I probably won't be crafting to much. Just finishing up a few embroidery projects. Here is my final project on my singer. Some burp cloths that I will be monogramming for a friend. Got the idea from Digistitches.com.

Oh and if you're asking yourself why does she not just sew on her really nice machine. Well I am just terrified of messing it up. So I really only use it for embroidery and sometimes quilting. I am just too afraid of hurting it.

And on a final note as for my Fat for Fat update. I am down 5.6lbs in 5 weeks. So 1 lb a week. Not bad especially since the business trip I took two weeks ago set me back a few. I am going to wait until 6 lbs to reward myself. So I am on the look out for some great fabrics.

Read more...

Alexander Henry Animal Wizard Rain Coat

Another new jacket this one for my son. It still needs buttons and top stitching. I am not so sure about the pointy hood. I may change that part. I am hoping to sell a few different jacket styles this fall so I am in test drive mode currently.

Read more...

Purple Madness

I call this my Purple Madness Jacket. One of five I am working on for Christmas gifts. Each will be in a different fabric combo. Turned out pretty well for my first shot at it. Need to work on my top stitching though. Any suggestions on how to top stitch around little sleeves that won't fit on your machine? Maybe by hand....

and finally I was able to talk my reluctant 2 yr son into trying it on.

Read more...

Tip # 1: Post-its

Since I work for 3M and seem to have an abundance of Post-it notes around thanks to employee sales, I finally found a use for them. Quilt Layouts.

I am not lucky enough to own a felt board and even if I had one I have no space for it. So these post-it have come in handy for trying out various quilt layouts before I even sew a block.

I am currently trying out layouts for my Funky Christmas Quilt.

Read more...

Basic Bag

Using up my upholstery stash for a birthday surprise. I love quick projects.

One more from my quilting stash.

Read more...