Quilting and more quilting...

Earlier this year, it became apparent that my beloved Activa 135 sewing machine of many many years was quite possibly getting ready for retirement.  This was voluntary on her part, but it soon became obvious to me that she was no longer capable of the physical demands I was putting her through.  I suppose it is possible to wear out a sewing machine although it does seem a bit unlikely, but I do put in about 20 hours a week on a busy week which equates to approx. 1000/year or 10000 hours over her lifetime.  Hmm, what is the lifespan of a home sewing machine anyway?  Luckily, hubby who is techno savvy managed to resuscitate her a few times over the past few months but finally I had to concede that she was no longer the youngin’ she used to be.  

Sadly, I replaced her – well kinda sadly but not too much ‘cause who doesn’t love a new sewing machine?!  Yeah, but I did feel kind of bad when she was relegated to the corner of the sewing room, sitting forlornly on the floor all packaged up by herself.  She served me well over the past decade.  She will go in for a full spa service treatment and hopefully she can retire to be used occasionally when the kids have sewing projects they want to do.   

So who/what did I replace her with you ask? Well here’s a peak at her younger sister.

 I have not yet put her through the paces but I will likely write a full review of this machine in a few months when I’ve tested her out thoroughly.  She didn't rest on her laurels for long, she proceeded immediately to free-motion quilting this stems quilt which had been awaiting some stippling.  The new machine came with the much touted BSR (Bernina stitch regulator) and so I gave that a thorough workout over the weekend with this new quilt. 

. Seems a bit strange to me that I didn't even test out all her stitches before diving into a huge quilting project, but that's what I did. Trial by fire I suppose. I decided to use this orange peel quilting pattern that  Elizabeth Hartman talks about in this post (inspiration taken from her new book).  Let me just say that while I like the results, I’ll never do that much quilting again – it took FOREVER and was quite labor intensive on even this relatively small lap quilt.
  
Yikes!!  But I did put the BSR through it’s paces, more on that later.

So I finished quilting the newly christened Scrappy Stems quilt over the weekend.    I do like the end result.  The Stems quilt is a pattern by Fig Tree and Co and can be found here.

That’s all for now. Happy Sewing!

Spring planting

The garden is springing to life finally.  My seedings are growing quite large.  See?!


;)

I'm basting on the patio today because the weather is so nice! That doesn't happen very often when you live in the rainy state of Oregon.

This quilt pattern is called Stems and is by Fig Tree and Co.  I love this design, so modern.  Reminds me a lot of Orla Keily designs which is probably why I like it so much.

I really wanted to do something kind of scrappy and use up a lot of my treasured Denyse Schmidt prints mixed in with some coordinating prints.  The background fabric is natural base cloth from Echino which is my go to fave sashing fabric.

So here it is! I love the way it's looking so far.  Now it's off to quilt once I figure out how I'm going to do that.

Happy Sewing!

Oh Snap block by Becky

As you know, I recently participated in the Sew Out Loud Quilt-along and there were quite a few  submissions for the twelfth and final block.  I thought some of those blocks were fantastic and deserved to be made available for other people to sew.  So I contacted fellow Oregonian, Becky of Solar Threads and offered to digitize her 'Oh Snap' design for her so you all could sew it as well. Ok I'll confess I wanted to sew it also. ;)

Here is her fabulous block design:

The final design will yield a block that is 12.5" square.  The pattern pieces for this block can be found here

The piecing guide is here.

Please NOTE that there is an error on the pattern pieces pdf.  Block H1 is incorrectly labeled and should be labeled H5.  If you assume there is no H1 and proceed from H2 you should be fine.  Also the cutting guidelines for some of the pieces seem to be wonkily off. Just add 1/4" seam allowance around each section when you are finished piecing it and you should be fine.  EQ7 is glitchy for me sometimes when running on the Mac through the virtual desktop.  I'm still working on this problem.

Prepare the sections in alphabetical order.  Starting with section A.
Make section B,  and the make C and attach them to each other - then attach that section to A. Set aside.
Make section D then E and attach them to each other.  Set aside.
Make F and then G and attach. Make H, then attach to FG.
Make I, then make J, then make K and attach J ->I ->K.  Then attach this whole section to HFG.
Make L then make M and attach to each other.  "SNAP!" is made.
Attach section N to bottom of word SNAP. Then attach section O to top of SNAP. Then attach "OH" section to top of SNAP.  Then attach sections ABC above OH SNAP words as shown in piecing diagram.
Then attach pieces P1 and Q1 and you are done!

Awesome block Becky! I can't wait to sew it up myself.  If any of you sew it up, please add it to the Sew Out Loud flickr pool we'ld all love to see it!


Happy Sewing!