Author: Teresa

Quilts, good books and dogs. Plus a cup of tea. Life is good.

Why I prefer sewing machines with top loading bobbins…

January 3, 2014

My 1950 Singer Featherweight aside, all of my machines use top loading bobbins – from Jewel (my Janome 6600) to my vintage Elna Carina. It’s not that I don’t like sewing machines with vertical/front loading bobbins, it’s just that, in my experience,  they can be super finicky and too easy for newbie stitchers to lose the separate bobbin case.

Santa brought my 7 year old niece a Hello Kitty sewing machine for Christmas (the green one that looks like the Janome 3128). Aunt ‘Resa (me) went out and purchased extra feet and accessories for said sewing machine.  I’d had a really positive experience with this machine in the snap bag class I taught this summer, so I thought it would be a good fit for my niece.

Not so fast.

The elves must have had a little too much spiked eggnog, because the machine did nothing but sew eyelashes on the underside of any seam we tried to sew when she came to my house for her first sewing lesson this week.  Little one had trouble loading the bobbin case and could not correctly reassemble the bobbin assembly if a thread got stuck.  After much frustration, I pulled out my Janome 5812 (a top load bobbin) and soon she was stitching merrily away.  She took that machine home with her and Aunt ‘Resa took Hello Kitty to the hospital.  Hello Kitty was deemed to need to need a new tension assembly and after consulting with her Dad, we decided decided the best course of action would be to return the defective Hello Kitty to sender (Target) and purchase a new machine – preferably with a top loading bobbin.

Given our budget of $200 or less and my desire to stick with a Janome product, we narrowed our choices down to the 5812, Jem Gold 660 and the MyStyle 100.  All three machines come with top loading bobbins and were within budget. Hancock’s actually had the 5812 on sale, but unfortunately this model has been discontinued and none of my local stores had one in stock.   The Jem Gold 660 is a sweet little machine, but my desire to have a fully adjustable zig zag stitch for machine applique won out over the automatic needle threader, so this meant I went home with the MyStyle 100.  If you are looking for a lightweight machine for travel or to take to classes and are on a budget, I’d give the MyStyle 100 some serious consideration.  Janome also makes machines for other sewing machine companies.  Baby Lock’s Anna sewing machine is identical to the Janome MyStyle 100.  Just another option in case you don’t have a Janome dealer nearby.

Mosaic T-Shirt Quilt Revealed!

December 27, 2013

mosaic tshirt quilt

FINALLY!

I can post a picture of the full-size mosaic t-shirt quilt I made as a Christmas present for my friend’s daughter, who is a Georgia Tech cheerleader.

The Too Cool T-Shirt Quilt by Andrea Funk was my inspiration for this quilt.  You can buy a copy of her book here if you want to DIY.  Be forewarned that this style of quilt is a LOT more labor intensive than a traditional grid-style t-shirt quilt.  That’s why they cost more (in case you are looking to hire someone to make it for your special someone).

How mine differs from the book:

~ Every bit of t-shirt fabric is backed with fusible interfacing.
~ Batting is Pellon’s Nature’s Touch, which has a soft hand.
~ Each block is individually quilted in a meander style (per customer’s request) with top thread color changed to mach the t-shirt.

A friend who makes t-shirt quilts like this on a full-time basis (she is a franchisee) warned me that the quilt would be extremely heavy to quilt because of the fusible interfacing.  It was.  I quilted it over a weekend and by Sunday afternoon, my hands were so sore from gripping the fabric that I could hardly write my name.  (Note to self:  remember this is why you prefer stadium/throw size and smaller quilts!)

I’m not going to give away any secrets in the book;  but one tip I will share is that if you think you’ll make more than one quilt in this style, it’s a great idea to invest in your own set of acrylic templates.  If you are like most quilters, you probably already have the square rulers in your stash (4-1/2″, 8-1/2″ and 12-1/2″ – perhaps the 16-1/2″ too).   I found a local supplier, Professional Plastics, who was willing to cut the remaining templates to size for me (about $50 including tax).   The templates were ready for pick-up the next day.

My end-of-year purchases included completing my set of templates for the mosaic style t-shirt quilt (so I can keep my other rulers separate) and a bolt of woven fusible interfacing (Pellon SF-101).  Another friend has promised to bring me a batch of sorority shirts  for me to make into a throw size mosaic t-shirt quilt when I return to work in January.

Baby Quilt Backings – Microfleece

December 14, 2013

Ever have what you think is a brilliant idea that definitely doesn’t work when it comes time to execute?

Well, that happened to me on a recent project involving backing fabric for a baby quilt.  The quilt top incorporated fussy cuts of different fleece fabrics the customer had supplied.  I thought it would be a great idea to use the leftover fleece as the backing fabric.  WRONG!  So, on to Plan B.

Due to a tight deadline, I had to shop my stash to come up with alternatives for the customer. She settled on a dark blue micro-fleece.  It’s a double-layer soft fleece that almost resembles velour.  It felt wonderful to my hand;  however it was reputed to be a true PITA to sew because it stretches so much.

I am happy to report that the micro-fleece sewed like a dream with only minimal stretching.  How’d I do that?

Machine:  Janome 6600

Stitch:  Straight,  3.0 length
Foot:  Accufeed/walking foot with open toe
Foot pressure setting:  #2 (I reduced the pressure by one number)
Needle:  70/10 or 80/12 Microtex
Thread:  Coats & Clark cotton covered polyester 35 weight machine quilting thread
Batting:  Quilter’s Dream 70/30 batting

I was also able to machine stitch the binding using the little Clover clips rather than my normal glue basting method.   No mess and no sticky fingers!

Perhaps the stars were in alignment, but this combination worked so well, I wrote the settings in the little notebook I keep by my sewing machine.  This little fleece is more expensive than the standard fleece you find in the stores, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for a sale.  I will definitely use this with other baby quilts.