Tag: sewing

Time to get busy quilting

July 7, 2024
Quilting a quilt using a sewing machine.
Machine quilting my jelly roll race quilt in using an elongated wavy stitch pattern.

It’s hot outside. I can’t think of a better way to keep cool than to spend afternoons in my basement sewing space diligently chipping away at the pile of tops needing to be quilted. The pictured quilt is a version of the Jelly Roll Race 2 quilt using one of three Liberty of London jelly rolls I purchased from Mostly Mutts Marketplace back in April. I have two more tops to quilt made from the remaining jelly rolls. Each quilt top is a different design, but all three will share the same backing and binding fabrics. This one was quilted using my walking foot and the long, curvy stitch 99 on my Janome 8900. The other two will provide me with some much needed FMQ practice. All will be donated to my guild’s community service partners.

At the last community service sew day, one of my bee group members presented me with a floral charm pack and challenged me to see what I could do with it without spending any money. My personal challenge has been to make donation quilts using existing stash, fabrics procured from the free table or given by friends as much as possible. Here’s a disappearing 4 patch based off something I saw on Pinterest. It uses the floral charm pack, along with some batiks and white background from my stash. It’s now also ready for quilting. I didn’t spent any money on the top, but I did buy backing fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby.

Quilt top in a disappearing four patch design
Disappearing four patch quilt design inspired by a photo found on Pinterest!

Personally, I’m on a mission to complete the half-done quilt tops and get the stack of completed tops quilted ASAP. Larger quilt tops will be sent to a long armer and I’ll do the rest myself (practicing various FMQ motifs learned in class). At the moment, I have no plans to replace my Janome 8900, as my system of piecing on a FW or small Elna and reserving the 8900 for borders and machine quilting seems to be working well.

Hack: Making Baby Lock snap on presser feet work with a Janome top loading machine

June 30, 2024

Janome, Singer and Brother manufacture sewing machines for other companies. It’s a common practice in the sewing machine industry. I can always spot a machine made by Janome due to the slightly offset presser feet and the distinctive gray plastic needle plate in less expensive top loading machines. Singer and Brother tend to make machines designed for true center-needle presser feet (not offset like Janome).

My Elnita EC30 and Baby Lock’s Joy and Zeal share the same needle plate and presser feet (all made by Janome). Baby Lock markets an accessory set with a “specialty ankle” that allows these Janome made (Anna, Molly, Joy and Zeal) machines to use more of the Baby Lock snap-on feet. Baby Lock makes an awesome Quilt Binding Foot that I’ve been able to make work using a 5mm width Janome shank on my Elnita EC30 and Elna STAR, but this really sparked my curiosity. I just had to see this “specialty ankle”.

It meant I had to buy a 7 piece foot kit, but I’m glad I did. The “specialty ankle” is a standard Baby Lock snap-on shank that’s hollowed out to allow for the offset in the Janome presser bar. If you have a Brother-made Baby Lock machine, you’ll be able to use most of your snap-on feet with your Janome 5 mm width machines with this specialty ankle. I cannot vouch for the 7mm width top loading Janome machines as I do not have one of those models to test.

Pick up one of these 7 piece foot kits for the Baby Lock Anna, Molly, Joy and Zeal:

They are $15-$20 online and $30 at a dealer. This is the only way I’ve found as a sewing machine enthusiast to get the special shank needed to use the Baby Lock Quilt Binding Foot (and others) with my 5mm width Janome machines. Having this shank also opens the doors to potentially more center needle snap-on presser feet (Amazon, MadamSew), which are usually available at a much more reasonable price.

We need someone to come up with a 3D printer file for this screw on presser foot shank. Just sayin’.

Have you discovered hacks to make your sewing machine feet more interchangeable?

A Quilter’s Tour – Self-guided edition

June 25, 2024

Missouri Star Quilt Company (aka Disneyland for Quilters)
Missouri Quilt Museum
Jamesport Amish Community (about 30 miles north of MSQC)
Iowa Quilt Museum and Piece Works Quilt Shop in Winterset, Iowa (home of original Fons & Porter store)
John Wayne Birthplace and Covered Bridges in Madison County around Winterset, Iowa
Omaha Quilt Show
International Quilt Study Center & Museum

Last week, I took my sister-in-law on her quilty bucket list trip. We met in Kansas City and spent 5 days visiting parts of Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. Our favorite parts of the trip were the Missouri Quilt Museum, our day in Winterset, Iowa and the International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln. She flew Southwest with a an empty suitcase inside of her main suitcase so she could take all of her “treasures” home. Both suitcases returned home filled to the brim! I flew Delta with a carry-on, but shipped the non-quilty purchases I made at the Amish store home via USPS. Helpful hint: if you spend $60 at MSQC during your visit, it will ship to your home free. Merely go to the main store and tell them you want to start a box. You can stop by and add purchases to the box throughout the day.

This was not my first trip to MSQC, but it’s always fun to see it through a first-timer’s eyes. Unless there’s a special event, a full day to explore the MSQC shops and visit the Missouri Quilt Museum is plenty of time for your visit. We stayed at one of the “recommended” hotels in Cameron. It was okay, but I’d suggest Liberty or Chillicothe if you prefer something besides very basic accommodations.

Winterset is a lovely town and the scenery was so pretty during our drive over from MSQC. There’s definitely enough to do to fill an entire day if you want! The Iowa Quilt Museum is a beautiful facility and the exhibit was well-done. Piece Works Quilt Shop is literally a block long and packed full of anything a quilter would ever need. I succumbed to the quilt in the window. It was the fabrics that pulled me in. I did a double take when the shop owner showed me the actual pattern used to make the quilt. The cover quilt was made in browns and grays. No way would I have purchased this one off the spin rack.

Omaha was crowded due to the College Baseball Championships being held this past week. The highly touted quilt show was just so-so and we’re both glad we decided to take the side trip to Winterset instead of spending the entire day at the quilt show and shop hopping Omaha as originally planned.

The International Quilt Study Center & Museum is always fabulous. Go on a weekday and not during lunchtime if you want to see all the behind the scenes action. Feedsacks and Sue Spargo were our favorite current exhibits. Of course, we visited a couple of recommended quilt shops – Cosmic Cow and Calico House.


Make out your quilty travel bucket list and get busy visiting all those places you’ve wanted to see while you still can. Life is short. You never know when a health issue will impact your ability to travel.