Ode to Sewing Machines #47

Many of you follow my "Ode to the Sewing Machine" posts.  We've all seen the ads on craigslist, ebay and elsewhere.  The clueless sellers give those of us who sew a belly laugh, or two!  Just when I think I've made enough Ode to Sewing Machine posts, I see another "can't believe this one" and I have to share it with you. Here's installment #47!  

If you give this to your Mother you better run!

This one isn't even worth $20!!

A great set up

 I thought I'd share the way I iron seams when I'm piecing small pieces.  I've done this for years and it saves from having to get up and down going to the ironing board.  This Dritz mini iron is 19 years old.  I bought a new one 3 years ago thinking this one would conk out eventually.  But this one keeps working!  

I found a June Taylor mini press n' cut that fits nicely next to my machine.  I love this set up!  Unfortunately, they stopped making the mini press n' cut.  I found one on ebay and that's about the only place where you can find one now.

Christmas 2025 Drawing

Attention all clients!  I have a set of tools from Missouri Star Quilt Company I'd like to give away at the end of 2025.  Everyone who brings a quilt for longarming gets an entry, 1 entry per quilt brought during 2025. This is a high quality set of tools all stored away in a metal tool box.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!

Cute little bag

 I'm blessed to have several friends I meet with, send texts a few times each week and we get together once a month or so at a nice restaurant to catch up with each other.  Now that I've given these out, one to each of my friends, I can share this nice project.

I made each of them a Bitsy Box.  The pattern is by Ticklegrass Designs.  The Bitsy Box is a 2"x2" little bag that is perfect for storing Wonder Clips.  In fact, I filled the little thing with about 50 Wonder Clips before I gave them out.

If you're looking for a nice project to give as gifts, this one fits the bill.  They come together quickly due to their small size and are easy!

Embroidery Machine Upgrade

 I decided to upgrade to another embroidery machine with a larger hoop size.  I bought a Janome Memory Craft 500E embroidery only machine.  I've been getting to know it the last couple days and I really like this machine!  The largest hoop size is 8"x 11".  I have a couple projects to work on after the Christmas rush is over and both have larger embroidery designs in them.  Here is one of the designs, a double hooping creates this design:

I also worked on two quilt labels for a customer and I am very impressed with the quality of the stitching.  I made a good decision getting this machine.

 

Update: January 10, 2025

I finished the top!  Here's the photo... it still needs to be longarmed.  I am getting back into the swing of things after taking a 4 week break from my longarming business.  I do this every year after the Christmas rush is over and I spend the time piecing and sewing for myself.  I'm impressed with the digitizing on this design.  It doesn't look like it was machine embroidered, it actually has a hand embroidered look.  The person who digitized it didn't use a running stitch but rather a tiny zigzag like stitch.  The name of the kit is Snow Happens.

Under my needle

 Winter has finally arrived in NC.  On this cold Sunday this is under my needle.  I began it last night and plan to finish it and 2 other small quilts today!  The pantograph on this quilt is called Bossa Nova and it's a favorite of mine.  

This is one of the other quilts I need to finish for a customer.  It has a travel theme and I'm stitching campers on it using my robotics.

How to avoid twisted binding

This video has a very good tip for joining the binding.  She folds the binding over at one point and this tip has certainly helped me.   I used to end up with twisted binding about 50% of the time, but with this folding idea, no more twisted binding!

Under my needle

 I have a customer quilt on the frame tonight, I'm working late.   On the wall are 2 quilt tops I made over the summer.  I haven't had time to longarm my own tops lately but I'll have more time after the Christmas rush is over.