Smart and Magical

Tips and inspiration for your quilting journey

I posted another video on machine issues last week with all the common reasons needles break. As always this explains the why behind the 'rules'. These are the kinds of subjects that are included (all in one place and without ads) in my Master Your Machine course.

I'm just about ready to move towards making quilting specific videos now, but have one more that I really want to do for people buying their first sewing machine.

I haven't quite come up with the title for it yet, but it will show what all the common machine 'extras' are and why you would want them - OR not need them. Things like needle stop up/down, automatic buttonhole, feed dog drop, etc. This video will have a bit of research, so it might take an extra week.

If you have a favorite feature on your machine that you use all the time, OR something that you thought you would use, but don't, please let me know. I would love to include it to help new sewers buying their first machine.

And then I'll be doing more quilty videos for a bit, I think, it all depends on what kinds of questions you ask :)

Please ask questions!

Peter Rabbit Project

I finished piecing the five additional tops and am ready to move on to quilting all six.

If you're new here - check out the past few emails for why on earth I'm making six identical baby quilts.

I had originally planned to custom quilt all six of these identical baby quilts, but as the time approached I just didn't want to.

Normally, I would push through and do it anyways, but I'm getting wiser in my old age :)

Just because I can do it doesn't mean I should do it.

I decided instead to try out the fancy computerized part of my longarm to put a pantograph design on all six quilts.

Using allover pantographs is new to me. So last week, a chunk of time (over five hours) was devoted to looking at pantographs, ordering them, uploading them on my longarm, and testing them out on a tester quilt.

If I was aiming to do this quickly, I'm already behind just free handing an all over design on them all.

But learning the ropes of using the computer program on my machine, and seeing what pantos looks like on a quilt versus a freehand design has been really interesting.

I'm absorbing information - both technical and artistic feeling wise - that will be helpful when I move on making future quilts of my own choosing and design.

For instance, I thought putting a cute bunny design would be appropriate, but when I tested it I really didn't like the overall texture it created on the quilt - the spacing wasn't consistent enough. With the illustrations already playing a big part in what is going on visually, I decided a consistent texture was more important than being cute.

This is my test blank. I have layered a second piece of muslin over the first to conserve batting. You can see I tried different sizes of bunnies. The little bunnies' tails would have required a smaller stitch length to look smooth. I decided on the pattern to the right, which came with my machine for free - oh well.

I'm also finding I don't like patterns that have too obvious a 'repeat', probably because I'm used to freehanding everything.

I should have the tops all quilted and maybe even bound by next newsletter...and on to the next project, which will be a texture quilt for my first grandchild.

In the meantime, please share your most loved feature on your sewing machine to help out a new sewer!