Changing Names
I don’t know if I told you, but on Tuesday, I took my machines to see if either would be able to be serviced by the local Bernina place, and they will work on my inherited Bernina.
I had forgotten that I wanted to call this machine Hot Lips after Major Margaret Houlihan from M.A.S.H.. Which I really like as a name and I think one or two or several of my twitter friends (aka #twilter – twitter quilter) helped me name her.
Army green and all, ya know.
But lately, I have taken to calling her Lennie, short for Lenore, probably because I feel she is being ‘lent’ for me to use.
Change because I had forgotten. But I can call her both. Hot Lips Lenore….
Changing Machines
Any event, I know that Carlotta was giving me so much trouble when quilting the auction quilt, and although I would have rather gotten her fixed instead, the Bernina shop is where I went for service this time, next time I’ll go to the other shop.
I have never used Hot Lips really other than once to thread her and get the thread through the (backwards mounted) bobbin area.
I was nervous to bring the machine in, I have heard horror stories from a few quilters with podcasts about their more modern machines and problems, but I did.
The lady who took my order was very nice, and we got to talking and such. She had went up to the Sisters quilt show (same weekend as our quilt show) and it was neet to hear from a quilter in person about attending that quilt show.
I have a 2-3 week turn around time on the machine, and they may even find something wrong with her. Let’s hope not. But this means when she is done, she’ll be the fixed machine, and so she’ll be my running machine.
So there is new places to learn where the presser foot drops, new zig zag locations, knobs & buttons to learn & get used to using. Changing from Carlotta to Hot Lips Lenore will be something strange to get used to.
Lucky me I have the manual somewhere, and there is always You Tube.
Here’s someone’s demonstration video on a 540 Favorit (Lennie’s brand) done by someone else. Lots of humming noise, but you can see what she can do.
Changing Sewing Tactics
In the mean time I have started to come up with a list of things to do that do not involve a sewing machine.
Some of the things I thought of:
- cut up the small ‘catch all scrap baskets’
- go through the PIGS (projects in
grocery sacksziplock baggies) and see what I have stashed where - designing a quilt idea I’ve had for 2+ years
- cutting out more paper pieces for a PIG that I haven’t cut fabrics for
- hand quilt the very first large quilt I ever made (the ugly quilt as its referred to around here)
- applique the hot air balloon quilt i’ve been working on (not shown yet)
- work on the trim options for the periodic spiral quilt
- measure for the 4 year old spectrum quilt idea
- create black bias for a stained glass quilt kit I bought at the garage sale
- learn EQ7 better, try to design something new using the book I bought a year ago
And more … folding & cutting & hand work & designing
Changing trims (?)
I have an idea for the trim for the periodic quilt that I rather like. Problem is that the trim consists of three separate strands that are twisted together.
The picture I have for this on the quilt is rather BAD, I was trying to take an in focus picture for facebook and nothing was working.
These three strands are twisted together and as I see the quilt, I was simply going to couch the trim directly onto the front of each of the black pieces, outlining them from the rest with a little bit of metal.
But the 3 strands keep separating. I asked FB peeps what to do to fix it, and I got the mostly overwhelming response ‘fray check’, which I had dabbed a little bit of Roxanne’s glue (stronger than fray check I think) on the ends and nothing was staying put, so I can try fray check, but am worried that it won’t be strong enough. I have only used fray check twice I think.
Here I finally got an ‘in-focus’ picture today of the separation involved with this trim.
My instincts told me to try clear fingernail polish rather than fray check. Anyone else had experience forcing three strands to stay together like this?
What has worked for you keeping strands together? Glue? Fray Check? Fingernail polish? other?
Daisy said she usually hides them in a seam, but as this is couched on top applique style, there are no seams to hide this under. Maybe I need to rethink the trim to something else??
I like the idea of having metals around with the beads since there are so many metals that are elements for the periodic spiral.
I also liked this other trim that mimics the style of the border around the spiral itself.
I do like this option, but two things.
- One I like the back side of the trim almost as much as I like the front, but it sorta looks unfinished. The back side is the sides that you can see the threads running back and forth in a zig zag pattern.
- Two, to make the trim show all 4 sides correctly (not showing the back at all) would take 4 different separate mitered cuts and glues down on all four corners of each patch. And that is 4 times the work, and I think 4 times the amount of potential ‘errors’ / flaws for this quilt. And I would have to fray check all 8 edges for each group name.
Ideas on the guilded ric-rac trim to help minimize these issues? Or maybe I can live with the ‘unfinished look of the piece.
I do have some more, different, metal style beads, but to use them I would need to get a few more.
Which would be even another way to go on the trims than my original decision.
Anyway, just thought I’d share my change of pace this week.
Something tells me that the Periodic Spiral quilt will be put on the back burner again until I can make a decision (or two) here.
I suppose I should experiment and see what works, but don’t be surprised if next week I have a different quilting topic to share.
And I bet I will, I plan to go see something live next weekend that will re-inspire a quilt idea I’ve worked on this summer. Also with the list of things to do if not machine sewing, may throw me off on another completely different tangent.
