Stories from the Sewing Room

I made a rash decision (that somehow my husband was on board for?) last week and am the new owner of a bernette b68 Airlock. Really, I was sitting around wasting time waiting for him to be done with work so we could run errands, scrolled through the website, mentioned it to him, and he suggested we go try it out. 

This is the top-of-the-line serger/coverstitch machine in the bernette line up. It's less than a quarter of the cost of the top-of-the-line Bernina 890QE. If it had made sense financially, I would have probably gone for the 890, but I really can't justify that one. 

The b68 is primarily mechanical, has five thread capability, and does have air threading for the loopers and the knee lift thing like Bernina machines have. It also has free arm capability that I think will be handy. The shop owner threw in a set of clear feet to sweeten the deal since we couldn't do a trade-in for a bernette. 

The bernette comes with a quick start guide that is pretty inadequate in my opinion. You can download the actual 108-page manual from their website. I am looking into having it printed for reference. So far all I've done is take the machine out of the box and attach the thread holder. 

My gripes at this point are the lack of a printed manual and the lack of a dust cover. You can't even buy one from them. I'm gonna have to add making a dust cover to my never-ending task list. A dust cover is essential in my sewing room.

For the last 14 - 15 years, I had a Bernina 1150mda serger (which did come with a plastic/vinyl dust cover) and a Brother 2340cv coverstitch machine. The Bernina serger has been amazing and I'm a little sad that I have to sell it. It cuts through anything. My husband listed both on Marketplace and I have someone coming to get the coverstitch machine around lunchtime (knock on wood she shows). I think I only used the coverstitch machine a handful of times. It didn't even have any lint inside it. Prior to this set of machines, I had an Elna that was a serger/coverstitch and I used that one all the time, both for serging and coverstitch, until it needed service. The dealer had to send it to headquarters for a service issue and it was never the same after it came back. 

Anyway, hopefully this machine meets expectations. I'll need to dive into my clothes making adventures soon! I still haven't taken apart and re-stuffed my dress form (you're not really surprised by this, right?). I did receive the last batch of patterns I had printed in large format (A0). I have now had patterns printed by four different companies: Sublime Grafx, Pox Couture on Etsy, The Plotted Pattern, and Tape-Free patterns, in that order.

My experience with Sublime Grafx is that the ordering process was easy. The prints themselves are gorgeous. It took about a month with multiple emails sent from me with no response to actually get an update and get the patterns shipped. 

Pox Couture's interface for submitting the files was difficult to use. The quality of the printing is nice, however, they are printed on regular 20 lb paper, so that isn't ideal. The prints were shipped in a timely fashion once I was finally able to use their file submitting service. 

The Plotted Pattern was very easy to use and I like that each pattern came in a paper bag. I selected the 18-lb translucent paper. They also offer 20 lb and tissue paper and you can choose black and white or color printing. Pattern booklet printing and binding is available. They only ship on Wednesdays and Fridays. 

My most recent order was from Tape-Free patterns. The ordering process was easy. Patterns come in a nice paper envelope bag. I selected the 18 lb translucent. They also offer 20 lb and Pellon Easy Pattern. The Pellon was out of stock when I ordered or I might have tried that. Printing and shipping was fast. Delivery was slow, but that's on the Postal Service. 

If you're wondering why I didn't shop locally, the main reason is that the places that offer large format here charge $9/page and only have 20 lb paper. Plus, the online services I used offer options such as only printing certain sizes.

Most of you are here for my quilting. I haven't worked on any of my own quilt projects this week. I did get the napkins for my daughter hemmed and sewn. 

I have hanging sleeves attached to 1.5 of the four quilts I am submitting to the show next week Thursday. I still have to label them and the pillowcases that they have to be submitted in. I think I'm gonna just write on the hanging sleeves because I don't have time to do labels.

The main reason I haven't done much personal sewing is that I have been super busy with quilting (and buying that machine and just generally being kinda lazy).

First up is Jeri's. This is GE Designs' Mia pattern. We decided on Dave's Sunflowers for the quilting. I also did the binding. This was a big one, 85" x 85" or so.

Next is another of Jeri's, GE Designs' Ingrid. We picked Glide Limerick and the Bubble Glitter pattern for quilting. I also bound this one.

Sara's Quilty Friends was next. We picked Cakewalk 2 for the quilting. It makes me think of unspooled thread.

Charlene requested Hypnosis for her quilting. It looks pretty cool.

Marilyn's Paperdrop quilt was next. I quilted Malachite on it. I have a hard time picking more masculine patterns. Malachite is one I always think of, along with Diagonal Plaid. What designs do you consider more masculine?

Terry brought me two similar IU quilts. She requested Angled Squares for the first one, along with red thread. 

You'll have to stop by next week to see the other one (since I'll be quilting it today). I have one more of Terry's to quilt too. She's really artistic so you'll enjoy seeing that one next week as well.

Linking with Quiltery, My Quilt Infatuation, and Alycia Quilts.

 It's time to share your finish for the month.

This link up will remain open until September 30 at 11:55 pm EST.

My goal this month was to assemble my RSC blocks into a top. I did get that accomplished. I added skinny sashing strips between the blocks and a 2.5" outer border because I thought I could preserve my points better. That only works when you actually left yourself 1/4" from the points to work with. I had quite a few that got chopped off. Oops. 

The free pattern I used is Strippy Slab Star from mmm quilts.

My top needs to be pressed. You might have seen my last post (if not, scroll down; it's the post immediately behind this one) where I was discussing making a back from my 25-year-old fabrics. The top got mangled on the floor while I was working and then all wrapped up in the backing fabrics when I needed to move it quickly so that I could work on someone else's quilt. 

After a brief detour into grief for my friend (please send positive thoughts her way) and a small medical procedure with the attendant prep and recovery, I've gotten back to my sewing. 

I prepped some Halloween napkins for my daughter. I thought this would be the easiest project to accomplish, but I didn't have the right shade of orange thread. So I have four large squares cut.

Moving along, I decided that I need to work on creating the backing for my RSC quilt. I wanted to use only older things from my stash. I pulled out fabrics in each of the colors I used on the front, but I didn't like how they looked together. 

So I went back to the bins and pulled out similarly-themed, brightly colored fabrics. I was pressing them and had to laugh because many of the selvedges read 1999 (or close to it). I think it's time to use up the 25 year old fabric! Creating this back is taking for-ev-errrr. The fabrics are all different sizes and some have pieces cut out of them. Plus I'm trying to make it not totally ugly. 

First try with second fabric pull.

Starting to come together. Why is this taking so long?

While we're on the topic of old fabric, I made (but haven't attached yet) all the hanging sleeves that I need for the guild quilt show in a few weeks. I decided to use natural muslin. This fabric is probably around 25 years old too. When I first started quilting, I often used either white or natural muslin for my background fabrics. I can say that the old stuff is way higher quality than the muslin you can currently buy at the big box craft store. 

I've completed quite a few quilts. I spent a second day on Susan's quilt I shared last week.

I quilted Loops and Swirls on two similar baby quilts for Susan.

I quilted Windswept on her scarecrow quilt.

I quilted Echoed Curves on her absolutely ginormous quilt. (110" x 121"). This one was a tight squeeze on the machine.

And I quilted Windswept on Cynthia's quilt. Cynthia told me that the batiks she used were from astronaut Karen Nyberg's collection.

Meanwhile, it really looks like fall outside. I was struck by how yellow everything looked the other day.

My tomato that grew in the former chicken coop location finally ripened. I have one more growing on this plant, so I'll need to keep an eye on it in case the temps start to fall before it ripens. That looks like a split, but it was just a yellow streak in the skin.

Lots of leaves are falling; way more than I think we normally get. My husband read that chickens love piles of leaves, so he blew all the leaves off the driveway and into the coop. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Here are four of five chickens--Peanut is feeling broody and staying in the coop right now. Also, we've only had like one egg in the last week, so I'm not sure what she thinks she's sitting on. 

From left to right: Agatha, Smoky, Henry, Beaker I had just fed them broccoli, strawberries, and scratch, so the girls are looking down.

The squirrels are still entertaining with their antics. We have a lot of rabbits this year too. It's really weird to see large crowds of rabbits and squirrels sitting in the yard together. 

I've seen a few more unusual birds. We caught this yellow-throated warbler on my daughter's bird feeder cam. Sorry it's a bit blurry; I had to grab a still from the video. I typically only see warblers at the feeders during migrations.

I also saw a summer tanager high up in the trees. We do have these regularly, but they are difficult to spot and don't generally come in to the feeders. There's another bird I haven't been able to identify that landed briefly on the feeder and then I saw it out in the trees. 

I'm afraid I don't have much to share this week. I haven't really felt like doing much. I already knew I wasn't going to feel like doing much over the weekend due to getting a booster shot Friday. However, I also received some sad news that really took it out of me. 

I've been meeting over Zoom several times a month for over three years with a group of women who are also quilting business owners. We also text often and have become good friends. Even though we live far apart, I have met all of them in person, Lin at an APQS maintenance class, Christina and Holly at Quilt Con in February. Like me, Holly had brought her husband along and we enjoyed hanging out with them for the day. 

Friday Holly let us know that her husband Tim had passed as a result of a tragic accident. Even though I only met him once, it was easy to see what a bright light he was, just a truly happy, positive person. Holly and Tim have three school-aged children and my heart is just breaking for their entire family. There has been a Go Fund Me started to help her. I realize that most people don't wish to donate money to a stranger, but I feel powerless and this is something small I can do. 

I decided to give myself grace and just slow down.

I prepped several things that need to be sewn. This is part of the September clue for Meadow Mist's Marble mystery. 

I put my Bedford Tiles blocks on the design wall.

I made the outside borders, kinda, for my RSC quilt. I made one giant strip that I will cut according to the measurements of my quilt top. I didn't have quite enough of the fabric that I'd used for the inner sashing strips. I was about 40" short, so there are a few other fabrics mixed in. Hopefully it doesn't end up looking too weird when I get it sewn on.

I've completed a few quilts for others. The first few belong to Ann K. I stitched Moon and Stars on the first one.

I stitched Scribble Hearts on the second. I attached her binding to the front of both of these.

I quilted Mike's Swoosh on Jae's quilt. I think she's planning to display this one at the local show in October. It is a double quilt show weekend--both my guild, Bloomington Quilters Guild, and hers, Quarry Quilters of Bedford, are having their shows October 4 and 5. There is so much going on around town that weekend--the Lotus World Music & Arts Festival, Hilly Hundred bicycle tour, Hoosiers Outrun Cancer, the Science Fest at IU, and some sporting events. You can also see John Mellencamp's art all semester at the Eskenazi Art Museum on campus. So if you ever had the desire to visit Bloomington, that is the weekend to do so. LOL. {The only one of these things I've ever attended besides the quilt shows is the Science Fest. We are planning to visit the Eskenazi though.}

I've started stitching Faux Free Motion on Susan's quilt. This is definitely going to be a two-day job. 

We've been enjoying the antics of the squirrels. I don't know if it's just one or multiples that do wacky things on our deck. They usually go for the drip pan on the grill and also chew on the mat on the deck underneath the grill. They pick flowers from the hydrangea and nibble at them on the deck. They try to climb up the wall and throw themselves at the slider door. We sometimes ponder whether they are intoxicated from chewing on the mat.

There are many rabbits in the yard right now along with all the squirrels. We've seen lots of different birds, but most so briefly that we don't have enough time to figure out what the unusual ones are. We had a large flock of nighthawks for a few nights. We saw some sort of waterfowl, possibly snow geese, flying by in a v-formation. The hummingbirds are still here and battling for feeder dominance. I also saw a hummingbird pecking (?) at the suet a few times.

Other than taking time to smell the metaphorical roses, robotics has officially started for the season. Lots of technical discussion is taking place, during and outside of practice. The team is all boys, the mentors all men. I am vastly outnumbered. I miss having my daughter home. 

My son and I are slowly working through some camera classes. He's become quite interested in photography, and, being the engineer brain that he is, he has to figure out all the settings and how they affect each other, how the different lenses work, and so on. Above my pay grade. I'm trying, but he has to re-explain everything to me.

Not to be a total downer, but my mom told me that my high school gym teacher/driver's training teacher/father of my classmate, died this weekend too. He enjoyed a full life. I obviously knew he was the wrestling coach, but didn't realize how many awards and honors he'd received for wrestling/coaching throughout his career. Here's to you, Mr. Lehman. Well done. My parents were both teachers and I feel like almost every time I talk to mom she tells me that another of my teachers is gone. I guess I'm at that age. Or they are. 

Well, hopefully I'll be more uplifting and will have sewn something for next week. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

Linking with Quiltery, My Quilt Infatuation, and Alycia Quilts.

I've been inching closer to sewing some clothes for myself. I've ordered more A0 format prints of patterns I want to make. After arriving in Indianapolis and taking detours to both Kansas Cities (is that how you make them plural? 🤔), they finally made it back to Indianapolis and then down the highway to my neck of the woods. I ordered from a different place this time--The Plotted Pattern. I chose the mid-price, thinner paper. They look good. I actually found this place recommended on Reddit of all places, via a Google search.  

I've been reading through The Palmer/Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting book and purchased the Butterick pattern they created for practicing fitting. I think I'm gonna need to convince my husband to help me when I go through the fitting process. I'm sure he'll be thrilled. I just watched a video from Love Notions Patterns that showed me more about picking a size that should help too.

I finally located the old bra I had set aside to double-check the fit on my Bootstrap dress form. Insert record scratch here. 

I can't get the hooks to close. Not even close! I'm like 6 - 8 inches apart. The bra is old and stretched out, but still fits, so it's definitely an issue with the form.

There is not enough stuffing in the cup area--I can fit my fist inside each cup with room to spare. 

The measurements all match mine, but I didn't really think the shape matched me. It's hard to tell because I don't know what I look like outside of myself, you know? My body perception might not match reality. I thought it would be close enough, but it clearly is not. I think I need to take the form off the stand, unzip it, pull out the stuffing, and re-stuff it (while it's wearing the bra) to try to fit my shape better. The bust is the area I struggle with the most for shirts, both sewn and purchased. 

So. Yay. 

After that sad discovery, I spent Labor Day working on my RSC instead. I'm not quite done with the top. I want to add borders around the outside. I need to dig through my white scrap bin to find large enough pieces. I'm thinking I'll cut 2.5" strips. I will probably be piecing lots of fabrics together to get long enough lengths. 

Then it will be on to piecing a back. It won't be from scraps, but will be from my existing fabrics. 

That means my design wall is empty again. I will be placing my Bedford Tiles blocks up there so that I can see what the orientation needs to be to get the look from the pattern. And then it's more sashing and border sewing. Blah. So boring. 

My Meadow Mist Marble mystery quilt is all cut, ready for tomorrow's instructions. Nothing like leaving it til the last moment. That's okay because Cheryl's mysteries are very easy to catch up on should you fall behind. 

The thing I probably need to concentrate on most is getting the hanging sleeves made and attached to the quilts I entered in the guild show since those are the only things I have going right now that have a firm deadline. This ranks right up there with sashing and borders.

In my quilting world, I thought I was done updating my website for now, but received a notice from Squarespace Monday morning telling me there is an issue with linked Google forms not collecting information that is input. So I had to fix that since that is how I book quilts and sign people up for the newsletter. It's always something.

I completed three more quilts for others during the past week.

The first one belongs to Trudy and she requested Peace. (Peace is actually considered a border pattern, but it works great as a panto.) I used yellow thread to match, but it looks light in the photo.

Next is Mary Ann's The Puppies quilt. I struggled with this one because the back had a panel and some seams in inconvenient places and I couldn't quite figure out how to get it centered how she wanted. I finally got it. I selected a 60 wt thread for the top because she was worried about the pattern competing with the piecing. Oh, the pattern is Paw Prints. 

Finally, I quilted Echo Blossoms on Trish's quilt. She picked Glide Salmon from the threads I sent her. Salmon is one of my favorites. It blends with so many colors of fabric. The backing fabric was so soft and drape-y. I need to remember to ask her what type it is (update--she didn't know 😄).

Outdoors it is looking like fall. We switched from highs in the 90s to highs in the 70s over the weekend and it's so nice out right now. Lots of leaves are falling, way more than usual for this time of year. My gardens remain neglected due to my fear of catching poison ivy again and also just the feeling of being overwhelmed I get when I look at the state of the lower garden. It is bad! I had a big patch of mystery plant come up down there. It's flowering now and it is goldenrod. I didn't realize, but goldenrod can be as invasive as spearmint in my area, so I will need to tackle it this fall. There are also a lot of volunteer trees growing in there that need to be removed along with grapevine, which was really rampant in the gardens and in the woods this year. 

Robotics kicks off for the season on Saturday. I've opted not to attend the kickoff event, partially for personal reasons and partially because we're getting our boosters Friday and I usually just want to sleep for a day afterwards. The graffiti quilting class I'm taking with Karlee Porter also starts Saturday. I'll probably watch the replay in smaller chunks of time after the fact since I generally can't sit for that long at a time.

I'll leave you this week with some pictures I took while out on our evening walks in the past week. 

I like how you can see the sun rays in this one. I need to figure out how to edit out their sewer vent pipe.

The sky didn't actually look like this, but the photo looks cool.  That tall thing on the left is their flag all bunched up on their pole.