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.