The newest additions to my sewing room

The newest additions to my sewing room are 2 Bernina machines. A few weeks ago I shared with you my experience purchasing a machine on ebay, you can view it here. After that mishap I found and bid on 2 machines hoping I would be the winning bidder on one of them. Guess what? I won them both. Try explaining that one to my DH.

Fortunately he witnessed the unsuccessful repair on my old Singer Slant O Matic. He also understands that sometimes you need more than just a straight stitch, but still I felt a little guilty.  His reply to my explanation, “so does that mean I get to buy a truck part”? Wonder how long he’s been contemplating that one.

The machine to the left is a Bernina 830 and the machine on the right is a Bernina Virtuosa 150.

Last night I took the 830 apart to clean and oil it well. It was actually very clean and sews beautifully but it has a very touchy foot pedal, its all or nothing. The outside still needs some cleaning and wax but overall, it’s in great condition. The 150 doesn’t appear to have been used much at all and it too sews beautifully. I didn’t think I would ever say this because I love my Juki, but, I think these 2 machines are going to rank right up there with it. In fact, the 150 may just be my favorite machine.

My sewing table

Several years ago I decided I needed a table for my Juki  and I found this Domestic base. Steve (dh) repurposed an old wood table by cutting a hole in the top and adding an inset box for my machine to set. Then he attached it to the stand using existing holes in the iron. The inset box is large enough that I can slide the Juki to the right several inches for cleaning and bobbin replacement. The 830 fits comfortably in the insert but the free arm is a little taller than the table. The 150 however, its base is too large so he is going back to the drawing board to make some modifications for me to use all 3 machines in the table.  It will require the purchase of plastic though to fit around  free arms.

Normally there would be a non slip pad under the foot pedal to keep it from sliding which I removed for the photo. The sewing table is perfect for me since I am only 5’2″. With the treadle pedal to place my pedal on I can raise my chair to a comfortable height to sew. Does that make sense?

Enzo’s bench is on the left and butted up against my sewing table so he can stand (sleeps) guard as I work.

Seashore Splendor QAL with Pamela Quilts

With all the past, current and upcoming rain in my area this quilt is feeling like home. Instead of being the Mississippi River it looks like the sea. We’ve had flooding since March and it doesn’t look like there is an end in sight. The river will crest and more rain causes it to rise. There have also been 3 levee breaks which causes additional stress on other levees and more loss. We are good though, we live on top of the bluffs. If the water gets high enough to reach me St Louis and everything south will be completely under water.

Now about that QAL it’s not too late to join in. Pamela offers a new block every other week. Until this past weekend all the blocks have been traditional piecing. The current block called Flying Home, she offers both paper pieced templates or directions for traditional piecing. Care to guess which I option I chose? The above photo is the progress so far. You can see there is still a lot of quilt to go and plenty of time to catch up. After my Tulip Mosaic quilt I had several yards of fabric in different shades of blue. Some that I used and some I purchased for the quilt that didn’t make the final cut. Here are the rest of my blocks.

In need of more storage

If you’ve been here before you may have heard me mention I don’t keep a large fabric stash. In fact I only have 1 drawer for fabric and it’s not a large drawer. Recently I stumbled upon a fabric store that is going out of business. It’s not limited to any one kind of fabric either. They had fabric for just about anything you would want to make or  need to update. Apparently they have been around for years and relied on word of mouth instead of advertising, therefor I did not know they existed.

The last 3 Saturday’s I have stopped in to purchase fabric.  My first visit I purchased 5 yards of each of the peach and green paisley fabric (the 2 on the bottom).  The next week I went back to see if I could find  coordinating solids but instead bought several yards of each of the top 3 layers.  For some reason I have this fascination with combining peach and green fabrics.

Then last Saturday I went back, again to find some solids to pair with all these. None of the solids spoke to me but the striped fabric I had eyed on my two previous visits really sang to me that day.  The luscious green, blue and purple would be great for a directional quilt however I don’t have one in mind. at the present. Yellow is another favorite of mine and I really liked this floral print which is not like me at all. The blue fabric on the left has seafarers print in black.

I’m not quite sure what I will do with any of them and I hope they don’t sit in my drawer(s) for an extended period of time.

QOV

Progress on my July QOV quilt is coming along. This is still the only view I am comfortable sharing right now. The fabric is Island Batik’s Freedom Collection. For the background fabric I am using IB Sprinkles which is a lovely creamy white fabric with very pale greenish dots. You had to know you’d be seeing flying geese again soon.

Come back Thursday for “Put your foot down” linky party

Last week I tested Inlinkz, this week I am taking Linky Tools for a test run.

See what others are working on.