Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Day 166

JENNY'S BABY QUILT IS FINALLY FINISHED
except for the label on the backside due to my machine breaking down


Lots of time was spent free motion quilting the flowers on this quilt. I began hearing a strange clicking sound during the last hour or two but ignored it because nothing seemed wrong. Oops, something was definitely wrong as I couldn't turn the hand wheel and the needle threader wouldn't work after I finished. DANG!! I love my machine and have separation anxiety when I'm away from it! Yup. It is now in the shop. Hope, hope, hope it is a simple fix. And not expensive. I am ALWAYS tempted by the newest sewing machines out there. It's like having a car. "Why, mine is 10 years old now. Isn't it time for a new model??" I did actually sit down and look at the newest BabyLock Destiny. Cough, cough. Just under $10,000 with my current machine as a trade in. No thanks. Just look at this baby, though. It has enough bells and whistles on it to make anyone happy but I'd have to do a LOT of sewing to make it worth the $$$. I mean, I already DO a lot of sewing and my machine is just fine, thank you very much. Well....it will be once I get it back in my sewing room!! My BabyLock Ellegante can do things that most people never dreamed they would need in a sewing machine. Besides in a few years there will be yet another latest and greatest and hopefully my machine will still be putzing along!



Oh, back to the baby quilt. I had to use my little "Audrey" lightweight machine to sew on the binding, then I hand stitched the binding on the back side. HANDSTITCHED!! I have not yet been happy with the results when I have machine stitched the binding in place. I will keep looking for the best technique. No label for the back since my small machine doesn't do embroidery so I may embroider a label and take it with me and stitch it in place when I finally do get to go see little Maggie. Such a sweet name.

Anyway. I bought a jelly roll (40 - 2 1/2" wide precut fabric strips) with the intent of making a baby quilt but I didn't have a pattern. I didn't like what I found for patterns in my book stash so I came upon a photo of this quilt online and then had to do some measuring (ACK...MATH!!!) AND planning (that takes the fun out of it) and hope it worked, since there were no instructions along with the photo.





Refer to my posting a few days ago about my new technique for layering and pinning my quilt pieces.


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