New Machine!!

So for graduation I got a lot of gift cards and such and was finally able to upgrade my machine. Prior to getting this new one, which I will talk about in a minute, I was using a basic bottom of the line Brother that my mother got me for Christmas a few years ago. Now don't get me wrong, it was a great little machine to learn on, it just couldn't handle the quilting I wanted to do with it.

For the past few months I have been looking, comparing and yes drooling on quiet a few machines online. I thought the one I really wanted was a Brother quilting machine and then I saw this one....

 At half the price and with better reviews this Singer Quantum Stylist was the perfect bet.

It has over 600 stitches and it came with that extension table for quilting.

It also came with all of these accessories which alone if I had gone and bought all of them would have cost well over $100. (Not in this picture is also a walking foot that came with it, that is on the machine right now).

To top it all of it even came with this cover/case. Totally awesome and totally worth it.

As I mentioned before I did half the piecing and all the quilting on the Sophia quilt with this new machine. The piecing went a lot smoother and quicker and the quilting didn't have nearly as many problems. I did have a problem right at the end of quilting where the bobbin thread got jammed and then when I rethreaded it was causing that loopy rats nest problem on the back. After a 1/2 hour I got it figured out. I won't blame that on the machine quiet yet since I am still learning everything with it.

Oh and did I forget to mention that it has the really cool autopilot function where all you press is this start/stop button and it just goes automatically, so cool.

Anyways I'll stop now because I'm in the honeymoon stage with it right now and thus could go on and on!

Sophia

Front

A girl that I went to school with is having a baby and is due anytime now. I started making this quilt about 5 months ago when I found out she was pregnant.

Back

It has gone through many iterations trying to make it what I thought of in my mind. I wanted to base the quilt around this print that I found at JoAnn's.

Now lets see if she holds on a couple more days so I can give it to her in person on Monday!

Little Goofs for this quilt:
The binding!! I can't seem to get it right. This time seemed to be a little better than the last baby quilt I made but not perfect. I have no idea what it is I am doing wrong.


Oh and I would be remiss to mention half of this was done on my new machine! I will post about that this weekend and tell you all about it then.

Fabric

Last weekend was my birthday and my totally awesome fiance took me over to to my LQS and let me go on a shopping spree for my birthday present. I bought this fabric with baby stuff on it for a baby quilt I am making for a girl in the Human Genetics Department at VCU who is having a baby girl at the end of the month.

I'm half way done with the top. I'll post pics once I have it all done which will hopefully be in a few days so it can be done before the baby comes.

I also got these fat quarters....

I was kinda falling in love with these color combos in the store and I think they would be perfect for a fun summer table runner and if there is enough left a mug rug or two.

While there I also got some Kona White and Black for other misc. projects.

I also went over to Hobby Lobby and found these in the remnants bin...

I don't know what it will be but I couldn't resist the combination.

I also go this thread for quilting the baby quilt....

Doesn't everything look so inviting all stacked like that? Can't wait till I'm done with the baby quilt to really get into the other projects I want to work on. And since I neither have school or a full time job at the moment then I won't be short on time either.

Small Project Sew-along

I'm going to take part in my first sew along since in the first time in my life practically I now do not have the burden of school work. I wish I could replace school with an actual job but until then I will keep myself busy with the sew-along that is being hosted over at Crazy Mom Quilts. I think this will be the perfect first sew along for me as it is focusing on small projects and there is no set time table. I've had to think about what I would want to accomplish as most of my project goals are lap size or larger quilts but I think I've come up with a few ideas that have been percolating for awhile. Here is what I've come up with:

1. Finish the Eclipse wall hanging quilt
This has been an ongoing process (here and here) and it is really stretching my thoughts on quilting and allowing me to learn a few things as well.

2. A pincushion
I know that most people cut their teeth with pincushions when they first start sewing. I on the other hand jumped right in for a lap size quilt. I think it is now time to maybe retire the tomato pincushion I bought years ago and have something a little more stylish and me. I'm thinking about making it something like this (here) or maybe if I am really ambitious this (here)

3. A summer table runner
I found this really awesome fabric at my LQS and I think that the few fat quarters I bought are screaming to be made into a really fun table runner and possibly some mug rugs as well. See tomorrow's post for the fabric.

4. "Hemming" a skirt
I found this really awesome skirt at goodwill a few years ago but it really needs to be "hemmed". I put hemmed in quotation marks because really what it needs is about a foot off the length to be anything that can be worn by me (I'm 4'11'' so long dresses and skirts are a big problem). I have never officially hemmed anything in my life so we will see how this goes.

5. Making a skirt
Since I have never hemmed anything I have also never made anything that can be worn as clothing. I would really like to make this skirt and then work my way forward with making simple and stylish clothes.

6. A throw pillow to match my quilt
The quilt I finished last fall which I have started calling "cat magnet" since whenever it is out the cat has to be on top of it is begging for a matching pillow.

I have enough leftover fabric from it to a ticker tape style pillow cover. It shouldn't be that difficult and really won't take that long but is something I have been putting off now for awhile.

7. A Entryway Wall Hanging
I left this one till last because in a few months I don't know where or if we will be moving so it may or may not be needed. This is something I have been thinking about for months but have never really come up with a good idea on what I want to make except that it would be a quilted wall hanging for next to our door. This one deserves more thought and might not happen this summer.

There are a few other ideas that have come into my head since writing this but I think I will stick with this list for now. Be prepared though that if I don't get a job by the end of the month that the list might grow because I will likely be extremely bored and going crazy in the house. We won't go into the fact that if given enough time away from school/work I might just apply to go for my PhD.