I got my new machine at the beginning of the week, but have been trying hard to finish the mountains of other things I have to work on before playing with it. Well I didn't finish everything I wanted to do, but made a sizable dent so I let myself play with my new Babylock Decorator's Choice (BLDC2) machine a little this weekend.
First off, let me just state that I'm sure this is not going to turn me into an overnight sewing superstar. Just like the study I put into photography makes me have some skill and not my wonderful camera, I know I'll have to practice, practice, practice to get this machine to work for me. That said, oh my god it rocks. For lots of reasons, but one of my favorite fun things is this little button:
The one that looks like scissors? Well it cuts the thread for you, and I'm pretty sure this is the best add on feature to a sewing machine besides the actual sewing. I love it! It was one of the things I really wanted on a machine, but when I went into the shop I quickly realized those kinds of machines might be a bit out of my league price wise. Now this machine was not cheap by any means, but at a fraction of the cost of some of the fancier Pfaffs and Berninas (which are fantastic) it has everything I wanted in a machine. Oh and I was going to keep my old Janome, as I thought it would have pretty much no trade in value, but I ending up swapping it for the extension table, which is so handy (and it snaps to the side of the hard case, these people thought of everything!).
I pieced a really simple back out of stash fabric (Ceara that purple was going to be pajama pants for you about six years ago - sorry never got to it!) for a picnic blanket thing I dreamed up. The piecing went so well. Let's just say I'm pretty sure whatever kind of seam allowance I was doing before, it was not 1/4 inch. At least not all the way down a row of stitches, and not all the time. This is the most even I've been, and I love it! The Babylock has a nice little feature that lets you regulate stitch speed, so that you don't do stupid things like try to sew faster than you can think. Of course I had to pair the easiest thing with the hardest thing, and decided to quilt the pieces together with circles.
Now this is just going to be a tester picnic blanket so I don't feel bad about totally screwing it up. The larger circle was me using a walking foot for the first time (not so pretty), the smaller one is hand stitched.
Then I tried free motion. It's been a while since I done this kind of quilting, but I think with practice it will be the method of choice for this kind of project (and it helps to have those gloves they grip the fabric).
It was super fun to play with, and while I might not get as much sewing time in as I like, I'm so glad to have a great tool now to use and experiment with. I've pressed a bunch of my fabric and folded it all neat for inspiration:
Now doesn't that look yummy? I also got the updated Kona Cotton color card, because I am really liking solids in quilts:
Isn't that fantastic? Speaking of color I finally framed up some old pages from teach yourself color theory books. Will share soon. Off to dream of sewing!
p.s. okay so this finished just barely too late to be counted for a post on the 12th, but I'll make up for it!