End of the Year Teacher's Gift

My daughter has been trying to use the sewing machine for years now. I have always let her use the "spare" machine but she hated the old blue Kenmore because it required self-threading and a vertical bobbin.

Here is her quilt she made with my Brother SE400 and a 1/4 quilting foot. She made all the rows and I only corrected a "few" that I felt might fall apart after just a few washes. Much self-control was necessary to not fix all of them. Thankfully, I had my own project in the works that ate up the majority of my time.

Thankfully after it was all put together and quilted, you really cannot see all the little wobbly squares.
Finished size was approx 50x50

Using my embroidery machine, we left a little message for Miss Keyser!!

Well, just a few months ago I upgraded to a larger straight stitch machine. This allowed me the freedom to practice more free-motion-quilting on larger quilts. Here you can see my older Brother SE400 and my new-to-me Brother Nouvelle Q1500s. You can see the considerable difference in the throat space and I certainly love it. The only two drawbacks I have noticed since using it for some months now are: no bobbin sensor and no zigzag stitch.

The zigzag stitch is important to me because I am so frugal and save all my left over bits of batting. When piecing these leftover pieces, I have taken out the smaller machine. However, I have successfully used the Heat and Press Batting Together for two of my most recent quilts. The Heat and Press is actually faster than the sewing machine method and I have been informed that it is less likely to show in my quilting. So far so good!!

Now the bobbin sensor is a much loved feature of my sewing/embroidery machine. And I must say, I quilted many a line without any bobbin thread on my latest project. :(  When I am sewing along and watching Netflix, I am not as in-tune with my machine and I just don't hear that its empty. I'll try to do better in the future. 

Lastly, I know I have been terribly neglectful of my blog but it is time consuming and just not high on the priority list. However, I do have a little to say about my new found passion and will try and drop by and share it with you. Thanks for sticking with me.

For more of my completed projects, you can find them at www.facebook.com/KatsBags.