Completed a Project!!!

I've finally finished something. This jacket went together very nicely. It is a mock jeans jacket, with lots of topstitching. I love the Bernina Dual Feed on the 830.

My New Toy - Bernina 830

I'm finally have some free time and am going to spend the next couple of days working on some sewing projects on my new machine (Billie's BB), the Bernina 830. I took delivery of it the first of June, and really haven't had time to do anything more than just do some test sewing and figuring out what all the different buttons do, so now I'm on to doing some project specific work.

I am going to make covers for both the machine and the embroidery module, so I got busy and did an embroidery design which I will add into the covers as I'm working on them. I love the embroidery functions of the machine. These turned out great. I've got to work on the Absolute Embroidery Check feature of the machine. The fabric with the band was not hooped straight, so I was able to compensate for that by checking and moving the design positioning to get it where it needed to go, but I went a little too far on the slant on one end. All in all, a good learning experience for me. I have my machine mastery class on the embroidery part next Saturday, so I'll get better at this (at least I hope). The quality of the lettering is beautiful - the B's are 2.5 inches in height.

Shipshewana Indiana

The Indy Chapter of the American Sewing Guild did our annual bus trip yesterday. We headed up to Shipshewana, Indiana for a day of shopping/eating/shopping. For those of you who are not familiar with Shipshewana, it is in northern Indiana in the heart of Amish country. I was the coordinator for this year's trip (or ringleader), and we all had a great time. If you are ever in the area, I would highly recommend stopping and spending the day.

This is a picture of a few of my finds from Yoder's and Lolly's.

Don't have a clue what I'm going to do with any of it other than the gold fabric. The fabric is a polyester/lycra blend, and the texture is much like suede. That is going into a jean's jacket. The other beige and brown shinny fabrics, and the two rolls of fat quarters on it are Radiance by Robert Kaufman, which is 55% cotton, 45% silk. The texture is just lucious and I just want to pet it when I see it. Just going to keep it around until I figure out what to do with it.

The aqua and off white fat quarter rolls are a new fabric also by Robert Kaufman called Marbleous. It is 100% cotton, but has a wonderful textured shine to it. I'll need to figure out what to use it in.

The Quilt Show Block of the Month 2009 - Part 3

I've finally finished Month 3 (March) of The Quilt Show's Block of the Month for 2009. Today I feel pretty good about it, I'm only two months behind, but tomorrow will be another story when I will be THREE MONTHS BEHIND! Maybe I can spend more time in the sewing studio over the next few months and totally be caught up and current, waiting for the next month's instructions to be released - but for those of you who know me, you know that I never get caught up with anything until it absolutely has to be done.

I really do love the look of this quilt so far!

Great Blog/Website - Moda Bake Shop

Ever wondered what a layer cake is, a jelly roll? Check out the Moda Bake Shop (http://www.modabakeshop.com/). It is a wonderful blog that is a division of Moda Fabrics and provides online recipes which you can use with the Moda Pre-cuts. All sizes and types of projects are featured from various designers and shops, as well as tutorials for various moda projects sheets which are illustrated with step by step pictures. Today's featured project is "The Bookkeeper." Be sure and check it out and bookmark the site to visit often to see what they are up to. Also check on the left pane on the site for previous projects. This is a great place for inspriation and what to do with some of that fabric and pre-cuts in our stash!

Have a great day, everyone! - Billie

A Weekend to SEW!

Heading out to the Columbus Neighborhood Group meeting (Indianapolis ASG: http://www.indyasg.org/) this morning. Then home for the rest of the weekend to do nothing but rest and sew (and maybe a little cleaning). The only blip on the radar is I have no groceries in the house, so I'll need to hit the grocery store sometime today.

This is a project that I think I'll start sometime this weekend - a blouse using rayon batik fabric. I love the feel of the fabric - I've got it prewashed, ironed, and ready to go. I'll post pictures of my progress as this one moves along. I haven't done any garment sewing in a while so I may need to relearn things like collars and facings!

-Billie

ASG Community Sewing Project for 2009

The American Sewing Guild's (www.asg.org) community sewing project for 2009 is making pillowcases for Ronald McDonald houses. Our neighborhood group worked on this project at our April meeting. We decided that as a group we would make 50 to donate to the Ronald McDonald house in Indianapolis, which is our chapter home (check us out at www.indyasg.org). By the time we got through with our sewing at the meeting, we had 30 pillowcases already made. I have six finished to take back in to our next meeting on Saturday.

I loved making these pillowcases. They were great fun and went together quickly. It also gave me a chance to use some of my decorative stitches, which I use very seldom.

-Billie