I cannot believe it is over a month since my last post. Lockdown has left me with a sort of apathy. I am keeping busy, but just not focused.
My niece gave birth to her first baby last month after many years of hoping! But what a time to be in hospital with Covid 19 still active in our area! She had a cesarean but the days of keeping you in for a week appears to be long gone and she was sent home very quickly. Good news is that everything is all OK. As I had my knitting machine out I quickly made a couple of cardigans that will hopefully be useful when winter comes. My granddaughter is now 9 months old, so I was already making things in a larger size....so adding a couple more seemed like a good idea. My problem now is buttons.....I don't seem to have enough of the same size and colour in my button box....so one cardigan had multi coloured ones picking out the colours in the fair isle pattern.
I'm still making an origami crane a day and have now done 41.....I am a lot quicker now ha ha.
My main focus now is getting to grips with my new Pfaff Creative Icon sewing/embroidery machine. I thought of buying one two years ago but couldn't bring myself to spend a mega amount of money when I already had a machine that had been top of the range albeit 20 odd years ago! However when I bought a Pfaff Passport lightweight machine to take to my quilting group I realised just how much I liked the Pfaff IDT walking foot system and realised my brother machine just did not sew well when doing patchwork. It couldn't cope with bulky places and missed stitching over thicker seams. So when hubby pointed out that with this Covid thing you just didn't know what was ahead, and the fact that I am now retired and not getting younger I thought what the heck......why not enjoy life and make the most of each day. Saving for a rainy day seems a stupid idea.....those rainy days are here.
So with my heart in my mouth I placed an order....with part ex.....and then had to wait over a week for it to arrive. Unpacking the box I just didn't realise how big it was. Not as bulky as my Brother, infact it looks very sleek, but the colour scheme of it ( I love purple) and the large bright work area is fantastic. Yes I have a few niggles but perhaps I am just doing things wrong and will overcome some of the things that I find annoying in time. The biggest disappointment was the fact that they had sent the wrong embroidery unit...the shop was quick to sort it out, but I will have to wait another load of days before the correct one arrives. It isn't stopping me from sewing though. I had seen a video of a box bag on the Sew Sweetness web site and thought it would be a good project to start with and I could make one for my daughters up coming birthday.
The material is a remnant from a Roman Blind I made for her bathroom so I thought it appropriate. I managed to find a zip that would do, and some velvet ribbon to sew over the zip edges the colours of zip and ribbon picking up the colours of the orchids in the fabric. In hind sight I should have sewn the ribbon on with longer stitches - being sewn through the foam has made it look puckered when it is not. Some cotton fabric for the lining in similar colours worked very well I thought. However, what a pig to make . I used headliner fabric for
the construction and I found the sewing to be very awkward. The video showed a Juki machine being used and at one point I thought I might get mine out as it might cope better than my new machine! As I said, I am still coming to terms with my new one.....it is so different. No leaver by the needle to lift up the presser foot - have to use a different method and as for the thread cutter......on my other Pfaff it works like a dream....on this new machine every time it cuts the thread the thread shoots out of the needle and up into the machine meaning I have to un thread and re thread the machine. A pain.....will have to find a blog to see if others are having the same issue!
My niece gave birth to her first baby last month after many years of hoping! But what a time to be in hospital with Covid 19 still active in our area! She had a cesarean but the days of keeping you in for a week appears to be long gone and she was sent home very quickly. Good news is that everything is all OK. As I had my knitting machine out I quickly made a couple of cardigans that will hopefully be useful when winter comes. My granddaughter is now 9 months old, so I was already making things in a larger size....so adding a couple more seemed like a good idea. My problem now is buttons.....I don't seem to have enough of the same size and colour in my button box....so one cardigan had multi coloured ones picking out the colours in the fair isle pattern.I'm still making an origami crane a day and have now done 41.....I am a lot quicker now ha ha.
My main focus now is getting to grips with my new Pfaff Creative Icon sewing/embroidery machine. I thought of buying one two years ago but couldn't bring myself to spend a mega amount of money when I already had a machine that had been top of the range albeit 20 odd years ago! However when I bought a Pfaff Passport lightweight machine to take to my quilting group I realised just how much I liked the Pfaff IDT walking foot system and realised my brother machine just did not sew well when doing patchwork. It couldn't cope with bulky places and missed stitching over thicker seams. So when hubby pointed out that with this Covid thing you just didn't know what was ahead, and the fact that I am now retired and not getting younger I thought what the heck......why not enjoy life and make the most of each day. Saving for a rainy day seems a stupid idea.....those rainy days are here.
The material is a remnant from a Roman Blind I made for her bathroom so I thought it appropriate. I managed to find a zip that would do, and some velvet ribbon to sew over the zip edges the colours of zip and ribbon picking up the colours of the orchids in the fabric. In hind sight I should have sewn the ribbon on with longer stitches - being sewn through the foam has made it look puckered when it is not. Some cotton fabric for the lining in similar colours worked very well I thought. However, what a pig to make . I used headliner fabric forthe construction and I found the sewing to be very awkward. The video showed a Juki machine being used and at one point I thought I might get mine out as it might cope better than my new machine! As I said, I am still coming to terms with my new one.....it is so different. No leaver by the needle to lift up the presser foot - have to use a different method and as for the thread cutter......on my other Pfaff it works like a dream....on this new machine every time it cuts the thread the thread shoots out of the needle and up into the machine meaning I have to un thread and re thread the machine. A pain.....will have to find a blog to see if others are having the same issue!