Lifetime and SciFi changes to SyFy

When I’m sewing stuff that doesn’t require much concentration, I like to watch a movie in my sewing room.  I’ve always enjoyed the movies on Lifetime (cable channel) while I sewed.  The movies themselves don’t require much concentration.  But, now Lifetime is no longer running movies on weekdays.  They’ve got “lovely” programs such as 2 hours of “Wife Swap” in the time slot that used to have movies.

Evidently, people are watching that dreadful “Wife Swap”, otherwise they wouldn’t be airing it two hours in a row!

Then, SciFi (cable channel) changes its name to SyFy.  (Grandson calls it “Siffee”)  What’s up with that?  How much did they pay for that name change?  What a waste of money.

And I don’t think that SciFi is much of a science fiction movie channel anymore.  (Guess that’s why they changed the name)  They seem to run more horror movies than science fiction movies.  Since when is “horror” to be considered science fiction?

And all of those whacky new programs that SciFi keeps spewing out.  Another waste of time and money with programs that appeal to the short attention span of 14 year old boys.

At my age, I am no longer a demographic group that “they” would be interested in.  But, hey … I still spend money and I think I spend way more than any 14 year old boy spends!  Start running some programs that require some intelligence to follow.

Thank goodness for podcasts from NPR (National Public Radio).  I find myself listening to more and more podcasts.  I subscribe to “Fresh Air” and “The Diane Rehm Show”.

And I get quilting podcasts through my iPod Touch and iTunes.  I subscribe to Annie Smith, Alex Anderson and Bonnie McCaffery.

What do you like to listen to/watch while you sew?

Project gone wrong!

Did you ever have it in your mind to create something and then as the sewing progressed, you realized it just wasn’t working out?

Well, I had another one of those “project gone wrong” things happen to me.  Yep, there’s been more than one!  I wanted to make a couple of “Bah Humbug Bags” and I didn’t want any raw edges in the bag.  Thought I’d like it to have a layer of batting.  Well.  That just didn’t work out.  Tried Traditional Batt on the larger bag and it was way too bulky.  Tried Cotton Batt on the smaller bag & it was still too much.  And the added bulk of the batting made sewing thru some of the seams with all those layers a bit much.

I don’t have a pattern for the Humbug Bag, but I had made the bag years ago after seeing it on a “Sewing with Nancy” program that featured the bag.  I made several of those, at the time.  They make nice gifts.  And also a nice cover-up for a gift.  Had made one for myself, too.

Well, my 2nd try (bags 3 & 4) turned out better.  There are no exposed raw edges anywhere in the bag.  Got back to basics and used denim for its durability.  No batting.  Nice fabrics for lining and decorating the handle.  The fabric & denim are quilted together with some deco stitches on my new sewing machine.

The bags look just a bit different, cuz I found that I had lots of bulk when stitching the handle in the same place with the zipper insert as on the smaller bag.  So, I moved the zipper insert away from the middle on the larger bag and that did the trick – the zipper insert & the handle are sewn thru separately, rather than all on top of each other.  I even made each end of the handle to be sewn side by side, rather than on top of each other, again, less bulk.

This was a good project to choose for sewing on my new Janome 6600p.  Lots of practice on many techniques, including using the zipper foot.  Even the original idea with the green bags that didn’t work out gave me some nice practice on quilting with the AccuFeed Foot.

The old dog IS learning new tricks!  LOL

The denim bags are a gift for a niece who will be starting college in the fall.  I know Holly will put them to good use, transporting any manner of goodies in them.

The original green bags I will finish up and know I will find some use for them around here.

6600p - feet & bobbin winding

I thought I’d blog about the features of my new machine, in case anyone was in the market for a new machine, then they could see what’s a nice feature on the Janome 6600p.

The new 1/4” foot has a larger area where the needle goes into the fabric. See the red circles I drew on the photo? The old foot on left and new foot on right. That little bit of extra room in that area allows me to move my needle position, ever so slightly, to get the “perfect 1/4” seam”.

If you have an older model of a Janome machine and it doesn’t have the “wiggle room” in the 1/4” foot, I’d definitely go and buy this new foot. Thankfully, Janome has kept the same foot from model to model.

There is a separate bobbin winding motor, so you don’t have to unthread your machine to wind a new bobbin. That is, if you have another spool of thread of that color!

My old Janome 9000 had an annoying sound that let me know when my bobbin thread was low. It beeped frequently from a certain point and until the bobbin was empty. Evidently, there must have been others who complained about it, cuz the 6600p does not have the annoying sound to let me know about the bobbin being low. No sound at all to warn me the bobbin is low. So, guess who wasn’t paying attention to the bobbin and ran out of thread where I really would have preferred not to … careful what you wish for, you just might get it!

Knee lifts & noodles

Ever think the knee lift on your sewing machine felt uncomfortable against your leg?  I mentioned to my husband that while the knee lift was wonderful, it hurt the side of my leg as I wear shorts most of the time and that plastic handle was not comfortable against my skin.

He came up with a solution – pad the handle!

He cut a section from one of those noodles that you use in the pool and poked a knife down the middle, then slipped the purple noodle onto the handle.

I made it even more comfy by slipping a cotton footie (short sock) over the noodle.

It doesn’t look all that attractive, but boy oh boy, does it make a world of difference when I use that knee lift.

Isn’t it always the little things that make life easier?

Enjoying the new machine

It was a breeze quilting on a small piece that will be made into a bag. Love that AccuFeed on the Janome 6600p. No more clunky noise as with a walking foot. In combination with the knee lift, the AccuFeed made quilting on the small piece easy. The small piece wasn’t big enough to test out the capabilities of the wide arm area.

The arm area is soooo wide, I can keep my small pincushion nearby as I sew.

This machine has a presser foot lifter that lifts the foot to a normal height and then you can lift it higher than normal – an “extra lift” position. That came in mighty handy when I was sewing on a zipper. When I came to the zipper tab, I did not have to finagle around the zipper tab to slide it into a different position. I was very happy with that.

Quilt Magazines in Spanish?

Someone emailed me saying that her daughter is studying in Costa Rica and the local women love quilting and yearn for American Quilting Magazines but do not read English. 

Does anyone out there in the Land of Blog know of a Quilt Magazine for Spanish speaking/reading quilters?

Stimulating the economy

Sometimes you have to make a decision – repair or replace.Yesterday was replacement day!

I got me a new sewing machine!

It’s a Janome MC6600 Professional. Look at all that space in the arm area to push the quilt through. My old Janome (9000) had 7” of arm space. This new one has 9”. That 2” makes a huge difference.

Here’s a page with all the specs of the machine -
http://sunshinesewing.com/janome/6600.html I’ve bought machines from Sunshine Sewing Company for years now. I can remember buying my first embroidery machine, a Janome 8000, from Sunshine in 1993. That was when it was owned by someone else and before it had all the fabric that it has now. Faye (owner for last 12 years) has done a great job of seeing that the store is brimming with all the latest fabrics. They also have an online store.

The 6600 runs so smoothly and sounds so good as it hums along. It is a “professional” machine which means it is built “strong like bull”.

I’ve had 2 embroidery machines and truth be told, the big reason I got the 2nd embroidery machine was to get the knee lift. I really haven’t found much need for embroidery in recent years and never had the type of embroidery machine that connects to the computer.

I’m a quilter. And sometimes sewist. The 6600 is not an embroidery machine. It does have a lot of built in stitches. And it has the knee lift. I truly love my knee lift when doing some kinds of quilting and appliqué work. This machine is geared towards a quilter.

Faye said she likes to use the “on – off button” instead of the foot control when free motion quilting. I’m going to have to give that a try.

Just got it set up and familiar with it yesterday. Haven’t as yet tried the AcuFeed which is a built in walking foot. That’s a “job” for today!