Bags under ironing board

Sunnie from Patchwork Pie left a comment on my post yesterday --

How big is that cute bag?
Could you leave it hanging under the ironing board and keep spray starch, etc. in it?

The Little Georgia Tote Bag stands at 9” tall.
Here’s the bag holding a can of Spray Sizing.  I could probably put a small spray bottle of water in the bag, too.  Don’t think it will be too heavy for the bag.  The other bag was made long ago for an item I no longer own.  I put the packaging from the various feet I have (& will) purchase for my Janome 6600.  The package always has some sort of necessary info I might want to refer to.

Even though it’s not a full-sized ironing board that I have in my sewing room, there is lots of room under there to hang bags from metal shower hooks.  And I’ve got more bags and can always make bags I might need.  So, I’ll just keep my eyes open for things that could be put into bags and hang them under there.

And the convenience of that space – I just swivel around in my chair and have access to all the hanging bags.  And since I never fold up the ironing board, this makes quite the nice storage area.  And I get to look at all the various bags a-hangin’.

Perfect 1/4” seam

The secret to getting a “perfect” block is a “perfect” 1/4” seam – or so they say. Well, I found out it’s true!

The above block is the first time I ever made a block with rotary cut patches (other than a square) and templates and it turned out to be the perfect size! I have always shied away from rotary cut blocks and templates cuz when I sewed the patches together, the completed block was always a little bit off. This one measures 12-1/2” square – as it is supposed to.

It has 29 patches and a whole bunch of points. Lots of places to make a teensy error that multiplies into a big error as more seams are sewn.

I usually make my blocks divided into Paper Piecing parts, which I then sew together. The only time I use rotary cut is for squares. HSTs - I make by sewing 2 oversized squares together on the diagonal. Odd sized patches are usually in the Paper Piecing parts.

My secret for the perfect block -- I used a new foot on my Janome 6600 - http://tinyurl.com/ykvasw2
It’s a “Clear View Quilting Foot and Guide Set”, $16. It gives the most accurate 1/4” seam I’ve ever done on this machine or any other machine.

The block is one I saw in Quilters Newsletter Magazine, July/August 2005. Starry Star was designed by Judy Martin. The article had lots of “blocks within blocks” that Judy designed.

I belong to the Sunshine State Quilters Association, Inc. and also am the webmaster of their website. SSQA is a statewide guild for the state of Florida. SSQA was collecting blocks for Quilts of Valor and then distributed the blocks to member guilds who will be making them into quilts for Quilts of Valor to give to wounded servicemen and servicewomen.

Whenever I make donation blocks, I like to make unusual blocks, such as this one. It’s good for a personal challenge and gets the block out of my system. Cuz, when I finish one of these unusual blocks, I usually find out I don’t want to make more than one!

iPod Touch & Sewing

I found another great use for the iPod Touch.  I found the best way to keep track of my sewing stitches and the adjustments I make to the stitches on my new Janome 6600 is to take a close-up picture of the foot used and then type notes on the photo.

If you click on the pic above, you will be able to read the note better on the enlarged pic.  My note tells me the Needle Position to use for a 1/4” seam when using the Open-Toe AccuFeed foot.  And the red arrows remind me where to line up the raw edge of fabric with the foot.

Putting this in the IPod Touch saves on ink and paper as I don’t have to print it out.  I bring my iPod Touch into my sewing room a lot.

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!

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.

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!