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!

Clover Needle Threader

Something that really works the way it’s supposed to!

As eyes get older, they require all kinds help.  Like eyeglasses, good lighting, magnifying glasses and needle threaders!  While doing some handsewing the other day, I realized how I’ve come to really appreciate the Clover Needle Threader.  It is such a simple, magical tool that works every time.

Insert needle eye down.  Lay thread in the slot.  Push button.  Needle threaded!  Works every time.

When my 9 year old grandson was over one day, the Needle Threader was out and he asked what it was.  Told him it was a needle threader and told him what to do and he threaded a needle and got that wonderful look on his face that meant he was impressed.  And he wanted to do it again.  And he wanted his mom to do it!  Takes a lot to impress these 9 year old tech-savvy kids these days … yahoo for the Clover Needle Threader!

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!

Royal Pains & Army Wives

Tom Jicha of the Sun-Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale is a very harsh critic.  So, when he wrote such a glowing review Thursday morning about the “Royal Pains” premiere (USA network), I just had to watch.

It’s on here at 10pm, so I recorded Thursday’s show to watch on Friday evening.  DH watched it with me and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.  Oh, those super-rich people in the Hamptons with all their excesses & false values, I liked seeing them in action!

There has to be some truth to their behavior as portrayed in the premiere episode.  If there isn’t, I don’t care – storyline is good, the characters are fun, especially the “concierge doctor’s” brother.  What a hoot he is.

If there are going to be more interesting characters in upcoming shows as there were in the first show, “Royal Pains” will have me as a regular viewer!  As it is now, I look forward to next Thursday’s show. 

New season of “Army Wives” is back again on this coming Sunday.  I’ve missed it. 

Oh, what fun viewing I will be having this summer.

Back as promised!

The turkey at the top of the page is from a panel print I bought at Joann's in 2004. It was a gift to my DD at Thanksgiving to thank her for hosting the big dinner. I still felt I had to stuff a turkey! LOL I had done a kabillion turkey dinners over the years and was so happy to pass the torch to someone else. I found out it was really nice to be a guest at Thanksgiving. Another thing to be thankful for.

I've had a website for a long time at America Online. AOL decided to stop hosting member websites and gave us a few weeks to get outa Dodge. I decided I still wanted a web presence. So, I bit the bullet and bought my own domain -- http://anotherpat.com/ Get it? My 2nd patch of the internet is this blog! I thought that to be very clever ..

My website is hosted by http://bluehost.com/ and I have been very happy with their service. They actually have tech help that answers phones in the USA, not outsourced! I think they're based in Utah. They have been so polite and so very helpful with all of my dumb questions. I'd recommend them to anyone. Got any questions about BlueHost? Ask me -- I'll let you know what I know.

Now, since I've had a website and this blog is a new thingy to me, I don't know how I'm gonna make it flow between the two. So, I am on another adventure. I'm beginning to think that the journeys in life are far more fun than the destinations. I've always loved planning the trip -- sometimes the trip turns out wonderful, sometimes not. But, the planning is always exciting. So begins my journey into blogdom.

This is the oddest sensation -- writing in a blog is not like writing to someone. It's like throwing your thoughts out there in hopes that someone will catch them.

For my first leg of the journey, if you'd like to accept it, I am doing a review. I got the Bendable Bright Light and attached it to my sewing machine. Let me tell you, I am very pleased with the pin-point of light that comes from that little light. It really lights up the needle area when doing thread painting -- which is my newest joy of quilting. I have sewn clothing for many years and loved to make Halloween costumes for the grands when they were young. So, believe me, I have lots of thread to use up. Thread is like beads -- the more you have, the more you want! LOL Yes, I embellish my wallhangings with beads. Let the journey begin ...

Here's a link to my webpage review on the Bendable Bright Light -- http://anotherpat.com/reviews.htm