The one drawback to moving from a full cabinet to the K-base tables was losing my four small drawers.  I looked at the plastic things on wheels from the big box stores, things at Target, things at Ikea, and the GORGEOUS “Perfect Caddy” from the folks at Hinterberg…you know them, the ones who make the beautiful quilt frames and hoops.  I decided that thanks to many folks (you know who you are out there..>THANK YOU!) buying my book, since I could actually afford something nice, I was going to GET something nice!  A little nudge from friend and quilter extraordinaire Pat LaPierre MacAfee didn’t hurt, either LOL!

I didn’t see exactly what I needed:  something that would fit UNDER my new tables.  I figured that including the wheels, the entire unit needed to be 27 inches or a little bit shorter.  I called the 800 number, explained what I was after, and the nice woman looked at their units and said that I could fit one with six tiers in that space.  I selected four shallow and one medium-depth (takes up two spaces) drawers, then added the drop-down flaps on either side.  More portable horizontal surfaces … yeah! The quilting book on the top gives you an idea of size.

If I unlock the casters and pull the drawer unit out, I now have (presto!) a nice extension for working on very large quilts just under my elbow!

These pieces are SO beautifully made, and for a modest $10 you can add customizable inserts to organize everything.  Why do plastic when you can have wood?

These are HEAVY–my main unit came in a large box that was over SEVENTY POUNDS!  Had to enlist my strong hubby to get it upstairs!  Thanks Pookie! The assembly took a while, but was as easy as could be.  The holes are PERFECTLY drilled and the instructions clear.

Sigh.  Contentment!   Pretty things, useful things, a nice studio.  How nice to find a good company with a good product willing to customize for you–here’s to supporting industry in your own country and rewarding folks who do good work!  Thanks Hinterberg/Perfect Caddy!   Now…to find TIME to quilt!

Wowie zowie!  Having a little bit of income and a  wonderful sponsor is, well, WONDERFUL!   Janome has come out with an upgrade to my beloved Janome 6600, and they were kind enough to send me a Horizon 7700!  Plus I had two new sewing tables built…what a way to start the new school year!

To backtrack a bit, when we moved to Maine in 2004 and I lost my home-dec-sewing name-recognition and income base, I decided if I was going to try to make a “go” of it and earn some income from quilting, that was the time.  Shortly before that, as an utter unknown with maybe ONE publication credit to my name, but three things in Houston in 2003 (the Journal Quilts, a quilt in the juried show and another in a special exhibit), I approached Janome because I really wanted the 6500 but couldn’t afford it.  I asked if they had a teacher/artist loan program, and if so if they would consider me.

To my utter astonishment and delight, Janome America said YES!  It has been a great relationship ever since, and they have generously upgraded my machine first to the 6600 then the 7700!  So MAJOR THANKS to Janome America for their continued support…. I’d say all these great things about the machines if I had paid full-price—they are a lot of value for the quilting dollar!  So here it is:

Yes, that’s a NEW table!  I had a Sylvia 1500 cabinet that I loved, but the opening was too small for the extended harp of the 7700 and couldn’t be enlarged without re-making the entire cabinet.  My friend Kate (THANK YOU!) wanted to buy my cabinet, so I decided to get new tables.  At first I thought I’d buy something from Tony at Sew Perfect Tables, but it turned out I’d lose a lot of length to the left of the needle compared to what I was used to.  So I asked Tony if I could purchase just the K-base (so-named due to the shape of the legs) used on his tables and industrial sewing machines.  He said yes, so I bought two (I’m hoping to add an HQ16 sit-down mid-arm to my arsenal next year) and had them painted lime green at New England Motorworks (I think there was a Ford Pick-up  years ago that came in this color!).  Thanks to Tony and NEM!

Then I had John Bailey of JB Builders (dad to a friend of my older son’s, builder and carpenter…and the guy who build those great shelves for my fabric, here — in the third photo down, on the left, in aqua!) make the tops to my specification.  Each tabletop is 24×60 inches, with a 12 x 27 inch opening for the machines.  The shelves for the machines are adjustable and can be raised to flush with the surface of the table (to collect more piles of stuff?).  The opening is so large because the HQ16 sit-down is a smidge over 25 inches long, so this leaves room for plugs, etc. I wanted the tables to be white, so white formica it is!  The two tables latch underneath when pushed back to back, giving me a ginormous 48 x 60 tabletop.  Eventually, there will be a machine in two of the corners, acting as a “stop” for a quilt sliding off the far corner.  Perfect!

Here’s a wider angle view of the sewing side of the table (more on the drawer unit in a future post):

You can just barely see the second sewing machine shelf on the far left corner as it is raised even with the surface.  The total cost for all this custom work ended up being just about $200 more than if I had bought two smaller tables from Tony–I am THRILLED!  So thanks to Tony, John B., NE Motorworks and Janome.  I am SO looking forward to sewing and quilting with my new set-up!

Four sisters took my class!

I was SO busy going around the classroom on my first day of teaching, my Intro to Machine Quilting class, that I almost forgot to take pictures.  Fortunately these four sisters wanted a picture with me, so I grabbed my camera and asked the helpful student who took their photo to snap one for me, too.  I LOVE how they all took to the quilting–lots of great designs and work in their class samples.   And can you tell it was hot and humid in Columbus in mid-June…my hair was the frizziest, but I wasn’t the only one in the place whose hair went wild!

In that class, one student shared her BRILLIANT machine needle storage…yes, that’s a ginormous pill keeper!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that large, but it is just perfect for holding those 5-packs of needles, so I’m now on the lookout:

How to store those needle packages

Notice that Saturday is for used needles!  When done, wrap them up, tape the package shut, and the critters won’t get hurt when scavenging at the dump (and neither will the garbage guys).

Speaking of Saturday, that was my Fine Finishes class–with 24 students, which I discovered is simply too many for such a hands-on class.  Next time I’ll set a ceiling of 20 or even 18 so each student gets more of my time.  I really liked this student’s sample using a striped cording on the inside, then a stitched-down strip (the print), then a very skinny bias binding on the outside.  I really like the thin-thick-thin look!

Here’s the back, where she used a VERY wide binding which will cover all the previous lines of stitching…cool beans (to quote my teenager!):

Nicely mitered on the back, too!  The other side of her sample shows the couched yarn edge-finish!

I DID take more photos during my Decorative Stitch Applique class, so that’s up next!

Patsy Thompson is a quilter, author and DVD maven (with seemingly unlimited energy sources!) who loves quilted feathers…the more of them, the more intricate and hyperquilted, the better!  She recently shared her book Feather Adventures! with me:

The book is aptly subtitled:  The Machine Quilter’s Guide to Creating Stunning and Innovative Free Motion Feather Designs, and tantalizingly adds “Volume One”  (that’s hidden in the glare of the camera flash…sorry ’bout that).     The information in this book is good for machine quilters using both home and longarm (on a track) quilters…it’s all about design and building or creating your colorful feathers.

The book is organized into the following chapters:

1. The Basic Freeform Feather
2. Feathers with Stitched Spines
3. Start Thinking Outside the Box!
4. Hyperquilting!
5. Hyperquilting Special Effects
6. Epilogue

Patsy proceeds from an intro-level feather to increasingly complex variations on the theme, guiding you one step at a time.  The designs at the back at first might appear to be overwhelmingly complex, but as you follow Patsy’s clearly laid out process, you can see that these seemingly-complicated designs are a fairly simple, straightforward process.   As I was flipping through the book when it arrived, I had my first “smack-self-upside-head” moment:  use a flexible ruler to create the spine, then flip it over to mirror image the design OR simple move the curved ruler to repeat the motif.  DUH!   Why didn’t I think of that?  Thank you, Patsy!  (Read more about how on pages 14-15.)

As you read and play around with designs through the chapters, you can see how Patsy has used different variations to come up with feathers that while structurally the same look quite different.   It is up to you to decide how much is just right for your quilt!

The Stitched Spines are some of my favorite variations…. I can see using these ideas as a jumping off point for using feathers creatively in my quilting.  Even though I tend to make pictorial art quilts, I’ve already begun incorporating traditional quilting motifs.  In the quilt of my son playing his guitar (final post with finished quilt here) , I used several large feathered vines to quilt the background, and think with the inspiration of Patsy’s variations, I’ll be using them even more.

I really liked the curlicues in the photo above, too…. this particular wreath has traditional feathers on the outside, a decoratively stitched spine, and the curlicues on the inside…way cool!

Then Patsy goes over the top with a term I think she coined, Hyperquilting!  Although this might be a bit too much on many quilts (and would get lost on print fabric!), it is sure a fun idea, and may spark new ideas in how to use thread in your quilting beyond just feathers (yes, Patsy….. we all love feathers, but there are other things too!).  The only thing I wish for is more photos (of course?  what quilter doesn’t want more pictures?), especially of the entire quilt pictures.  The detail shots are perfect for achieving the aim of this book:  to teach us how.  But I’d love to see some inset photos that show the entire quilt to the edges so we can get the overall picture.   I’ll look forward to future volumes!

The book is available in a number of places, including from Patsy, here.  While you’re visiting her site, check out her blog…she has LOTS of great information there, too!

How time flies when you are swamped?  I can’t believe it has been more than a week since I posted!  Anyway, I’m here, well, but trying to get caught up and blog about a very busy past month-plus!   One of this first things I want to tell you about is a new sewing machine, and YIPPEEEE SKIPPPY it looks like I’ll be getting one!  It is the Horizon 7700 from Janome.  If you click here you can learn more about it directly from Janome.

If you are familiar with the Janome 6600 (which is what I’ve been using since it came out in early 2005), you know that Janome makes great machines and sells them at a great price…you get many more features for your purchasing dollar than with other companies (whom I shall not name!).

I got to do a quick test drive at Maine-ly Sewing (in Nobleboro, Maine) not long ago, and I am in SERIOUS machine lust!  I totally love my  6600, but they have taken the 6600 and made it better.   They’ve added automatic tension, more harp space, more lighting (my aging eyes are joyful!), and some really fun decorative stitches.  Here is one of my quickie test-drive pieces:

There is this awesome “straight stitch” throat plate thingie… if you use the programmed stitch for free-motion, it automatically moves this piece of the throat plate to make it single-stitch (a dot or small circle) opening instead of the usual rectangle (so you can stitch a zigzag).  When you go back to regular stitches, the thingie retracts and you’re back to the rectangle, and thereby don’t slam your needle into throatplate…ingenious!
When I did my quickie test, I used the accu-feed (the built-in walking foot mechanism) to do some of the satin stitches and decorative satin stitches, then popped on the free-motion foot.  The stitching was wonderful…

When checking out a new machine, I always try to make a machine do poor stitching, deliberately make “driver errors”.  The easiest one to do (and common with beginning free-motion quilters) is to whip around curves, which usually leads to eyelashes on the back.   I did   several spirals and whip-around curves,

and I tell you the back was almost *perfect*!  I couldn’t believe my eyes.   Some of my stitches were really long…like 3/8 ” for each stitch, and still, the stitches were either just right or only the itsy bitsiest bit of needle thread showing like a little dot on the back.  I am seriously impressed.

I am also on the list to get a 7700!

I was a bit hesitant before my test drive because of the 7700’s touchscreen and dial, as I am VERY visual and prefer buttons and knobs.  Often, at least with the old touchpads, my fingers were too cold and somehow the things wouldn’t work for me (much muttering at the grocery store!).  I sat down at this machine and was able to use the touchpad only to scroll through the screens (it was intuitive and easy) without even reading the manual (smacking my own knuckles, I know). I didn’t try to figure out the dial, as I had to meet someone and was short on time.

Anyway, I was very happy with what I saw and am looking forward to getting one and playing a lot!

PS…in the interest of full disclosure, Janome America has provided me with an artist/teacher loaner for the past six or seven years or so.  In exchange I did a couple patterns for their now-defunct company magazine, and they used one of my quilts in their show brochure ads several years ago.  I also sometimes send them   suggestions I hear from the 6500/6600 yahoo group (with the permission of the authors or, in the case of multiple comments of the same variety, edited into non-attributable/generic suggestions by me).  Anyway, about 18 months ago they actually wrote back to me and asked for clarifications on a couple of things–they were clearly in the planning stages on the 7700 and they were (WOW) listening to their customers!

Bottom line:  I’d say the same things if I had a loaner or paid full price…the 6500, 6600 and 7700 are some of the best machines on the market, and at a good value for the price–and a fraction of the cost of some comparable machines from other companies.

Cheers, Sarah

PS—just discovered Janome has a really good set of introduction pages on their website to showcase the features of the Horizon 7700.  Check it out here.  Be sure to click on the various tabs (features, accessories, projects, etc).