I am a hand quilter, but sometimes I machine quilt

For all the hand quilters out there who never try machine quilting, give it a go!  I occasionally machine quilt a machine pieced quilt, and still hand quilt the "good" quilts.  This one is going to Aust Patchwork and quilting magazine and needs to be there mid May.  My plan was to sew in the ditch, then to do my all time favourite twisted rope border design.

I really hate marking these designs - such a time consuming thing.  I bought this "Quilt Pounce" and it does the job pretty quickly.  You have to make sure that you buy the correct powder though.  One of them brushes off and the other irons off.  I found out the hard way that i had the wrong one!  After the first disaster, where I marked the quilt, and before I had finished half one side, it had rubbed off, I then got the correct powder.  This little box is full of the powder, and once you have worked it through to the underside, then you just wipe it over the template.  Do not tap it on the template - wipe only.

I don;t for one moment pretend to be good at this, I am just passing along some tips I found work for me.  Proper machine quilters and teachers will no doubt have far better tips and ideas.

The next really great thing is a good machine!  I bought this Brother Nouvelle 1500S after using my friend Irene's machine.  She lent me hers after my Bernina caught on fire.  I kid you not - it actually caught on fire one morning, a couple of year ago.  I was in the middle of machine quilting,  the quilt was still in the machine, I left the room, then heard all this banging.  I rushed back into the room and saw flames coming out of the motor.  I was beside myself.   That machine was a gift from my mother and I had it for years.  Anyway, cut the story short, I used Irene's machine, loved it, and when I took my Bernina to be repaired, I also bought a Brother for myself.

It does only a straight stitch, has various lengths and pressures of stitch.  The walking foot is great, it has a wide throat, which is so important, a big table, and most importantly, I can actually do free motion stitching on it, because it moves as fast or as slow as I want it to.  It is classed as a semi-industrial machine, and really belts along when sewing.  Actually the best thing of all is that it cuts the thread.  I do a little back-stitch when finished sewing, press the button, and it cuts.  So cool!

 One of the big dramas right now is that I have to clean up my sewing room.  it is the pits!  On this wall my DH is going to build me a whole wall of sliding door robes, floor to ceiling, and the ceiling is 9 feet high. I am going to have so much storage space, but I have to really downside the "junk".  See all that lovely light coming in on the RHS of the photo, that is a huge window, where we are getting Plantation Shutter installed next week.  This room has the best light in the house, and in winter I do not even have to turn the light on in the day time.  So lucky - but a lot of work to go.

All of this stacked up stuff will be in that cupboard!  Looks messy?  Should see the stuff that I have already moved out, and stored under the bed.  I am going to be a new girl!  This is my pay-off for leaving work - get to clean up 15 odd years of accumulated mess.  Stay tuned for up-dates.