New Machine, New Project

I never got around to mentioning that a few weeks ago I bought another sewing machine.  This one is a fairly compact, portable Janome 4900.  It has lots of stitches, is an electronic machine, and has the option of stopping with the needle up or down.  It also has a needle threader.  What I miss on it is a thread cutter.  Those are two niceties that are on my good machine and on the Janome 6400 that I gave to our younger daughter two years ago when I bought the "good" machine, the big Janome Horizon.

When I first started going to quilt club back in 2003 I soon realized I needed a portable machine.  I didn't trust carrying my heavy "good" machine which had a handle on the case, and just two clips to hold the heavy machine in place.  At that time I bought a Janome SchoolMate, a very sturdy portable machine but a pretty basic machine, not an electronic.  It has proved its worth over and over!

Lately I've been thinking about making a present of that SchoolMate to D.S.#1.  He was happy about that idea, so I checked in Red Deer Sewing Center if there were any SchoolMates on trade-in.  There weren't, but Rollie, who is a really good salesman, began showing me some of their more portable machines.  There was this 4900, which had come in the night before on a trade-in.  It wasn't long before I told Rollie, "That machine is going home with me!"

After we went on our "shop hop" as a quilting club, a week and half ago, I was eager to start on the new project I had purchased: two kits for a beautiful single bed quilt.  (Two because I want to make a very large queen size quilt.)

This past Saturday was a totally rainy day, so I had time to start working on that project.  Here are some of the finished blocks.  They're not sewed together; they are just up on the design wall.  Lots more are finished now, in fact, all the blocks for the single bed size quilt are finished.

I've extended the pattern quite a bit, figured out what blocks I need, and made all the four patch squares needed.  I hope to get the opportunity to do a lot of sewing on them later this week, and get the top completed in record time.

We'll see about that!  The Garden Centre is swinging into high gear and I might have to be out there writing up purchases and helping out in other ways.  First though, today and tomorrow are violin lesson days.  We'll just have to wait until Thursday and see how things go.

Meanwhile, the thumb is improving greatly!