Well, I am back from a long round the world business trip that had me in the air with wheels off the ground for a total of 83 flying hours (not including airport time!). I intended to stitch something last weekend but (surprisingly!) I was pretty tired and jetlagged when I got home. So, I just started my next 830 project, but didn't get too far. Anyway, I'm feeling much better this weekend and I have been stitching like no tomorrow!
This machine is AMAZING! Can't quite believe what I have been able to make it do so far......and still only scratching the surface. The tension issues I thought I had last time seem to have gone away....hmm, guess it was user error! I am getting quite good at checking tension and adjusting a bit if needed, and now I can get really perfect stitches.
My first project was the second in my series of cushions (all stashbusting items using Elly fabrics that I have had in the cupboard for a while). I decided to try my hand at machine applique this time, a la Sue Nickels' "Machine Applique - A sampler of techniques". I decided to do raw edge applique (decided that in my jetlag fog last weekend) even though I am not SO keen on raw edge.....but it was a good chance to try something new - using decorative stitches to stitch down the applique. Here's the finished product:
So, what I tried (and learnt) was:
1) Decorative stitches work fairly well to stitch down applique, for example the stitches I used around the inner leaves. However, you have to have a stitch with a narrow width and short repeat or you can't get the pattern to go around the corners. A lot of the stitches on the 830 are not suitable because they are too big and glorious and they simply don't fit around such a small space. I stitched more on my test piece than on the actual block!
2) The 830 has the most unbelievably awesome satin stitch! Wow, it's so even and smooth. Very pleased about this as my old elna never did one row of nice satin stitch in its 16 years!
3) The little embroidery dooflackey in the center flower was just a try out......it's actually reduced too much from its original so it is very dotty - about 6000 stitches in a 2" diameter circle....but the concept has potential I think - ie to combine embroidery with the applique. I also did a programmed embroidery by bringing in regular stitches into the embroidery module and then stitched them in a circle...also an idea that has potential but needs further exploration. It worked ok but I didnt choose the best stitches to do it with. I'm also a bit confused about what tension should be used for this - ie whether the machine should be set up for regular stitching or embroidery? I did set it up for embroidery but the bottom tension was too tight. Didn't have problems with other embroidery.
4) Stipple quilting - see that stipple quilting?! Cool, hey! Not sure what I was doing wrong with the BSR last time but this time it worked perfectly! I think the trick was something to do with a combination of bringing the speed right down so the machine was working at the same speed as my brain, plus unplugging the foot pedal so I didn't do any erratic zooming. Anyway, this was my very first go at stippling and I think it is pretty darned good!
On Saturday morning when my 8 year old and I were at IKEA together with 2/3 of Beijing's population (it was raining) buying a second sewing desk (the machine is so big there's hardly room to put my scissors down on the same table)......the afore-mentioned 8 year old lobbied pretty hard for a cushion for herself. I relented because a) we had assigned the "IKEA visit impulse purchase" to her (and anyway, the cushion insert was only 80c so I got off pretty lightly as far as impulse purchases go); and, b) I wanted to test some embroidery software I bought while in Washington recently so a couple of cushions could fit the bill. So, another weekend stash-busting project was conceived and here is the result:
The patterns were selected by the girls (which is why the 5 year old chose the one on the right which has "his big fat bottom waving in the air...giggle..giggle..giggle" [her words, not mine]). Things I learnt/discovered were:
1) It is surprisingly easy to do the machine embroidered applique. A bit time consuming because of all the thread changes. I also had trouble with thread breakage on a couple of spools of Mettler thread. The one Isocord I used didn't break at all.
2) I need to play with colors more. The first one (the one on the left) has better contrast between the fabric and the thread but I used a couple of thread colors which I wouldn't use again. On the other hand, the fabric selection for the one on the right wasn't the greatest. Bit hard to see the actual shape. This is the reason I wanted to test these before embarking on a quilt for a friend. I'm pretty limited on thread color, to be honest, and I could see that it might be tempting to embark on a major thread expansion program....but one has to be realistic!
3) Anyone who gets anything sewn by me at the moment gets stipple quilting whether they like it or not! It is good to use every available opportunity to practice! And I don't think the girls even noticed, to be frank.
4) I need to get some different stabilizer. the one I have is water soluble and it is very gooey even when a bit of water from the spray bottle gets on it! eesh. I think I will get a tear away or cut away one.
5) All the embroidery instructions talk about using temporary spray adhesive to do this and that. Well, not surprisingly, that isn't exactly a hot seller in Beijing and it's one thing I can't import in my suitcase....so, I need some ideas about what to do replace it with. This time I just used a large enough piece of backing fabric to be able to hoop it directly, and when putting in the large applique pieces, I ironed a small bit of mistyfuse under it. But there must be a better way to save backing fabric and hold the applique fabric in place while it is being tacked down....
Anyway, that's it for this weekend. I am off to clean up the sewing room office so it will be habitable this week. The troops have just come back from a birthday party at a stifling hot indoor play place. my husband is looking like he doesn't plan to do much more looking after the kids today so I better get on to it.....
