Back to school

In contrast to my school time "as if" training, I like to learn while doing something useful, so I decided to make a Christmas quilt from the lot I won in a give away from the "Kludemagasinet" (the Danish Quilt Association's membership magazine). I won a Juniper Berry Layer Cake.

I have never bought a Layer Cake, I sure have more fabrics than I'll ever need for the rest of my life, but it is an interesting way to skip the work selection fabrics that works together in a quilt design. Hmmm.... actually takes a fun part out of preparing for a quilt. On the other hand it might present you with combinations that are outside your comfort zone / usually selection pattern.

 

I went to YouTube to look for a pattern and chose "Square Dance Quilt" from Material Girl Quilt Tutorials.

It's an extremely simple quilt, but as a training project for a novice it's perfect. I need to learn to go about all the basic function, like how to start and stop sewing and build up some good habits.

My first problem was that the upper thread made a messy dot on the backside at the fabric when it's automatically tied at the start of sewing. But lo and behold here again my favored teacher YouTube came to help. There's just not that, you can't find an explanation for there. The problem you might have is what words to use when searching, definitely not the lack of content. There's always someone out the who know the problem you have and want to lend a helping hand.
When I can't find the solution, I can always ask people in Facebook, so I immediately joined a fb group called "Os Der Syr På Bernina" (We, who sew with a Bernina). It's filled with helpful people and also there was a person with the same  start problem as I, so there were several good advices to find there too.

 Down memory lane

The difference between a mechanical sewing machine and a computerized one is as big as the difference between a manual sewing machine and a mechanical one.

My mother worked at a seamstress before she married and she had a rather fancy Singer sewing machine - for that time. It looked like this

and the machine could be lifted down into the table, so that the table had an even surface and look like a regular table. When it wasn't used she hid the legs and pedal under a curtain and used the sewing machine as a table under a mirror in the entrance hall. When she wanted to sew it was carried into the kitchen where she sat in the middle of the room working on her projects.

I remember she sewed all my dresses when I was a child. The first ready made dress I got was my confirmation and 2nd days dresses. It was a big day back then: buying the white dress with matching shoes and white psalm book and a 2.day dress also with matching shoes. Both pair of shoes was very low pumps. A coat and hat and bag was also acquired. The bought/ready made dresses and coat, the hat and the pumps/heels being a traditional marking of being a grown up. 

While my mother was working on a professional embroidery machine at work, her Singer could  sew running stitches only. She managed to decorate some of her own dresses with free motion quilting stitches. Quite an accomplishments when all you could change was the tension and length of the stitches.

I learned to sew - and knit and crochet - from my mother, but we was also taught to sew in school. The sewing machine there was with hand cranks

As far as I remember there was 5 sewing machines to 24 children. And the projects we could sew were very few and simple. Lol
The only project I remember making on the sewing machine is a sun dress (top and trousers). Definitely not a bikini, the trousers were so baggy that they could reach my armpits if I stretched the out. I don't remember ever wearing it, but we did laugh a lot at the design. Looking at it as most of our school projects: not useful, training only.

Spending spree day

My old, faithful Bernina -  bought from an 80 year old lady in 1985 - went to the ghost. 

After more than a month preparation I finally reached a decision. Phew! That was hard. I had a list with 20 "Need to have" and "Nice to have" functions + a list of feet, I wanted. Bernina 570 QE VIO met everything on my list, so I went west to Aladdins Cave aka Allan's symaskine shop i Ribe.

A rather funny shop that sold almost everything connected in the slightest way to working with textiles - looked more like a warehouse than a shop, but with a lot of customers and a rather big number of different sewing machines.

I spend some time using the Bernina and my, oh my, it's a dream come true. It seams like the only thing it can't do is to talk to me :D

I spend some time today unboxing it and learning to fill the bobbin and thread the machine. I decided to sew a simple quilt from the Layer Cake I won from "Kludemagasinet" (the Danish Quilt Association's magazine). It's actually Christmas fabrics (Moda: Juniper Berry), but you can't start Christmas preparations too early, can you?

I chose a simple design: Square Dance Quilt, that I found on YouTube. It'll make me familiar with the basic functions of the sewing machine and I won't cry if I spoil it later when quilting it on the machine too. 

To end the spending spree, I ordered a TAILORMADE DUO sewing table that'll arrive later this week. So "It's Beginning to Look like Christmas" here on a sunny day in February :D

BowTie & Stilettos

The quilt is finished and set on a background frame of dark blue monochromatic fabric. I chose this setup to make the prairie points visible on a white wall. It does show that the quilt isn't a perfect square, but so be it.

As mentioned, I've been working with a serie of quilts made from BowTie blocks. The last one is a mandala like design stressing the beautiful fabrics from Moda: Stilettos. They're so pretty that I hardly had the heart to cut them. 

The technique is still English Paper Piecing. When sewing the block parts together with whipstitches, the thread is visible at the right side, but I've found a method to hide the stitches completely from the right side of the quilt top. (The blue color is the color of the design wall, where the quilt is hanging, not part of the quilt.)

It needs precision to make the fabric lay flat and doesn't pucker. 

But a little squaring up of the top always helps.

I wanted a very narrow black line before the Prairie Point Binding. To get the line very, very narrow, II put a macramé thread into a bias binding, fastened the Prairie Points to the binding and stitched it to the patchwork top. It didn't make it less complicated that I wanted the Prairie Points padded like the top itself!

Finally I hand quilted bubbles around the dark BowTie blocks to add champagne to the dress up party.

(Quilting seen at this backside detail photo.)