Quilting on an embroidery machine

Well, I had put together another lap quilt top that was sort of based on the Stack-N-Whack, except it is a 4 piece block, and every other block was a solid color. Just a way to try to see if I could cut the fabric close enough to possibly attempt a stack-n-whack. For the most part, the cutting out of the actual fabric turned out pretty good. My attempts to cut my blocks the exact same size was another failure.



But the actual quilting that I did on the PR620 turned out pretty good. I will need to play around with templates and learn how to get the designs closer together, but overall for my first attempt, I am fairly happy.




Overall, I am happy with this little lap quilt. Just bindings remain and I will have another one completed to donate. Oh yeah, this was my first attempt at using the basting spray to attach the pieces to one another for the quilting process. Not sure if I am going to give up my pins yet or not, but I do believe that the results which I received make the quilt look more used instead of being a fresh brand new quilt.

Having some time on my hands

and determined that today I would finish a little lap quilt I had started months ago. The embroidered blocks I had stitched out a few months ago, and are from Ace Points. I had purchased the solid moss green, with the coordinating strip fabric and didn't quite know what I was going to make out of them, but I knew I loved the colors. Looking at some of my embroidery designs, I determined that I would just stitch out this Ace Points set (AP 564 - Dainty Rose Quilt) and go from there.

Well, the blocks sat for months due to work. On Wednesday of this past week, I managed to get the stripped fabric cut and the top pieced together. Thursday night I had a few minutes to find a backing. After pinning everything together and getting it 'quilted', I took it up to Hancocks to find the binding that I wanted to use. I couldn't determine if I wanted the pink, green, or cream. I selected the pink and think it finishes off the quilt quite nicely. Anyway, here it is...

One Proud Mom

Yeah, I'm one proud Mom right now.

If you want to read the entire story, you can go to http://www.mousbc.org to read in all the shining glory.

But, on Memorial Day weekend, my son competed in the first ever organized and sponsored bowling tournament for high school teams in the state of Missouri. The Northmen of Oak Park came home as the state's 1st CHAMPIONS!



Not bad for a group of kids that love to bowl that put together a club for school about 6-8 weeks ago. Who knew that they would get a chance to even compete at state, let alone WIN STATE! All of this, and the school would not even recognize them and allow them to acutally use "Oak Park" in their name. So while the web site has them as Oak Park Northmen, they went there as Northmen of oak park.

Hats off to Gladstone Bowl for being such a great facility with a love for the kids and the sport!

One step closer

Well, after having some discussions with the wonderful manager of the Bernina shop close to my house, I made the executive decision to go with either the Brother PR620 or the Bablylock equivalent.

I called down to one of the larger Bernina sewing centers that happened to have a PR600ii on the floor and a PR620 in a box. Those ladies really were trying hard to sell me the PR600ii, but since it is 'end of life' considering future upgrades, we said that we'd take the PR620. [Note: I believe it is at end of life, but am not 100% sure of that fact!] Anyways, I paid as my wonderful husband loaded it up.

Of course the ladies were tickled pink, because that is only the 2nd 'big' embroidery machine that had been sold out of the store. Of course I told them that if they got any commission that they had to share with the other manager as it was her that got me down there in the first place.

We got it home about 7pm and got it out of the van. Carefully it was unpacked and we carried it up 2 full flights of stairs to get it to what is the room of it's final resting place. Due to other family activities in the day, it had been predetermined that we would go out for dinner. So, I had to leave my new baby to go out to eat. In my eyes, everyone was eating so slow.....

Finally we made it back home and my husband and I spent the next couple of hours determining where it would reside in the room and getting everything set up. The moment of truth comes, and we finally stitch out a test design. I managed to get 3 designs stitched out, including a Zundt, before I went to have sweet dreams of a beautiful new machine.

I have been playing since I got up this morning and am having a blast. I'm learning how to hoop socks on the cylinder hoop. I have been playing around learning how to change which needle I want to sew what color.

I feel like the old ABC Wide World of Sports

and the agony of defeat. (Yes I am aging myself...)

Looks like the Brother 9 needle will not happen after all. The lady changed her mind about selling her industrial brother machines to buy a 4 head machine. She is now just going to go the route of buying 2 additional single head machines.

So, for the night, I will cry into my wine as I listen to Rob Zombie.

I swear, with the machines that we have looked at, and the oh-sew-closes... it is almost like the stars are telling me to NOT go down the path of the venture that I so want to explore.

Edited to add: My wonderful husband, realizing my dreams, is saying to just go out and buy a brand new Barudan. YIKES!!! OMG OMG OMG... The costs associated with a machine like this, not knowing if a business will come to fruition.... ... His comment was that I would have one kicking home embroidery machine if it didn't work out. Gotta love him. Yep, he's a keeper.... :D

Buying a machine....

I mean... who knew how hard it would be to buy a machine. Geeze... it is getting to the point that I'd almost rather have a root canal performed WHILE in labor. You'd think that in this economy, people would be jumping up and down to take my money... right? RIGHT? !?!?!?

So far, it seems like everyone wants to talk the good talk, but when it comes to pony up to the table they stand there looking at their shoes. Of course sometimes I wonder if they are wondering if they removed the sock lint from between their toes recently or not... ...

But I currently am in the market for a commercial embroidery machine. At first, I want to buy a really REALLY good used one, just so that I don't invest 20K into something that I am not sure that I am going to like. I had a line on a Barudan, but it wouldn't do all it was advertised to do, maybe from lack of maintenance or age... I don't know. The let down started with that machine, because I know that Barudan's are supposed to be really great machines. Of course there may be an age limit on the technology and if it is still a good machine or not. I suppose almost 2 decades old is a little... well... old.

I was thinking along the lines of the Brother PR620 or the Babylock equivalent. My husband wasn't so excited about those for a couple of reasons, hoop size and the ability to stand up over time. I suppose he thinks that I'm going to have like a million clients within 30 seconds of opening or something... LOL But the PR620 and Babylocks just didn't have the hoop size that I was really after, so basically I am left with going a full blown commercial. You'd think that they'd be licking their lips to sell me something... right? Geeze, talk about your used car salesman, but I guess they don't realize that I'm not the sucker that was born today. But, right now the selection is looking like a Brother BE 901. With any luck, I will have the machine set up and stitching by this weekend. I feel like I will have a learning curve ahead of me and will need plenty of time to practice. Husband has scouted a couple of machines, and I believe that the ultimate decision is mine. I will be going on a quick road trip early Saturday morning to test the machine out. Hopefully my new toy will come home with me.

I was discussing a digitizing design with a client the other night, and a couple of different people overheard the conversation. Before you know it, my husband is basically taking orders for items that they want. YIKES!!! Guess it is getting very close to being official. Am I scared yet???

Thread Treasures

Welcome to Thread Treasures

Thread Treasures was born out of a love for machine embroidery.

Until my husband purchased my first embroidery machine, my sewing had been limited to fashion, with a couple of quilts thrown in the mix.

Now, I spend hours stitching out designs and have ventured into creating my own designs.

Here is a lap quilt which was made from my embroidery designs.