Oh Happy Day

It's getting colder out, and it's getting darker too.  But it does not bother me one bit.  I have my she-cave and it feels amazing. 

Everyone loves that little office divider.  It's a plastic hanging stencil from the dollar store.  This is my view from the back of the classroom, where I sit and blog and load photos and say hi on Facebook.  : )

Of course, my creative charmer is here. 

She fits just great in this room!  She makes me so happy.  I love how she clears the air when she turns.  She can be distracting though.  I think she hypnotizes me. lol   More happy news:  all my stuff is more or less moved in and sewing has begun!

I have a funny story.  While reorganizing of my old space, I discovered... (o my this is embarrassing) ...a sewing machine I forgot I had!  Not.  Even.  Kidding.  It was Fiona!  How could I have misplaced Fiona!?  She's the center machine there in the blur - a basic Kenmore I named Fiona because she looked like an ogre but was really a princess.  Penny is my Horizon because she's red and cost a pretty penny.  Bea is named for Plan B - though she quickly became my main machine.  She's a Janome 3160 - only 12 pounds with auto cutter.  LOVE.

Now I have an extra basic machine.  Fiona is not great for threadpainting, but she's good for postcards. 

Oh!  Postcards!  Speaking of which - we're on!  Wednesday, Oct 1st from 11 to 2, I'm holding my first Postcard workshop here.  It will likely be autumn themed.  I have some wonderful fabrics to play with and the class is cheap as classes go.  ($10 per hour plus small kit fee.)  I can add one more person - maybe 2 - if you want to email me for a last minute addition.

my girls - Fiona, Penny, and Bea.

So I've decided to go ahead and take the plunge.  I'm setting a date for my 'studio warming'.  I feel super nervous just thinking about it.  Not all the renos will be done, and the house won't be perfect... but let's do this before the snow flies! 

Of course, this weekend we are busy. 

The weekend following is Thanksgiving. 

I suppose the weekend after that will be the magic moment.  I'm thinking Friday evening the 17th, or Sunday afternoon the 19th?  I'll make an official email announcement and try my darnedest not to chicken out.  There.  Date set.  : )

Have a great day!

Things I Love Thursdays

I love this.  Check it out!  I took Pretty Penny in for a check up in between shows.  With her gone, I have been working 100% on my 3160.  Over the holidays, I completely reorganized my sewing space.  Earlier this week I dusted off my Horizon and plugged her in for the first time in over a month.  I was so excited to see her again.  Look what came up!

Too sweet!  I think every sewing machine tech should leave the machines like this when they send them home.  The last stitches used are in the memory bank on the 7700 and when you plug in your machine again next time, it will still be set for whatever you were sewing on before.  (GREAT feature!)

I love the color red... though I'm tempted to turn my blog chartreuse.  I love that NOW, both my machines match.  lol  Look how coordinated this is!  My 'team'.  Nikon and Janome are both Japanese, correct?  hmmm

I love my red curtains.  I love low winter sun in the middle of the day.  I ADORE this gnome I bought in a post-Christmas sale bin.  Is he the cutest or what!??  He's my new good luck charm I think.  : )

Happy Thursday.  

I hope you see something beautiful today.  : )

A Terrific Diversion

I do this all the time, and the results always thrill me.  How many times have I started a commission and then did a 360 by throwing myself headlong into a completely different project!?  It's like a need a quick creative break from the pressure of meeting a deadline or request.  I did it again.  As I sat pondering how I would finish the Denmark piece, and how I would start my cousin's memory quilt, I looked up on my design wall at this photo I took 2 springs ago of the flooded prairie.  the photo has been sitting there for 2 years.  Waiting.  But this time, in an instant, I KNEW how to do it!  I pulled out my supplies and finished this much on Sunday morning, prior to Jane's garage sale.

It made so much sense!  I looked at the photo and said out loud:  The sky and the water are the same.  Poof!  It made so much sense to stitch out all the green and leave the sky fabric as the water.  I had contemplated many times how I would stitch out the water when in fact, the key to this piece is not stitching the water at all!  Eureka.

I took a break from that, and sorted my new threads into color packs...

Yeah!  All that 

for the price of this:

Three shades of chartreuse = LOVE

Monday morning, before running off to host a class for Horizon owners, I completed this flooded prairie scene by adding some hand stitched trees and birds.   Can I tell you that I LOVE THIS!?

Flooded Prairie, 2012

I'm so proud of this one.  It was pure joy for me to stitch in about a dozen different greens. It's all finished and ready to frame.  It's a bit bigger than 6x8", which is twice the size of my little ones.

: )

Linking to WIP Wednesday at The Needle & Thread Network.

Denmark in Progress

After a long ten days of sick kids / sick me / sick kids / followed by 3 schools day off... I am having some serious withdrawal.  Today I got some headway on the Denmark piece, a commission from Megan in Australia.

A little before (above) and a little after (below)...

I love thread painting.  When I work in long repetitive lines, I like to sew left to right.  This means that I am making these trees sideways.  It always helps my brain to turn the source photo sideways as well.  I'm not very good at thinking sideways apparently : ).  This is how I work...

Looks funny, doesn't it?  That's her photo up on the screen.  I'm pretty happy with the work so far.  It's small at 4x6 inches.  I start with the faded background first, then work forward. Unlike most threadpainting instruction, I don't work light colors to dark colors.  I prefer stitching down the middle or main colors until I have everything in place.  Then I will go back and darken that dark parts to create definition.  Lastly, I'll add the lights or whites for the highlights. 

Yes - I always drop my feed dogs because with this buckrum canvas, it does cause drag to keep them up.  And yes - I always use my Janome 'blue arrow' bobbin case.

It's set a bit lower so that I never need to bother with adjusting the top tension.  Whether I use cotton or rayon, it doesn't much matter.  This set up seems fool proof for me.

Tip- when free motion sewing, always ensure the presser foot lever has been raised BEFORE rethreading a new color.  This way, the upper tension discs are open and the thread will get into the right place inside your machine.

I'm getting there!  I would say I'm about half way done.  The front foliage will be easy now that I have the background and trees in place.  I'm having fun!  I love the way the scene fades into the sunlight.  Thank you Megan for your patience!

Expanding Your Horizons

I had a good time on Saturday at Creative House.  It was a small gathering and more informal than we had anticipated.  Wendy bought SO much food.  Her grand kids and my children got to pig out on fresh fruit and cheese for the rest of the night, so it all turned out great.  : )  Thank you to the women who came!  I had a great little catch up with an old high school friend who showed up, not knowing that it was me she was coming to see!  ; )

Pretty Penny did a good job.  I am really surprised how often I meet Janome and Horizon 7700P owners that didn't know about awesome features or can't get something to work (hey- I was one of them!).  I had two phone calls this month plus an email asking for Horizon advice.

Did you know there's an extra-high presser foot lift?  That's great for stuffing quilts under, or a stabilizer hoop.

Did you also know that there's a little screw to adjust the height of the presser foot for free motion stitching?  You don't need a screwdriver.  You just use your fingertip to adjust it.  You'll want it lower if you are working on scrim or any thinner surface.  You'll want it higher if you are quilting a big fat quilt.  How high?  I tell people to set it at the lowest level you can that will not create any drag at all.  You want it somewhat close as it acts to stabilize the fabric at the point of quilting.  When the foot is too high, your fabric can bounce while you FMQ or threadpaint, and this will ultimately cause skipped stitches.

Another tips with the Horizon is to get the needle plate engaged for FMQ.  Again, this stabilizes the fabric while quilting and will prevent those horrible skipped stitches when you free-motion pretty curls. Read your manual.  It's easy to do.

Hands down, the Horizon loves Topstitch needles.  I do use a lot of Wonderfil thread, and they also suggest topstitch for nearly all their threads.  Maybe that's the variable.  So... Topstitch it is.  It has a long, long eye and I never get shredded threads ever.

When most people free motion quilt on a domestic machine, they lower the top tension to achieve even stitches that meet-in-the-middle of the quilt sandwich.  If the top is too loose or the bottom is too tight, you will get those horrible eyelashes / feathers on the back.  With the horizon, you can leave it on auto tension for the top, and change to this alternate 'blue arrow' bobbin case.  The blue arrow bobbin case is pre-set with a lower tension and creates PERFECT FMQ stitches.  You don't have to fiddle and test on a sample first.  I used to get eyelashes all the time no matter how carefully I sewed or how precise I thought I was setting my machine tension manually.  I found that when I tightened up the top thread, I would ended up getting my top thread snapping during quilting.  Everything was too tight: top and bottom.  That's enough to make me cry.  This blue arrow case is brilliant, it's only $25, and OMG it fits my old non-computerized Kenmore!!  wow.

With that in mind, I popped my other loosely-set 'play' bobbin case (yes - I have another case for bobbin work) into that old 12 stitch Kenmore.  It worked!!  I marked it green for fun with nail polish.  This is the one I play with and set very loose according to the cord / floss I use.  I don't want to play around with my other ones because they are perfect and I would like them to stay that way.

bobbin play sampler

Now I'm really looking forward to doing bobbin sewing on my Horizon - all the pretty stitches she has!

So I was thinking...
If any other Horizon owners would like to get together to experiment with the machine together, or if you need help troubleshooting, I would love to gather at Creative House in the sewing area.  We can set up and sew together for a couple hours. If you are upgrading from a Kenmore to a Janome, the presser feet are the same on the low shank machines FYI.  The bobbins & bobbin cases are all the same for high or low shank Janome & Kenmore. 

I'm linking this in as a "Tips on Tuesdays".  I hope many of you find this helpful.  : )  And yes - I drop the dogs, especially when threadpainting on a low, thin piece.  On quilts, I don't notice drag if I forget.

Have a great day everyone!  I hope this was helpful.

The Bobbin Thing. And BEAUTIFUL Thread.

I was at Creative House the other day to see their new sewing lounge and inquire about teaching there.  (Yes!!  I plan to be teaching in the fall!!)  When they heard me gush about my love of thread, they sent me home with this to try.

I know... excuse the left-over holiday party-polish.  ; )  But seriously, check out the thread!  It's by Wonderfil, and it's called Razzle.  It's a big fat crochet-size rayon in my favorite color with sparkle through it!  I have a regular 'red arrow' bobbin case for sewing, a 'blue arrow' for free motion and thread painting so that I don't have to fiddle with the machine's tension at all between threads.  (LOVE that about Janome.)  So I bought a third bobbin case and marked it with party-green nail polish to distinguish it from the rest.  It's my "play" bobbin.  What a liberating thing to not fear adjusting the bobbin tension!  : )

I set the tension screw so that the Razzle cord could easily unwind off the bobbin.  Then away I went.  I didn't want to try too much because I really don't want to waste an inch of this thread.  ; )  I put a green 50 weight Wonderfil cotton in the top (Tutti green variegated), away I went... basically sewing upside down.  When you flip it over, you'll see the cotton top thread appears to couch the Razzle bobbin thread onto the fabric.  Isn't that cool!?

This was just stitched down onto a scrap of stabilizer.  What a cool thing.  I'll couch with it on top too, feeding it through the foot.  For now though, this is pretty intriguing....

perfect couching.

Thank you George & Wendy : )

Sunday Snapshots # 25

on the colors portobello and pistachio...

one of my favorite fabrics that match nothing.

Fiona on the left, Pretty Penny on the right.

can you tell i was having fun?

Fiona on-the-go, complete with pockets.

: )
and that's what happens when you're really really loving your sewing machines, and the van quits just before a long weekend (no service until Tuesday) during a minus thirty cold-snap, and your kids are all busy with toys.  I am stranded in my sewing room!

~Monika

Tips on Tuesdays! -> Threads 2

Welcome to Tips on Tuesdays!  This is a sharing post - so please leave any tips in the comments section.  The topic is "Threads", so anything that has to do with this topic is fair game.  If you blog, leave link and help yourself to the button on the sidebar.  It links to ALL "Tips on Tuesdays" posts. 

I haven't quite lost my pessimism over this yet... but it so far, so marvelous!  I started thread painting for the first time with my Janome 7700P and noticed a few interesting things that are different from my last machine.  With my 4900, I had to turn the top tension right down to zero when using fine rayon threads.  Everyone told me I had to do that to make it work.  I love my rayon threads by the way.  With the Horizon, I noticed it's completely not necessary to fiddle with tension at all.  I left the tension on auto the whole time with perfect results. 

I also used to have to set specialty threads like that upright in a cup and feed it up through the machine so that it won't tangle.  Rayons and some decorative threads just seem to unwind, pop up and wrap and tangle around the base of the thread spool post.   NIGHTMARE.  And I used to wonder what the heck this was for.

I took a look at the base of this polyester embroidery spool.  Hmm...

So I tried this to remedy the situation.  It contains the thread and keeps it from tangling.  Nice.

Geeze.  Maybe we should all sit back and read the manuals!  lol  And away I went, working on some thread painting.  I can stop and start without needing to reach for the scissors thanks to the auto thread cutter.  The backs are so tidy, nothing gets tangles.  Best of all, no homemade thread spool holder cups & safety pin & tape thread guides anymore.  None for me, thanks!

If you have questions about cotton vs polyester, Rita from Red Pepper Quilts just wrote a great post on that, so I won't bother repeating it. 

Is there anything you would like to share about sewing with different threads?  It can be on hand stitching, machine stitching, on tension or needles... your favorite thread brands or types.  Thanks in advance!

~Monika