I’ve finished the cushion for Miss A.

A few things I discovered; vliesofix is fabulous, but there must be a cheaper way of buying it,  a finer blanket stitch was best (Mode 2 36 on my Janome 6600p), as the envelope style backing is quite generous a button is not required.

Here is a closer look at the applique…

I like the way the frill (extra bit around the edge of the cushion is created. Once the cushion cover has been assembled, turned right side out and pressed, you sew just inside the border seam.

I’ve started stitching around the edges of my applique cushion. This one …

I’m using bobbin fill on the bottom and rayon embroidery thread on the top (Robison Anton Rayon). I’m using a blanket stitch (stitch number Mode 2 35 if you have a Janome 6600p – I’m also using the F2 foot, which makes it much easier to see what you are doing) with a length and width of 1.5mm.

I’m surprised by how easily this is all coming together – it’s not perfect by any means, but easier than I expected.

I finished this sampler – I’ve blurred the name and birth date in the middle.

Here is the back …

I used 2.5 inch strips to bind the quilt. This worked much better for me than 2 inch strips.

I quilted in straight lines using a stitch length of 3.5mm – the normal setting for my machine is 2.2mm – I think the longer length does make for nicer quilting.

I bought the 1/4 inch acufeed foot for my sewing machine. Once I worked out that I needed to change the needle position it all went well. Instead of being at 3.5 it needs to be at 5.5.

I like continuous binding, but I always have trouble with the last join. This time I watched a DVD tutorial by Brenda Smith. I watched a bit, did what she did, watched the next bit etc. I achieved perfect results – I didn’t even end up with a pinch in the binding because I put the join in slightly the wrong spot. In fact she made it so clear I’m not sure why I had trouble in the past.

My copy of the DVD came from the latest issue of the Homespun magazine (I know it sounds like I work for this magazine, but I hardly ever buy it. I’ve bought the last two issues for the DVDs).

I’ve still got to hand sew the binding to the back of the quilt, so I shall an image tomorrow of the (hopefully) finished quilt.

I used my acufeed foot to attach the binding, but it was hard to get 0.25 inch seam. I either need to use my patchwork foot or purchase a quarter inch acufeed foot.

I’ve been wanting this sewing machine for a while (and the Mothers Day sale made it possible). My MC9000 (Janome) while good was a bit old, the touch screen was a bit dodgy and it didn’t have the built in thread cutter (which I’ve come to really like on my 1600p) and it was quite tricky to manoeuvre a quilt around it.

This new one is fabulous – I bought the table as well. The table is fabulous; it makes such a difference to be working at the right height.

The acufeed system is marvellous; my in the ditch quilting is almost perfect. I’ve also done a bit of free motion quilting and that is great too (all errors due to me rather than the machine).

I’m really tempted to try applique on this machine – there seems to be several stitches that might work.  I bought two cushion patterns from Hot Possum (one a dinosaur and one a fairy) to test it out.

 I’ve been working on the pony design all day (off and on). My machine informed me it would take 46 minutes, but that’s just sewing time and once you take into account trimming the applique fabric and changing the thread it takes much longer even if you’re doing nothing else – whereas I’ve had a few other jobs to do today as well.

The tutorial (on how to create large machine embroideries) is finished you can find it here.

I made a birth sampler for Miss A (I removed her name and birth date from the above image for obvious reasons). It measures 35cm by 35cm and took 7 hoopings.

I will write a tutorial about my method (because I searched and couldn’t find anything particularly helpful).