Tough Week
I am blessed with exuberant health, something I do all I can to maintain. I am just now recovering from 10 days of itchy, oozy, outrageously strong allergies. It was allergies, trust me. And I’ll spare you the details, but I couldn’t talk, think or sleep for many days. But, I am back and it feels so good to be normal again!
I did work a good bit on my book. It is coming along but you never know you’re going to make deadline until that draft is completed. I think I’m okay, but I don’t know what I don’t know!
IF I get my draft in ahead of schedule, which I hope I do, I may actually even play for a few days-imagine that! Hubby and I are talking about renting a RV and driving up the coast to Oregon somewhere. This would be our first time ever doing such a thing and it could be a hilarious disaster. We don’t relish working with stuff like our own sewage…
I yearn to do something NOT for the book. All my sewing/quilting/projects are for my book. I got a bee up my bonnet and decided to make a gauzy baby blanket. I kept seeing this fun gauzy fabric at quilt shops and wondered what it was for. I finally asked and found that sewers were taking two panels, sewing them together for a very light summery blanket for baby. Well, I have a friend with a new summer baby, so that can’t take that long, right?
It did only take 2 evenings, but you have to wonder why it took so long. It turned out that the gauze was very fidgety to work with, almost like a charmeuse or something. Even trying to press under a 1/4″ edge it was getting all wobbly.
So I decided to go back to my garment making skill set and borrow modified rolled hem techniques to get that edge under control. Once it was under control, it would be a snap to work with. I stitched a line 1/4″ from the edge all around to stabilize my edges. Then when I went to the iron it rolled easily at the 1/4″ mark and I rolled it again to get a “rolled” hem.
At that point I got out my water soluble thread and stitched the rolled edge down. The reason I used water soluble thread is that I was going to attach the two pieces with an edge stitch and I didn’t want 2 separate lines of stitching wobbling back and forth over each other.
Once both sides were stabilized and rolled, I pinned to attach them together. I was going to do an edge stitch but I remembered learning how to use the blind hem stitch to create a bit of a shell-look on the edge. I played a little bit with a sample and remembered that I had to pull one of the tensions way tight to force to v-stitch to pull the fabric and make the shell-look on the edge. I had to play around with stitch length and width to get the look I wanted. I hope you can see it from the photo.
This little project made me appreciate my machine. I went from a straight stitch plate to a zigzag plate for the edge treatment. I used my 97D (1/4″ foot) and my 1D (Reverse pattern foot) and had to re-remember how to mirror a stitch. I used regular thread and water soluble thread.
I considered fusing the two layers together at the edge by stitching a line of fusible thread but ultimately decided to do it the old fashioned way. I had to adjust the presser foot height several times during the process: at one point I’m sewing through one layer of gauze and at another I’m sewing through 16 at the corners. And I had to use my seam jack to be able to stitch those bulky corners.
Which brings me to this thought: I am thankful that I have a full-featured machine. I needed all the features I just described to successfully maneuver this simple project. When I was younger and only had a 3/4 sized “class” machine to work with, I sometimes found the simplest projects become difficult, with less-than-desirable endings. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I didn’t know about all the features you get on a fully-featured, full-size quality machine.
Love me my BERNINA 765, hope you too LOVE your machine too!
I think I will make up a cute little hand embroidered label for the back-sweet! I’ll be linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.
I’m sorry you were not feeling well. My husband and drove up the oregon coast to Bandon in June. It was beautiful. Check out the ADA accessible beaches, Harris Beach state park in Brookings is one.
Amber I so hope this trip happens! I will check those out if we actually do this.
What a good idea. You always come up with beautiful and in this case a very usable quilt. Good luck on your book, Jenny.
Thank you Leslie! It should be very usable and once I heard what the gauze was for, I thought it was a great idea to have a super light summer blanket for baby!
R v life can be a challenge. Oregon coast is beautiful but busy this time of year. State parks are usually full on weekends but there are generally private rv parks to rent space in. Check good Sam website or R V parky for lists of parks. From a full time
R Ver who is from Oregon
Oh I’ll bet Oregon’s RV parks fill in the summer! We’ll have to do our research and would make reservations-we’re too inept to play it by ear Kay!
Hi Jenny,
Sorry to hear you had a bad week, but I am sure glad your over it :)
I don’t know if you could shed any more light on how you did that edge.. I really like how that turned out.
Did you actually have that outside stitch go OFF the fabric.. or did it just catch the edge.. also, do you think this edge would work with Minky, Flannels and fleece fabrics?
Thank you for sharing your time with all of us.. your information is priceless.
Rosemary
Hi Rosemary-it’s a simple stitch with a unique application. I did not figure this out, learned it in my BERNINA new machine classes. You just take the blanket stitch built into your machine (something like 5 straight stitches, then one zigzag), mirror it so that the peak of the zigzag will just barely hop off the edge. Then play with a sample and torque up the tension on top so that it pulls the zigzag into the piece, that creates the scallop effect. Yes, I think it would work well on Minky, flannels and fleeces. You will need your hump jumper to get started at each corner. Write me if you have questions.
Wow, Jenny, beautiful but a heap of work for a baby quilt. Hope your friend is appreciative of your major skills.
Oh Ila, if I made a “real” baby quilt it would have been a bunch more work! Yes, lucky me, she will appreciate the work!!
And is that a Koala table that your beautiful Bernina is sitting in?
I am interested in the large flat fiberglass top that fits around your Bernina.
Hi Jollyne, it is a Horne cabinet branded BERNINA. The insert comes with the table, you have to wait for it because they make it custom for your machine. You can have such things made at your local plastics dealer, or just get the one that fits into your table.
Great job, Jenny. Isn’t it amazing how we see something and think, Oh quick project and then find it’s not!
I’ve found having a garment sewing background has common handy when doing some of my quilting projects or, like the blanket, little gifts that look so simple only to find those little tricks tucked back in my brain really came in handy.
I also have a Bernina model 830LE. I wish I could say it’s my favorite but I won’t go into that. I had Pfaff’s for many years until they were sold and started being made in China. I still have my last one, a 2170 and really like a lot.
Glad you’re feeling better…good luck with the book project.
Isn’t it funny how garment sewing actually teaches a lot of skills that can be applied to your other sewing? Sorry to hear about the 830-that’s a pricey machine to not be happy with. I hope you have terrific tech support in your area. Thank you for your comment Marlette!
So glad you’re feeling better! As an allergy sufferer myself (environmental and food) I feel your pain! You never realize how sick you were until you feel better – LOL!! Also, so glad the book is progressing! I live with a novelist and I see the struggles she goes through! Can’t wait to see the finish product!!
Ah it feels so good to be “normal” again Nina-Marie! I’m working really hard on my book but I don’t think it’s nearly in the same category as a novelist!! Thank you for your kind words.
Glad you’re feeling better — and that it was “only” allergies. Onward and upward ! :-) As for the gauzy stuff…I believe I saw some of that at a LQS earlier this afternoon and wondered what it was (it was on sale). It looked too dense to be cheesecloth, which is quite useful. I didn’t ‘get’ the printed stuff — and the only solid left was aqua, which I figured wouldn’t dye well, so I didn’t even bother asking. Clearly I didn’t miss anything! (There are no pending babies in my life right now.)
Thank you Margaret-it feels so good to feel good again. Yeah, I’d seen the gauze for maybe a year, thought it was cute, but what the heck would one use it for?