D251: Pretty Confetti

No nap from Bub again so crafting was all after dinner.  These are the trimmings from the bulky seam allowances.  No, I won't be saving them for no hipster wedding.

D250: Depressing

Today, the two hundred and fiftieth day of this blog effort, was not that flash.  Even though I did get things achieved, such as buying batting and backing for this cot quilt and making a few appointments, it was a day to be forgotten.  Bub got a rave review from her MCHN but once we got home and the nap was rejected it was pretty cruddy thereafter.  This evening was spent cutting sashes and ironing seams.

The backing I bought is flannelette in a woodland theme.  I like that it's white with similar colours but not as bright.  I think it'll cope with a zigzag quilting pattern well, but I'm also inexperienced at knowing how much difference that will make to the way it looks. 

I was going to get a grey irregular pattern, maybe with some colour in it, but wasn't finding what I wanted on Spoonflower (not enough to wait for it anyway) and Spotlight was close and the arvo empty.  There were whales in white and navy were also appealing, and a dandelion-seed pattern was nice too but maybe a bit quiet.  I did add the extra challenge of having a napless toddler in the pram, but when has that ever stopped me from making important decisions, hmm?

Anyhoo, in other puns, I found that the strip where I trialled trimming the junctions (dark blue, below), to see if it made any difference, does sit better than the others.  So after pressing the strip seams and watching them unpress, I realise I need to go through the rest of the top and trim the rest of the bulk.  Not particularly riveting work. Plus I didn't get to do any actual sewing.  Le sigh.

D247-9: The Beginning of an Era

Sounds grandiose? Nnnnnnope.

I bought a Bernina B530 on Friday.

I'm going from a Bernina 807 minimatic, an entirely mechanical, mostly metal, 1969-ish, much loved machine with only 6 stitches...

To this:

It doesn't matter that it's not the highest of the Bernina range, or that it doesn't to embroidery.  I still hear choirs when I turn it on.

I also got a BSR (a Bernina Stitch Regulator, which watches you move the fabric and keeps the stitches even), for freemotion quilting, and a walking foot.  I've spent the days since reading the manual, watching YouTube videos and having a bit of a play...

I tried out a few decorative stitches and some stitch programming, shown on the left. The right side is playing with the BSR foot and I tried out doing pivoted zigzags with the walking foot too, coz that's what I wanted to be doing with my next project.

The purchase of this machine is a whole saga in itself, but too long to tell. I hope to do a review in a few weeks time, but want to have first finished the quilt and made at least one garment, and maybe a softie.

We've been away for a week with the inlaws, enjoying mild weather by the beach, and I'm very glad to be able to stave off any holiday hangover with such a long awaited and much pondered purchase.  

I

am

delighted.

:D

D246: It looks sooo pretyyyy

I actually made a decision and chose a sequence!  Here it is all sewn up, unpressed and bulky seams yet to be clipped.

I plan to do a white border, possibly thicker on the ends and narrower on the sides, and use quilting to create texture there.  It crossed my mind to continue the QST style with only white fabric too, which might look kinda cool.

Anyway, decision are afoot, but I am terribly delighted with this so far. Yiiiiii!

D245: The trouble with rainbows...

...is that they all look pretty!!

Maybe if I make it smaller and compare some more options it'll help me choose.

One of these is nicer, right?

Nope.

Where should that damn grey go?!

A part of me feels I shouldn't all it a rainbow lesson actually follows the sequence of a true, natural rainbow - which is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and then violet - and it seems I've instinctively erred that way too.  Still... I'm torn. Obviously.