January BoM's & A New Sewing Machine

I'd been using a inexpensive Brother Project Runway I got when I decided to try making clothes a couple years ago.  It has a 5 inch harp, which has been a pain for FMQ.   My husband suggested I get a more quilt friendly machine since apparently this isn't a passing fancy.  As he's not as budget focused as I am, his suggestion for a spending threshold was pretty generous.

I almost got a Janome 6500 (since there's the option to get a long arm if we ever move to a place big enough to hold it!) and seriously, that was tempting.  Really really tempting.  Then I considered a couple of less expensive Juki's, but they were straight line stitching only.  As I do want to do garment stitching still but not switch between two machines all the time, I decided to go for practical and thriftier, and got a Singer Quantum Stylist.   It comes with like...15 feet!  Tons of great reviews on Amazon, and it's perfect for garment sewing, and it has a nice extension table for quilting.   And I <3 the automatic thread cutter.  I think it was quite a practical purchase for under $350.

I've only sewn a bit with it so far but I'm very happy with the upgrade. I got to use the lettering option to sew "BITE ME!  The feed dogs are great, with my Brother I'd have to move a lot of quilt blocks manually a bit at a time for them to catch and start, so with all the layers the practice block for the Lucky Stars BoM was quite difficult, but this Singer easily moved along the foundation paper pieced blocks, even when there were seams on each side pointing in different directions. 

So with my happy new machine I finished blocks for Lucky Stars and And Sew On...

The "Measure Twice" for the And Sew On BoM was a nice simple block & the second foundation paper pieced item I've done (the first being the practice block for Lucky Stars).

I didn't have any ruler fabric around, so I used my machine to make a crappy looking ruler!

Wasn't sure what direction I was going to go in for fabric, but I guess I will be making sweeter softer color choices for this project. (A good way to use up some of my fabrics I wouldn't usually use!)




The January "Lucky Stars" was not quite so easy for me.  I started sewing without reading the directions... ya, that's me.  Then on one square I sewed the fabrics onto the wrong sections.  I sewed on the wrong lines more than once too. Embarrassing! ;)

I still have a lot to learn about how to choose fabric combos, and there is a good chance I will remake this block at some point, as I'm not thrilled with the butterfly fabric in this application.

Turquoise, bright greens, yellows, pinks and creams are going to be my colors for this quilt.  Since I used red & sienna instead of pink those may be other good reasons to revisit this block.



I was worried BoM's would take up too much time, but I think I will be able to get lots of other projects done too, even with the other BoM and Curves class going on.  And my Singer just sewed these together like a dream.  I think I'm going to go pet it for awhile and think of a name for it.