Have a seat... and a tip to share

It has almost been a month since I picked up my new sewing machine... a Baby Lock Symphony.  I have been busy trying to find all the neat things this machine can do.  I first made a purse that turned out awesome... no picture at this time...  Camera battery is on the charger.  I have been doing some piecing and other quilting almost every day since I brought the machine home.  For right now I have this new toy set up on a table in the living room.  If I moved it into the sewing room, my husband would have to come looking for me too often.  Gotta have it out where I can play with it.  I will eventually move it to the sewing room, but for now I need to make a chair work for me in the living room.
My sewing room chair is really a good chair, but it doesn't do well on a carpet.  I decided to make a cushion set to make an ordinary chair actually be useful as a sewing chair. I used fabric I had in my stash, and I covered 20 buttons. I even had a pattern in my stash of patterns.  I thought the cushions dressed up the chair pretty nicely, and it really makes the chair quite comfortable.  I used alot of polyester fiberfill... no foam at all.

With my longarm and all the quilts that I do, I have lots of batting scraps.  If I have a small quilt and a batting scrap that is just a little short, I piece my batting.  Before I discovered I could do it on my sewing machine, I used to butt up the batting pieces and whip them together with a needle and thread.  
Even if you lengthen your zigzag stitch, a typical zigzag stitch just makes a bunched up line.  I discovered on my last sewing machine that I could piece my batting very successfully using a 3-step zigzag.  My new machine also has this really neat zigzag stitch.  Q-10 is the designation on my new machine for the proper zigzag. 

This stitch leaves the butted edges nice and flat.  I have separated the edges in the image to the right here to show how the batting is positioned.  Keeping the edges together as you guide the batting centered as it stitches.
It would have been easier to see if I had used a contrasting color thread in the image to the left, but this was a batting I was going to use.  You can see the joined seam of the batting if you know it is there, but once it is in the quilt, no one would know.  It doesn't get any easier than this.  If I had the time, I could piece alot more of my batting scraps and I could save alot more money.  I really like how this works on Warm 'n Natural, which is the first type of batting I tried this on, but I find it works just fine on other types of batting as well.

Last, but certainly not least....

My camera battery quit when I was in the middle of taking pictures of my Clothesline Quilt that I completed yesterday.
       Yeah... a quilt completed!!!
The backing on this quilt is really cool... a large 9-patch.  I had fun doing this quilt, but it was alot of work for a quilt that hasn't been designated for any particular purpose.  For now this quilt will join my finished quilt stack.

Ruffles Anyone?

I thought I'd get adventurous with my last project.  I have seen a number of ruffled bags and decided it might be fun to make one.  Somehow I didn't think ruffles would look too good on my arm. That is when I decided to send a message to a couple of my grand-daughters.  I got an immediate response from one.  I have already finished her bag and sent it on its way. 

I just got word that another grand-daughter wants one.  Looks like I will have to document the pattern I created so that I won't forget.  I was thinking I might just make the one, and really didn't make as many notes as I should have.  I've made a number of bags over time, and most I have not used a pattern... but usually they are for me, and I only need one, so no need to create a pattern.  One good thing on this one... I took alot of pictures... it's the measurements I will have to figure out.  I showed the ladies at my quilting group, and a couple of the ladies wanted to know where to get the pattern... Guess I will have to create a tutorial, because I didn't use a pattern.