A little something extra - a finish & a Giveaway

Did I tell you I broke my machine?  My Husqvarna Viking H600e is a sewing machine with an embroidery module.  Its essentially the same as the Singer Futura XL550 sewing machine that has slightly fancier plastic but with Husqvarna software for the embroidery motifs.  To say that this is a finicky machine is an understatement!

My machine is unnamed; I generally don't name electric items.  At one point I was tempted to call her Heidi the Husky but Hideous Heidi kept popping into my head so often it was better she stay the unnamed one!

Don't let the pretty plastic fool you (she really is a good looking machine though, isn't she?) She can straight stitch with the best of them but ask her to do the fancy work she looks like she is up for, trouble brews. I have cursed more and muttered more and walked away from the machine in a temper more than any other piece of equipment I have ever owned - thanks Unnamed One for that!

The trouble is she really wants to be an embroidery machine and I kept wanting her to be the all purpose sewing /quilting/embroidery machine I thought I had bought.  I have since learned one size  does not fit all. 

Coats on left and Aurifil on right - same 50 weight

Image from Wonder thread Guide

She hates working at full speed (3/4 suits best).

She only likes expensive thread.  Gutermann for embroidery and Aurifil for quilting.

She doesn't like thread fed on the horizontal spool even when using the net so I use a doohickey called a Wonder Thread Guide.

This sits on top of where your spool goes and guides the thread through like a cone stand.  It's designed to eliminate thread breakage when stitching out an embroidery motif.  I leave it on the machine permanently.  It helps but I still get thread breakage, even with the expensive thread and new needles.  Happens mostly when the machine is travelling from one area in the hoop to another.

You get the best value in shipping by buying 2 so I have a spare one if anyone is having issues with thread and wants to try it.  Leave me a comment to enter the giveaway and if there is more than one person who wants this I'll do a random number generator to pick a winner.

Don't get me wrong there is a lot to like about this machine.  It has an automatic bobbin winder, push the lever and she winds herself!  She warns you when you are about to run out of bobbin thread - so handy!  She has a beautiful wide bed and a lovely wide harp space so moving  a quilt around is really easy.  The automatic needle threader is easy to use and works about 80% of the time but the little handle on the side of the machine keeps falling off so useless really! 

The real issue with this machine though, in my humble opinion, after 3 years working with it is this. 

The bobbin tension is a nightmare!  The manual says do not adjust the bobbin and of course I did!  In my defence I had to to get the tension right for free motion quilting (previous post here).  It was working like a dream for about 10 hours and then I guess the bobbin slowly came apart as it got worse and worse.  I did get my quilt finished but ended up with a broken bobbin case at the end.

28 Euro's later - a new bobbin case, some new Gutermann thread and voila!  A perfectly pretty Tula Pink owl all stitched out!

Was this a pain free experience with The Unanamed One?

Nope!  7 thread breaks, a bit of pulling in despite stabiliser and screwing the hoop as tight as I could, 1 curse after first attempt had a massive bobbin jam (jam proof drop in bobbin me a**e) - this came after round 10 of 16 and had to be discarded due to enormous hole ripped when trying to remove said jam proof bobbin, 2 cups of tea to calm down, 3 biscuits as I thought I deserved them after that, and 5 hours later - 1 owl!

It became a needle book (slightly largeish as the owl is about 5" x 8") as an extra to our Summer Tote bag Swap with the Modern Quilters Ireland.  I'm looking forward to sharing my bag with you this Friday as it should be delivered to my swap partner then!

The owl is available from Urban Threads along with the Acacia raccoon and can be bought in a machine or hand embroidery option.

I think it was worth the aggravation but I might just take a break and  do some quilting on my new Janome before sitting back down to The Unnamed One again for a bit just yet!

Design Wall Monday - Coastal Cruisers!

I finally got around to the three Coastal Cruiser Cushions my Cousin wanted for Christmas - (sorry - couldn't resist all the alliteration there!)

My uncle spotted the cushion I was finishing for my friend Sarah, told my cousin and next thing you know I had a Christmas order for 3 of them!  In colours close to the original Tula Pink designs made from her collection Salt Water. 

Now I don't have any of Salt Water in my stash (have a little bit of Prince Charming and Hoppy Dot!) so I've been collecting a few fat quarters here and there thinking Camper van, Camper van the whole time, straying somewhat from the brief colourwise!

Then as luck would have it, I won this bundle of Tidal Lace by Windham Fabrics from Anne @ Playcrafts.  

It arrived last week and is really gorgeous!  It's full of sea shells and sea shades including blues, greens and this lovely coral.   Thank you for a great prize!

And it's perfect for Tula Pink Camper Vans!  I added Essex Linen grey and a Kona medium grey as background to this green version.

For the blue I used the co-ordinating solids in the bundle.

Lastly for the orange I had a Fat Quarter Bundle from Fluffy sheep quilting of Kona oranges and yellows and put this dark orange with the paler colour from the bundle to get a set of three!

I have to stitch over the pieces held down with fusible and stitch the logo in the middle and then straight line quilt them.  It is going to be hard parting with these three, I'm loving the colours!

The Tula Pink pattern can be found free here!

WIP Wednesday - Bits and Bobs

It's a mixed bag of projects this week.  I made blocks 27-30 of the Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks book.  Tula's blocks on the left and mine or the right.  Fabric is Boho by Annette Tatum.

I'm trying to stick to Tula's colours as closely as I can to make up the diagonal rainbow effect and so far, 30 blocks out of 100, it's coming together.

Also made my Flying Geese for the Star Surround Quilt -A-Long over at Happy Quilting.  I'm making a 40" baby quilt with these :

I also signed up for my first swap and first Bee, ordered fabric for the Penny Sampler Quilt over at Stiched in colour and completed my 4 Houses cushion and swap blocks - it's been a busy week! Linking up to

Sunday Lack of Stash!

I decided to make my 4 Houses project this weekend.  I had some layer cake squares in Coquette left over from my Bounce stars project but wanted to save them for a baby quilt I'm planning for a friend so I bought a pack of 10" squares of Tula Pink's Prince Charming range.  There are 20 squares in the pack so I had great fun during the week picking the colours for the roofs and houses.

I kept Prince Charming for a future project.  He's just so cool I couldn't cut him up for a roof!

I tested some background colours initially thinking I'd go with white but this fawn colour is a really good neutral against the Prince Charming colours.  Only thing is, I only had enough on hand for an applique project "A Dog's Life" that I've had on the back burner.  With no background fabric on hand I've stalled on this until I can buy some more.

 So having the house to myself and time on my hands I decided to make my second Swoon block.

I think I prefer the small scale print in the middle and the larger in the corners as in my first block but I like the colours overall and I'm loving that Kona Midnight navy.  I very nearly used it for my 4 houses but figured Navy might be a bad choice for a living room where 2 dogs sneak onto the couch.

Time now for a cup of tea and a bit of online shopping to find my fawn/beige background fabric!

Sew-A-Long Catch up's

There are a couple of sew-a-longs I joined in on this year and this weekend I had a marathon sewing session and managed to catch up with my two favourites.  First I completed my K-9 block for the Doctor Who-A-Long.  I just love this design and the doggy themed fabric "Puppy Park" by Riley Blake really suits him.  I love Puppy Park.  I bought a FQB and 2 layer cakes of this collection and have made one quilt with designs for two more (plus I was able to spare a little for K-9).

The City Sampler sew-a-long over at Sew Sweetness started last month.  These mini blocks are really tons of fun.  I can't believe how quickly they come together.  I was way behind and caught up in no time really so join in if you can.  There are 100 blocks from Tula Pink's book "100 Modern Quilt Blocks".

A lot of people are using Tula Pink fabrics.  I must confess I doon't have any so I'm using Boho by Annete  Tatum and so far so good.  (I do have 2 Tula Pink Books so I think I'm forgiven!).  Mixing in a few solids from my stash and following the colour guidelines from Tula's book not exactly but as close as I can as in the picture gives really nice results. 

I have yet to see a block that doesn't look good and some of these would look great a little larger on a pillow or cushion or even stick to the 6.5" mini size and make mug rugs!  I'm  so happy with this project and I'm all caught up at block 15!

Linking up to

June's to do!

I don't know about you guys but I have more projects on the go than is practical and this week I added some more!

I got my print copy of Tula Pink's new book and have pulled my Boho FQB to make these blocks and join in the City Sampler Sew-A-Long hosted by Sew Sweetness.  I'm a little behind but am hoping to catch up this week.

I finally chose my fabrics for the next two blocks of the Doctor Who paper piecing QAL.  I was torn between going all metallic and using greys for the K9 block or going all out doggy and using my stash of Puppy Park by Riley Blake.  A tin dog could go either way but I figured given this blog is named for two dogs going all out dog themed really was the correct choice.  So K9 will be blue and the BGF will be the dog bones which he deserves being the best dog a TimeLord could have!

As I'm a little behind I also have the spaceship SS Madame de Pompadour to do as well.  It's a lovely graphic design so I'm taking a chance using brighter colours than normal for a space ship against the dark blue.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

As Gordon was ordering stuff from amazon he asked if I wanted anything to get the value up to free postage I jumped at the chance to get Sarah Fielke's new book.  I love this medallion quilt and am adding it to my ever increasing to do list!

Finally I've been playing with Quilt Math for an article I'm writing and a cushion I'm designing and hope to have that to share soon.  So no blogging this past week but lots of activity.  Feels good to be getting on with things.  A couple of finishes under my belt now would be even nicer!