Odds and Ends

I've been working on the problem with my walking foot and have discovered that the main issue is operator error. *raises hand* that would be me. The foot works fine when used the way it's supposed to. When I try to cheat - it jams up and comes apart. Now you'd think this would make me not cheat. Nope, I found another foot that got the job done. It's not pretty but it's finished! This is probably why my last machines motor locked up? But we aren't going to think about that right now.

So here's some odd's I've made up with end pieces laying around.

Sewing Machine Cover for my machine. Every day I came home from work I noticed these little brown spots on my machine. I kept accusing Greg of spilling soda on it. Then I accused the cats. Finally figured out that Greg had been leaving the window open for the cats to romp and the flies were hanging out on my machine. That's right - it was fly puke. So there's been a bottle of rubbing alcohol next to my machine for the past month and every day I've cleaned and sanitized my machine because I couldn't stand the thought of touching it until I was sure all traces were gone. I finally found an online free pattern and made this cover last night. The handle is actually a piece off the backback straps I made. I was kinda impressed that my machine was able to sew it all together as I folded the ends under so it was like 9 thickness - that's 3 layers of batting. I did get a few error messages, made the walking foot fall apart and finished it with the above mentioned J foot. Not pretty but together and functional.

I had to wait for Greg's PIF to be received before I could show any of these. The pattern comes from Bags, Pillows and Pincushions and was called Big and Bold. I keep modifying the pattern each time I make one. The pattern has you make one long strip to go around but then you lose the corners. 4 cuts/seams make this much easier. It also has interfacing on each piece - this was nice to sew but I noticed my pins getting stuck in the cushion - or I'd have to stab twice to get them in there. I don't have lighterweight interfacing yet - that might have helped. But they seem just to work just fine without the interfacing too. I've also discovered that I'm incapable of doing a blind stitch. I think I'll look for invisible thread next.

Mini Pincushion on Greg's machine. He's a KU fan and I couldn't bring myself to try to do a jayhawk. I'm more of a K-State person. I did make a john deere one for my friend. I end used one of my christmas stamps of a reindeer to get the deer outline on top. These are made from felt and a bottle cap. I found the pattern online but I don't remember where. SO Sorry if I stole this from you. It has a velcro dot on the bottom so that it can be stuck wherever it's handy. I need to get bigger dots for this to really work well as I noticed Greg has nearly torn the bottom off of his. I'm not sure I'm happy with the look of the felt but I bought several sheets for making these and Now I feel stuck. The last one I made I stuffed with steel wool rather than poly-fil. Also discoverd that they were very light weight and so added a one inch washer inside the bottle cap. It could use more if not being stuck down.