Quilts and Sewing

Sean and size 3 pjs

First pair

2nd pair

I decided to start sewing again after going to the family reunion and seeing all the beautiful quilts that are being made by my family. So I came home and started looking for a sewing machine because mine was over 35yrs old, an old  Kenmore that was pretty basic and I thought I might like to free motion quilt. I found a used Bernina 630 Artista and bought it. I still have two more classes to take. I have only taken one, although I did learn a lot in that class but there is so much more. Hopefully I will be able to learn how to embroidery on it.

Then when I went to put Sean in his pajamas for cold weather, well you can see how much he has grown, it is easy to see he needs new ones. It is okay because Isaac can get these handed down, they are a size 3 and fit him nice. So I decided to use Greg's mother's old serger and sew knit pajamas. I had had the serger cleaned and oiled, but the needle broke after a short time, when I asked the repair man, he said it was just so old and there is a part that he can not replace. So I had to have a new serger to sew the rest of my fabric and I had fallen in love with serging. (Notice in the pictures, one set has black sleeves. I had enough fabric left over from the first pair to make everything except the sleeves, so I purchased just enough black to cut out sleeves.) I had bought all the blue there was on clearance.  It worked out well and now he has two pairs. I gave him growing room also. I used elastic in a cuff on the pants and rolled up the cuffs on the sleeves.

Sean's sweat suit

So off I went to buy a new serger, I already had bought knit fabric for pjs and fleece for a sweat suit. I took a couple of weeks and came up with a choice between a Babylock Enlighten or Bernina serger and coverstitch the 009 and 1150 I believe. The enlighten is so expensive that I decided I had to use my sewing machine with a twin needle to  hem with. Well I decided on the Enlighten and I love it. There is no adjusting the tension and it threads itself. Sean's  pajamas with the black sleeves were made with the new serger. The best is that all my thread works in it just fine. I had heard that the Bernina may be picky with some brands of thread and I also had about 66 large cones of thread already.  So now I have made a sweat suit from camouflage for him, he wore it to school and wouldn't take it off when he came home and the temperature had went up to about 80 degrees.

Pat's

Zach

New serger

Sam's

Hilary has asked me to make her three boys a pair of lounge pants, she said they were $15 a pair in the store. So I found some fleece on clearance for them and an easy pattern. One piece and no side seams. I found some bright fleece in my stash,(can you believe I actually have some?)  that I had bought at a yard sale about a year ago, Sam says he likes it, so I only had to buy enough for two pairs. Here is my bright fabric for Sam. Camo with peace sign for Pat and camo with monkeys for Zach. I left the price on. $6.00 for one and $4 something for the other one. I think Sean would have like the monkeys.

What I have cut for Mario

Mario and Mitchel

Now on to the quilts. This picture is Mitchel and Mario picking out colors from the pieces I bought this summer off Craigslist. Notice Mario has all blues and reds and Mitchel has all patterns. And guess who gets to cut all that fabric because the scissors and Rotary cutter are too sharp for Mario, well this is what I have so far. He is using a 5" size and I'm cutting the rest that is left into smaller sizes, so I won't have to later.

Well that is all for today, catch you later! Hopefully before the year is up!