With a Little Help From Our Friends

 I'm back. I didn't go anywhere, I just needed a break from my usual fair and, unfortunately, I left my readers behind. It was a long, tough winter and spring seems so have eluded us in Minnesota, but let's proceed with springtime in our souls.

Sewing machine sales and repairs have been busy as well as sewing, sewing, sewing on all the different sewing machines. Lovely women have come to sew at my house, making zippered pouches, then fleece mittens, followed by fleece slippers. Okay, so maybe that was the wrong order and they should have accomplished the easier slippers before tackling the more difficult mittens (left, right or right left?), a good time was had by all.

Then there was Wendy, bless her heart, who had a vision of what she wanted to make after tackling the above projects. On her way to making a rag quilt with some of her mother's clothing, she paused to make machine embroidered pillowcases for the boys in her life. What started out as sports themed motifs for three boys on Easter turned into a total of five:

Four of the final five pillowcases

We used the Singer Futura XL 400 to download and stitch out the designs and I made Wendy stitch up the rest of the pillowcase on another machine. After she handed them out, the oldest nephew, at 16, pulled her aside and said "Aunt Wendy, I got the best one!", a Nike shoe she did pick out just for him.

Here's the blessing in doing this kind of work with others: while we were getting this all sewn over a couple weeks in March and April, Wendy's youngest sister is getting sicker and sicker, finally going to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Surgery was scheduled, testing was done, but before she could have the surgery she died, leaving behind that 16 year old son mentioned above and a six year old who got the spider man pillowcase. No one knew this was going to happen so fast and are scrambling to place the boys into another aunt's home in their hometown. Working on these pillowcases gave Wendy a reason to come to our house and talk about her sister and what she was going through, talking with my husband who was in the medical field before early retirement, who has also been a chaplain. We didn't know this was a respite in her life, a chance to get out of the house and direct her energy into something creative. But, Wendy didn't have a sewing machine at home and that's why she was using mine.

In steps Warren, a recent widow, whose wife had been giving me fabric and sewing "stuff" (that's an official sewing term, look it up) over the years after she became legally blind. Jenny told Warren that when she died she wanted her sewing stuff to go to Karen because she would know what to do with it. Oh, you betcha! First came two sewing machines, then a tackle box of supplies, and I hear there are more bobbins coming, too. Now who should those sewing machines go to? I usually have no clue but this time I thought about Wendy and asked her if she would like the refurbished Signature model to use, for free, to see if she would like to eventually purchase it or just return it. She's going to give it a go, hoping to return it later when she has more skills and could use a better sewing machine. I don't think she's going to need a better machine because this one is really nice, just purring along with a great stitch. When I told Warren about the new home for one of the sewing machines, he was taken aback at first, then remembered who Wendy was, and a big smile came across his face. That was going to be a good home for one of Jenny's sewing machines; I agree.

Wendy holding up flaming baseball pillowcase

 

Getting Creative

 With the best of intentions, I brought home a bag of "minky" scraps that were from a production of pillowcases. The factory cut the pillowcase fabric to size and it left long runs of 13" wide fabric. While I was working on an industrial sewing machine at Ellie's house last winter, she was cleaning up and asked if I wanted to take some of the scraps home to play around with. She packed up a bag with four colors of this fabric that reminds me less of minky and more like velour knit, reminiscent of velour shirts that were popular in the 1970's. During the early months of staying home last spring I pulled out the bag of scraps and decided to make up a quilt using a chevron pattern. What is mess! Every fresh cut edge made a whirlwind of fluff that sticks to everything: scissors, fabric, clothing, hands, machines, tables. I managed a few rows and then had to walk away from this project. Last week I found the bag of pieces and decided to either finish it up or throw it away.

I was now in a better frame of mind to tackle this type of fabric so I tried a few tricks others have suggested. Once cut, toss the pieces in the dryer to get the fluff off the edges. Use a sticky roller to keep fluff contained. Use a lint brush, the type that has a nap for using in only one direction (this seemed to work the best for me). Keep the vacuum cleaner nearby. Since I was almost half way done with the quilt top, I worked on it first but didn't know what size I cut the pieces. I measured and cut but they were too small but then decided since this is really a knit fabric I needed to allow extra for that flexibility. Here's how it started:

How many rows can I get away with?

Taking seams out so the points were more accurate  was painful since I was using an elastic zigzag stitch but I tried to correct as many as I could but some were better than others. Which machine did I use? This called for a Pfaff with the IDT, their built in walking foot system.

Pfaff 125?

This is such a great machine! Easy to use, comes with a full set of accessories and a flip up top with a nice sewing guide. It made the whole process easier but I have to confess I set it up on a TV tray in the family room so I would have room to place the strips on the floor and then sew on the larger piece with a machine close by. This took a couple of days and finally my husband asked how long was I going to invade every room in the house. Checking to see how much of these two colors I had left, I concluded I only had enough to make a throw sized quilt so I wrapped things up by adding a border and backing it with green flannel. I stitched around the outer edge with a serpentine stitch and then stitched in the ditch on two interior rows just to stabilize:

Chevron throw with velour fabric

I still had purple and light cream fabric strips left and I didn't have the heart to try another throw so I ended up making bears:

Howdy, folks

Using three of the strips, I made up six bears. They were a bit fussy but not as bad with shedding due to my use of lint rollers and brushes. Then I made up six more:

Just me and my friends

using the cream fabric, too. I still had more fabric but couldn't make myself sew any more bears so I decided to try to make a dress for my granddaughter Evelyn. In the process of moving pieces around I accidentally cut the opening for the zipper down the front of the dress instead of the back. I decided to make it look intentional by adding a decorative stitch by using silver thread with a satin stitch:

Making a mistake look good: silver zigzag

Using my trusty Bernina 730, some stitches still needed to be removed and corrected since it was right on the front but it still turned out cute. Never one to leave anything alone, I added a snowflake to the front

Snowflake number one

But it wasn't centered. Checking back with the instructions for the Singer Futura XL400 I was using to embroider, I needed to move the snowflake and then hit "apply" for it to actually stitch where you want it to go. Trying again, I added another snowflake to balance it out

Snowflakes 1 and 2

And now it was done. I washed it up since there was stabilizer on the front that needed to be washed out and it turned out nice. 

Never one to leave anything alone (where have I heard that one before?) I went back to the bag of scraps and had just enough left to make one much smaller bear

Mister tiny purple bear in the front

for Evelyn to carry around with her. There's a small piece left from when I was testing out the first snowflake that I'll whip up into a sleeping bag of sorts because he's going to be very tired after being carried around all day.

Oh, the fun sewing grandma's can have!

Convertables

 Trying my best to balance crafting with sewing machine repair, crafting has won these past weeks because of Christmas. Back in the early fall, I decided I could knit each grandkid a pair of slippers. Knowing I could have up to eleven pairs to knit, you would think I would have started right away but that's not how this project launched. It wasn't until mid-November that I got serious and even then had several false starts. At first I wanted to make slippers that looked like animals but only one pair was made, green frogs, when I decided I really wanted to make a bootie type of slipper. I also wanted to add a leather sole but with the a non-slip feature so I used the backside of leather since it is a bit rough. At the last minute I got a request to add a name to an apron for a friends granddaughter and it was so easy on the Singer Futura XL-400 I decided to make a bag for each pair of slippers with the intended child's name embroidered on the bag:

Bags matched up with slippers (pink slippers in the middle are for a 14 month old so no bag)

Instant gift wrap! Not exactly instant but with just hooping the fabric, typing in their name on a laptop connected with the embroidery machine, it was only 10 minutes of stitching. I lined each bag, added buttonholes for the drawstring, and they were done. Here's a closeup of three of the bags to the oldest girls:

Bags that can hold something else after Christmas

I'll do this again since it was fairly easy and gives a bit of a thrill to have a bag with your name on it. I continue to find ways to use the embroidery machines and find I'm happily embroidering on that Singer Futura XL400!

As I continue to work on selling sewing machines, I finally bought a unit that will convert a motor using European 220V to our US 110. Over a year ago, at the last in-person River Rats TOGA, I bought a Husqvarna CB-N, one of the many sewing machines from Cindy Peter's estate. It's a handsome model in an interesting base.

Husqvarna CB-N

Take a look a how the knee lever engages the motor:

As the knee lever is inserted into the machine, it engages the lever you see above on the floor of the wood base. As you push the lever with your knee it in turn connects with the lever you see circled  in the above photo. Here is a closeup of that area:

The wire on the right side feeds up to a switch box that causes the motor to engage and run:

Small wire comes up from the base to connect to a switch

With a system like this I didn't want to take the original motor off and just add a modern motor. In comes a step up/step down transformer. On one side we chose the intended target voltage

Moveable pin circled in yellow, set for 110V

With the European plug that came with the Husqvarna CB-N

It was plugged into the opposite side of the transformer:

into output 220V. This all seems backwards to me but my husband and I read over the instructions several times and recalled our electrician son-in-law explaining the process as backwards. The transformer was plugged into a power strip with surge protection, recommended, the unit was turned on, and the light didn't even turn on. What happened? I inserted the knee lever and with a fair amount of push it engaged the motor and she ran! As it turns out, the light bulb is broken so I'm going to take it to a battery and bulb supply shop and see if they have 220V bulbs of this size. 

I did some practice sewing and it works just fine. The presser foot is really high up from the base of the machine but it does come right down on the feed dogs. It should take a whole lot of layers of fabric but I've only tried it with a size 16 needle and four layers of medium weight upholstery. It would sew but wasn't very happy so I'm going to try other samples and needles to test out its strength. It uses standard needles and low shank feet plus a free manual in English was found. Now I can see what was included with the original machine and I can search in my stash of presser feet for the right ones.

Why did this take so long for me to get this sewing machine up and running? The voltage transformer box just scared me! Did I need a step up or a step down transformer? What about watts? Can I just use a simple plug converter? This is where being a librarian comes into play: I love to research so I read up on why I would need a transformer unit and not just a plug end, what size I needed, and if I needed step up or down. Because I'm not an electrician, I consulted with the family expert first so I would be safe and not burn the motor out. It seems to be overkill but better safe than sorry. I will sell this machine with the transformer and it can easily sit on the floor next to the power strip so you do not have to make room for it on the table top with the sewing machine. It was a worthwhile adventure and I'm hoping there is someone in the Twin Cities who would like this somewhat different sewing machine. Let's hope so/sew!

Girlfriends

 I enjoy a wide variety of friends: neighbors, work, church, sewing, quilting, crafting, friends of friends. This week it was my turn to reach out to a friend who needed a hug (but we can't do that right now). 

Michelle had a great idea a year ago: why not have quilts on the back of the pews at church? It would give a warm and welcoming look to the sanctuary as well as a colorful and cozy touch. It sounded nice but was something we were not going to be able to do. Where would the quilts come from? Who was going to wash them every week? It was just too impractical but was still a great idea. Thank you, Michelle, and now you can sit down. This plea made me think about what was behind it and I could understand what Michelle was after, a feeling of warmth and welcoming that goes beyond words. So in the weeks after we rejected her idea, I asked Michelle if I could make a quilt for her and showed her some patterns and a few samples of fabric. She looked at all of the pretty colors and patterns and got real quiet, pointing to one pattern but had a deer-in-the-headlights look. Sometimes offers like this seem overwhelming so I figured I would ask later when she had a chance to think about it.

Along comes a pandemic where we are all stuck at home and unable to get out and do the things we normally do, at least in the usual ways. Michelle and her quilt kept calling to me so I got out a stash of colorful fat quarters and the pattern she liked and got some blocks made up:

Blocks light to dark

Each block was made up of a pair of fat quarters, making one the opposite of the other.  The pattern said to label the lighter colored block A and the reverse darker block in the sets B then arrange them by laying them out ABABAB. I tried it but it was too random so I tried lighter blocks at the top and working down to darker blocks as you can see in the photo above. That didn't seems to resonate with me either so I put them in sets by color:

Blocks in color sets of four

This was a better idea but now I needed more blocks, from 42 to 48, yet I could now balance out colors with the final six blocks. Without sashing, how should I quilt this together? Oh, did I have fun.  On the verticals I used variegated purple thread making loops and long curves. On the horizontals I used white thread and wrote Bible verses about hope and faith: you have to look really hard to see them! Finally, in the center of each block is a great big space where I made a large eight petaled flower

Free motion quilting of center flower, purple curves, and words

When first starting you have to keep from telling yourself  "that's 48 flowers!" but just to dive in and keep sewing. When it was all done I remembered to make up a label and had one downloaded in my machine embroidery files. It wasn't exactly a label but  a design I could use for one:

"To Michelle In the quilt of life friends are the stitches that hold it together. Karen November 2020"

Once I had the Singer Futura XL 400 out to play I made up a sewing machine cover out of some fabric I ordered from Spoonflower, using solid colored fabric for the embroidered side panels:

And I want one of those, and this one, and where's the pink model?

End panel

End panel using downloaded embroidery file

Didn't that turn out way too cute? I've had the fabric for several years and finally put the ideas together for something I will find joy in using and just looking at.

Quilt finished and ready for Michelle, I arranged to meet her at church where she was working in a children's program. It definitely took her by surprise but she loved it. We agreed the idea of quilts on pews sounded nice but was never going to fly with a pandemic! Although this was one of the quickest quilts I have made, it was about the most rewarding. Here's one final photo of the finished quilt:

Finished quilt for Michelle

Even during a pandemic we can find ways to hug each other. Feel the love!

Embroidery the Easy Way?

As promised, I've got a lot to tell you about my newest embroidery sewing machine and the fun I'm having with it. Oh, it's not all fun and games but once you get things figured out it can be exciting to watch the designs appear and creative, too. There's just so much to learn! The machine I've been playing with is a Singer Futura XL-400:

Singer Futura XL400

This is by no means any kind of a high end machine, and a plastic Singer to boot, but it's been pretty easy to use and the end results has been good, too, so I'll shut up now about modern Singers. This machine came to me via Goodwill Online auctions where I got the machine in one bid and a set of three embroidery arms in another bid. I took a chance that one of those arms was going to fit the Singer Futura and it did but now I have a Pfaff Creative 1.5 embroidery arm with large hoop and manual plus an unbranded arm that could be for a Brother machine. But that's okay because I've learned that the right parts just might come along one day or someone reading this post might want just what I've stumbled upon!

The Singer came home with me and I got it all sorted out with a borrowed power cord and foot control but there are issues. I keep getting error messages and it seems like I'm not in the right mode. It occurs to me it might be stuck in the embroidery mode so I back out of it just like I was going to take the embroidery arm off and then start the machine over again and VOILA it works! There does seem to be an issue with the speed control so with a repair manual, free from a Facebook group for Singer embroidery machine users, I find the component that controls the speed and order it. There are also some levers that have their handles snapped off so they also get ordered along with the large hoop that was missing and I'm good to go.

Dell laptop with Futura Embroidery software loaded

I forgot to mention I needed software, too, so I ordered a disk for this model and crossed my fingers that it would work. Above is a laptop with old Windows 7 or 8, a better match for this older system embroidery machine anyway. Everything was installed correctly so now the fun begins! I had some small under four inch circles that I used for making zippered pouches originally intended for earbuds but used for anything. Some of them were just too plain so I downloaded some designs that would fit the fabric theme and colors to come up with the following:

Truckers: another good theme

In the above design with a big truck, there were ten "blocks" where you had color changes and each block had to be selected, sent from the computer directly to the sewing machine via a cable, press Start on the sewing machine and it stitched the block. When finished the machine stopped, you cut off the thread, added the next block, chose your thread and rethreaded the machine, hit Start, and you were off and stitching. Here's the above design all finished:

This might be my mantra

How cute is that? You can see the finished product below. It wasn't all fun and games when Harry Potter turned out not to line up right and I had to remove those extra stitches:

Are those shadows or misplaced outline stitches?

Even my cat, Meg, was curious enough to sit on the chair and watch the needle but this isn't something you can just load and forget: you need to be attentive to any mishaps that can be corrected if found early.

Meg the cat, ever curious about what's going on

I finished a project for work, adding our initials to some microfiber cloths that we use for wiping off white boards. It only takes about ten minutes for each one but with 36 of them it adds up quickly.

Microfiber cloths with BUL stitched on each one

 I had way too much fun with those circles that are for holding earbuds:

Backside to compliment printed fabric on most of them

 Then I have a few designs that I just like and I'm itching to try out but first I need to find a purpose for the design. For instance, I have a Mustang GT and an Elvis head: what could I possibly do with them? I'll think of something!

Waste Not Want Not

I continue to use the pieced quilt blocks my sister made as it seems they are just too good to throw away. It also seems I keep getting better ideas for how to use them, too, but that just practice, practice, practice. At first I simply sewed the blocks together, added a layer of cotton batting and backing, a bit of free motion quilting, and it was fashioned into a sewing machine cover:

Cover for a Bernina

 Then I figured out how to sew them together with sashing between the blocks and free motion quilting on the sashing:

Free motion on the sashing

Not bad but I really stink at free motion: how much practice does it take? Maybe I'm impatient (just ask DH) but after hours of practice I"m still very much a beginner. For my next project, I got out fabric for sashing but decided since I wanted a cover for my Viking Designer 1, maybe I should use some of the features available to highlight what it could do. On the horizontal bands I added decorative stitching but on the vertical bands I wanted to make the stitching fill the space. This entailed downloading designs, copying to a 3.5" floppy via Sew-What-Pro software, setting up the embroidery arm, and trying to remember how this all works. It was so much fun!

Here's the front panel (that became the back when it wasn't centered):

Oops, a little to the right

Back panel that is now the front (live and learn):

A little low but much better with different colors

Now I needed to make the side panels and here was a blank slate to fill and two of them to boot. Looking at the free to download patterns wasn't quite what I wanted but $5 downloads didn't seem right either. I found a site where there were many $1-2 downloads and hundreds of sewing themed designs, too. Here's the first side:

Scissors, tomoato pincushion, thread: it's all there!

It was fun to pick colors (glad I bought spools of embroidery thread from several ads and offerings) and watch the machine put it all together. The fabric is fairly stiff but in my naivete I put it in the hoop with batting and backing, too. That could have been a disaster but it actually turned out fine. I had something similar for the other side but it seemed like overkill and would take several hours to complete so I opted for a simpler design:

Pink letters with green leaves

Reminding myself to check the bobbin, I promptly put the hoop in the machine and started stitching away but forgetting to reload the bobbin. The pink words were all finished and halfway through the green leaves I get a broken upper thread symbol and a stoppage.  I rethread the top thread but the message doesn't go away. I'm pretty sure this has to be an empty bobbin but it's not the bobbin symbol so what do I do now? To get to the bobbin I need to pull off the embroidery unit...and it turns out that's not a good idea. Although I get the bobbin changed when I put it all back together it starts all over again. That's right, from the very beginning. No, no, no... I reread the manual (not covered), check the files and conversations on the D1 Yahoo group, but can't seem to find out how to advance to the spot I left off. I took my own advice and walked away, hoping for inspiration.

Help came from another Viking D1 owner who has given me help before: Virginia came to my rescue! I sent off a tearful email about what I was trying to do, what happened, and pleaded for guidance. After shoveling snow and checking on dinner Virginia sent back detailed steps on how to get back to where I needed to be. It was right in front of me but I just didn't understand and her instructions made it so clear. I was back in business, finished up the panel, and got it all together with the help of a serger for the seams. Overall it's pretty good, fits perfectly, used up more of the blocks, and will keep my sewing machine clean when it is idle. It's never idle? Of course it has to sit and wait while I work on other sewing machines or tend to projects that do not use such a fine sewing machine, such as the hot mitts and jean repair.

So many sewing machines, so little time...

Stockings

In the midst of a warm-up this week, I put away the outdoor Christmas decoration and removed the items hanging on the windows of the porch. This gave me time to really look at the Christmas stockings we had and to see how we could improve upon the situation. There were stockings with names, half without names, some small, some ridiculously large, and one baby girl stocking. I remember much confusion this past Christmas eve when my husband, who is in charge of the stockings, couldn't remember whose was whose if they didn't have names on them. So we looked over the lot, decided on the keepers, and figured out who we were missing: all of the young men who have married into the family. It was too late to get this item at the stores since they were long gone in the after Christmas sales, so I looked to see if I could find some online. Yes, for about $24-45. Are you kidding? Next I looked up ideas for Christmas stockings for men and came up with an idea that I thought might just work: gray wool with white trim. I dug out my gray wool, matched it up with a nice wool plaid, then went to work on how to make them special for these young men in our lives.

Machine embroidery! I've been wanting to get back into it and this was the perfect excuse. We discussed various images that the guys would find representative of their interests and came up with deer hunting, fishing, and ... well, the last one is too new so we settled on a Christmas tree. Although there are free designs available, I ended up buying a package of ten images for fishing to get the right one. Using my Viking Designer 1 and SewWhat Pro software, I started out with the deer hunting image first but ended up with several tries:

Three tries

The first image was too small but it gave me an idea about the colors I could use. The second one was the right size but I discovered you actually do need to use stabilizer on each and every project, plus gold thread was not the best of choices. By the third time I was satisfied with the end result so we are keeping that one.

Final deer stocking

As for the fisherman, it was a silhouette so only black thread was needed: easy!

Fisherman stocking

There was a bit of a snafu on the Christmas tree stitching so I had to stop, pull out threads, and start over with a darker color. It's a pretty subtle effect but looks fine in the end.

Christmas tree stocking

As for piping around the edge, one got cream, one a wired red twisted cord, and one was self-made. The printed ribbon was made into piping with the aid of a zipper foot and was applied to the stocking with this foot. For the first stage of the project, I was pleased with the results. Now for the wool plaid "cuff" around the top: I wanted to add their name on each one but I'm not up to using machine embroidery this time. I decided to hand embroider their names using a font from a MS Word printout, traced with waxy tailors marking square, and stitched with light gray wool.They got assembled last night and had their photo shoot this morning:

Son-in-laws Christmas stockings

I'm pleased with the result and now have a plan for adding names to the other stockings by using the Word printout to trace names and stitch up, maybe not with wool but with floss since they look a bit more elegant in their tapestry fabric. I'm going to be so happy next Christmas when those stockings come out, all ready to go, with everyone accounted for. What about those additions to the family? We have an extra stocking for the grandkids and I set aside the a set of wool and plaid for another son-in-law that just might join the family in the future. Here we come, 2018!

Revised Opinion

If you have been reading my past blog entries you know I have no love for Singer sewing machines made after about 1968. I have bought a few, sold a few, and had to junk too many so I don't go down that road anymore. If you have one and love it that's great but for me....no. As it turns out when I have a prejudice like this, something comes along to change my mind and that's what happened this past week.

So there I was on a long holiday weekend, checking out the Craigslist ads, posting ads for a few of my sewing machines when I find a Singer Quantum XL-6000 for sale. This is not just a 2004 sewing machine for sale, but a complete embroidery attachment with all the bells and whistles. It's hardly even for sale because at this price it's being given away. A quick email and then a text and I'm in the car because I was told it would be sold to the first one who gets there. So has anyone else said they were on the road yet I ask? Nope, I am the first so it's pedal to the metal and I'm there in 15 minutes. There was a brief statement in the ad about it needing service so I asked how it was performing and the older gentleman selling it said it made a clunking noise when sewing something heavy. He offered to plug it in but I said no, I would take it as is, hoping he wouldn't find out the might not be anything wrong after all. Here's the sewing machine set up for sewing only:

Singer Quantum XL-6000

It came with manuals, embroidery unit in it's own carrying case, software, converter box, thread exchanger, hoops, knee lever, and other parts I can only gaze at and wonder where they go and what they might do. I do a quick test because I'm needed elsewhere and it does sew but it's loud. Hummm. What's up with that? I get back to it a few days later only to find it has a honking big needle, size 18, so it runs like a tank with that big needle on two layers of cotton. I size the needle down and she sounds and runs just fine. I need to have the manual out because there's a touch screen with icons I'm not familiar with yet but things move right along. I'm ready to sew some aprons for a friend of mine and I start to think maybe I should see if I could add some of this fancy embroidery the machine is capable of. I talk myself into getting it all out and practice making one of the floral motifs but it's harder than I thought. I check out information online and decide to join a Yahoo group for this model to see what might be found for free. I'm all about free! After being accepted into the group I get a very nice email from the moderator who sends along a manual (already have) and a workbook along with encouragement. The workbook did the trick and I got it running. Here's my test:

First shot using the embroidery unit

Okay, I need to learn about color changing but I dive in, add iron-on interfacing to the back of the area I'm planning to add this to, and get stitching. It comes out much better this time with appropriate colors but still not as flat as I would like:

Second try with better colors and firmer fabric

Here's the apron all finished (the buttons and buttonholes are waiting until I have more to make).

Apron done with embroidery (buttons just for show at this point)

I text my friend and post it on Facebook and it's a GO on making another one in a larger size. Here's the fabric I've cut out to make the next one and while I'm at it I might as well make two more to sell.

Fabric for next aprons: the middle green print is a Waverly

There's a variety of ways I can finish these with piping or rick-rack but for now I'm just glad I got them cut out and ready to sew: sometimes that's the hardest part. What is my evaluation of the Singer Quantum XL-6000? So far it has been nice, performing more than adequately, but I've only made one item and haven't really put it to the test. There's much potential there so stay tuned as I continue to learn about it and see if I can get it to embroider without puckering (I know that's a skill I need to learn about stablizers and interfacing).  My revised opinion of later Singer models stands revised: if you buy a high end model (the XL-6000 was $3000 when new) you are probably getting a higher quality sewing machine. If you are buying used for way less, it's a GO!