Time for an Upgrade...Bernina Style

 I am a spoiled quilter, and I recognize that fact. I am very thankful we are in a position to afford some fun stuff for both of our hobbies. That said, DH and I are both thoughtful shoppers. We'll wait for sales, buy used, sell stuff to aren't using to fund what we want, etc...

I think I'm not alone in the search for the perfect sewing machine. I started sewing on a vintage Singer, straight stitch only, that I was borrowing from a family member. I made all my maternity clothes with it, as well as lots of baby clothes and home decor items. I gave the vintage machine back when my parents bought me a sewing machine for Christmas one year. It was a Montgomery Ward badged machine and I had it over 20 years. I made countless items of clothing on it, made my first foray into quilting on it, and so many curtains, pillows and such. When my stitch selector broke, and we had no sew and vac guys around to repair it, I went to a Brother from a big box store. I liked it well enough that when I wore it out, I bought another, but I was frustrated by the plastic gears and how quickly they wore out. I had started seriously quilting by now, and the small throat space was also a problem.

I did a bunch of research, and I bought a Bernina 1080 used. That was a quality machine! I used the heck out of that machine, and that was the machine I started quilting my own quilts on. Up until this point I was tying them. 

In the search for a larger throat space, I bought a Juki TL98. I tried it on a frame first, but I had nothing but tension issues. Sold the frame, and the Juki sewed just fine. I crosshatched a lot of quilts with the walking foot at this time with that machine. The thing is, I hated the Juki walking foot, and I found changing the bobbin to be quite awkward. I still had the Bernina 1080, and I just liked it better. 

I started researching a Bernina with a larger throat space, and I decided I wanted a Bernina 440. I didn't want to pay for a Bernina 440, so I kept putting off the purchase. Then I found out they were discontinuing the Bernina 440, so I went and bought the floor model at my local Bernina shop. I got it for half price, and I sold both the Juki and my Bernina 1080 to help offset the cost. 

As kids moved out and I had more space, I discovered I really preferred to have more than one machine set up at all times. One to piece on, one for the actual quilting, and if I can have three, one for everything else, like garment sewing. I started collecting vintage machines, larger throat, best for accuracy in 1/4" seams if it's a straight stitch only machine.

I make a lot of big quilts, and although I have quilted king sized quilts on the Bernina 440, it's still a bit of a wrestling match. In the search for a larger throat space, I bought a Tin Lizzie sit down long arm. The throat space was fantastic, the machine, meh. I traded it in for the Janome M7. It was my first and only Janome. I LOVED the dual feed, and the amount of accessories that came with that machine was crazy! The fact it came with two walking feet, a regular one and a 1/4" one, was amazing. I had the Janome for 6 years, and for five of those years, it did great. This last year it's been in the shop more than not. This last time, I told them do everything to it, because I'm going to sell it. I don't want to sell a bad machine, so I had them fix everything that was even questionable. 

What was I going to replace the Janome with? I decided I really wanted a larger Bernina. After all, I loved my 440 so much, I bought a second one used so I'd have a backup. I was looking at Berninas, and decided I wanted a 735, but you know what? They are discontinuing that model, so I went to the store, bought the floor model, and saved about 40%. I sold the Janome with the cabinet it was in, because that cabinet was too tall for me, and ergonomically just didn't work. I had that cabinet for about 8 years, and every time I used it, my shoulders hurt. 

I looked at cabinets, decided on the Christa cabinet by Arrow, which is the same height as the other cabinet I have that I do like. I found the Christa cabinet on sale for about 40% off. I didn't realize it was backordered when I ordered it, so it actually came while I was out of town. Thankfully, I managed to have it delivered to my daughters house, and she and my SIL assembled it for me while I was out of town. So now I am back home, and can quilt on my new Bernina 735 in my Christa Cabinet!

With all the extensions up, I've got a ton of flat surface to support the quilt. If I drop all the extensions, including the back extension it's footprint is drastically reduced. I've already been quilting on it, and I've already noticed I get better results with poly thread when FMQ, though if I use the walking foot or bind, it likes cotton thread just fine. The cabinet height is working much better for me. 

Could I have purchased a Bernina with a larger throat? Yes. Did I think I needed one? No. I have a few queen/king quilts already started, and those I do plan on quilting myself. The throat space on this is smaller than the Janome, but still more than adequate to quilt a large quilt. The main reason is, I've already decided than any queen/king quilts I start from this point onward, I will pay to have longarmed. If I can't pay to have it longarmed, I won't be making it. My RSI really acts up when I'm quilting the huge quilts, and I've decided the pain isn't worth it anymore. My RSI doesn't really bother me on twin sized and smaller quilts. 

Besides the price break on the 735 since it's being discontinued, the other thing I really liked about it was all the presser feet I have for my 440's will work on it. I didn't have to start buying new presser feet, and Bernina presser feet are expensive. If I had gone with a 900 series machine, I would have had to buy all new presser feet, which added to the increased base cost really wasn't in my budget. 

I never thought I'd be brand specific quilter, but after sewing on several other branded machines at this point, I really do prefer Berninas. I still love my vintage machines, though I have thinned the herd of those due to space. Vintage machines, the heavy, all metal, weigh as much as a boat anchor, are almost all better than the cheap plastic stuff you can get from a big box store, but for higher end modern machines, I've discovered I am indeed a Bernina girl.

Traveling

 I scheduled blog posts to post while I was gone, so you were unlikely to notice that I had been out of town. I'm back now, but what a trip it was! 

We went almost 9,000 miles, through 25 states. We went to two scooter rallies, multiple scooter shops, all for DH's business (He publishes The Scooter 'Zine) We saw our three out of state kids and their families, we spent a couple weeks with my parents, trying to improve their situation a bit. We went to five national parks, and two Civil War battlefields. We went on two covered bridge driving tours, one in Vermont and one in Indiana. We avoided interstate highways as much as possible, I think less than 500 miles were done on the interstate. 

Since we were on the backroads, we got to see lots of wildlife. So many wild turkeys, deer, elk, pronghorn, even a bear right on the side of the road just watching the cars go by. We saw lots of free range chickens, even a flock that was wearing clothes! I looked it up and I saw that sometimes they put clothes on chickens to protect them from roosters who claw them while mating. I saw several options for that online but these looked homemade, they even had flowers appliqued on them! Of course we saw the usual assortment of farm animals, horses, cows, goats, pigs, donkeys, a few emus, and even some alpacas. 

So much happened over the eight weeks we were gone, I won't bore you with a ton of photos, but I will give you a couple highlights. 

One of the many elk we saw in Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

Views from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Deer in Shenandoah National Park

Acadia National Park in Maine

A covered bridge in Vermont that was built in 1833, it has a pedestrian section and a section to drive on. You can still drive on that almost 200 year old bridge, and we did.

Waterfall in Vermont

Waterfall in New York

Covered Bridge in Indiana

We were in Indiana for my birthday, But DH got me a couple roses for the hotel room, red because he loves me, yellow because we are friends. His soda bottle made an adequate vase!

Now that we are home again, it's time to get back into a normal routine. I really did a lot of quilting prep before I left, so now that everything from the trip is put away, I can get right back into sewing. Goodness knows, I've got lots of sewing to do!

A Couple Items For ME!

I don't know about you, but I rarely sew anything for myself. I mostly give away everything I make. I really wanted a couple book sleeves, and I found a great tutorial here.

Now, I haven't read a paper book in ages aside from cook books and quilting books. If it's fiction, I read on my kindle, and I read A LOT. I wanted book sleeves for my ipad, kindle and a notebook or two. I have cases on my ipad and kindle, but when traveling I keep those in my backpack, which I always crammed full. I've had things slip between the cover and the body of the case, which drains my battery. I figured a book sleeve would prevent that.  I was given some fabric that I love, and as soon as I saw it, I decided it was going to be my book sleeve.

I also had some find a word fabric with sewing words that I had purchased, and I thought it would be a fun sleeve too. 

Here are the flip sides of the cases, where the pocket is. You may have noticed that one has the button closure on the pocket side and the other has it on the plain side. That was my mistake, but even though I caught the mistake earlier enough to fix it, it didn't bother me enough to take the time to actually fix it. Another plus of sewing for myself, if I don't mind, mistakes don't matter.  

I ended up using the find a word case for my EPP project, which is already in a zipper pouch, but I put the pouch in the main pocket, and my neck light in the front pocket. I only work on my EPP project when we are travelling, and hotels usually have lousy lighting. 

I made the largest size, but if I were to make them again, I'd add an inch in each direction. I used scraps of regular fleece instead of fusible fleece or batting, and it's nicely padded, but a bit bulky so the bag is a little smaller than I wanted. I'm always at a loss on how to use scrap fleece. For years I cut it all into squares and made weighted blankets, but I'm pretty much over making those now. I have enough pellets left to make one more weighted blanket, and eventually I probably will make that, but who knows, maybe I'll have DH make some cornhole boards and use the pellets in bean bags instead. If the fleece scraps are WOF, I'll piece them into a backing, but fleece seams are thick, so I don't like doing too much piecing on a fleece backing. I'll see DD#1 later this year, so I'll show these to her and see if she'd like something similar for her country store. If I make multiple sizes I could use up a lot of fleece scraps. I could even use orphan blocks on the pockets. 

I'm already thinking about Christmas, and I thought I could make book sleeves and buy a book to put in them, and that should be a decent gift. I could make a game of it, and give myself bonus points if the sleeve matches the book. I've seen some great book fabric too, but I'd have to buy that, and I'm trying to stay low buy this year. We'll see. I still have a little time before I need to be in full blown Christmas mode. 

Two Finishes for July!

 I took a tip from my June quilting, and worked on two quilts that could be quilted with the same color of thread, and bound the same as well. 

I really love these super bright batiks I was given. I did add some of my own batiks to the mix, but I made three quilt tops from the fabrics I was given. This is the first one finished, and quilt number 13 for the year. It's a larger throw. The other two are not the same pattern.

You've seen these blocks before! I made three quilt tops from these black/neutral log cabin blocks. The other two are twin sized, and I may or may not have finished those, I honestly can't remember. At any rate, I do remember this is the smallest of the three, it's a large baby sized or kid quilt. 

I used a black thread on both of these quilts, and just did a simple meander. The black thread was very fine, so it doesn't show up much, even on the light areas. 

July is the seventh month, and I've got 14 quilts done, so right on target. I'm actually hoping the second half of the year is even more productive, because I've got so much prepped and ready to go. I've still got 9 quilts basted, I've got multiple quilts cut out, and how's this for leader/enders?

This tote is completely filled with blocks that are easy to use as leader/enders. All Civil War reproduction fabrics, so it's going towards my busting those fabrics goal too! 

I took these fabric scraps from my latest basting spree and processed those before they even hit my scrap bin. My scrap user system is outgrowing its designated area again, so when I get a few of the projects I have cut out sewn, I'll be looking for an idea to use up some of those strips. The thing about sewing a lot is, the more you sew, the more scraps you have, so you sew more scraps, but make more scraps. Good thing I enjoy working with scraps! I had a bunch of bird fabric scraps, so I'm thinking I'll make a bird quilt (or two), and I had a very large scale print of African animals, that I used most of on the back of a quilt, but I think I have enough left to be the focus in another quilt. The bird fabrics and the animal fabrics were not all cut to the same sizes. I've been wanting to do something more improv lately, and if I go through my orphan blocks and scraps to make more units, I think I can add to the multi-sized blocks and come up with some fun quilts. I haven't done anything like that for a while, and it sounds like fun!

Sticker Shock or My Guide to Cheaper Quilting

 Quilting supplies, like almost everything else these days are going up. I look around at my stash, and I know I wouldn't have most of this if I had to start over at today's prices. Sure, I would have what was given to me by sewists who could no longer sew, but what I've purchased? I wouldn't have bought much at today's prices. 

This is a great example, I bought a small fat quarter bundle (six fat quarters) three years ago for $7.49. The same company still sells the exact same bundle. Price? $21.59 It's the exact same bundle! Somehow, three years later the same company thinks the outdated bundle is worth three times the price??? This isn't a new line of fabric, it's not made differently than what I bought three years ago, and I suspect what they are selling now came in three years ago and just hasn't sold. 

It doesn't help that the options of where to buy supplies are dwindling. I remember always checking out the remnants at Hancock's Fabrics (not to be confused with Hancock's of Paducah, which is different), because they marked all the remnants down to $2 a yard, no matter what kind of fabric it was. The Hancock's chain went out of business. I used to find great deals on batting at Ben Franklin stores, until they went under too. We had a great local fabric shop. They sold every kind of fabric, from chiffon to leather, and all kinds of trims and notions. They went out of business too. Then, of course, we lost JoAnn fabrics too. My favorite quilt shop closed, though I thankfully live in a large enough place that there are a few more of those. 

My sister and I have a "sister date" once a week. I'm a quilter, she does all the other crafts, so a stop by a craft store is a regular for us. We've just been blown away by the change in prices. It seems like the prices change every week. Places that used to offer coupons, often don't now. Remnants that used to be half off or more, now aren't being marked down as much. We wonder what it must be like to want to start quilting in today's world. 

We raised five kids on one income, and I homeschooled as well. One thing I learned to do well is shop, not because I enjoy shopping, because I don't. I learned to shop well because we always had to make the budget stretch. I know young people say it's harder now, and that may be true, but it wasn't easy then either. 

If you are a beginner quilter, or a quilter who is struggling financially, I'm going to give you some tips on how to stretch the crafting budget, if there are any quilt police reading this, turn away now, you've been warned. 

Sewing Machine

Let's say you don't have a sewing machine, I'm here to tell you that lots of quilts have been made without one. In fact, some quilts, like one that is all small hexagons, are easier to hand sew than to sew with a sewing machine. If I were a mom who has to sit in the school pick up line every day, I'd be hand piecing during the wait. 

What if you want a sewing machine? If you have a very tight budget, my advice is to skip Walmart and go vintage.

I bought this Singer 201 at a thrift shop. It cost me $50 and had just been serviced. Sure, it's straight stitch only, but for quilting, that's all you need. The space between the needle and vertical of the machine is much larger than you find in a cheap plastic machine, which really comes in handy if you quilt your own quilts. More advantages to vintage? Watch a few YouTube videos and you can do a lot of servicing yourself, and this machine will still be sewing 50 years from now, where my new computerized machines will be in a landfill. I love to piece on a vintage machine, straight stitch only machines sew the most accurate 1/4" seams.

Fabric

A large portion of my fabric has been purchased at thrift stores, some of it as just fabric, sometimes a bag of scraps, but even whole bolts of fabric. Some of the fabric is upcycled from sheets, clothes, curtains, duvet covers. I prefer 100% cotton, but I have made quilts from other materials as well. 

This quilt was made from all men's shirts that I thrifted.

The purple background and borders of this quilt are from a duvet cover.

The focus fabric from this quilt are from some curtains I made, then when we were done with them, I turned them into a quilt. 

Some other things to look for at thrift stores? Fleece blankets, they make great backings and you can skip the batting if you want. Any blanket can be batting, as well as mattress pads. I've found thread at thrift stores too. I've seen people use towels as batting in table runner. No one will know what's on the inside of a quilt.

If you are lucky enough to have a Goodwill Outlet anywhere within day trip range, it's worth the trip. My sister and I just went there, and these are the current prices at ours.

So you can pick up clothes for $1.89 a pound, and that's any clothes, want to make a denim quilt, grab a bunch of jeans. Do you enjoy making t-shirt quilts? Look for any interesting ones. I usually stick with 100% woven cotton, usually men's shirts, but I've also picked up womens skirts, pajama pants, even a hospital gown that looked new. 

And the 99 cents a pound for linens? That's your sheets, which I've used for backgrounds, as well as backings, and duvet covers, and curtains, and blankets etc... I've even found yardage in the linen bins.

Maybe you don't have any local options for thrift stores, did you know Goodwill has an online auction site? You can bid on boxes full of fabrics, thread, or sewing machines. Have you been wanting a fabric die cutter? You can snag an Accuquilt die cutter with dies for a fraction of what it costs new. You can also try Etsy or eBay, though professional resellers are jacking up prices there.

I'm a big proponent of buying things secondhand. I think it's easier on the environment and on the wallet. Remember you can check out yard sales, estate sales, local auctions, Facebook Marketplace, Freecycle and local "buy nothing" groups. Just think of how many people bought the supplies for a project and never got around to making it because life got in the way. There's a lot of perfectly good supplies already out there. 

Prefer to buy new? Every quilt shop I've ever been in has a sale section. Big box stores that sell fabric have remnant bins. Check out the clearance section in the linens department. Don't have any local options?

For novelty fabrics, you can't beat 4my3boyz.com. She's got some $1 fat quarters! Lots of fabric panels too, and a fabric panel is the cheapest way to make a themed quilt. Buy a panel, surround it with blocks made from fabrics you already have in complementary colors, and you've got it! 

For every type of quilting fabric and batting, my go to is Marshall Dry Goods. Their quilting basics run about $5 per yard, but if you buy the same fabric by the bolt, you can get it for around $3 a yard on the wholesale side of their site. You do not need to be a business to buy wholesale, you just have to be willing to buy bulk.

If you really love pre-cuts, check out jellyrollfabric.net

Thread

I've found lots of thread at thrift shops, including brand new thread in the wrapper. My vintage machines will usually sew with any thread I've tried. Modern machines can be picky, and in my experience, the more expensive the machine, the pickier it seems to be. Most of my machines will sew with most threads if I'm piecing or walking foot quilting. I may have to adjust tension, but I can make it work. FMQ is where preferences really show up. The biggest area I've seen preferences in is fiber content. I have machines that only want to FMQ with cotton and never poly, no matter which brand, and I have machines that only want to FMQ with poly, never cotton, no matter which brand. Sometimes I do encounter brand preferences, one of my Bernina 440's will sew with anything, one absolutely will not sew with Gutterman, and if it's Auriful it needs to be 40 wt, 50 wt just breaks. Since I have two of the exact same machine, I am very familiar with adjusting tension on the top and bobbin, but one is just pickier than the other. 

If you are blessed to have a machine that is not picky, the cheapest place I know of to buy thread is Thread Art. This is Chinese thread, not European fine threads. Would I quilt a quilt for a quilt show with it, absolutely not. Would I make a quilt for a five year old with it? Absolutely. They have all kinds of thread, and I've had pretty good luck with it. Since I don't make quilts for quilt shows, I'll use just about any of their threads in most quilts. My favorite thread is Aurifil, and for a queen sized or larger quilt, that's what I'm likely to use, but for almost everything else, these work fine as long as my machine likes it. I have a few other brands of thread I like too, but I only buy thread on sale, including my beloved Aurifil. 

Patterns

I'm going to be pretty ruthless here. If you are struggling financially, don't buy patterns, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of free patterns online. You can also check out quilting books from your local library. 

Notions

The best advice I can give on notions is watch for sales. Buy sewing machine needles in bulk, you'd be shocked at the cost per needle in a 100 pack versus a five pack. Rulers have really gone up in price, and this is one thing I wouldn't buy used. A well used ruler is likely not that accurate anymore. They do wear out. Buy brand name rulers from reputable sellers. I know Amazon has had a lot of problems with pirated rulers that aren't accurate. Rotary blades I've had good luck with on Amazon. Did you know that if you go to the google home page, you can put in a specific item and press the shopping tab under the search bar, and they will do comparison shopping for you? Also, make sure to go back to google if you are going to make an online purchase, type in the name of the shop you are buying from along with the words coupon code, for example, Connecting Threads coupon code. You might find coupon codes for free shipping or percentage off coupons, but either way, it's worth a quick search. Local quilt shops have sales too, and they need business to stay open. 

Learn to Finish Your Own Quilts

I was chatting with a woman at a quilt shop, and she was shocked I quilt my own quilts. She has always used a longarmer. Longarmers are great, and I have had a few quilts finished that way. I could not make nearly as many quilts as I do if I paid a longarmer to quilt them all. My first quilts were tied. (Try a curved needle for this, it's easier) You can easily look up how to do that. My kids still used quilts I tied over 20 years ago, and they are holding up just fine! 

I went from tying quilts to using a walking foot, and I still use a walking foot now and then to do some simple crosshatching on a quilt. Pair a vintage sewing machine and a walking foot and you can quilt a king sized quilt. There are lots of books (think library here) and YouTube videos on some incredible quilting with a walking foot. 

I learned to FMQ because I wanted to, not because I had to. There is nothing wrong with tying a quilt, and there are some great walking foot quilting designs you can do. That said, YouTube and library books can get you started if you want to learn to FMQ. 

I know the quilting snobs likely haven't made it this far through the blog post. I've heard all of the, "you should only ever use quilt shop quality fabric and brand X of thread, and brand Y batting is all I'd ever use" comments I'd ever care to hear. The first two bed quilts I made for two of my daughters were made from our families old jeans, and backed with a set of sheets I bought in the clearance section at Kmart. DD#2 still uses that quilt, and if she's sick it's her favorite. 

The argument I really don't get it the your quilt won't last 50 or even 100 years if you don't use such and such. I would rather have a kid drag around a quilt I made them, and have them wear it out in five years making blanket forts and wrapping the dog in it, than have it sit in a closet unused because no one wants it to get ruined. The kid that wears out a quilt has memories with that quilt. Sure, the quilt may have worn out, but the memory of it won't. The quilt in the closet may be pristine, but no one cares about it, no one has memories of it, that, in my mind, is a waste of fabric and time. As long as I'm alive and able, wear out the quilt, I'll make you another one.