Catch Up Time

 

 

 

 

The last few weeks have been busy and I haven't been able to post much. Hoping that will change since I now have the taxes finished! Yeah for me :) . In February for our anniversary, my hubby allowed me to swap out my Janome 7700 for the new Janome Skyline S9 which is both a sewing and embroidery machine. I still have my 300e, as I haven't had time to put it up for sale yet.

Did I really need a new sewing machine? No, of course not. However as this arthritis takes more and more out of me and makes common things painful, I found when test sewing on the Skyline that it has features that cause it to be a very good machine for those with disabilities. One of my favorite features so far, is the button in the front of the machine to press to lift the presser foot, although you can still reach around to the back to lift or depress the lever for the presser foot. You can also use the knee lifter as well. Since the outer sides of my knees are numb from my knee replacements and those knee lifters take me immediately back to 8th grade home ec I tend to push it when I want to go faster which doesn't work out so well! LOL. When I was doing some 'trying out the machine' sewing the other day, I lost track of the time and an hour had passed! For the past several years 20-30 minutes at a crack was about the best I could do sitting at the machine.

Over the years whenever I traded in a machine for a newer model, the learning curve wasn't much of a curve. I was up and running in minutes. This machine is going to take some time to learn all the great new features. I've read through the manual several times and have tried some of the new things that I now have access to, like 9 mm wide stitches - yahoo! I am planning on having an exclusive page in this blog for hints and tips and problems as the Skyline and I get aquainted. One thing I am needing to go visit Super Stitch about is threading the needle. I've seen it work and it is easy, but I think I am just tall enough that I can't see the whole threading path at the needle junction and am missing something.

My hubby had to help me get the design transferred right for my first embroidery project, but then it was terrific. No jump threads to trim, When the design is finished the presser foot raises and the thread is cut cleanly. I was doing a set of 6 placemats with the Inky Heart G8912 from Embroidery Library . After the first one finished and I went to do the next one, I was all set up and ready to go. I couldn't do them all at the same time, so almost a week later when I went to do some more, the first thing that popped up was the same design all ready to go. Check them out! I did use iron-on tear away Solvy on the backs of the placemats. I'm not sure if I really needed to, but I wnted to make sure these would turn out well since eventually they will be given as a gift or used for charitable purposes.

The placemats I used were from Amazon and they are called  DII100% Cotton, Ribbed 13x 19" Everyday Basic Placemat Set of 6, PrintedHearts . I got them through the Amazon vine program. I have gotten quite a few 'blanks' this year and for my review, I like to show them embroidered and 'fancied' up. I have a whole stack of things now to embroider that I don't have to make before or after the embroidering. Embroidery Library has come out with some really gorgeous designs lately that I have wanted to try, so looking forward to the next project. I used Robinson Anton cotton thread (Foxy Read) until the spool ran out and then I fortunately found a substitute thread of an unknown brand that was close enough you can't really see the difference in colors. I always use Schmetz needles with my machines with no trouble - just need to remember to change them as needed, usually after about 8 hours of sewing or less than that if a giving them extra hard use like embroidery or quilting.