NOT BEST FRIENDS

I've always been on a first name basis with my sewing machine, but have never claimed to be best friends.  Oh...don't get me wrong....I love the beast.....however my skills need to improve in order to bond totally with it.

I find I can make bigger mistakes - faster - when stitching with the machine!  In part that's because sitting at the machine for hours is frankly, boring to me, plus due to numerous back surgeries it's just plain uncomfortable.  I believe that equation makes me rush the process and therefore generates mistakes.

To make viewing my blog, reader friendly, I've been saving lots of process photos of an ongoing project to share when it's completed.  Today, I'm jumping ahead to highlight my practice of 'test' stitching. Perhaps this simple procedure can save you time in the future as well. 

Here you see the mirror image of a motif that I'll be appliqueing onto my current project.

 When faced with a task that I haven't done recently, I always sew a sample before stitching on the actual quilt. Testing the set up of one's machine (thread, tension, needle size etc.) is a good habit to adapt.  Now is the time to make those adjustments, not after you've got a mess.

Once I confirmed the stitch length and width for the appliqueing....the stitching went rather quickly.  


This is a sneak preview of our 2012 PTA challenge.  The theme this year is postage stamps.  The center panel of my stamp (not seen here) is complete. All I need to do now is figure out a way to incorporate/inset it into this background.  I'm not looking forward to this challenge!