Trying Out a New Technique

The wildfire smoke has been pretty thick here the past couple of days. I decided that yesterday afternoon would be a good time to stay inside and get some sewing done. The Janome is still set up for machine quilting, with the blue dot bobbin case installed, and I wanted to finish the machine appliqué part of the apron before I change the machine set-up back to regular sewing.

[Janome helpfully makes a special bobbin case for machine quilting when using a heavier thread in the needle than the one in the bobbin. The special bobbin case eliminates the need to adjust the bobbin tension to accommodate the heavier top thread. It has a blue dot on it to differentiate it from the red dot on the regular bobbin case.]

For this appliqué, I used Signature 40wt in the needle and Aurifil 50wt in the bobbin, which is basically the same combination I use for machine quilting. I had the open toe foot on and the even-feed mechanism engaged. This is Mode 2, stitch #36:

It went smoothly, although I had to sew slowly and pivot a lot. I found the sweet spot on the foot pedal that let me stitch one stitch at a time. The stitch width was set at 3 and the length at 1. I do think that nonstick Schmetz needle made a difference. If I were going to be doing a lot of machine appliqué, I’d lay in a stock of them.

This is what the whole motif looks like:

I need to finish the applique around the lettering. The pattern recommends invisible thread and a narrow zig-zag stitch for that part. You can see that some of the lettering doesn’t want to stay adhered to the background, so the sooner I get that stitched down, the better.

The apron on display at the store where I bought the pattern was a crossover back style lined with some Kaffe Fassett quilting cotton. I am making a similar style crossover apron, although I am not sure what I will line it with. It might end up just being a plain muslin. We’ll see. This is the Essex Linen I picked up in Spokane a few weeks ago.

I’ve been watching a lot of Edyta Sitar’s “Quilting Window” videos on YouTube. She has such a delightful accent. She is a big fan of making items like doll quilts to test out patterns and techniques. That makes a lot of sense—it’s far easier to find out if you like machine appliqué on something like an apron rather than trying to make a giant quilt. This appliqué project has been fun, but I don’t plan on making a career out of it.

[I also found a Roku channel called News On that runs news broadcasts from major cities around the US. When we first moved to Montana, we could pick up the Spokane TV stations on the antenna, but they are no longer available. Now I can watch the broadcasts from both Spokane and Seattle, which is enormously helpful for knowing what’s going on there.]

I am going to try again today to get the apple pie filling done. The apples will keep for a few weeks yet, but I need to get that project done and crossed off the list. The husband got all but two small pieces of siding installed on the back of the shop before it got too dark to work out there. (We’re losing something like 4 minutes of daylight a day now.) He’ll finish that up some evening this week.