The Sewing Mom

Whenever I visit a quilt shop or fabric store, I find myself curious about what sewing machines other sewers and crafters prefer to use. My very first machine was a Singer. I received it as a high school graduation gift, many years ago. I have used it to create many wonderful things and a couple of years ago realized that I might want something newer. I wound up purchasing a Viking and I really enjoy it. It is a Platinum 955E and does Embroidery also. I’m not sure it’s the best for quilting, but since I don’t do much of that, it is fine. I love the embroidery feature and hope to use it more once I’ve taken a couple of classes.

So, what brand of machine do you use? Vote in this poll and leave me a comment to let me know more specifics about your machine and what you mainly use it for.

	Which brand of sewing machine do you prefer?
	Viking/Huskavarna
	Pfaff
	Janome
	Singer
	Brother
	Other
surveys

Tags: janome, pfaff, sewing machines, surveys, Viking

I’m anxiously waiting for the mailman, I’m hoping a particular package gets delivered today.

Last Sunday, I ordered my official business cards for “The Sewing Mom”, my newly created sewing/crafting business. It was fun to create my own card online at VistaPrint.com. I was able to pick out my own graphic and I chose spools of thread. Then I chose the background colors and font colors and type style. It was really so easy, I can’t wait to see what they look like in person. I received an email a few days ago that they had been shipped.

I noticed while I was at their website, that they sell many other things besides business cards. In fact, truth be told, I also ordered coordinating return address labels while I was there! I even considered business card size magnets and writing pens with The Sewing Mom printed on them, but decided to wait, it would have been very easy to get carried away!

Besides business tools, they also sell other items that I may be ordering this week and that’s birthday invitations. I promised my daughter that we’d sit down this weekend and make plans for her birthday which is less than a month away. We’re sort of thinking of doing a movie themed sleepover party. I think it would fun to mail out save the date announcements to her friends instead of a formal birthday invitation, it would be something different and unique. Plus, if I use the coupon code “BlogAnnounce10″ I can get 10 free announcements when I checkout.

So, that’s my plans for the weekend, planning a birthday party, waiting for the mailman, and sewing. Oh, I also promised my daughter I would teach her how to make a zipper bag this weekend! Looks like my daughter and I are going to be busy this weekend.

Tags: birthday invitations, business cards, coupon code, free announcements, return address labels

I am very pleased with myself. I have only ever made one quilt before in my life and it was a very simple baby quilt that I made last summer under the very watchful eye of my mom, an expert quilter. While I’ve never made any other quilts, I do love them and my house is full of them, all made by the hands of my mom or sister.

I do however shop at quilt shops. I love their fabrics and some shops also carry a few other items such as fabric bag patterns, something I do make. Recently, while at my local quilt shop buying fabric to craft more bags from, I saw a quilt that I adored hanging on their wall. It was comprised of 12 different quilt blocks surrounded by a border and was called the “Be Attitudes” quilt. The shop was offering it as a quilt block of the month club and I just couldn’t resist.

The blocks themselves are fairly simple, crafted from rectangles, all with straight seams, no curves. So, yesterday, I sewed my first block together.

I then cut out the pieces to create the snowman applique and placed it on top of the block.

This morning, I used a machine button stitch to stitch around each piece to give it a hand sewn look. I still have more applique to add and there is some embroidery to do on this block before it’s done. I was just so excited about it that I wanted to share!

Tags: block of the month, fabrics, quilting