My Husband The Fabric Snob

I opened up comments again just to let people know.

My husband is a fabric snob. I didn't think he was one until today. He's never showed any interest in fabric, just picking out the patterns that he wants me to do.

We were in Hancock Fabrics to get some water soluble stabilizer for my embroidery project and they were having a huge sale on fabric. I realized that they had flannel and fleece on sale and asked him if he wanted some for backing on his other quilt. He starts looking through the bolts and feeling the fabric. Most of it is baby flannel, but he's rummaging around through the fleece and the fake Minky fabric. He finally looks up at me and says, "I don't like any of it. This is just junk and feels awful. I want you to order the flannel fabric that you made with my quilt. It's better quality and I like it." Then he gives me the puppy dog stare. It's his money..lol. No need for the puppy dog stare.

I figure while we're here I'll get a 60 mm rotary cutter. I know they aren't cheap and I find the one with the ergonomic handle. I look at the price..Geesh. I finally find the basic one and hubby looks at it and said, "You can't have that one." Huh?? "It doesn't have the red button like your other one has and locks. Get the one with the red button." He's noticed there's a red safety button on my 45 mm one??

Ohh..the Hancock Fabrics I was at has a Bernina dealer in it. Hubby was looking at the special edition Bernina machine that's hand painted. It's really cool but I don't need one and figure the paint will chip and come off eventually. The lady proudly says it was hand painted in Italy. He looks at her at says, "Oh..so it's hand painted by little Italian street urchins? They sure want a lot for it." The lady looks at him, jaw dropped, and doesn't have anything to say. I'm thinking "Oh crap. She's gonna be so upset at him." Instead she bursts out laughing. If I had said that, I'd have gotten the death stare.

There's a small part of me that says if I can make it one more month seizure free I can do this all by myself, but then it wouldn't be nearly as fun without him. Easier, but not fun. Even if I can legally drive, I'm not sure I want to drive up to Lincoln or Omaha by myself. Even though I've been seizure free, I still have it and there's always that risk.

Pattern Inconsistencies

I got the top done for my "Floral Meditation". Well..sort of. I don't think I cut down the panel right and it's off by a LOT. That's what I get for not cutting the panel first and adding the flower after it. So much for square.

Another part of the problem with the pattern is that the paper template is off on the border information. It's not 17.5 x 30.5 like the directions say. So if you followed the paper pattern with the corner pieces and the cutting, you really messed up as well. My other mistake was that I used one piece of fabric instead of making the six blocks and didn't adjust to make it right. The pattern was just really confusing direction wise with the layout. I got lost on the dimensions of the quilt because of the inconsistencies of it. I should have just kept to the paper template and gone from there with the measurements.

Here's what I have done:

From Blogger Pictures

It's still stunning though. I just need to finish up a few details and then will quilt it. I loved the border fabric and picked the colors from it.

It's a great pattern. The flower part was KISS simple but the confusion between the paper template and the directions really messed me up.

I loved doing the triple stitch on my Sapphire. What a beautiful job and it was so easy. The 1/4 seam allowance is perfect and even though the quilt isn't flat, the borders match up. I love this machine.

I also didn't like the fusible webbing my LQS had. It was a giant pain to work with. I'm not sure what brand it is, but I won't buy it again.

Beep! ,,,Beep!...Beep!...

What a day. Hubby said the computer was making a beeping noise and I took a look at it. Every minute it was beeping. My first thought was my hard drive is dying. I went through everything trying to find out where it was coming from.

I called my dad and asked him. He said to restart the computer and see if it still beeped. If it still beeped put it in safe mode. It beeped in both. Sigh. My computer is cursed. I know it. Finally in frustration after a couple of hours I shut the dang thing off. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Great! I have a ghost of a computer now. Then it hit me. Something else is beeping not the computer. I look up and realize my TracFone is beeping to remind someone to charge it. I still have that stupid nonworking thing?? Sigh. I've spent all morning trying to figure out my computer and it's my TracFone.

I have been working on things. I have my snowman panel quilt done for my hubby. Minkee fabric backing included as well. I even bound it folding over the minkee. Here it is:

From Blogger Pictures

And the Minkee backing:

From Blogger Pictures

I've also done some lace on my Janome 350e.

From Blogger Pictures

My machine has eaten a couple of them. Nothing like 80 minutes gone down the drain. Sigh.

"Main Motor Overload"

My Sapphire is an interesting machine..LOL. I was trying to do binding and it kept acting up and making a horrible noise. All of a sudden it said "Main Motor Overload" and stopped. I hate binding quilts.

My dealer said you didn't really need a walking foot because of the electronic sensor system. When I bought the machine, the owner threw in a walking foot to sweeten the deal as I wanted one. I put the walking foot on and it got all caught up again. Sigh. I really do hate binding.

Then I remembered I have the "Sewing Adviser" system which I really have no clue how to use. I get the idea but never really thought it was needed. I took a look at the adviser and put it on "stretch heavy" since I'm working with Minkee fabric. I started the machine it worked with ease the rest of the way. The walking foot is so wonderful! Guess that sewing adviser thingy really does work..LOL.

I did give up with FMQ on the Sapphire for today. I didn't feel like spending an hour quilting something I knew my 6600 could do in a few minutes. The Sapphire does a great job of FMQ. It just works differently than the 6600 and I haven't adjusted to it yet.

My camera batteries died so I don't have a pic to show of my finished quilt.

Testing

This is a test to see if my PDF program is working. I'm hoping that I can post a link to the file so that people can download the pattern. I did it as a rotary cutting page Here's the quilt:

From Blogger Pictures

Leave a post if you'd like to get the PDF file. I'll see if it works from there.

I Didn't Mean To..Really

I didn't mean too. Really. I just went over to look. Honest. It called to me. It knew my name. I couldn't resist it. I played with it. I fell in love with it. We had an instant connection. Even hubby recognized that there was a connection and let me do it.

From Blogger Pictures

It's a Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 870 and it's amazing. It has everything I've ever wanted and more. It sews amazingly. It free motions beautifully. An exact 1/4 inch seam with ease. The features are incredible.

I got the borders on my flannel quilt done yesterday and today with it. No problems whatsoever. I LOVE this machine.

From Blogger Pictures

I'm FMQ my hubby's snowman quilt with Minkee fabric on the back with relative ease. Since my machine doesn't ft in my Janome table, it's on top. As I don't have it flush with the table it's harder to work with the fabric. All they make for it is an acrylic crappy table. They decided not to make the extension table I really wanted in the book. But..it FMQ beautifully!

Did I tell you I LOVE this machine?