I have a sewing machine. I can only do basic stuff on it. Haven't gotten it out of the closet in years. I don't even know if I can work the pedal now, seeing as how I need hand controls to drive my car.

I should dust it off, and see if I can actually still work the thing.


I've finished two scarves in the last couple of weeks. Using a really nice stitch that looks good enough that I don't even have to crochet an edging onto it to make it look finished. I ordered more yarn from Joann's Craft's last week. Can't wait for that to get here, it's a self striping yarn with a lot of orange color in it. I'm hoping it's as good as the reviews on the yarn have been saying. I'm going to maybe make one scarf, and if I have enough I'm going to crochet a rectangle granny square with it.

This is the first scarf that I made last week, picture was taken while it was still in progress. I haven't taken a picture of it finished.

I love the colors on that, it's perfect for fall!

I don't know how hard it might be to work the foot pedal on your machine... but my mother did buy my niece a little singer sewing machine when she turned 13. We really had a hard time using it because it just went soooo slow... but it was perfect for a beginner since even if she put the pedal to the metal so to speak it never "took off" on her. And it was a really cute blue too . But if you find difficulty with controlling the speed through pressure with your foot, you might look around for one of the beginners machines.

It was as sturdy as any sewing machine we've owned, and a fraction of the price and it still had a few stitch option, nothing fancy and it moved at a slow but steady pace no matter how hard or lightly you pressed the foot pad. She even still has it 12 years later. She doesn't sew a whole lot, but can manage a few alterations. Failing that, when my legs are really acting up on me I have placed the foot pedal up beside my machine and sewn one handed. Guiding the fabric with the left hand while the right hand works the pedal. I need to pin like crazy to manage it, but it can be done .

Kitty quilt top

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Well... sometimes I'm so foolish I astound myself. I have a sewing machine that was marketed for quilting. Since purchasing it many moons ago it has made a grand total of three quilts (and the 4th I'm now working on), I primarily used it to make clothes so the only foot I've needed and have paid any attention to is the simple pressure foot, and the odd buttonhole foot but since I hate doing buttons mostly I'd pass the articles off to my mom for her to sew the button holes and buttons on. So one foot, that's all, I've done invisible zippers, cording and all with just the standard pressure foot.

But as we were talking about doing the quilts, my mom couldn't help pointing out how much easier they would be to quilt with a walking foot, and a freehand foot (I've done freehand with just the pressure foot too...little tricky but not impossible) but sure whatever makes it easier right (was my initial reaction)

So we first hopped online and started looking at feet. Some were pricey, some were cheap, some... who knew if they would work with our machines or not??

Then my mom found, while digging through our sewing stashes, the freehand foot she was talking about! Woohoo, we don't need to buy one, but really wasn't wholly necessary, is what I thought... well a bit more digging around and we found the walking foot, okay so things will be a little easier pfft whatever... then she found the holy grail of quilt cheating!!!

HOW could I make it these 37 years without ever using a guide foot??!! Forget sliced bread this is like the best thing since... the invention of fire! Mother of all sewing cheats!! I'm waiting for the house to drag me into some dingy basement and beat me for cheating while I'm sewing with it. Like the fat quarters are just going to turn into Italian mafia and come at me with baseball bats and cement shoes.

And yet... such perfectly squared perfect little squares!!! *squeaking with joy*. I know it's absolutely ridiculous to be this excited about a sewing machine foot... but seriously... best thing EVER! And all this while was hiding in my little baggy of misc. sewing machine parts that I haven't opened once and looked in.

Sooooo soooo many more quilts to see that are going to be soooooo easy now.

Well the quilting is coming along nicely as a new hobby, other than waiting for my mom to finish cutting things out . But I finished the top for my brother's tall ships, over sewed a bit since my mom cut out more triangles than we needed but I now have 25 ships all lined up and ready to be quilted when we're ready for that. I'm now working on my aunt's sampler quilt, we have a few plain type blocks mixed in with many different style ones plenty of stars and such including an 8 point paper-piece one that I can't decide if I love or loathe but since I'm only doing nine of them I figure it won't matter much in the end .

I've been a lot happier after finding something I can do, and my DH is happy that I've commandeered our spare room as my sewing room so he doesn't come home to the old mess across the kitchen table and floor from any other time my mom and I have gotten together to sew. I just hope I don't start getting bored with the whole thing, not especially worried on the sampler quilt as there's something different pretty much every day with it, but when I'm back to baskets and scotty dogs, I might be in trouble of boredom setting in once more.

Okay not so much with the scotty dogs LOL, it's for my sister and kind of an inside joke, since when I was six I had a red white and blue scotty dog shirt that I always wore with my red and gold plaid jumper, my sister hated it because "she" said they clashed, I rationalized it as what else would scotty dogs wear if not plaid... duh! My favorite outfit and the one she most despised of all the things I ever wore. So we're making her a very clashy plaid scotty dog quilt for Christmas heheheheheh..... and no it wasn't my idea but my mothers . I love my family sometimes, and if that doesn't get her to talking to me again, well... there's just no hope for our sisterly relationship .

I like polka dots, checks and stripes all together... she's more the solid neutrals kind of person, I liked GI Joes, she liked Barbie (I liked storming the giant Barbie stronghold with the GI Joes ). She likes sappy hair bands and bubble gum pop, I'm more death metal and underground. About the only thing we have in common is we both love the Beatles, different favorite songs, mine's Eleanor Rigby and Helter Skelter, hers is Yesterday and The Long and Winding Road... but at least it's still the Beatles. And we both sew, knit and crochet (or at least I used to be able to do the last two).

She scrubs her house top to bottom before company comes over and then annoyingly tells them to not mind the mess... I swipe the cat hair off the chair while they're standing there and tell folks not to mind the mess And only if there's a mess beyond cat hair for them to mind.

Really if not for liking the Beatles which my brother does too (When I'm Sixty-Four was his wedding march). I'd wonder if she was even related to any of us by blood. . Everything with her has to be perfect... it can be a perfect disaster, or simply perfect, but it must be perfection to one extreme or the other, there's really no in between and she has the sense of humor of a dead fish, and doesn't do sarcasm at all. She was found in a garbage can, I just know it!

Oh well, back to working on my paper pieced stars, and hopefully maintaining my sanity till I finish all 9 blocks.

There is so much you can do with quilting. I have a friend who traveled the world teaching fabric arts. She's a well known fabric artist and has tons of quilting designs that you can buy. Her quilts are amazing! They are like looking at a painting but instead of paint she used fabric. So, I don't think you'll get bored in terms of lack of design options, but maybe lose interest in sewing. Post pictures of your masterpiece!