A few things to talk about!

First… I have a new friend in my sewing room:

I added a clamp on light from Ikea, because the lighting on this machine definitely is lacking.

Aaaahhhhh… I love my new Juki TL2010Q! My husband bought it for me for our 30th anniversary. (He got two new suits, so it was a fun day of shopping for both of us!) Since we have two little ones still (no, 30 years isn't a typo… we really do still have young ones at 30 years of marriage!), there was no trip around the world planned to mark this milestone anniversary. So my husband said, "I want to get you something nice. I want to get you a second sewing machine." I replied that the one I wanted cost a lot of money, and he said, "It's THIRTY YEARS!"

I didn't argue about it. :)  And I love it!!!  To be clear, I love my Bernina 1001 just as much as always. (What a great investment that has been. One of the best we've ever made!) But, I have to say, having two great machines in the sewing room has already paid off for me. I am surprised how much I use both of them.

And I'm super excited to try my hand at fmq'ing a bigger quilt here in the next couple of weeks. The throat space on the Juki is really nice! And I've seen that some of the quilters I follow online who do their quilting on a regular machine are using this same model. If they can do it, so can I, right?

We went up to Ikea the same day and found that great little table to use as a sewing table. It works perfectly. I added a few plastic drawers to keep the stuff I need handy, plus my other sewing table is within reach when I turn my (also new from Ikea) swivel chair a bit to the left. Really, the set-up works great. I am loving my sewing room! Maybe a little too much… haha…

So the first thing I worked on with the Juki was finishing up this Christmas tree wallhanging:

I love how it turned out! It's going to be a fun addition to our Christmas decorations.

I used my Juki to do the fmq'ing!

I had to piece a plain white fabric with the snowflake white fabric on the back. Even in real life, you can hardly tell they are different as far as the print/no-print goes. I had to look closely… not that it matters. I was just surprised the snowflakes don't show up more. They are also in the border of the front, and you can't really see them.

I just added a simple handwritten label to the back.

I did almost all the piecing on my Bernina, but I did a little bit with the Juki just to try it out and get familiar with the machine. (Threading it took some getting used to.)  I have to say, though, the fmq'ing was so great on the Juki.

The tutorial I used for the trees can be found on Amy Smart's blog, here. 

The next thing I made was this little wallhanging:

 I was cleaning out my sewing closet and found this embroidery I had made back in the early 2000's. A friend was showing her Activity Days girls how to do handwork, and she let me participate. :)  I think I had originally hoped my daughter would do it, but for some reason, I ended up doing the work. I never did anything with it after it was finished, though.

 I did the fmq'ing on the Juki. I'm not unhappy with it! I drew the flowers on with chalk and just tried to follow the lines.

The loose fabric on the back is because of two things, I think. First, the backing was pre-washed, and nothing else was. So I think when the front shrank and the back didn't, it left the middle part of the fabric loose.

The second reason is because I only pinned around the border. Had I stretched and pinned the middle, too, it may have done better. I'm not too worried, because it's going on the wall and won't be seen.

See how the middle is so loose that when I pressed it, the extra fabric kind of just folded up on itself around the edge of the borders? If I hadn't pressed it, it probably would look better, but it's fine since it's going on the wall. 

I'm going to hang it on my sewing room wall. I really like how it turned out, at least on the front! I had to do some repair work after I washed the chalk off, because the red bled a bit. A color catcher and a run through the washing machine took care of it.

The last thing I have to post today is this Sew-Together Bag (pattern by Sew Demented). I took a class at American Quilting, and I'm glad I did. It was nice to have a walk through with a teacher. There are so many steps and lots of learning to do for someone (like me) who is unfamiliar with making these types of projects. The class was four hours long, and nobody finished the bag… we got close, but still have the final zipper and finish work to do.

Thankfully, I found this sew-along/tutorial with lots of great pictures on The Quilt Barn website. You can find it here. I only had to use Day Five's instructions, since we had done the rest in class. Heather's instructions and photos were so helpful. If you plan to make one, be sure to use her tutorial.

I really wanted to learn to add zippers to a bag, so I figured this pattern would give me lots of practice. :) Yes, there are FOUR zippers in this bag!

It is such a clever design. I'm amazed how it came together.

Now that it's done, I'm not sure what to use it for, but I feel so accomplished that I actually made one!

And let me just say… GLUE BASTING IS AWESOME! I used it to hold the zipper tabs to the bottom of the bag when pins and clips proved to be impossible. I am sold, for sure! I wouldn't use it for everything, but when it's needed, I know it works.

Now I'm working on this:

I got those last two blocks made and the first two columns of blocks are sewn. I hope to have it ready to quilt (on the Juki! Yikes!) in about a week. These are leftovers from my little Christmas tree wallhanging. Haha! I wanted variety, so I ended up with lots of leftover fabric. :)