Woo Hoo! The Second Row Is Done, Well Almost.

    I finally finished the second row of the Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt top.  Actually, it's not totally finished.  I need to add three green hexies to the bottom of the each of the half flowers on the end, but I was so happy to get all these pieces put together that I rushed taking my picture.  It won't take long to add the extra hexies.  Now it's time to cut more fabric to make flowers for the third row.

    I made a decision last month about how I'm going to finish this top when I get all seven rows finished.  I will applique a silver/gray border to all four sides of the top.  I don't know how wide the borders will be yet.  I will use the same silver/gray fabric for the backing.  I have decided to piece the back with a row of flowers, as well.  I bought eight yards of the Mirage line of fabric in the silver lining colorway at Connecting Threads on line store (Link to Fabric).  I'm glad I finally picked a border and backing fabric.  Now all I will need is a batting and I don't have to buy that until I actually finish the top and at the rate I'm sewing now, it may not be done until next fall. 

     I took a day trip to Jacksonville, Florida on September 23rd to see the quilts in the Quilt Fest 2017 show.  This show is held each year and this was the first time I had ever been.  The show was fun and there were a lot of great vendors there.  Since it was fall, the vendors had a lot of fall and Halloween patterns.  I was on the hunt for a nice quilt pattern and the gray fabric for my current quilt project.  I did not find anything I couldn't live without, but I had a blast looking.  Dear daughter found a backpack pattern that she had to have.  There were lots of local quilts and quilters.  It made a nice change from all the international quilts I saw in Paducah last year. 

Notes on Purchasing Supplies for My Embroidery Machine

   I wanted to make some notes on my journey into the world of machine embroidery supplies.

   On New Year's Day it took me over two hours to decide what kind of thread I wanted to buy and where I wanted to buy it from.  There a lot of choices of thread and just as many vendors.  I bought an 80 spool variety of polyester thread from Threadart.com.  The price was reasonable and I've read decent reviews about the company's customer service and the products from the members on the Quilting Board.  (The Quilting Board is a free message board found right here).  I spend a lot of time on the Quilting Board learning about all things quilting, which includes embroidery.

   On New Year's Eve I took the time to read all the information in the posts on The Seasoned Homemaker Blog.  She created 30 days of posts to cover a wide range of machine embroidery topics and I learned a lot.

   The most important thing I learned from The Seasoned Homemaker's posts is that I need computer software to import designs from the computer onto my embroidery machine.  I did not know this.  I did some research and I purchased the basic Brother software here at sewingmachinesplus.com.  I did look at the on-line software available on embird and embrillance, but the cost of those was more than I wanted to spend at this time.  I'm trying to resist over spending on supplies before I figure out how much I like doing machine embroidery.

   I placed an order for extra Schmetz titanium needles for this machine with an ebay seller.  

   I will be placing my order on Amazon for pre-wound bobbins, extra empty bobbins, and medium weight tear away stabilizer on Sunday.  I understand that Walmart.com also carries stabilizers and thread.  The prices for both are supposed to be very good.  So I may be trying Walmart.com as a vendor for stabilizers and other supplies.

   That should take care of my machine embroidery supply needs for a while.  As soon as I get my stabilizer I will start to play with my new embroidery machine.

    I decided on a name for my Brother PE 770 embroidery machine.    She will be called Myrna.  I could say she was named after Myrna Loy (one of my favorite actresses), but she is actually named after the sheep that was on the birthday card my DD gave me when she presented me with the machine.  The sheep, Myrna, had her front half sheered and her bottom half wooly and the caption on the top of the card read:  On a dare, Myrna goes topless.  And inside the card it said:  Expose yourself to plenty of birthday fun!  You can see the card right here.  It is a really cute card.

    I haven't started quilting my Pretty in Pink quilt just yet.  I'll be working on that tomorrow and Sunday.   See you soon.