A New Addition

I love the little quilting table that came with it, so convenient! :)

Yes y'all, I have welcomed a new member to my fold. I hadn't planned on getting a new machine for quite some time, but this one sort of fell into my lap (free of charge, I might add!) so I figured I would give it a whirl. Meet the newest member of my sewing machine pack, Little Brother! Little Brother is, you guessed it, a Brother machine. One look at him and it was easy to see that he's smaller and much more complicated than my Kenmore a.k.a First Born. I took to the manual and managed to get it up and running pretty easily, which was a relief. Here's what I've gathered so far from using Little Brother.

When I first looked at it, I was like, "The heck are all these pictures and buttons for?!"

Pros:

• He's quiet! I never realized how loud the First Born was until I sewed on this little guy. Mr. LBC and I were able to watch a movie while I was sewing. Even Mr. LBC pointed out how quiet this machine is! He purrs like a kitten! 
• The needle automatically goes down. When I first read about this, I couldn't figure out why this was even a thing. Why would I want my needle to always end up in the down position? One sewing session showed me how nice it is to not worry about making sure my needle is down before lifting the foot. And a simple push of a button lifts the needle to the up-most position. 
• Speed regulator. I'll go ahead and admit I'm guilty of getting a little too fast and furious with my sewing machine. I don't know what it is, but there are times I want to sew that seam with the pedal to the floor going 90 mph! I was guilty of this when I first started learning how to throw on the potter's wheel too. I learned quickly that speed isn't always best for the final product (and I might have completely thrashed a few pots along the way to learning that! Lol). With this machine, I have 3 speed caps to choose from. The second setting is a comfortable pace - perfect for keeping those seams straight and fabric lined up while still letting me put my foot to the floor. 

Cons:

• He's not a workhorse. I pieced charity quilt blocks with Little Brother to try him out. I made HST's and I noticed he has a little trouble going over groups of seams. I've got to do a little tug and pull to help get him over the hump. I'm used to the First Born tackling plenty of seams and denim with no issues at all, so this was a bit disappointing for me. 
• A 1/4 inch seam isn't the default. Silly me assumed it would be and started sewing, only to notice my seam allowances looked a little large. Holy moly, they were huge! I ended up looking to the manual and figuring out how to shift the needle over to create a 1/4 inch seam. The pain in the butt is that I have to shift the needle over EVERY SINGLE TIME I turn my machine on! I'm so forgetful, I'm bound to botch a few seams before it becomes burned into my brain.  
• Tiny Throat Space. Although First Born doesn't have an enormous amount of throat space, I've quilted on her without issues related to space. Little Brother was definitely not designed with quilting in mind. I could see piecing a larger top getting cramped towards the end!

First Born is happy to be on our dining room table and quilting up a storm right now! :)

Overall, I like Little Brother. He has helped take some of the workload off of First Born, who, let's face it, isn't a spring chicken anymore. For simple sewing and block construction, I think he'll be my go-to machine, leaving quilting and more complicated sewing for First Born.

What about y'all? Are you a parent to an only sewing machine? Or do you have a brood of machines filling your house? 

I'm Back!!

Howdy y'all! So the sewing machine is back from the doctor today! YAY! I've been piddling with some hand sewing during my absence, but nothing worth sharing yet. Things have been exciting around here though despite a lack of quilty progress! If you've hung around this blog for a little while, you've probably gathered that our house is Mr. LBC and myself, along with LBC himself. A couple days after the sewing machine headed to the doctor, we had a new face join our family!

Hello world! My name's Elvis!

I work at a vet clinic and this fella came in as a recently adopted dog. He was nice to everybody, but he and I kicked it off right away. He spent about a week with the clinic before heading to his new home and, honestly, I was sad to see him go. But so is the life of a Vet Assistant! Imagine my surprise when I went into work a couple days later and he was there again! I thought something was wrong with him, but it turned out that the family's other dog didn't warm up to him like they wanted and they weren't willing to work on it more. So he was brought back to the clinic and put up for adoption again.

Sunning by the back door is the perfect time for a photo shoot!

Everybody assumed I would snatch him right up, but I didn't. My husband has been out of work so I was worried about being able to afford a dog, especially one of his size (50 pounds!). So I prayed about it. I just asked for a sign that he was meant to come home with us. And every financial obstacle that cropped up was taken care of somehow. So I took a leap of faith and brought him home.

LBC's face when he heard he was getting a new brother...and that his new brother was a dog!

It's been a major adjustment having Elvis with us, but Mr. LBC and I love him to death. LBC is still warming up to him, but at least he's not hissing and smacking the bejesus out of him anymore! Lol. I've been chasing him around like a toddler, trying to keep him from eating stray socks and couch cushions when we look away for a minute. In fact, I just grabbed a cotton swab out of his mouth right after I wrote that! Lol. 

I put my sewing machine through a few paces to finish quilting the quilt I was working on prior to the doctor's appointment and guys, the First Born is purring like a kitten! It's like a brand new machine and I'm in love all over again! :)

Glad to be back, I missed sewing and getting to talk with you guys! Happy Tuesday y'all! :)

Sad News...

I had plans to have a finished quilt ready to share early this week. I was quilting up a storm on Thursday, only to notice First Born (the nickname I gave my sewing machine, because it's like my first born child. Lol) wasn't acting quite right. It makes a few funny noises every now and then, but they go away within a row or so typically, so I don't worry. But this was different. If felt like things were sticking, not wanting to sew as smoothly as it should. At one point, I put the pedal to the floor and it was maybe going half speed. I finished my row and turned it off. And sighed.

Poor First Born... :(

The last thing I wanted or needed was my dear First Born to be unwell. I'm off later in the week, so I'm going to see how much a sewing machine doctor is going to cost. If I have the money, First Born will be fixed up right away, if not...well...I have two other machines in my possession that I'm going to try and get working. One is a newer Singer that was having issues from the time it as given to me (my MIL bought it at a yard sale where the previous owner swore it worked just fine. Yeah. Right.). The other is an old Singer I scored at a swap meet. I've never hooked it up, but it's a beauty. This might be just the right time to try it out for some piecing. I have a feeling quilting is going to have to be put on hold, but I'm hoping to have a replacement good enough for piecing so I can keep creating. If all else fails, I have my Orange Peels from long ago still in progress and EPP to keep me company, so I'll have something quilty to keep me company!

Have a good week y'all, hug your sewing machines!