This and That

Let me just say that on an unrelated sewing/quilting note, I swam around 750 meters in an open body of water yesterday.  Next weekend is my first ever triathlon and they highly recommend that your first time experience in open water not be on the day of the race.  Now I see why.  It is freakishly frightening to be in water with no discernible bottom, no lifeguards and nothing but your own ability to get you back to safety.  It took me awhile to settle in and get going.  At the pool I have been swimming my 300 yards in 7 minutes; yesterday it took 12 minutes.  I'm hoping that next weekend I'll be somewhere in between the two numbers.  This morning I'm going to hop on the bike and do a ride and then take off on a run.  I hope that goes well.

Back to sewing.  On Friday B. and I headed down to the local Bernina store to purchase a 1/4" foot.  The store is not conveniently located, but we were out running errands so we made the trip down there.  For some reason I did not check my sewing feet before I left so I asked the sales person if this foot would have come with my machine when I purchased it. She assured me it did not.  I get home, open up the package and put the foot on my machine.  Then I get to thinking, "hey, let me check just to see".  So I pull out my case of attachments and there glaring back at me is #37, the 1/4" foot.  So now I have to make a trip back to the store to get my $40 back.  Aaarrrgghhh.  I tell B. the story and he says "well, of course it's going to come with a 1/4" foot, it's the "Quilters Edition" sewing machine".  Touche.

So, why haven't I been using this foot all along, you ask?  Well, since I don't use patterns at all and I create as I go, the normal foot (which is slightly wider than 1/4") works perfectly fine.  The problem began when I got the GO cutter and decided to use all the blocks it cuts to make a quilt.  Since they are made to be seamed with a 1/4" foot, I got into a little trouble when assemblying the blocks.  Oops.  So, instead of recutting everything (that would defeat the purpose of the GO cutter, huh?!), I decided it was time to join the ranks of the 1/4" sewers.  Yay, me!  I'm here, I've arrived and I'm on board!!

I spent Friday and Saturday sewing 1/4" seams and ripping out the non 1/4" seams and putting together the latest quilt.  I will longarm the puppy today.  I must say, it looks pretty.  I didn't get all the seams right (I admit I didn't rip out ALL of the seams!), but it's still lovely.

I also added binding to another scrap quilt I did with leftover fabric.  The binding was made from the extra fabric I cut off when trimming up the original Summertime Refreshment quilt.  I then folded the fabric to fit my 2 1/2" Go cutter and voila, binding strips in no time.