sew very sweet

Posted on November 25th, 2009 by mountain girl  |  Comments Off on sew very sweet

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Just about 3 weeks ago, I received a present from a very nice guy. I’ve now had some time to try it out, and I have to say, it’s sew very sweet.

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It’s a brand new computerized sewing machine, the Brother XR9000. Up until now, I’ve been working on the machine I got 20 or so years ago when I was about 14. It was also a Brother, and it’s a workhorse. Over the years I’ve had some problems with the tension, but the solution was a simple matter of either cleaning/oiling, or, more often, changing the needle for a new or correctly sized one for the fabric.

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 This one has 80 built-in stitches, and a sweet little alphabet font. We got it at Costco for a much better price than Amazon, and Costco also has a great return policy.

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I did quite a bit of research online before deciding on this one. I was surprised to find that Brother is considered by some to be a better machine than Singer now, since Singer no longer uses all metal parts inside.

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I’m really happy with its performance so far. Here’s my first project, made entirely on my new Brother! It’s a sort of “ground blanket”, something I can throw anywhere- bed, floor, grass, sidewalk- for Zia to play on or lie on.

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I backed it with an old flannel sheet and the inside layer is a fleece throw blanket I’ve had lying around. The top, as you can see, is a U.S. map panel, surrounded by scraps that I pieced together. I lightly machine quilted it and edged the whole thing with a strip of homemade bias tape.

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In some spots, I was sewing through up to 10 layers, including all the folding and seam allowances! The machine trucked right along. I just had to use my denim needle; I accidentally started out with a ball point, and things got a little tangly!

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Here’s where Zia lives, smack-dab between Kansas and Missourah. Just like she sings – “Home is where the heart is!”

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