Laurel with finished quilt top
Laurel is so eager to finish her quilt. Even though she hasn’t taken a nap for 3 1/2 years, she declares that she needs one now and wants her quilt for a cover.   So we are rushing to finish this project so the poor child can get some rest.
Yesterday, she finished joining all the blocks together and today managed to sew on the borders. She is sewing on a wonderful little Brother machine, a Pacesetter 300S. The machine is probably 10 years old but it is a honey.
This petite sweet thing weighs only 11 pounds, making it very portable. It has an embroidery unit with a 4 x 4 field, several built in alphabets, more than 70 built in designs and more than 30 stitches, including a pin stitch and other heirloom favorites.  The original suggested manufacturer’s retail price was $2500, and worth every penny. Recently I saw the new and improved version at WalMart with built in Disney designs for just $450! If I didn’t have this one in perfect working order, I’d be tempted to snatch up this bargain.  It is just a great little machine.
The quilt design I came up with works so well for children or beginning quilters. With 7 machine embroidered redwork designs and 8 foundation pieced blocks stitched on 10″ squares, it was easy to cut them down to 9″. Had there been any major mistakes, they could have been selectively reduced to 7″ or 8″.   Continue reading
