Happy Birthday, my fabric relish!

So guess what day it is (or tomorrow for those night owls)? It's my blog's first birthday! Yay! It has been an amazing first year and want to share what got my blog for it's first birthday...

Yep, that's a Juki! TL 2010 to be exact. And she is my new bff! She sews like a dream and fast as all get out! I had been saving for this machine for a few months and asked for only Amazon gift cards for Christmas to go towards it. Mr. Relish wanted me to wait until we move (we hope to move this spring and another story for another day!) and while that would make sense to most, it made absolutely no sense to me! So the day after Christmas when I was still debating which machine I wanted (it was between this Bother, this Juki and then the Juki I chose) and tallying my Amazon gift cards, Mr. Relish told me to just go ahead and get it. And so I did! Isn't he fantastic!

Unfortunately, there isn't room in my 1/2 room sewing space for her now, but she is happy on the formal dinning room table, which is only used twice a year for Thanksgiving dinner and then to wrap Christmas gifts. At least for right now, I think this is a great space since I will mostly use her to quilt and would need clear space anyway.

As I briefly mentioned above, we do plan on putting our house on the market soon and knew I couldn't just have her out in all her glory, so I made her a pretty new dress. I really had made the panel as a 24 x 24 plus block pillow but decided it would look better as a cover and cut off several inches on the bottom then used that as the pocket for the other side.

I basically just used the cover that came with the machine to make the new cover and added a 1/2 inch seam allowance. So in a nutshell, it is two 15 1/4 x 19 1/4 panels with rounded corners at the top and then one long 10 x 47 1/4 inch panel. I lined them with cotton batting and muslin on the inside. I serged the inside as well to keep it from fraying.

I hand drew the embroidery design on the cover and stitched with perle cotton. It was my first time using perle and really enjoyed not having to separate the threads! I scanned my embroidery design in case anyone would like to use it and not comfortable with drawing it. You can download it here.

I added the binding just as I do to my quilts. I used Anna Maria Horner's True Colors with some Road 15 text print mixed in and then of course some Black Essex Linen!

I found this cute little decoupage suit case a hobby lobby to house all the tools and feet that go with the machine. I also found a black little box to use a my little trash/thread catcher (see a few pictures above). Potential buyers won't be the wiser!

So now to my blog's birthday celebration for you guys...

GIVEAWAY CLOSED -- I want to give one of my awesome followers a chance to win a 1 yard of fabric of their choice from one of my favorite fabric shops, Pink Castle Fabrics. I don't have any sponsors so this is all on me! If you want to do one full yard or two half yards, that is totally your call. Only thing I ask is no Kokka and only US addresses because of shipping cost. Even if you are not a US resident, please enter because you can always gift it to a fellow quilting friend in the US. :)

To enter, please leave me a comment, any comment! You don't have to be a follower, but it is greatly appreciated! I'll close the giveaway on Sunday 11:59 pm Central.--GIVEAWAY CLOSED

Thanks again to everyone that has cheered me on this year! xoxo
Melissa

 

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