Brother | Thousand Needles

I got a new machine. I picked it up from the shop last Thursday and here it is sitting around waiting for me to have the time to unpack it. You may wonder why I didn’t rip into those boxes and start playing with this lovely thing inside…

But we’ve been busy with kid stuff and an outing scheduled for today. Back to school night was last Thursday for my son and last night we had the 1st football home game at the girl’s school. The hubby wants to head out today and enjoy a day trip in Temecula. Thank goodness it’s a 3 day weekend because I’m claiming tomorrow and Monday as me-days! I do want to finish quilting Hampton Ridge as I only have to finish 1 side of the main border and then do all 4 sides of the last pieced border. It’s already set up on my now old machine.

I did trade in 3 machines to get this one. I said goodbye to:

Bailey Mid Arm
2/7/15

It served its purpose this past year and a half. I bought this machine early in 2015 used from a fellow blogger in Orange County for a great deal. And I learned a lot. I enjoyed having my own machine to quilt with and take my time quilting a piece. I know that if I ever got a long arm (which I’ve gone back and forth on over the last year) I would totally use it. Thank you Bailey! In the meantime, while I decide whether I want to get a new long arm or not, I plan to rent time on the long arms in my area. For Hampton Ridge, I rented the Bernina long arm and IT WAS WONDERFUL. At least compared to the Bailey. I hope to do some research and see if there are other rentals available so I can do a good comparison.

Brother Innov-is NQ3500D

This didn’t serve it’s purpose. This was the machine I bought because I wanted an embroidery machine and ended up spending way too much money on this. I didn’t use it fully and I tried but it just took up space. I brought it out occasionally to embroider things here and there. I’m a Bernina girl and every time I looked at this machine I remembered that I bought this because I couldn’t afford the Bernina at that time. In retrospect, I should have just waited. Thank goodness for being able to trade in our mistakes! To be fair, there is nothing wrong with this machine. It’s me not you! 🙂

Kayla’s Bernette

And finally, Kayla’s bernette is now gone. I’m most sad and tormented about trading in this little machine. It was her first and it’s so cute. She is upgrading to my Bernina 330 so she is not sad about this trade at all.

~happy quilting friends!

~Melanie

Machine Applique with Annie Smith
Sample
5/10/2015

For Mother’s Day I spent the day at my guild’s workshop with Annie Smith learning how to do a different variation of Machine Applique. I love the look of applique and I have done a fair amount of hand applique. For machine applique, I’ve only done a raw edge technique with Laurel Anderson. You can see that attempt here. That project is still a UFO. I really should finish that one soon as I believe there is only the border part that needs to be quilted. Anyway, this mother’s day Annie Smith taught us the technique to use the blanket stitch on our machines. I wasn’t able to finish but as you can see above I was able to applique down the orange center and the green leaves.

Here’s a close up:

Machine Applique with Annie Smith
Close up of Sample
5/10/2015

On Saturday I meant to spend time in my sewing room to finish the backing for Tell It To The Stars. But the hubby surprised me for Mother’s Day with cold hard cash to do with as I wished. After spending some time figure out what I wanted, I ended up going to the sewing machine shop and I ended up coming home with this:

New Machine – 5/09/2015

I know I don’t need another machine and I do not know how to use it yet but plan on going to the shop these next few weeks to learn how to embroider. I do not know what I’m going to make but it will be something. You may recall I took my Bernina in to be serviced. Earlier in the week I picked it up and while I was at the shop drooled over the embroidery machines. I was thinking all week about them and how much they were and running figures in my head to see if I could swing it. By the end of the week I had decided against it and told myself to revisit it later. The hubby truly surprised me with his gift.

Scrapitude 2015
Clue #4
5/7/2015

For BOMs Away Monday and Design Wall Monday – I’ve still got Scrapitude up. The final clue is released on Tuesday so I’ll be working on that this week. Monday, I’ve got Annie Smith’s presentation with the guild. Tuesday, it’s my turn to take the boy to baseball practice. He’s got a game on Wednesday and I believe, Thursday is the first day I’ll be able to go to the shop to learn how to use the new machine. I need a name for it.. any ideas?

Check out more finished BOMs at and design walls at Patchworktimes.com and

Have a great week!

~Melanie

Thousand Needles

Quilting, Scrapbooking, Gardening and whatever else catches my fancy

Tag Archives: Brother

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