I was keen to get it before friday when my mum heads back to the UK so I could pick her brains on using it.. and procastinating proved fruitful when Walmart had a $200 Brother machine on clearance for $150!
So here it is, a Brother SQ 9000 (the SQ stands for 'sewing and quilting' so it's perfect for what I want!)
It has a large table, which means it can support larger fabrics like quilts, and has about 80 built-in stitches and half a dozen automatic buttonholes, so should be pretty versatile :)
It also transpired that Walmart had other items on sale, and I picked up a fabric cutter (looks like a pizza cutter, see the photo below) and a plastic mat so I don't chop into the dining table! ... these cutters are a bit deadly so if you see me waving at you without any fingers you'll know what I've done!
And why did I need the fabric cutters? because I got lots and lots of fabric! hehee! there's a store that is unfortunately closing down, so everything was half price or less. their fat quarters were $1 each, so I came home with a dozen fat quarters, and some larger panels and a couple of free quilting magazines! OK, so we spent $25 on fabric, but I think there's almost enough for 2 quilts in there! :)
I'm pretty pragmatic about having not much eyesight, but I do miss being able to browse. I'm grateful for having people who can describe things to me, but I still miss that visual inspiration that comes from the look of a fabric or a book or a record sleeve... maybe manufacturers could employ a person whose sole job is to write poetic descriptions of products and as i-phones and the like can read barcodes and tell you what an item is, it could read the extra info and give you a delicious description of what the item looks like! ... well, it's a nice thought!
Oh wow! Great days shopping, looks like you're going to be well set! The only other bits I'd really recommend for starting out that you might have but you didnt mention would be a quilting ruler - which will give you a nice edge to butt the cutter up against (and you'll be able to feel the edge of the ruler so you'll know your fingers wont be in the way!) and a wee plastic gadget called a Hera Marker - which is great for using to crease and flatten seams as you sew (which helps to match up the edges when you're sewing together rows of sewn up patches) and it saves a lot of time as you dont have to keep moving to the iron to press seams! Hope this helps - they are certainly the gadgets I use the most.
ReplyDeletethanks Sarah! there was a pack of rulers on sale but they were still $20 (for a pack off 4, 6,9 and 12 inch) and I thought I'd look on eBay and see if I could get a better bargain on them, hehe! They had a block thingy, I don't know if that was a Hera Marker but I'll certainly keep that in mind next time I'm browsing the quilting stores... sounds a great idea if it saves using the iron :)
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of the delicious description job! Can I have it? First day back at work and it's like I never left!
ReplyDeleteGood haul by the way! I'm really loving the two black background quarters!
Good luck on getting those descriptions. I sometimes see things like that in catalogs, but I think people don't consider those who can't see their illustrations or products, sadly. However, the person or people who helped you certainly must have done a great job. You've some wonderful fabrics in there! I think you started accumulating a stash! LOL
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