A viking's tale

Hellooooooo!!
It has taken me forever, but i've worked out how to post to blogger from my laptop.
Today - a rainy cold wintery day, and i finally managed to energize myself enough to
pull my christmas present from its beautiful red box !

And I looooooove it !!!!!
Presenting ==========>

MY brand new beautiful Husqvarna Viking opal 670 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So far, its a breeze to work with.
I love the little features that make this the best sewing machine.
The touch screen, the automatic tension and built in sewing assistant guide.
The ease of pull off and push on presser feet. The built in thread cutter to the left of the machine.
The generous space inside the arm for quilting. The two LED lights. THe start/stop feature.
Oh yeah, i reeeaaally like the start/stop feature. IT' s like cruise control for sewing :)

 

The touch screen is something very new to me, and i love it. This machine has  so many  easy
to use features, to ease one's sewing experience. Aah. Here I am 'prepping' my fabric with an overcase stitch on the hem to prevent fraying before prewash. It tells me which presser foot to use ( which was completely simple to snap in/out ) , which needle to use , what the automatic tension has already been set for , what stitch i need to use ( which is automatically set to go ) , and a whole lot of other stuff that I do not know about .... yet. . :)

I've got some great new quilting books for inspiration.
Civil War Quilts , by Pam Weeks and Don Beld.
Patchwork Stype, by Suzuko Koseki.
Sunday Morning Quilts, by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl ARkinson.

First up, ( my grandmother's christmas present which ive borrowed ) ::
Civil War quilts ......
This book is FASCINATING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
iT'S A complete readers novel with brilliant pictures, and full quilting patterns at the back too!!!!!!
I am loving reading about the 'potholder quilts'.
THis is my favourite one from the book. ( More on this later )

This is the "Henry Pratt block" close up.  Also pictured is Henry Pratt c. 1862 in military uniform.
There are sooooooo many gorgeous potholder blocks in this book. Apparently, it was the thing to do during the Civil War, easy for large groups of women to make thousands of much needed quilts for soldiers in the war and in hospital. Each block was about 9 inches, completly able to stand on their own as a finished quilt, then whip stitched together. Saving all the hassle of sandwiching and quilting the quilt afterward.

I love this little quilt too, its the sunday morning quilt, from said book above, simple long strips cut and placed in different directions. A good easy starter project i think.

This is 'scrappers delight' also from Sunday Morning quilts. I really like the modern flair with the long strips and bright colour patterns. Isn't that a bed you just want to crawl into with a heap of good crafting books , and a nice hot cup of tea !!!!!
Sewing is fun, it is indeed.
Happy thoughts sent to you all, i'll be back ! :)
love,
angela