2012 May 03 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Ecolux Light for Machines

May 3, 2012 · by JudyL

In my new sewing studio, I love everything but I’m not 100% in love with my lighting. I had asked for florescent tube lighting but Vince and the builder overruled that request and installed the canister lights. There are 17 of them in the sewing room but they just didn’t provide enough lighting. We switched out the regular lights to LED bulbs around the sewing area/cutting table and that helped a little . . probably not enough for the initial cost of those bulbs.

I rarely come back over and sew at night because the lighting just isn’t sufficient. I have an Ott light and a little desk light that I can point to where I need light but sewing at night isn’t pleasant due to the lighting.

When I heard about the Ecolux Lighting system, I hoped that would solve my problem and I’m happy to say that so far, I’m thrilled with the light it provides.

This is my machine with the regular sewing machine light on. Apparently this model (a 1992 Bernina 1230) has two bulbs but my switch is going out (not the first time) and sometimes only one bulb will come on which makes the lighting situation even more dire. With the camera flash and it being daylight when the photos are taken, you aren’t seeing how bad it truly is but with old eyes and poor lighting, that makes for some not so great sewing conditions.

Notice there’s a sticker on this machine too. More of the “Chad decorations” from 20+ years ago.

Here it is with my Ecolux light installed.

It makes a fantastic difference! What I like most is that the light strip is shining straight down and with it mounted under the top of my machine, at no time are the lights shining in my eyes. I also like that it has an on off switch and the cord is plenty long enough. I wish Apple would take a lesson from these folks and give us a little more cord for the iProduct chargers!

These strips come in various lengths to fit small machines like the Featherweight or larger machines like the longarms.

When I travel with my Singer 301, I’m always hauling a portable Ott light so I got an Ecolux for my 301 too. Not having to pack the Ott light will be great . . and not having to worry about it falling off my little sewing table in hotels or at retreats will be even better!

If you aren’t 100% pleased with the lighting on your machine, check out Ecolux Lighting.

Vince, on the other hand, may not be so pleased with my new light because I’ve been coming back to the sewing room and sewing late at night now that I have the new light!

· Filed Under: Quilting · 28 Comments

April Color Palette Winner

May 3, 2012 · by JudyL

There are 19 projects posted and the Random Number Generator chose:

#3 is Krista! Congratulations to you! I’ve sent Krista and Vicki an email so they can get together and work out the prize details.

If you’d like to challenge yourself with Vicki’s gorgeous palettes (well, maybe my rotten pie wasn’t so gorgeous but the colors were pretty!), click on the Color Palette Challenge button in the sidebar and you’ll find everything you need to know.

Thanks again to Vicki for the palettes and the prizes!

Thanks everyone for participating and don’t forget that the quilt along starts tomorrow. I’ll be using the May challenge colors but you can use anything you want . . just come play along. It’s a quick and easy quilt and you can make it as large or as small as you wish.

· Filed Under: Quilting · 2 Comments

Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Volume 5

May 3, 2012 · by JudyL

It’s time for another new and exciting issue of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks publication! Volume 5. Each one of these issues is better than the last and I always think they can’t get any better. There are so many fun blocks in here. They should be on the newstands by May 8. Those Quiltmaker folks are so smart! They put that orange border at the top so all we have to do is look for orange in order to find this issue amount all those wonderful quilt magazines at the stores.

Today is my day on the blog tour!

Here’s my block, named One Way Home. Want to guess what I was wanting to do when I came up with the name for this block?

Here’s a project that could be made using the block. I do plan to make it some day.

Be sure to visit the Quiltmaker blog for a listing of other bloggers who are participating in the tour and to enter chances for lots of quilt related giveaways!

Please leave a comment to be included in the drawing here. Sunday some time during the day, I’ll draw two winners to each receive an issue of the new 100 Blocks, Volume 5 to be given away.