Another Day, Another Venue, Another Chance to Enter the Giveaway

Another reminder to comment for your chance to win this cute paper piecing pattern. This includes the tissue paper foundation to make four 15-1/2x18-1/2" quilts...one for you, and three for your friends and family. As long as you're a follower, every comment you make on any post counts as an entry in this month's Follower Appreciation Giveaway. Don't know what to say? Well, I always want to hear what projects you are working on, and which fabrics you've got on your wish list. I'm always looking for inspiration.

So last night I took the new walking foot sole plate for a spin. Here's a better photo...I managed to figure out how to use the macro setting on my camera for the one photo, and then it just went way over my head, so this is the one shot that is postable.

The blade you see down the center is part of the soleplate. It sits in the seam and your needle goes into the fabric behind it, and your stitches drop perfectly into the seam and are just about invisible. It's interesting, but it's going to take a bit of getting used to. Those of you with Berninas know that two soleplates come with the walking foot, and one of those is more open so you can see the needle movement and exactly where it's going into the fabric. Well, this new soleplate has really low visibility. It's a little awkward bringing your bobbin thread up through the top fabric when you begin to sew (I used a small pair of scissors to slide under the foot and catch the threads so I could pull them up and to the side so that I didn't start out with any birds nests on the backside.) It's going to take some getting used to, but I'm sure I'll use it often. And, if you've got a Bernina and you don't already have a walking foot, the new walking feet are packaged with all three soleplates, and the price has not increased with the addition of the new soleplate. If you've already got a walking foot, you just need to order the soleplate, and it ranges in price from $24-$36 depending on your dealer. Right now they're hard to come by, so your best bet is to place an order and be patient.

Our little thread fairy looks extremely patient, don't you think? She must be waiting for her Stitch in the Ditch Walking Foot Sole Plate....or maybe she's been hitting the Svedka a little hard this evening. Gotta say, if I don't wash mine tomorrow, she won't be the only one in this house rocking that hairstyle.


If you're with me on Facebook, you've seen these photos, but I needed to take a break from sewing to try out something crafty, so Sunday we Peeped...

The blue Peep? Come on, every family has at least one Black Peep (black sheep), right?

And these are going to join some lemons and chocolate and whatever else I'm feeling, on a white cake pedestal for a centerpiece. But for now, I like to refer to them as: "This is what you get when you don't check the expiration date on the package before you buy."

Two more venues to visit tomorrow (so far), so I'll save the wedding prep talk for another post. Have a wonnerful, wonnerful Wednesday...it's supposed to be a beautiful Spring day...Enjoy it!

Welcome to Wedding Wars

We've gone to visit two venues so far. There's another scheduled for tomorrow evening and one for Wednesday afternoon. Dear daughter and I aren't seeing eye to eye on a few things (like the day, the time, the venue) but I'm sure we'll work that out. At the moment dear daughter is doing her best to be impulsive (which is what she does best), and mother of the bride is doing her best to be negative (which is what she does best). We've got until next Thursday to come together in a Vulcan Mind Meld, so hopefully we'll make some progress this week.

Life is still a bit scattered. I've not had proper time to correspond with my newly connected Jr. High School friend, Debbie, so I've not corresponded at all (shame on me!). I think I'll fix that after this post and at least shoot her a short message...a short message is better than no message at all, don't you think?

The heat fixer guys come again tomorrow, and from their last call, it sounds like they may have come up with an ingenious way to blame the problem on the possibility of mice in the wallschewing the wiring that goes from the thermostat in the dining room to the heat pump outside.  (I don't think it matters that we haven't seen a mouse, let alone any evidence of a mouse in the house since the 1st year the house was built and it was still all woods around us...we've been mouseless for at least 20 years.) Obviously they're stretching to find something outside the warranty. Honestly?  I'll tell you this, when he brings those wires in to me tomorrow, he better have sufficiently chewed them and I'd better not see any plastic coating in his teeth.

My boss gave his notice last Friday, and I've got until Wednesday to decide if I want to apply for his job. This is a tough one for me, for many reasons, and at the moment, I can't believe I'm saying this, I don't think I want his job. It would mean no more telecommuting days. The hubs says I need to figure out how much of a raise it would have to be for me to give that up. There's a lot to be said about rolling out of bed, grabbing a cup of joe and starting your workday in your PJs two days a week. Decisions....decisions.....

I've been looking at the Winding Ways blocks on the design wall for a week now and they just haven't inspired me to sew them. I think there's a reason for that, and that would be....

Yay!!!!!! The Stitch in the Ditch sole plate for my walking foot finally arrived. See the metal piece in the middle of it?  (look at the bottom). Well, that sits in your seam as you stitch....invisible in the ditch stitching, every time.  For you Bernina users, it's like having a #10 walking foot. It's been a long time coming. It was ordered back in March and it took more than month for it to get here.

I think I'm going to throw caution to the Winding Ways and I'm going to thread up the Bernina and finish off the Mexican Star. All that's left on this is to ditch stitch the vertical and horizontal bars, and I've been holding off waiting for this soleplate to arrive...no excuses anymore.

Saturday was one of those crazy, rainy days and the hubs needed to go shopping up in Frederick, so I volunteered to go along as long as he would stop at JoAnn Fabrics for the last day of the Daffodil Dash sale. Now, mind you, there's really nothing I want from JoAnn except some thread, some batting, some rulers, books...and I had seen this really cute bird print home dec fabric in their flyer that I thought would make a great chair cushion and sewing machine cover for the studio.

The bird  print I had my eye out for wound up being way too large for what I had in mind, so I wandered back to their quilting department. This is a JoAnn superstore, and I gotta tell you, as I'm walking down this 'special purchase' fabric row that was 30% off,  I was experiencing a little quilt shop deja vu.

I don't know about you, but I can spot an Alexander Henry fabric in a JoAnn like Sara Jessica Parker can spot a pair of Louboutins in Payless. And it's not that easy because in JoAnn, the Alexander Henry fabrics aren't on gold foiled bolts. I don't ask why they have them (for $7.99 and 8.99 a yard, no less---on sale for 30% off that), I just buy them.

As it turns out, I've already got the Day of the Dead print on the left, so you'll see that again in an upcoming giveaway.

With the hubs beginning to whine about how long he'd been in the store, and how he thought I was just running in for one thing, whaaa, whaaa, whaaa....I was somehow miraculously able to maintain brain function and remember that I needed to see if they had wool on sale....bingo! I was able to pick up a yard of lovely cream wool for 50% off to use on one of my upcoming wool applique projects. It's so much easier to throw it in a hot water wash when you only paid $13 a yard for it. :)

So, life is almost back to normal. And now I'm off to test drive the walking foot.

Don't forget to post your comments for a chance to win the April giveaway!

Is It Spring or What?

I've been missing from blogland for a bit. Once I got over the week-long flu, ran about trying to play catch up for a week, I got knocked down by strep. (Will it never end?...No, next week we'll likely begin the allergy issues.).

In the meantime, what little time I did have in the studio I spent working on the Japanese wrapping cloth.

I've outlined all the elements in the design, did a small stipple with navy thread on the navy background, and I'm trying to come up with something to do on the light blue and it will be done. Good thing, because the larger wrapping cloth arrived yesterday.

 And what do we have here? Looks like someone just got 3 new Accuquilt dies. There's a 4.5" strip, the Winding Ways set, and Rob Peter to Pay Paul. I've taken to test cutting on paper towels to remove any Sharpie that may have gotten on the die when I was marking them for position. I decided that this is a rather fun way to test out placement of the shapes before I cut actual fabric.

The two Sharon Schamber-style machine quilting pieces are finished, bound and washed. Now, what to do with them? Oh yes, check them off as a March OPAM finish.

Saturday was the first day last week I was feeling pretty good, so the old Bernina came out of the armoire and my sister spent the afternoon working on her own Peeps bunting while I quilted an Easter table runner she had made. (She's afraid to quilt, and I love the practice--though when you're quilting for someone else -- even if it is your sister -- you're not so relaxed with what you're doing. How do those long-armers do it? Don't they worry about making the slighthest slip up and ruining the quilt they're working on? A quilt that isn't their quilt?)

The taxes are done, the house is clean (well, mostly), this month's Guild meeting was tonight, my daughter's birthday celebration was last night (Texas de Brazil), they're coming to try to fix the furnace again tomorrow (don't ask...though I'm hoping that I'm not paying for it), there's a Happy Night scheduled for Friday, and we're going to see Arturo Sandoval on Saturday, so I'm hoping to get in some creative time a couple nights this week.

And we need a March Follower Appreciation Winner. This months' prize is scissor bling, and this month's winner is:

Quilt Sue

I've sent Sue an email off-list and scissor bling will be winging it's way to her soon. And scissor bling also just went out to my 100th follower (an unannounced giveaway).

Stay tuned for the April Follower Appreciation Giveaway...here's our prize for April:

This is a 'Little Bits' Think Spring pattern. It's a miniature paper piecing project and includes the paper foundations to make four 15.5 x 18.5 inch quilts. I chose this pattern for a giveaway while I was at the AQS Lancaster show. I thought the tulips made it a perfect giveaway for April.

Every comment you leave gets you a chance in the drawing...as long as you're a follower. The first two random numbers generated this month turned out to not be followers so we had to draw a third time. If you aren't sure you're following me, check your profile...it lists the blogs you are following.

Good luck, and I'll try to give you lots of chances to comment this month.