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!