Good to the Last Selvage

Fusions Selvages for Organizing

I have a confession.  I adore seeing what other quilters have done with their fabric selvages.  It's a secret hobby of mine.  I've been following Karen at Selvage Blog for years!  At first I collected my selvages for a fellow quilter, but now I keep them for myself.  I always figured I'd like to make a spider web quilt some day.  Perhaps like this one.  Yet recently my serger has been working over time dumping thread bits all over my lap as I sew.  Sure I could be more careful about being tidy, but instead I've been lusting for my own Serger Thread Collection Bag.  The more I looked, the more dull and boring I thought they all were.  Really, why use a single fabric when instead I could make it to would showcase something I really love?

I started on this little sewing machine organizer yesterday using the selvages from the blue Fusions fabrics my friend Vicki gave me when I first took over my spare bedroom and made it a sewing studio.  A sewing room warming gift if you will.  Most of those fabrics were made into the waves of my Children of the Sea Quilt but I quietly kept the selvages, knowing someday I'd use them.

Selvage Sewing Machine Organizer and Thread Catcher

Vicki is always a wonderful inspiration to me when I'm dreaming up new projects - or trying to figure out how to quilt them so perhaps I should place the phone in one of those pockets?

Thanks for stopping by!

DUST?!?!?!?

Wan'ta Know a Secret?  I've been busy.  You knew that right? But you didn't know I'm getting my own Sewing Studio!  Oh yes that's what I said.  A place of my very own.  Not a chair in the kitchen but a real - Oh my goodness ROOM!  With a door and everything!  LOL Makes me feel like a teenager.

Sunny is also in great spirits having finally found his very own cat house.  His sister Tiny looks on in distain at both him in his hut and me taking his picture because she thinks he's crazy, but that's not news. 

Now that you've heard the biggest news do you want the rest?  Surely you do.  That's what I love about of you.  Yesterday I received not one but two surprises in the mail!  Yes, the fabric we've been waiting for arrived.  Hoffman's Bali Batik Black Onyx G2177 213.

Onyx is one of Hoffman's latest answers to true black in a batik and let me start by saying they did a good job, and no one is asking me to say that.  Are you kidding?  I paid full price for this fabric.  Now I thought this was a gold foil swirl added on top of the black onyx.  But that's not the case.  Instead it's a beautiful blend of browns, yellows, and goldens that reads like a gold foil at any distance greater than 20".  It is certainly a look twice fabric.  

My second surprise is actually one I've worked long and hard for.  Meet Kailey.  Isn't she a sweetie?  She arrived in a Christmas dress so I knew I had to stitch out something nice and tropical after all it's 83 degrees in the shade today.  What better to start with than a take on my own outfit today and make a sarong with a matching top?  In case you're wondering I'm not wearing hot pink I'm wearing ocean blue, but I'm already a BFF of my DD.  At least until she's turns 10 or I ask her to turn the tv off, which ever comes first.

As I can't seem to stop myself from thinking about what is on the reverse this sarong is no exception.  The second side creates a purple towel wrap all set for your best game of pretend.

Before I sewed these, when I first sat down at my sewing machine I saw a horror, something I don't think I've ever seen in the entire three years I've been quilting, could it be that long?!?!?!?!?  There was dust on my sewing machine!  Eegads!  I even took a picture for you, can you see it?  Ewww, if I keep up this sort of neglect I will have to start putting the sewing machine (gasp) away between uses!  Is that something you do? I know, I know mixers and sewing machines; you're supposed to cover them.  But the sewing machine cover is hard plastic and so big and bulky, it always gets in my way when I'm trying to sew.  Hey in my new room I'll be able to banish the sewing machine cover to the other side of the room.

I have a dusty house, it's true and most of this seems to be cat hair, but that says something equally shocking, that perhaps my cats have spent more time by my sewing machine than I have!  How about this, we'll blame the dust on all the hand work I've been doing stitching applique for the Dresden Plate Quilt.  Right that's it.  Happy stitching and may the dust never settle on your machine!

Bleck!

What is so awful that it would keep me away from my own sewing machine?!?!?! Sewing! LOL! Allow me to explain. First there were pants to repair, which I did, it only took me about 4 or 5 days to resign myself and do it...

Then it was these curtains. The curtains are huge and silky. I stupidly said I would alter them because the area allowed for the rod was only 2”, which wasn't wide enough. But that was when I thought I could alter them my own way. When they were delivered to me I was asked to alter them a certain way. I didn't want to alter them that way because I didn't know how, but it was to late as they had already been washed and dried for me. So after way to long I started on them. Hey I finished them 3 days after I started them and while that's as slow as honey for me it's really not that long.

So here's what I learned: I am going to work VERY hard to keep my mouth shut and try not to offer my services up for free ever. If someone wants or needs something bad enough they will ask and if they ask perhaps they will pay (at least they should) and there's two motivators for doing the job right there.

I miss my Brother ULT 2001. The motor purrs under my fingertips and I miss that. She tells me when I'm being stupid and the thread isn't threaded right, or if I am working on something so big and thick that I can't tell if the presser foot is down - she knows and saves me time and energy. So I've found the $90 for her maintenance fee (standard for a combination machine in my area - I know I called around) as well as having collected what I'm certain will be enough to replace the pinched and thereby semi-severed tiny ribbon cable in the embroidery arm - no sense fixing only one half of her course. And everything should be better in a week or too. How wonderful. Until then enjoy the piece and tranquility of your favorite machine. ;-)

National Quilting Day Follow Up

I was blogging around when I first read the word, National Quilting Day? A day to celebrate every thing about quilting that I hold dear? Besides it's a holiday so anyone wanting to tune me out or say "uh hu, yes..." while I rave about fabrics will just have to listen.

What would you do on such a great day? Rather than annoy those close to me with my deepest fabric fantasies, I headed for my sewing machine and settled down with my turtles from my Hawaiian Ocean Appliqué Quilt. I've been having a problem seeing my appliqué through the clear plastic of my "open toed foot". Open toed, my toilet! So I broke it, completely and totally on purpose. It was wonderful. I have never broken a sewing machine foot before, so this was something new.

I did increase the pressure on the presser foot to compensate for the missing plastic, but other than that I was good to go.  I thought for a moment it might be harder to line up without that little bit of plastic, but it took no more time getting used to than when I'd first switched to that foot in the first place, and I could see again! Did anything wonderful happen to you yesterday? I'd love to hear about it.

A Pocket For Corduroy and School Stuff?!?!?!

Jessica is four now and that means things like school supply lists (I received my first one as a parent two days ago, more on that in a jiff). Backpacks, clothes for her first day, as well as Friday Spirit Day Clothes. It's really feels like a lot to do before the month is up. After I made my first pair of boxers, for my husband, I learned tags are there for a reason, so I always put in at least a scrap of fabric so the wearer gets it on the proper way.
So what do I do? I go on a tangent looking at little girl jumpers. My all time favorite line in the Harry Potter movies -to date- is Ginny saying "Mummy, have you seen my jumper?" I adore the way she accents that! My mom offers up her pattern from when my sisters where little, which I promptly alter to make pjs. Not bad for an deviation from the pattern, if I do say so myself. Everyone knows it's very important for children getting ready to start school to have new "jam-jams!" LOL, right! Yes, that's a Purple Punch Vera Bradley Backpack, Jessica's auntie loves her very much!
As for that school supply list, it says EVERYTHING must have the child's initials on it. Want to take a guess at my daughters initials? JR! Right, like I'm going to cover her things with that. So JCR it must be. I had a fight with the embroidery machine about it. The embroidery machine won, but I got my way by turning the flywheel by hand 1198 times - one turn per stitch, now there is a workout for you. DH started calling around about the sensor the machine needs (of course we don't have a part number!) and the only quote he was able to get today was $90 to start and any parts needed would be on top of that. I know, Eeegads! Of course my sister tells me after I did all that that she could have had the kind people at Vera Bradley do embroider it for me.

I'm a first time mom, I can't help myself. Since I am also armed with the knowledge that I'm a last time mom, it's really important for me to do everything right, can't you tell? Jessica's school supply list says "12 pack of crayons". As a child of the 80's I know there are two kinds of crayons. The good kind made by crayola, and the bad kinds made by everyone else. Even today I find this to be true in every pack of crayons I come across. Like a good little mommy I go online and type in "12 pack crayola crayons" I can have 12 boxes of fill in the blank number of crayons made by crayola. I can have 12 crayons all the same color... Or I can buy something else. Melissa and Doug are making plastic ones now... That seems wrong, like somehow you'd have to press harder or something I dunno. Then I found another place P'kolino. Their own website doesn't show the crayons as being available (only the colored pencils), which makes me uncomfortable.

So here's what I've learned. Most 12 pack crayons (including the lumber crayons believe it or not) are not round. In theory preventing them from rolling, and allowing for a better grip. Another thing about crayons that my super artistic daughter taught me is that washable is the best. Crayon isn't fun to try and get out of anything... So I'll be hoping for a box of triangle washable Crayola's! I will have accept the yoke of "one of those parents who can't follow directions". Because if I order something online and it's wrong... Grrr...

"A Pocket For Corduroy", while not the first book of the dearly beloved little bear named Corduroy, the pocket one is the one we own (you try having oodles of voucher money at a paperback bookstore that is going out of business and see what you buy!) After reading that book the other day Jessica insisted on him having his own pocket (I selected purple fabric to sew on, just like in the story). No photo of him as he's tucked into bed with my little one this evening.

Today is my 6 year wedding anniversary. I had it all planned out. I was going to give DH a Bobby Flay Reversible Double Cast Iron Griddle, and then we could enjoy bacon and pancakes for breakfast. Well Kohl's was out of them, so we'll have to save that for another day. So since I have vested interest I hope all of you had a great day. Because that's all that mattered anyway.

What a week!

I'm only just getting around to washing the getaway laundry as it's Spring Break so it's been kid central lately. It's quiet for the moment as one is playing Animal Crossing and two are eating rice krisies treats (the special Easter ones with Chocolate and Sprinkles). Oh before I forget they taste better if you only dip them in the chocolate and skip the sprinkles.

My allergies are going crazy and I fear I'm allergic to one of the pretty girlie things I picked up from Basin and White. It's bad enough today I want to hide it all away.

I played with quilt blocks last night. The cats look awesome lined up on either side of the quilt. But still no layout. I even rounded up all the block sampler blocks as well as all of my orphan blocks, but still nothing. I have to keep the cats for myself as the button eyes are choking hazards. All but two kitties came with the eyes already on which is really cool. It's nice to see how different people can express themselves with a simple thing like buttons.

Before I left I packed up the sewing machine. It's always my fear that Sunny will have a dunce moment and end up forcing it off the kitchen table and onto the floor. So far that hasn't happened, but... The poor machine has now been packed away for a week! Eeegads no wonder I feel like a tea bag in a batch of over brewed tea (yuck).

The good news is that the fire has not flared up or smoked since before I left, so at least the house is safe for now.

Have you been feeling the cold snap? We certainly have. Right about the time it was so hot I wanted the ac on (the day I arrived home) snap cold. Some parts of Florida even had freeze warnings. Not sure how that worked out for them.

Butterfly Bouquet Done! (flimsy)

Butterfly Bouquet Quilt Top is done! I think it looks so pretty, and quite a bit like I measured for the drop, (that's the part that hangs off the bed) but I didn't it just turned out that way. Those are indeed rosebud blocks that traverse around the center, I used the measurements I remembered from Eleanor Burns "Quilt in a Day -Egg Money Quilts", but somehow they weren't the correct measurements so one bud is a bit more "bud-like" than the other. Ah well, I bet you wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out. Here you can see the the Redwork I did along the sides, yes my redwork is blue, but since this is the "blue quilt" I thought it would look just fine. Each corner has a butterfly, just as the butterflies appear over the center of the quilt. You can just see this one here on the bottom corner.

The center says it's made for my sister for Christmas so she can have flowers everyday. If you've been reading about this quilt, you know I've had various pitfalls along it's creation, just think how happy I am to see it laid out this way for the first time. Now the Butterfly Bouquet Quilt was intended to be a two sided quilt, from the moment I started the second side, so here is a reminder of what the first side looks like. It's so pretty in it's own right I hate to call it a back. I saw a wall hanging using this style of charms and lattice, and I really do like it. It creates an amazingly quick quilt, with the longest efforts going into selecting the fabric and cutting, which since the pieces are 17.5" is no big deal. I would be more than willing to say that this side of the Butterfly Bouquet Quilt would be perfect for a beginner.

I wrapped up this morning after I spilled my coffee all over the sewing machine case for the Brother, of course the foot pedal, disks, the manual - all sorts of important things were inside, the coffee managed to run into the storage compartment as well, but I'm here to tell you I'm so very glad the sewing machine WASN'T in it's case! I'm not sure what the rest of the day holds, hopefully the creation of some FSL (free standing lace) is in the cards.

Bibs Today!

Today I was looking online for some snowflake lace embroidery, (I found some but only ended up making one, as Jessica thought it was the prettiest thing and has already made out with it). It currently can't be found, or else I'd photograph it for you, maybe later.

In my searching I found a website offering a reversiable bib pattern, of course the link didn't work, but I used one of Jessica's and made my own from it.

As you can see I made four. The Elephant says "Me Too!" The Zebra say's "Let's Graze", the Tiger say's "Hear me ROAR!" and the Snake says "Smells Superb". They are flannel and dual sided. Sorry I didn't get the backs in the photo, it's a brownish background with crazy jungle animals on the back side. No embroidery there. As always if you can't see them very well you can click on them to see them bigger.

The sewing machine was a true dream not giving me any trouble as it sailed through. Jessica and I are well on our way to being sick. We're snuffy, and I feel it trying to move to my throat. Poor Jessica has a funny voice and a fever. It's a bit hard to understand her, and you just want to say "oh darlin'!" Don't worry about us we'll be better soon. Take care.

Unfinished Projects Challenge

Spider Lilly's in the Moonlight, sometimes wonderful things happen that we never planned. These Lilly's were right in that very spot in when we bought the house, and right next to it is a Spineless Cactus that has grown from knee high to as big as a man in the time we've owned the place.

Hi everyone, one of the members of the quilting board has issued a challenge to finish our UFO's by the 31st of December, those are unfinished projects that were left for a period of time. Abandoned. Lost. Forgotten, for whatever reason. Perhaps it had nothing to do with the project itself, but rather other things that needed to happen first, a different project, children. Whatever. Any project that has been left for a period of time is eligible. I have really taken this to heart, and have been working diligently on my first UFO. The Perinatal Quilts. I love working on these really I do, but life has gotten in the way a couple of times.

As some of you may know this is grief work for me, so it's very emotional and raw. Okay not so raw now but certainly tender. I had wanted to get them done and in the mail to the charity by Christmas and this has just been the drive I needed. Currently I have 16 done! Of my two part set of 20, number seventeen has it's binding more than halfway on and then it's down to three. Perhaps I can even have them done by the end of the month. It has surprised me with these. What started out as just ten tiny little quilts, how long could it take? Has turned into at least 20 blocks and an untold number of borders. I'm here to tell you that's a quilt! One nice big quilt. No photos of this UFO will be posted again until it's done and ready to mail. I'm hoping by not posting I will continue to stay motivated.

What are your current UFO's? It doesn't have to be quilting, it could be any craft, perhaps it's the flower bed that you haven't done anything with. Just think if you winterise it now, it will be already to plant in this coming spring. Of course if you plant Gladiola's, Tulips or Daffodils you wont have to plan in the spring at all.

My other UFO's you all know about. The red 18 point star quilt that I love to hate. Honestly, I'm afraid when I cut it down to fix it I will mess it up and then I'll be out of the right kind of fabric or something. DH tells me I should create the block as I think it needs to be on a completely different fabric (scrap of course) to be sure it will be the right size. I think he's right, but tell me what can I do with a 17" triangle filled with half square triangles? LOL!

The next one is the Blue applique quilt. It needs a couple of things a butterfly embroidered on the basket handle, rosebud blocks to go all around for the first border, and then hopefully embroidery flowers of all types to go around. How many of you can see that in your head? Trust me it will be beautiful I just know it. Anything dealing with embroidery is on hold until my thread order gets here. Oh there goes the mail man! It's here! Finally!

Now with all that excitement where was I? Oh yes I've also been waiting to finish the Bargello until the new thread got here. since from here on out it's a quilt as you go, I needed thread to match the muslin I plan to use on the back. You can see it in the photo the smaller of the two big spools. Boy I hope that Maxi-Lock thread works out swell. My New Machine has made even Sulky Rayon make lint! I'll write a review after I've used a bit of it.

Now see that pretty purse clasp? Oh how I've wanted that. Just knowing I have it to make a little kisslock change holder, or perhaps a small purse just delights me. I was thinking about using it on my Halloween trick or treat challenge, but I might like it to much to put goolies on it!

Oh and those teal blue string beads? Those are to fix my sister's pants. Then have little sequins on the pockets and while she didn't point it out I noticed they were coming off. So I'm replacing them with some of these, I'm planning on hand sewing them on real good that way I can get a couple of passes through the bead with the needle.

Any other UFO's? Oh yes, I'll need to quilt all of the quilts above, and the last heart baby clothes quilt, but one thing at a time. I think I have enough to keep me busy till the end of the year!

An old HS friend of mine is having knee surgery, so I was thinking of sending a care package, but you know that's just one of the little things we do at the drop of the hat because we want to.

She's Here! She's Here!

My new sewing machine arrived 2 whole days early! I wasn't nearly ready, as I hadn't even read the embroidery unit part of the manual. Of course the box holding the embroidery unit was banged up so I had to set it up and make it sew, while we hastily tried to read the manual, with the DHL guy hollering "everything okay?" every 30 seconds or so.

These are my very first Embroidery projects. I sewed the "E" first, and then DH wanted to see it "do something" with color changes, that would be the little teapot there, and since I have volunteered to fix my sister's butterfly pants I designed and stitched out the butterfly, not the perfect answer for the tear on her jeans, but I'm working on it. DH has also done a little embroidery on it, but his wasn't done when I took the photos.

My new machine has the hopeful name of Trusty Gem. Trusty because she is nice and solid like Trusty in the Lady and the Tramp movie, and Gem because once the DHL guy went away I discovered that she works like a gem. Perhaps Charm is better? Oh well only time will tell if it's a fitting name.

My current project (that hasn't been slid to the back burner for being a pain in the rear the way the red star quilt was, don't worry I'll get back to it!) These are the striped pieced together to make a Bargello quilt. These strips were given to me by my quilting friends for my birthday. Currently they are sewn together, and are awaiting two things. The Eggshell colored thread I ordered to quilt it with, and for me to come up with a beautiful repeating pattern/curve to make the bargello with. Call me crazy but I think all the different colors from all the different ladies really blends well together.


My aunt called my mom this morning looking for a high chair for Aidan. It seems my cousin pushed aside at least THREE offers of a free high chair (including one from me and one from my mom). But since she didn't want them... Now they don't have one... But think they need one. Okay here's the deal either use the baby swing like we did when dd was tiny, or go to Goodwill/Salvation Army a little bleach water and you've got a high chair.

Perhaps that is a bit unfeeling, but that's how I feel. I've burned up my blender and already told DH he needs to go to the Salvation Army and look for a new one that's of good quality to replace my new "piece of junk".

The hunt!

Oh where have I been, and what have I done being away so long? I'm awful sorry. I've been sucked into the world of new sewing machine lust.

It all started on a hot summer day, when I was making a "tail feather" for Jessica. Which is to say the the way I accidently messed up the skirt on my Pj's that Jessica loves, because it makes a little "tail feather" out the backside. So there I am sewing a nice hem stitch on the bottom of dd's skirt when BANG! BANG BANG BANG, my sewing machine starts knocking. Apperently it doesn't like making the few decorative stitches anymore.

I'll admit it scared me. The sewing machine banging under my hands was a bit much for me. You would think it was because if my sewing machine breaks, it will leave me without a sewing machine, for all my happy quilting projects. No that wasn't the scary part for me. It was the noise and the vibrations in my hands. So I started sewing machine shopping. All the time, if I was online I shopped, if I was at the quilting store I shopped.

I researched and now know about so many machines, my head feels about full with the knowledge. Then I had a conversation with my husband. He seemed to think that if I got an embroidery machine, I would want it to have the Disney features. So that changed everything, all my research went up in a puff of nothing. Poof! And I started looking at the Brother Machines because Brother has an exclusive deal with Disney, they are the only emboridery machine company liscensed to make Disney stitches... But not all their machines will/can. Only the ones labeled "D" for instance nearly everyone knows about the $250 Walmart special the Brother 270D, that does Disney, but it doesn't have many designs, it has a cassette system that can break and leave you stranded, ect. So that was the least of what I wanted. I would have completely forgone an embroidery unit, rather than have that machine.

So the hunt was on. I found TWO top of the line Brothers, okay, so they were top of the line in 2001 and in 2003. One is the 2001 ULT, and the other was the 2003D ULT, note the first one doesn't have that telltale "D" for Disney. And I watched them on ebay. They were set to end about the same about of time. So I watched with baited breath. (that would be stinky!) Researching and hoping.... and hoping. All the while keeping DH up to date on the current auction prices... Days pass and I watch... Then finally the fateful day arrives. Both auctions are up to $810, and while it's not the top limit DH gave me I feel as though it's passed the point of no return and I'll have to keep looking.

But what I didn't know is that my husband had been researching machines behind my back. Yep. He knows at least as much about those two machines as I do, and I wonder if he knows a little bit more... The auction on the 2001 ULT ended first, it's right up on the wire and I have told him flatly to stop it's all over. But being the man I love to hate, he doesn't listen. We won the auction by $10, I'd hate to have been the other bidder, as we took it in the last 6 seconds. With my DH counting down in his head. So while this one doesn't have the trademark Disney package it's still an amazing machine, I have spent the past three days reading the 300+ page manual. (note the other auction went much higher and went up $1,000 in the last two hours, which I was happily enjoying raving about instead of worried that we wouldn't win). Never have I been more grateful not to have to watch an auction than the one I saw the next day for the 2003D, scary stuff!

So now the 2001 ULT is on it's way to me safely packed via ground transportation, all set to arrive here on Thursday. Funny that's the day the local embroidery club that I'd like to join meets, oh well there's always next month, and what a joy to wait! :D

Where oh where can you get a sneak peak at this wonderful machine that will be turning out beautiful things like butterflies and delicate lace snowflake ornaments? Right here

Til next time I wish you all every happiness!

Hello Dears,

I have so many things to share today.

I went shopping yesterday, and spent way to much. Don't you hate that? I went out for toilet paper, rubbing alcohol, and laundry soap. Silly Target, have you seen the new Archer Farms products they are selling at the Super Targets? These are the cutest little bottles and jars. They even have a bulk candy isle, it's gourmet meets down home, homemade stuff. I picked up their basil and creamy pesto, which was okay, certainly not all the jar implied it might be, and I am waiting to try the lovely spinach and artichoke dip I bought as well.

I also went to Joann's because their polka dot fabrics were on sale 1.99 a yard! I picked up these lovely beauties. I also got 4 yards of white on white for a fat quarter swap I'm joining in on, but no photos of those for you, because there is no way it will show up in the photos. Somehow I've committed fixing my sister's denim butterfly jeans so I also bought all those applique bits and pieces that you see above.
The lady who made the labels for Jessica's heart quilts thought of me when she found a box of little girl fabric in a garage sale, so she mailed it all to me. In amidst the fabric I found these little pieces. It screamed "I'm a little girl's dress!" so I just had to try and put it together after all these years. I've been chatting it over with the ladies at the quilting board and we think it is about 40 years old. So far I have the collar of the dress done and it's waiting for me to wrap up the super puffy sleeves. I found the fabric very hard to gather (I tried four times in the sewing machine having to rip it out each time). So I'm hand stitching it to pull up the gathers. Not the most joyous job, but hopefully it will be something nice I can set aside as my hard work and hey no pattern, what you see above is all I had to work with.

So my loving husband brought home some ribbon for me to trim the bottom of the sleeves out with, he brought me pink and white. The pink doesn't match so well, so I just had to be inspired and started working on some pj's for me. My inspiration is the new movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 that my sister and I went to see day before yesterday. In it Alexis Bledel wears a lovely white night dress. While mine will not be the same I have gone to great lengths to add the decorative stitches. I doubt you can tell from this photo (that makes them look like pot holders instead of the bodice) but I sewed it a little wrong and have been seam ripping a bit while I've been working.

DD loves playing with my sewing machine, so we've sort of been looking for a kiddie machine, my husband suggested until she's bigger it would be best to let her run one without the needle, I thought the idea was brilliant, so ever since the night I looked up little kids sewing machines, I've sort of been shopping for a new one for me. After when my little Elna needs maintenance it will be the end of her. With the aluminum casting bent there is no way to open it, or so we figure. I'm certain time will tell.

That's all I have to share at the moment, how about you?

Sewing Machine Challenges

I have spent this morning fighting the sewing machine. I've been having trouble with the machine quilting for Jessica's baby clothes quilt. The tension has been giving me all kinds of fits. Of course after DH messes with it, he discoveres the bobbin thread is all messy... OPPPS, should have checked that. So I was given the gentle reminder to check that right away if I have trouble.

Jessica's still asleep so I guess I'm back to sewing. Does anyone have any children's dog party games that the 3-5 year old set can play?

I smell a rat and feel the sting of it's bite

I've been steadily casting my net wider and wider looking for a sewing machine that will be in my price range, bought at least somewhat locally, and have a few of the things I want. Earlier in the day I was focused on some of the brother machines, and found out that Brother is discontinuing their 270D Disney machine, I looked at the ones they are replacing it with, and the new ones seem to be a much better design. Granted they cost more. But I found a press release that said their starting prices and they didn't seem to bad.

So I called the dealer closest to me. Firstly he quoted me between hundreds more than the press release and at least that much more than an online dealer (note I said dealer, not ebay) selling the very same machine. So now I'm walking through the paces, "and what are you hours? Yes, what did you say your name was? Charlie, yes, yes, thank you..." Then I try to follow in with maybe I'll see you next week. Since about halfway through the conversation my daughter is screaming, only the man wont let me go! He say's I have lots of sewing machines here would I consider the 270D? No, I tell him it's being discontinued and is no longer going to be supported by Brother, and I for one feel that something crazy like those cassettes needs manufacture support. He wants to know where I got my information. But I wasn't born yesterday and simply differ that I read it in an article on the Internet. So he then interjects, "I have a floor model, I'm selling for "X" that's nearly $50 less than the one at Wally World, and he's telling me about support, classes, etc.

So at first I thought it was funny and spent an hour laughing to myself, about his grab for the sale, if only because, the news is out. Shheesh. But then it starts to bother me, and I can't help thinking what a rat like thing to have done. "I smell a rat". Trying to pawn off a demonstration model on me because I know the story and soon other's will too. Not to mention the 270D is considered a somewhat lesser machine than it's replacement the 350, and the 900D. So it works under my skin slowing making me crazy. So I call my mom.

Then she tells me that years ago, my dearly beloved grandmother went in there to have her machine serviced. Being a seamstress for decades she had an amazing machine with a name to match, but this very man that I'd spoken to, convinced my grandmother to trade her machine for a low end White. Talk about a rat. I thought I smelled one! Worse yet, he just took her for a run for her money, just like everyone else, treating her like she didn't have a clue, when once she did. It makes me want to bawl about it. I loved that wonderful woman, my heart cries to think of anyone hurting her.