Sewing Machine Shopping

I am very excited to say that I am SEWING MACHINE SHOPPING!! Woo Hoo!

I have spent a lot of time and research looking into starting my own home-based sewing and monogram business and now it's time to get the equipment :-)

I am not getting rid of my current sewing machine, I love it and I will still use it all the time, but it's time for some embroidery and monogram functions. Also, all those little "bells and whistles" sure sound good. I am drooling just talking about it!

I have my new machine all picked out, now I am just waiting and looking around for the best deals, warranty, classes offered, etc. Believe it or not, I am most likely going to buy from Joann. They offer free classes if you purchase from them and since I have never owned an embroidery machine before, a few classes would be very helpful. They also have about the same prices as Ebay and other competitors, so it's a good bet.

And yes, this adventure is supported by hubby :-) He just finished my new sewing tables, so I have an 8 foot table and an extra wide 4 foot table for laying out fabric. I actually have a sewing ROOM now!

Guess what family and friends are getting for Christmas? :-)

Quilting Class and Car Seat Update

I am very excited that I am going to take a machine quilting class!! Woo hoo! All of my quilting is straight lines and I am just drooling to make some swirlies :-)

Also, very excited (again) to say that the baby's carseat cover is almost done! A quilted car seat cover, only I would be that crazy to try something so ridiculous, but I LOVE it! I don't have any pictures yet, but believe me, when it's done, they will be everywhere, hehe!

My Sewing Machine

Well, I have to admit that I LOVE my sewing machine! I SOOOOOO wish (insert hint here for hubby!!) I had another machine that had the "bells and whistles" and maybe more than 15 stitches too, but I can't complain about the machine I have. It is always working (knock on wood)and so far I have not had any problems at all. It has been a trooper letting me learn the basics over the past year and a half. Now that I am learning to quilt, I would love some nicer stitches, a larger sewing surface, and some embroidery functions! Every machine I find that has everything I want starts at around $300, which means I will be waiting for a while :-) But as I have learned just from this machine, hold out for the good stuff. I had a Brother (plastic machine) and it was miserable. I thought sewing was the hardest thing in the world because the machine sucked! Then my grandmother gave me her second machine, a Singer, and it's awesome. My Singer has even let me learn to machine quilt a little and hasn't put up too much of a fight :-)

Is it August, Really??

I cannot believe how fast time has flown by over the past few months, let's play catch up fast.

What's happened over the past few months ....

- We moved into our new house (love the house, hate the stairs - mostly due to pregnancy I think)
- Unpacked, painted, settled in, etc ... actually, still working on this part.
- Found out we are having another girl - yay!!
- Bought a sit-n-stand double stroller (I still can't believe it myself)
- Had a birthday party for Sarah ... Strawberry Shortcake theme :-)
- Sarah learned to drive a PowerWheel, well, she learned everything except how to stop - is that really important...?
- Went to White Water with the family - yea, 7 kids - and found out that Sarah LOVES water slides and falls asleep in the lazy river!
- Went on family vacation to the beach and had a great time!
- Finally used that Moda jelly roll fabric to make a quilted baby car seat cover for the new little one (future post coming soon on this project, I am very excited about it!)

And that brings us to today, where I will be hopefully sewing some - depending on any two-year old fits that may come into the picture :-)

Yesterday, I found some unpainted wooden puzzles at Michael's on clearance for $1.49 each. They are PERFECT for Sarah so we are going to paint those together today. One has animals and the other has cars, trains, etc. Sarah has been asking for a paint brush since I brought them in the door yesterday - memory like an elephant!

We're expecting!

Yea, that was the news I couldn't wait to tell you about, LOL! We are due in early December and we're very excited.

Sewing news.....
My sewing machine probably has dust on it right now. I have had NO time to actually sit down and do something I want to do (which my hubby can probably tell you since I have been a grouch lately), but that's to be expected when you get no time to yourself. This is one of the first times I have gotton to sit at the computer for an extended period of time. I am waiting for Comcast to come and connect my cable (yea, I am mooching off someone that doesn't know how to add a password on their wireless). But my sewing room is coming together, hubby promised to put extra shelves in my AMAZING closet in here today so that means I can start unpacking and organizing my future favorite room of the house :-) WOO HOO!

I did order some really cool Moda fabric that might be here today or maybe Monday that I can't wait to get! I will probably do a small project like a gift project. I also still need to put binding on that cheaters baby quilt I made for my step sister. I bought some really soft fabric that I am going to also make her a tag blankie out of too. I didn't realize I had so much going all at once. Guess I better hurry and get organized so I can actually finish a project!

Moving .... chaos!

We are right in the middle of moving so there's nothing exciting going on to report. I will have updates on my new sewing room soon *insert ohhhs and ahhhs here* :-) LOL! Today was a pretty special day that I can't wait to tell you all about very soon *wink* :-)

Coupons!!!

Well, you will soon discover that I LOVE coupons and saving money! I will have lots of links here to great sites I visit daily. Coupons to me are like free money you get in the paper. If you opened the paper and a twenty dollar bill fell out, would you throw it away? I hope not, if you do you're welcome to mail it to me instead. When I go grocery shopping, if I don't cut my bill at LEAST in half with coupons, I am horribly upset. I have converted MANY family and friends to using coupons religiously so hopefully you'll catch on and want to save some money too! There are just too many freebies and deals out there to buy anything at full price! If you do, you're just stupid. Sorry, sometimes you just have to say the truth.

Quilting

So, I am learning to quilt. It's not really hard, just very time consuming. It is a lot of fun and relazxing too. I will post pictures and updates of projects along the way and welcome any feedback. I have so many ideas for projects too, let's make a list:
- Baby Bib Quilt: I want to take all of those "Baby's First ..." Bibs and make a quilt out of them. I can also use those stained onsies I just can't part with because of memories or other blankets, etc.
- T-Shirt Quilt: Use old T-shirts with logos, pictures, signatures, etc and create a quilt
- Wedding Ring Quilt: I just think these are very pretty, a classic quilt design
- 50th Anniversary Quilt: My grandparents celebrate their 50th at the end of this year. Don't worry, they don't have internet, so this isn't spoiling the surprise. I would like to print pictures onto that transfer paper you iron onto fabric and make a quilt showing their 50 years together. I know they would love this!

More to come!

My First BLOG

Woooh, my first blog. I guess I will just jump in the deep end here and start yapping:

I am trying to find a pintuck presser foot for my sewing machine. It's amazing how you learn something everyday. I have read the instruction book for my sewing machine cover to cover MANY times and yet today I learned about a whole new attachment I didn't even know about. I have been practicing out the wazoo doing automatic buttonholes. I am actually getting pretty good. Well, that's not too uncommon, right? Well, I have been doing it while fighting with the feed dogs, LOL! I just learned that my sewing machine has a little cover that I pop into place and it covers the feed dogs, making buttonholes a cinch. Now it makes sense how to do the embroidery they talk about in the manual.