Seek and you shall find

 

Well, I had a moment of excitement yesterday. We had our machine embroidery class on the weekend, and we're talking about stabilizers because stabilizers are very important to machine embroidery. I suggested that we make samples, so I had dug out some rolls of stabilizers and made some samples for me!

Then I remembered in my drawer of stabilizers where I have many samples - perhaps some of those could be used rather than cutting into the rolls. Oh boy - be careful what you ask for! Look what I found. 

This stack is made up of SAMPLE packs that I have from three different companies. Well, I don't need the duplicates, so those will be given to someone else in our club. But seriously?? Why did I NEED so many samples? But at least, with all the cleaning and sorting, they were all in the sample place, and well - that just warmed my heart!

Sample packs of stabilizer

I store my rolls of stabilizer in a tub on top of that set of drawers, but here are the packs I've purchased over the years. Lots of different types!!!

A drawer filled with stabilizers

But then it got worse (better?). Look what I found. A stabilizer workbook that I paid $50 for! I sure hope that was Canadian rather than in US dollars. There are all kinds of exercises to do in the book, and all the fabrics and stabilizers are already included. AHA - I see I have something to keep me busy for a while. 

A stabilizer workbook

Then I found a Stabilizer Guide Wheel by Inspira. How neat is that? The type of fabric you want to embroider is on the outside, and you spin the wheel to see what stabilizer you need to use. I don't even remember buying this - it was years ago. They don't sell this any longer, and I'm not sure that it's totally up-to-date with all the stabilizers, but I'm sure most of what I would want is on the wheel. 

Stabilizer guide

I'm not done - I found a book on Inspira Stabilizers. All of the stabilizers and how to use them are in the book. Who knew that I had that? 

A book on stabilizers

So here's the thing - before we go off on a wild race to acquire something, perhaps we should look in our own studios?? In the old filing method (which was non-existent), I would never have found all this. But in mere seconds, I found a whole pile of handy information. More lunchtime reading!

Yesterday was Monday sewing, and I LOVE Monday sewing. We all get along, we have a lot of fun, Zoom allows other people to join who could never come to our physical sessions, and well - it's just the best. I managed to get some quilts trimmed, and the batting scraps dealt with. 

Then it was time to choose something to sew. I really should have been working on something with a priority, but no, I did not. Well, that's not true - M had asked me to make her a couple of masks, and I want to get her quilt in the mail, so I worked on the masks. They were, in fact, a priority, and they were on the current projects table.  

Two beautiful ones with red roses on them. Thanks to Mary, they have nose clips in them, and I bought the adjustable pieces of elastic from Oh Look Fabric. I love that I didn't have to buy a HUGE pack of them, I bought four sets, and I have one leftover at the moment. 

Two masks for M

Then a bit of a search to find the fabric to make a mask for DH. I knew it was on my current project table, but I couldn't find it on the first pass. I almost gave up and then thought I'd try again. Oh yes - there is was, stuck to a piece of batting. Obviously, I can't cut well, I needed to fussy cut the fabric, and I goofed on the first piece. So I decided to get creative and make half the mask with the fancy fabric (the wrongly cut part is on the inside), and the other half is black. I think it looks great and makes the novelty print stand out. 

Star Trek mask

So that's it for mask making for a while. Like I said, I have the fancy elastic pieces for one more mask and a few extra nose pieces. 

After we finished with Monday, it was off for the afternoon walk. And then back to the house for a snack. I decided to have a healthy snack and made myself a smoothie in the Vitamix. 

Making a smoothie in the Vitamix

Well, it turned out that I had to eat it with a  spoon. When I was putting the frozen raspberries in, a few too many fell in, and it was definitely too thick to drink with a  straw. That's OK - it was yummy -- almond milk, almond butter, protein powder, and frozen raspberries. 

My thick smoothie

Look who has a new job!! Yes - that is Mr. Bear, and he even has his tie on!!! The little monkey - he is so darn cute!!! 

Mr. Bear - ready for work

M starts a new job today from home, and here's her view from her desk. OK - so I'm super jealous. That looks gorgeous, and she can see the mountains from another direction. She's been on a cleaning kick just like me!! Yep - the apple didn't fall far from the tree at our houses! Good luck, M, on your first day!!!! 

M's desk ready for work

I'm in Toronto! Well, you all knew that! But on my walk across Canada, I'm now in Toronto and currently on the 400, which is a stupidly huge highway. The Google car must have gone down the road on a holiday as the road is practically empty. Usually, the highway, all 16 lanes (in some points), is jammed with cars and trucks. 

The 400 in Toronto

I see it snowed overnight, and it's a snow day! Seriously?? It doesn't look like that much snow, but I guess in light of many people not knowing how to drive in the snow, they canceled schools. 

I need to take a picture of the living room and all the quilts. M asked me yesterday if they were still sitting on the floor. Ah no. They are all over the house. I needed to take some pictures for one of my upcoming guild presentations, and well, it's like a hurricane went through that room. Piles and piles of quilts are everywhere!!

Let's just say that I was no longer cold after an hour of moving quilts around and taking pictures. I actually had to take my sweatshirt off, which is unheard of at my house!!

OK -- the more that I use the Google calendar and the task list, I love it. I can add items from my phone. I used to send myself an e-mail and then ignore it, but now the task comes up, and I see it on a list. Oh my -- I'm in love with that!!!!

So it's going to be a busy rest of the week. I have six store presentations, one guild presentation, and two classes, plus one presentation to sit in on. Oh yes - busy!!!  I'm partially prepped for them all, but some last-minute touches, which take forever! to add. 

I'll try to squeeze some time to go through more receipts, but now I'm hooked on reading a physical book about the justice (or lack thereof) system in the US. Wow -- it's unbelievable what has happened to people and how biased the judicial system is with less than model citizens.  

So what do you want to clean today? How about your stabilizers if you are into machine embroidery? Even if you do not do machine embroidery, you should have a stabilizer around the house, especially if you do machine applique. Gather the bits and pieces. Store them in bags or however you want, but take stock of what you have. You might even have some of those sample packs that I have. 

On that note, I'm off to trudge through the snow. The girls are currently outside, happily playing in the snow. I do not understand why they need to shuffle around the HUGE block on a leash, but if they don't go for a walk, they are depressed. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!