You know it's a good day when.......

I'm back in LOVE with my long arm. I still don't trust it, but I love it.

I started the morning off with a phone call to Bell. All of our services are with the one company so we can save some money. I have to admit that I don't usually check the bill on a regular basis, but I thought I had better and I was feeling like I actually had a few spare minutes to do some paperwork.
Hmm - do we really need all this stuff on the bill???  The MovieNetwork - why are we paying for that? We never watch it - well, I certainly don't and a quick check with DH and NOPE - he doesn't watch it either. GONE. My MIL's phone bill is consolidated onto our bill and we were paying for a service for her that she no longer uses. GONE. We had two landlines for our house. One of those - GONE.

Total savings?  $43.98 (plus tax) per month. That was TEN PERCENT of our monthly bill (remember ALL our services are on the same bill!)  I know - it's a crazy amount to pay for cable/internet and phone and that's not counting our cell phones. Granted it's for two households (at least the telephone part). Yes - I know lots of people are getting rid of their landline and we should at some point. Old habits die hard and while I don't answer that phone, I still get calls (voicemails) from time to time. So it's time to start weaning myself off that phone and use my cell.

Phew - that felt good to get that done. I need to call about my cell phone and see if I can nick off a few bucks from that one as well. And after that - we need a budget. I'm looking at what we spend per month on stuff and seriously????  We need a budget.

Then it was off to the long arm. I still wasn't convinced as to how to finish off that quilt. I just fired the long arm up and did one more trial run using the Sharpie and clear cellophane on the quilt top and then I was off. Two hours later, I was done and the more I quilted that quilt, the more I LOVED what I was doing. The quilting is awesome. Sorry - I can't share it with you but you'll see it soon enough in a magazine. And ZERO issues with the long arm. GRRR!

I did get the binding on it later in the day and just have to hand stitch a sleeve to the top. I will give you one clue about this quilt - there is ZERO quilting cotton in it. Anyway - it'll be nice to get that off to the courier this morning.

In case you think that only new quilters or those new to machine quilting need to spend time figuring out the quilting pattern, the answer is an emphatic NO! I do a lot of work on paper before I start to quilt whether it's on the long arm or the domestic (unless I'm doing a pantograph - but I still spend time choosing and setting up the pantograph. This is just one of my VERY rough sketches for the quilting. It doesn't need to be pretty - it just needs to make sense. So the next time, you're not sure how to quilt a quilt - get out some scrap paper and a pen (or pencil) and start fiddling around. It's really not that hard. OH - and I had a peek at some of my quilting books to get some inspiration.

Quick sketches of quilting designs

 I know from watching my online class that my new software is going to be awesome for doing designing. I'm a LONG way from doing that at the moment. That software is very complex and can do much stuff that I'm no way able to even scratch the surface at the moment. But I know what it can do and when I'm ready, I'll dive into the videos and other tools to check it out.

The computer software is hooked back up (I did a couple of custom quilts so no software needed) and the next quilt is almost loaded. I'll be watching it like a hawk to make sure that the machine doesn't go crazy on me.

While I was watching the video, I did a bit of embroidery and LOOK - I finished one more block on the Winter Wonderland quilt. There are only THREE blocks left.

Embroidery block - DONE

The quilt on the design wall is over half sewn together and looks awesome. That one was made with a precut which is VERY hard to design around. I'm very picky how I work with precuts so it was an interesting experiment and the end result is very impressive if I do say so myself.

I took a walk to Loblaws so I could pick up some more liquid calcium. While I was there, I browsed the Joe Fresh clothing section. Hm - a couple of interesting things. Tried on five things (I HATE shopping for clothes) and bought two items. Pair of pants for $10 - you can't go wrong there. I tried on a dress and well - I just don't look good in dresses. It's all in my head - I get that!!!! Maybe a skirt would be a good way to start?

While I was there, I was looking for the Zoomer magazine in the magazine section. Obviously, I'm not good at taking photos because I took a photo and when I went to get it this morning off my phone - NO photo. I couldn't find the Zoomer magazine. Why?? Because it wasn't on the racks. NOPE - it was in one of those FEATURE holders so it was right out front. Now how could I have missed that? Anyway - I got my picture of Laura. I'm a wee bit disappointed in that these features appear to be only a one-page ad for the organization - in this case, The Canadian Quilter's Association. That's great, but it would have been nice to see more than one picture of our amazing Laura. I bought the magazine because it's for my "age category" and well - why not check it out. I've never looked at it before.

But as I walked into Loblaw's, I saw this. No wonder no one will buy a quilt. Not when you can buy a King Size comforter set for this price. And let's not forget that we live in a throw away society. You don't want to throw away a quilt that you paid big dollars for. But you can use this bed cover for a season and then get a new one. Don't make or give quilts to people (espcially as wedding gifts unless you know for CERTAIN that they will appreciate them and have some idea of how much time it took to make).  You can barely buy the backing for a king quilt for this price.

King size comforter sets!!!

So while I was having lunch, I was perusing a couple of magazines that I got from the library. I know why? when I have so many magazines at home that need to be read.

The magazine is called Country Living and it was their Creativity Issue so links to lots of MAKERS.  Oh boy - can you believe some of this stuff? Have a look at this. Does anyone remember string art? Who knew it was making a comeback? I used to do that when I was a teenager. There's a bike one - I'm tempted, but NO - I don't have time to make it nor the place to hang it. But they are neat!!!!

Another thing that's huge that we used to do when I was a kid. Paint by number!!!!  Who knew? And macrame is also making a huge comeback.

Or how about this one. It's a tiny little camper. It's pretty cute.

Some of the web sites are pretty cool - obviously, I didn't check them all out. But this one looks interesting and I would LOVE to buy an old brick building and make it into a studio. Oh - I'd have someone else make it into a studio. Although in the magazine, they showed a picture where the DIYer had made a honeycomb on a bedroom wall using small pieces of wood. Hm - I see dust catchers!!!!  I'm just way too damn practical or maybe I'm just too lazy.

There were many others - lots of paper crafters and an event planner who hosted sewing days with friends, but the set up was a tad too frou frou for me. Let's get sewing!!!! They mostly do weddings.

I wonder how much these people make for a living when they sell their crafts?? And who the heck buys some of this crafty stuff?  And what do they do with it?

Enough messing around. I've got to get the day started. I'm feeling so in control that I might just go to yoga class today.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!