Month: May 2017

I’ve got goodies

I had a fun two days. First I had a friend with a long arm quilting machine baste my Carpenter’s Square queen sized quilt. It is wonderful! See how even the backing lies? No puckers, no wrinkles even with the fluffy wool batting. 

Any little wrinkles that show on the picture are because I had it partially draped on my ironing board. She used water soluble thread, a basting stitch about 1/2″ long, and programmed 5″ squares. She said she cussed at the thread for a little while until she got it working, but she is more than willing to do this on additional quilts for me or others.

While we were chatting, she mentioned she has a company that makes assorted quilting “stuff.” In particular, she has a new model of bobbin wonder that is programmable for up to two different bobbin types. I just hate my old-style Handiquilter bobbin winder so I was intrigued. She and her husband showed me how it worked, and I was hooked; I bought one right there on the spot. I have since tried it at home on my Handiquilter and my Happy multineedle embroidery machine. It winds both types of bobbins (Class M and Class L) perfectly. She has also wound Featherweight bobbins on it. My FW bobbin winder is getting difficult to use; after all it is made out of rubber and is over 60 years old (1952 model).

I left the snippers on it for size. The copper wire guides the thread to the tension assembly. It is so neat and clean compared to my old bobbin winder. If anyone is interested in her stuff, either quilting or quilting accessories, she can be found at www.fancyquilt.com (I wish I could make that a hot link – sorry). I highly recommend her products.

I also got a combination cup holder and mini trash can at my Bernina dealer when I was at the embroidery software class. I am always worried about spilling a cup of coffee or tea in the sewing studio, and I never have a trash can close enough. This hits two birds with one stone. I figure it will really be wonderful to take to sewing get together or classes. It screws on the edge of a table, and the cup part is HUGE, over 4″ inside diameter. It should easily hold even an insulated water bottle.

I should have more fun things tomorrow to show off after I attend the Utah Quilting and Sewing Marketplace show. I will help staff the American Sewing Guild booth in the morning, then I get to shop and look at the show quilts. So far I just have boring things to buy (needles and bobbins), but I probably will find something fun to get in addition; I usually do.

On the Instant Pot front, we had a great stuffed pepper casserole last night. The night before we made pork chops in the Anova sous vide again. We have been eating quite well.

Getting ready

We have been at home for a very long time – since mid February! However a new trip is coming up, and we are getting things ready. Kevin is continuing to rehab, visiting the PT three times a week until we leave on Tuesday. It is helping, so we should be able to take a lot of nice bike rides in California. I bought a new camera to take along too!

Note this one is waterproof. I like the water, and I have lost two cameras to it. One was in the Great Salt Lake and one on a river. Sigh. I should have learned my lesson after the first one. The new camera has all kinds of bells and whistles my 4 year old camera doesn’t, so it will probably be my main one now. I am not a sophisticated photographer, so I like point and shoot cameras.

We did go out on Sunday to see the bison babies at Antelope Island State Park. The park had posted on Facebook the nursery herd had moved to the east side where the roads are, and we were hoping to see lots of the little “red dogs.” Sadly we saw nothing except 15 – 20 solitary males. We did get a nice lunch out of it (take out Chinese eaten in the car) and some good sightseeing. I also got bit by one of the nasty biting gnats out right now. Those things love me, and they generally bite my scalp. I only was out of the car for a minute putting trash in a can. Sigh. This the view from the east side of the island across Farmington Bay to the Wasatch Mountains. The snow line is probably about 8500′. The lake is about 4200′.

Taken with my iPhone camera so not as nice as the new camera will be (I hope).

This morning I am just enjoying a delicious spring day on my front porch. It has been rainy for weeks it seems! We have gotten almost half our annual rainfall in the last 3 months, so I am looking forward to forecasted dry weather. Kevin says he isn’t even going to try out the sprinklers until June. We have so much water in the soil he won’t need to.