A full, but enjoyable, Saturday

I figured the best place to start is at the beginnig of the day today....

Today was the 5K race in Baldwin, WI and was the first race for my co-worker, Jan (pictured middle). I could make an entire post just on the race itself, and how SILLY Jan was talking. "I may just be having the 'big-one' (heart-attack) here......" "I'll be fine just as long as I beat that wiener-dog to the finish line......" "HOW far away is that finish line yet? I don't think I'm gonna make it--you and Julie are going to have to carry me to the finish line, or at least roll me!"..... Oh ----she was a hoot! I won't say this too loudly (in case she's listening), but the race for me was very fun, nice and RELAXING! The pace was at a much slower-than-normal-pace for me; my only goal of the day was get Jan to the finish. So, at 34:14, she crossed the line! Yeah :0) AND, we met her goal of NO walking (outside of the teeeeny-tiny .1 mile up-hill portion).

After a little relaxing and watching the awards ceremony, we hit the road to head back home. However, I took a slight detour to get to Rice Lake to test-drive the Janome6600. I sadly didn't have much time (only about 30 minutes), and that was BARELY enough for me to get out all my questions to Angie, the sales lady. But, I at least have a bit of an idea about the 6600 BEFORE travelling THREE HOURS to Rhinelander tomorrow to try out the Bernina440QE. (Yeah---I only thought it was TWO hours away, but good 'ol Mapquest.com quoted me just shy of 3 hours!!! UGH!) BUT---I have a baby-sitter lined up for the day, so I should be able to relax and just ENJOY! My game plan is to head out around 8:30 am, arrive just before noon, and "play" until WHENEVER (most likely 2-3 hours---they close at 3:00 pm).

Anyway....more about that when I get back home tomorrow....back to today.

Once I got home and after a quick lunch, I headed downstairs with one goal in mind......clean up the mess of scraps under the ironing board. I was off to a great start---a good hour and a half! Ironing, cutting using the Scrap-Users-System. Sadly, I BARELY made a dent! So, I took a break, had a snack, and checked into the Quiltville chat for half an hour.

Then.....Cassie asked if she could have some Wafer cookies that were in the cupboard. Not a problem......... A few minutes later, she said...."Hey mom--look! Isn't this neat?" And I'll tell ya, inspiration strikes at the most ackward times! I HAD to grab the camera and snap a pic


---because I didn't see cookies. I saw a BLOCK!
So.................You can probably WELL imagine what I did then!!!.........
And these are only a start. I have a pile behind the machine right now of LOADS of pieced strips, ready to be cut. I don't have a layout completely in mind, yet. However, this at least gave me the opportunity to tackle that pile of scraps a bit more. I'm using all scraps of pink, orange and brown---simply because I don't have enough of any one fabric of orange or brown. GOLLY---as if we haven't had enough orange already!!!

Oh yes....and last night (once I finally stepped away from the computer for an hour), I came across my left over CC rail blocks. So, I was in the mood to putz.....and I pieced them into these blocks. I have 16 complete blocks from my left-overs; so I'll just make a simple wall quilt for my sewing space (or I'll gift it to my mom, since she has the CC quilt.)

Railfence background choices...
Flowered brown











Green













More Railfence background choices.
Light yellow












BRIGHT Pink










And here is a shot of all 16 blocks on the green, which I'm leaning toward. However, seeing that pink in a photo is having me reconsider. If you feel like sharing, please leave a "vote" of your choice as a comment. THANKS!



So, it's been a NICE, relaxing "playing" day. AND.....I'm still trying to contain my excitement of my day ahead tomorrow. ALSO, because of my latest "push" for a new machine, the OC quilt and wall-hanging have been folded up and will wait for quilting until I am comfortable with my new machine (WHICHEVER it may be.)
This is another quilt that might get ripped out and re-quilted. I do not like how it turned out. I adore the top, but the quilting just is "blah." I think PART of the reason is the batting is too thick and "poofy."

Anyway.....I think that's enough to read for now. You can count on me bloggin tomorrow evening about how the test-run went. *sigh*......tomorrow is so far away!

Patient and Disciplined Researcher today---but trying to NOT be impulsive on a new machine is HARD to do

Well folks----it's 4:00 in the afternoon and my research started at 5:45 this morning for a new sewing/quilting machine! It hasn't been completely uninterupted----I DID make it downstairs for about an hour before lunch. If I didn't, I would have just Clicked the stinkin' BUY button on this Janome 4400. Selling for $699.00 seemed SUCH a good buy----BUT, I was disciplined. I KNEW I needed to really research my options ......

so....most of the morning consisted of mannnnny Janome sites after excluding the Bernina's. Trust me---(I think I even posted my 'passion' on Quiltville this morning)---If I suddenly won the lottery, my ULTIMATE dream machine would be the Bernina 440QE (stitch regulator and all the bells-n-whistles). But----**sigh**---- WAAAAY too expensive ($3500**GULP**).

My Janome choices were narrowed down to the 4400, 4800QE, and the 6600 within an hour. THEN came a couple of hours of searching through reviews on the three machines. A great website for reviews: PatternReviews.com. Bottom-line---even though the 6600 seemed to be top of the line of the three, I just couldn't see the price vs. some of the downfalls of the machine (~$1500.00). The big PRO about the 6600----harp size (bed size) is 9 whopping inches instead of the 7" standard. The big CON seems to be the plate and fabric always getting "pushed" down into the bobbin housing. So, by lunch, I had narrowed my list to basically the 4800QE or the 4400.

Then, when I came back online after lunch, there was an email from a lady an hour north of me---she has the 4800, but suggested the 6600 since her sister and mother each have one and love it. After a few emails back-n-forth, she informed me that a quilt shop 30 minutes away carries Janome's. So---phone call to the quilt shop. They carry the 6600 for $1599.00, but not the 4900 (replaced the 4800). However, she said it wouldn't be a problem to order a 4900 ($1100.00) if that was my final choice. So--my hope tomorrow is to go to the shop after my 5K race (will update about that later) before it closes to try out the 6600.

And that's where I left things for about an hour.

Then came another email. This one from the southern part of the state, an hour away from my "home-town." She informed me that the LQS was closing and selling Bernina's at reduced prices. I thanked her kindly for the information, but dismissed it without a second thought. Until, 30 minutes later----and I figured I'd just call to see what the prices were dropped to....

So--phone call to the shop, and the owner answered. Come to find out, she was closing THAT shop, but keeping her OTHER one open that is MUCH closer to me (2 hours versus 4 hours away). I mainly asked her about the Bernina 440QE, but also asked about the 430, (since that is was Angela purchased). She was all out of the 430's but quoted me $2924.00 for the 440. *GULP* Yeah right----

and then...

...."oh, I also offer a 15 month/no interest finance plan."

Aghhhhhhhhhh!! She just HAD to put that little tid-bit in!!!! So my mathematical mind was saying..."WOW---that's affordable now---really, it's only about $200/month---ask more about it....."

So, another 15 minutes of conversation lead to directions to her other store and a meeting time of noon at her other store to "test run" the 440.

DH Paul just got home, and after giving him the "short version" of the day's research, he said "Duh---get it."

To be continued....