It's Saturday....I went shopping.

I hate to shop, with a passion. I will sit at the computer for hours looking and deciding what to buy, then buy online. But, to get in a car and go from store to store is NOT me.

But, today was different. I went to the serger store, set up my appointment to have lessons on my serger, and check into what kind of threads I need. I have very little left of what came with the serger. They told me Joann's was the best place to buy the threads, so off I went to Joann's, 3 doors away.

They did not have an awful lot of colors available. I picked out white, cream, and medium light blue. This will last me a long time, and I use blue a lot so this one was a no brainer. I think from now on, everytime a Joann's 40 % off coupon shows up, I will head there for another cone of thread. I need 4 at a time for most everything. Also, I can use this on my sewing machine, killing 2 birds with one stone!!!!!

After that I went to my LNS, about 20 miles away. They had a 20% off everything sale today. I bought the Kooler Christmas stocking book. 15 patterns for 22.95 minus 20%. Looking thru it while eating lunch today, there are probably10 I would do. In June i'm going to start on my christmas stitching for next year. How is that for optimism???

Had lunch at Charlie's , they have excellent subs there, with french fries that have cheddar cheese and bacon bits on it. Talk about cholesterol...off the chart, but so good. I only eat there 2 or 3 times a year, because I always have an upset stomach afterwards. Worth it, the subs are fantastic.!!!!!!

After that Barnes and Noble was my next stop. I'm looking for a book on Serging patterns. Many people have told me that you can actually make a quilt with a serger. Didn't find anthing there to help me, just a few how to books on running the machine. I'll keep looking.

Well,gonna get going for now. Have to come up with some ideas for dinner. Hopefully something easy.

Good night for now everyone!

Joanie R.

Quilting is calling to me

For many months now, most of my friends have been trying to talk me into quilting. Now this is another hobby that requires a lot of money. I have been getting some of the tools needed here and there when Joann's has a 40 percent off coupon.

Well, for Chritmas I received a serger from my husband and son for Christmas. Now, I know that it is not required for quilting but have been told it can be quite handy. One of the reasons I wanted one, was to serge the outisde material of my cross stitching. Those loose threads coming unraveled all the time drive me nuts. I also worried if the material was just large enough to start with, if it unraveled it hurt the chances of a proper framing. I believe this way I just may be able to save a little bit of fabric here and there. It will be especially nice to use on linen, linen frays so badly, at least for me it does.

Back to the quilting song in my head. So, I have been on the computer checking out free patterns and there are thousands out there. I have been like a kid in the candy store. What to do, what to do??? I purchased a bunch of christmas material in late November when Joann's was having a 40 percent sale off all christmas material. I have so many ideas going thru my head. I'm thinking that maybe for my first attempt, it will be table cloths for serving of 6. I've never had more than 6 people at my house for dinner ever. Then maybe napkins to match. (serger for them, as soon as I learn how to use it more).

But, first the Christmas tree has to come down so that I have room to get my sewing machine out and not have to put it away every day. Out of sight, out of mind...isn't that the saying.

Well, off to study some more patterns....have a good evening one and all.