Happy Valentine's Day

Aren't these the cutest heart drawings? Thanks to Margo for sharing this site. These are free pdf images you can download and have fun playing with in your Bernina embroidery software. Click here to go to the site where you can download each one individually.

BUNNYHILL

The second pattern for Bunnyhill's 2010 free pattern block of the month is posted. This year it's a collection of darling snowman designs. I think it will be hard to beat the popularity she gained with the 2009 free one but I'm sure this will be enjoyed by lots of us. Those patterns were just the cutest and we eagerly awaited the unveiling of the newest block.

Are you doing these by hand or are you using your embroidery software to stitch block using your embroidery machine?

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU...

Had a customer in the BSR class today that had her machine for 2 years and had never used the BSR on her machine. When was the last time you "BSR'D"?

Do you have a favorite of the 3 small feet that attach? I think mine is the open toe attachment. I used the BSR on the 830 this am to do some embellishment stitching on some applique. I used it in quilting around the heart in the mystery quilt. I did finish the quilt and it rests on the back of my Husbands chair, where he knows it's there. I still need to sew the quilt block on it but I had to move on to other things and now those other things are done so I need to get that done before I lose it! I used the BSR on the wildflowers applique quilt - remember that one? I think we all did that one. I think Bob won a ribbon on that one in the Quilt Show - know he entered it for judging the same year I entered mine just for display. I used it to quilt around the flowers, and actually used it to add dimension stitching on leaves and flower parts. With the clear or smokey monofilament thread you can really do some fun thread work on your projects. I'll tell you if you haven't tried the smokey color choice do yourself a favor and try it - it's totally amazing what you can use that one and it just blends in so well.

MYSTERY QUILT PHOTOS

sI'm so bad - I have these photos that you all sent me and I got behind and didn't post.

Debbie Yadon, Me and Mom. In case we haven't told you, Deb is nearly a realtive - I think it goes like this. She was related to the man my sister in law was married to before she married my brother. So it's the thing about we're all connected in degrees. Not nearly as interesting as the Senator Brown from Massachusets being like a 10th cousin to President Obama =), but similar. We're fresh eyed because we've just gotten setup and haven't even started sewing yet.

Here is Mary's completed top. I know, Mary wasn't in class. That's because she had shingles in the eye - hope I got that right. So of course she was not feeling like being in class. I sent her the instructions after class and she was able to put it together at home. I really like the fabrics and colors that she selected. Shades of purple, how could you go wrong!

Show the group having a good time. I can't remember if this was before lunch.

Here is Mom and Patty Young focusing on one of the construction steps.

Here's a shot of the some at the triming phase of one of the steps.

Here's our Jill. Jill really was not ostrasized but arrived a little late so this was the only spot  available. Jill has a party even when she's the only one there. She is such a special person and we enjoy having her as our newest teacher at Strawberry Patches. I enjoyed being able to chat with her and everyone else during the class that day!

I think this was Shelly's block. She sat next to Patty so I hope I remembered correctly.

I thought I had taken a picture of us in our tiaras but couldn't find it after all. But we all got to wear 2010 tiaras after we came back from our pizza luncheon.

SAY IT LIKE IT IS

Well, isn't that special!! My husband and I already have seats at the Bakersfield Conference in October. This is the first one that we've attended and the line up of speakers should prove to be a full day of good speakers and world news. I keep telling him you can't complain unless your willing to roll up your sleeves and get involved so we'll see.

Back to embroidery - Loralie designs has a new free design. When I looked at their folder of free designs I saw a few more that appeared new to me so check them out here.

ORGAN needles - have I said lately how much I like these needles for embroidery? If you're not using them you should buy a package of needles and try them out. I use the titanium needles and they really do last longer than the regular needles.

I almost forgot about this. Maybe if I put it in print I won't forget again. I received a Christmas card from a vendor at work in December and in it they had included this small gift. The gift was a cell phone holder that you put together. Well, it's something that we can do as an embroidery project! I drew the pattern and when I went to scan it realized the software for capturing scans to my laptop had disappeared. I'll have try this with version 6 and see if it works any better.

Enjoy your week end and hope you don't have too much wagered on the game tomorrow. I split a square with 5 other gals so our outlay was minimal.

OESD SALE

OESD had a sale that ended Jan 31st but I just checked and was happy to see that some of the design collections I wanted to order are still available. If you haven't seen this click here and you can see what's available. They are only $30 each - cd, artista memory card or memory stick. Not all choices for each collection but 3 of the ones I wanted are still available. That's a pretty good savings! SO CHECK IT OUT!!

I'm HERE!!!

Wow, January was packed full of fun things. We're trying to get the Software Sampler going at the shop and well, Bernina just isn't cooperating. We'll get it worked out though. Hopefully you were able to attend our bi-annual quilt show for the Bakersfield CottonPatch Quilters. I'm not sure yet what the attendance was but Saturday was pretty darn busy! We had about 188 quilts this year, which was down a few from the previous show but that still is a lot of quilts. I tell you, there are a lot of very talented quilt makers in this town. Wow! Everytime I walked down the isles I saw a quilt or two that I hadn't noticed before. This year we had a photographer record each quilt and sold them on a dvd for $7. I just finally had a chance to watch mine last night and it was pretty good, and especially for that price. Again, I saw pictures of quilts that I did not remember seeing at the show. I saw him photographing the quilts so unless we had fairies come in and swap out the quilts they had to have been there!!
I finally entered a quilt that I created for judging in this years show. I was soo surprised to see a blue ribbon pinned to my quilt Friday while getting the show setup! Wow!! I am so excited because this quilt was started as a project for a software class at the shop. And then it turned out earning a ribbon, just amazing. Anyway, the original intend was a software class to explore using the pattern outline function of our awesome Bernina embroidery software. I realize that not everyone has the software so will have to get busy and package the embroidery designs for those folks to purchase. I could go on and on about the software and this function but guess I'd better save some of that for the class. Can you believe that the quilt judge even complimented me on the stitches I used on the quilt!
So now January is gone and we're about at the end of February and Valentine's Day will be here before we now it. Better get something special for your Sweetie!
My sister is moving back from Ohio in May so it will be nice to have a sister close. She sews too but embroidery is totally new for her so we'll see how we can get her going. She works from home as a medical transcriptionist for a hospital in Michigan. We were talking on skype Monday night and she was telling me about some of her ghost experiences in her house. It was built in the 1920's so imagine there might be 1 or 2 around. Her house is one of those Sears catalog houses you may have heard about that were out during those times. She's had enough cold weather and they are putting the house up for sale and moving out. So she's moving in May and the hubby is staying there to get the house sold.