Things we need and don't

This one I got in the beginning of my quilting adventures, cause some more experienced people said they couldn't live without it. Well, let me tell you this - I think I only have used it 3 or 4 times during a 3 year period. It just lurks behind the curtain in the dining room, living a nice, quiet and un-stressfull life.

This one I forgot to put in the last post, but this one came home with me last weekend. Now the best iron I ever owned was a Philips that you could use with or without the cord. I would never ever bought a new one if I hadn't dropped it on the floor and the water tank started to leak at the bottom. So I bought a Tefal (high on Ws) and even though I'm not that fond if it, it did it's work except that it started to go strange on the thermostat and burned some of the muslin pieces on the DWR quilt = GRRR!!! And then a piece at the very top broke of the water tank and the silicon that held it all tank to the iron kind of hardened and started to crack, so water dripped out while ironing = more GRRRR.

So I found this beauty, a Braun with an attachable sole for garment ironing. Now that is what I call innovative - one sole for quilting and one for clothes:-) And it has a 8 seconds timer, that is if you don't touch the iron for 8 seconds, the thermostat shuts it of and when you move the iron, it get back on. Now there must be some real thinking people at Braun, thats for sure. Just hope that the water tank holds better on this one ;-)

A gifted week ;-9

When I met The DH he told me that if I was looking for someone to bring me flowers and trinkets, I looked at the wrong guy. And he has been true to his word...until Friday last week (16th wedding anniversary) he came home with this beautiful bouquet :

and was mighty pleased with himself surprising the socks of me. So he did get a kiss or two ;-) Not to be misunderstood - he do get me a gift for my birthday, but that's about it. The presents for the rest of the year, I pick out myself .

Then a friend from M1800Riders came by to pick up some stuff and he brought me a gift:

from him and his wife. Why?? Christmas came and went and my birthday is a long time away...The reason was kind of too personal to post here, but let's just say I got it cause I'm nice, kind and caring, which might come as a surprise to some ROTFLMAO. The carafe is from Eva Solo and is glass with some stainless steel and a zippered neoprene coat. I really truly like it.

I also got a package in the mail yesterday, the cone stand I wrote about . I did bring out an ordinary screwdriver to adhere it to the Horizon, but it was way to large to work. So I used the small screwdriver that comes with the machine (the regular one, not the flat) and after soma wiggling, I managed to get it into place:

It comes with some (at first glance) strange things - two of them plastic comes and two pair of nylon nets to put over the cone of thread.....I have not tried them yet, but will later today. Edited: I did finally understand what these cone shaped "cage" like things where good for - they make the thread wound of evenly instead of the whole cone going like a merrygoround.

You also get two nets that you supposedly should put on the cone of thread, but dang if I can get it to work. When I got the net in place, the thread got cought inside it and broke.

The arial is at it's middle position in the picture, but you can raise it half that length further. Why you would/need that, is beyond me ;-)

To make the thread run smoother, Janome has added a small thing that you put into the whole for the extra thread holder that comes with the machine:

After much trying I thought it was impossible to manage to get that little metal thingee to fit into that hole, but at last I was firm and gave it a real good push and reluctantly it slid into place.

If you ask me, I think it's a shame that the people at Janome didn't figure it out this from the start, that a machine for people who quilt, need to have a stand that can hold large cones of thread attached to the machine from start. Now this add on do work (although getting the screws into place......well let's just say I'm convinced that the person who came up with this solution must be of the male sex :-O) But why as customers/users have to pay for something they missed in the first place? Since the price is so low (even here in Sweden :-0) they can't earn very much from it, so why not offer it for free? Nobody who don'w have a Horizon can get any use from it - or??

Well it's laundry time (sucks) and re-sew some pieces on one of the set of place mats and hopeful there will even be time for some quilting.

Glorious sunny day although a bit windy. You might start believe that spring will actually arrive sometime in the not to distance future,

Cones

The Horizon has one fault, the spool holder (s) can't hold cones, just small ordinary spools. And when you quilt, using these tiny things isn't an option, you would be ruined :-O I have used the sneak version of putting the spool in a bowl at the right side of the machine, but when spooling the bobbin, it get all tangled up. So the kind people at the Horizon group at Yahoo told me there is an add on to buy that mimics the holders and arial that was on the 6600MC, I asked my friendly dealer to order me one and today it arrived in the mail = hurray. I haven't screwed it in place just yet, but later on I'm going to bring out the screwdriver and get going and as far as I can see at the back of the box, it's going to look like the setup on the 6600 = yayyyy.

It's gray, a bit of a wind and it rained a while ago. Hmm, better rain than snow, that's for sure cause then maybe the huge amount of snow we have will melt away? I have a weekend of umpteenth loads of laundry to do - gahhhh, how boring. And John, my "baby" turns 12 today, time flies ;-D

Miss spell ;-P

When I back read my posts I find a lot of misspells here and there and that's not because I'm so danged bad at writing, but the automatic spellcheck that wrecks havoc with some words. And since it has checked the word, it doesn't come up underlined in red and I don't notice it. Bummer :-(

Just one more set of tops to go (placentas - HAHAHAHA, damned spellcheck, it is PLACEMATS!!!) and I'm going to start sandwiching and quilting them :-)

African dogs

Yup,  my girls are true to their origin (Rhodesian Ridgebacks aka Africa Liondogs) and bask in the sun at every opportunity they get. Just have to be glad there is no lionlike creatures at this part of the world:-)

UFOs

I don't know but you, but I hate to have's. Since I am such a Ms Goodie Twoshoes, there aren't very many of them in my house, but those who lurks there galls me everytime I come across them. That headboard cover I started before I did the DWR for my MIL, has been hanging on the back of the chair in my studio and I feel absolutely no drive to finish it. And a sad thing that is, since it is a very good looking thing...

But I do have two projects that are even older than that, a collection of table mats and a top I made from one of Eleanor Burns books - Quick Trip I think it's called (the book that is). The mats I made tow of each colorings in the same design, enough of them to go around our humongous dinner table in case of family dinners. I finished 4, the rest of the tiny tops has been laying there unsandwiched. Until yesterday when I finally came to the "enough is enough" bend of the road. It suddenly struck me - here I have this fancy new machine - let's take it for a real spin. Said and done, sandwiched with spray glue and them four different stitches with the same King Tut variegated thread and then a quite suiting binding. The result:

The thing is - I can't tell for sure whatever went through my mind when I chooses the fabrics for the others - I mean, I think I sued every color scheme there is, like purple and yellow, lilac and pastels, blues,  dark green with yellow.....How could I even think they would work together on a dinner table???? Well, since I like the colors of this India inspired mat, I think I'm going to start over and make them two of each more in the same colors, but different fabrics and layout. After that I just need to get some new table ware, I mean blue olive leaves on white plates don't go very well with red and yellows - does it?? 

Minus 16C and bright sunshine. The dogs and The DH came back after less than 15 minutes ;-)

Happiness in form of metal casing?

Now this may sound ridiculous to some, but I think I'm "in love" (well it is Valentines day tomorrow, isn't it??) with the new fancy Horizon. Not that I have had the time or energy to take it on a real quilting test round yet, but I have tested a lot of the 250 or so different stitches.

And just look at them!!! I must say that IMHO that the quality of these stitches are miles apart from the ones that the Janome 6600MC produced. Here I was thinking that machine was pretty good, but compared to the Horeizon after just and hour or so,  I can see a remarkable difference. 

The automatic thread cutter is silent like a lamb LOL. The automatic threader stays locked until the thread is threaded , the lightning is fantastic (even The DH commented on it), the steering knob and the stylo pen......and the very large acrylic table. Not to mention the speed at it sew all these stitches:-O And the fact that it takes to metallic threads umpteenth times better than the 6600 which  refused to do it without shredding the thread to pieces every 5cm or so, make me real happy.

You know, I haven't sewn any garments in ages, mostly due to the fact that the 6600 didn't have a free arm, making it virtually impossible to sew in sleeves etc. But the Horizon do have one (that easily can be converted back and fro to a solid table) and sitting there sewing all them different stitches, I felt a twinge of desire to sew something else than quilts - a nice shirt decorated with ton in tone silky thread and different stitches maybe? Need to Google and see if I can find any nice and working patterns.

The creative possibilities are endless, so much that right now I suffer from a sewing block - hehehe.