This is a giant load of post, kiddies. Changes have been afoot, and trips have been taken, and general mayhem has been achieved. Without the mayhem. Whatever. There has been STUFF! GOING! ON! Like massive amounts of tote-bag-makery. And a small bit of quilt-beginning. And a decent amount of fabric-shoppery, but I am getting ahead of myself. First things first: The internet kindof likes me. A little. Not like we're dating, or anything, but every once ahd a while the webs are dropping hints that they thing I am not so bad. You know google alerts? The little things you can set to see if people talk about you on the internet? If you are vain and silly, as I am? Well, 99.9% of "aunt june" google alerts are obituaries. There are a lot of beloved and dead aunt Junes out there, and I get emails every day telling me about them. But this past week, there have been a smattering of non-dead-aunt references, references to little old me, and it is always surprising.Like most creative people, I think, I swing between the two extremes of, "I am AWESOME! Bow down to my awesomeness! Or at least, my general okay-ness!" and "ohmylord i am a hack and why would anyone be interested in me and am i even doing good work and is it original and where is it going and should i get a real job because i am only qualified for retail and i will miss not working saturdays ohcrapohcrapohcrap." Which, I am not saying this to garner pity, or have anyone reassure me, but I just think it is a phenomenon a lot of us go through, and it evens itself out generally, but it is why it is SUPER helpful to occasionally get the ol' interweb pat on the back from someone who is NOT your mother. This paragraph was supposed to have been, like, one sentence. Ahwell. The point, I think, was if you want to read about how generally ok a few other people think what I make is, you should go check out the awesome, really nice write-up Gwyneth, The Daring Librarian, did on the new Overdue Book Calendar. Which is out, and which I will eventually post about, but she did a better job than me anyways. Caitlin has been making some clutches from my bike fabric, and she and I are also going to be in a booth together at an upcoming local craft show, so yay for quilt guild friends! Also, Karla of ZAPOLDesigns wrote a little post on one of my bags. And then, there was a nice little mention of the calendar again on ohdeedoh! Thanks, guys, for putting a smile on my face!
Ok. So. Early last week this was the way my sewing table looked, and I had no reason to think that it would ever change.
This is the view now. What happens is, you start hanging out with the wrong kind of people (Bernina dealers) and then all of a sudden, BAM. My friend and fellow KCMQG officer, Jaime, told me about some pre-owned mechanical Bernina's they were going to be getting, and would I like to take one for a spin? Initially I was all, pshh, naw, but then THE BEST HUSBAND EVER made me an offer I couldn't refuse--- a combined anniversary/birthday/Christmas gift.
But I was still not sure, because, folks, I hate change. And learning new things. And so when I went to the Bernina store Jaime works at last Tuesday, I was seriously hoping that I wouldn't like this machine any more than the beloved Viking, and that would be that, but people. Berninas, they are THE STUFF, and I had heard others say it, but a few minutes into the demo, I knew it to be the truth.
This machine is a workhorse, not fancy, but it can do so many things so easily, and it is all so PRECISE and POWERFUL and SWISS and whatnot. I love it, I really do. I cannot yet bring myself to give up the Viking, though, for a lot of sentimental reasons... I still feel like a bit of a traitor, especially since I absolutely love that machine and was super happy with it.
I meant to put a lot more stuff in this post, but I am getting the 7:00 lazies, and I want to go watch the fourth season of Dexter on dvd, so I will save the rest of it for the near future. Teaser? I go to someone's house, and I SEW! And then I go to a fabric store, and I BUY! When I write it down like that, it honestly doesn't sound too interesting, but it is? Mildly? To me anyway?
Baxter says hi, by the way, from the ugliest chair in the world.
