Hello Bernina 830

I finally got to buy a Bernina 830 sewing/embroidery machine. I'd been wanting one for several months. After the last payment was made (to me) on a farm I sold, I splurged & bought one. Yesterday (Thursday) I took the first class on it & found it to be remarkably similar to my old 165 machine. My Dear Hubby is building a cabinet/table for it this weekend, at least he promised he would. The 830 with embroidery module attached is too big to fit on the drafting table I planned to put it on. The table is also too tall for it. I even have some embroidery work lined up at my bank. I opened the embroidery unit to find the foot for it was missing. I called the quilt shop where I got it & they said they'd get me one quickly. They also threw in the mega hoop and the jumbo hoop, plus 27 hours of classes and free lifetime refresher classes. That's one heck of a deal. The hoops and the classes alone are worth about $1200 or so. Can't beat it. Now I have 2 fantastic machines to use, the 830 jumbo hoop will allow to embroider large designs like the entire back of a jacket or shirt. It may take several hours to do, but it is possible. The 830 is probably the last machine I'll ever buy, or need , for that matter. I may need to upgrade my embroidery software to go along with the new machine. I'll try it with version 5 first. Now I feel that I have all the equipment I'll ever need to be truly creative. Stay tuned to see what I create next.

New Project Series

This is the first (still in progress) or a series I call "Kitchen Witches". Each little quilt will depict a "Kitchen Witch" in different aspects of the kitchen, baking, vegies, meat, poultry, cleaning, general cooking, etc. The approximate size will be 18 x 24 inches & will contain journaling and other forms of embellishments. Some may even contain airbrushing. The inspiration for this series is Susan Shie's "Kitchen Tarot" series. Watch along as these 12 Kitchen Witches "come to life" in quilt form. I'm not sure how long the whole series will take, but the journey will be fun . . .

Disheartening News Again

I just found out that my youngest grandson is classified as special needs. He's been diagnosed with apraxia, or the inability to make a lot of sounds necessary for speech- he has extreme difficulty talking. He's about to turn 3 years old & we wondered why he wasn't talking as much as he should, now we know why. This is something I can handle easily since my granddaughter also has apraxia (along with autism & other problems). We already have the necessary stuff to deal with this. SO its not that big of a deal, the hard part is getting his parents to understand what's happening with him & what to do about it. On the flip side, since he's classified special needs, there are massive amounts of help accessible for him. And since we have already been through the special needs maze with my granddaughter, we can help with my grandson too.

I know this blog is supposed to be about quilting, and other fiber arts, but it also deals with my life in general, therefore, I use it (and other things) to get stuff out of my system. So forgive me for posts about frustration, sadness, and other not so good stuff going on in my life at the moment. Writing about it here is a much better way of dealing with the pain than some other methods available. Thanks for "listening".

Bringing Back Old Times

Now that my son has moved back in with us (albeit temporarily) he's also brought music back into the house. Since he is a budding musician, most of his musical equipment came with him. This inspired me to drag out my keyboard & play again. I'm really rusty at it, but i, at one time, wrote some tunes. I may try it again. I did enough songs for 3 or 4 CDs. Although I shopped the songs around, none were ever sold, but I did get good reviews from everyone who heard it. We'll see where that goes.

Also, some of you know I have a granddaughter diagnosed with autism. I'm in the process of starting up a foundation to support the families & others affected by autism. It will help navigate the info maze associated with the disease. I know from experience how steep the learning curve is and how much stuff there is to sift through. If I can help someone else with that maze, so be it. Besides, there is no such group in my town. I thought I'd start one. Right now, I'm in the research & planning stages, nothing is official yet. Once its all said & done, I'll post info about the foundation here.

BTW, we won the first round in court, now to get dear son through this divorce & come out even. That's the next step. Stay tuned to see how it goes . . .

Off Topic- Blind Sided

I got a disturbing phone call yesterday- I had to bail my son out of jail! Talk about a rude surprise. He's not the type to get into trouble. Anyway, it all stemmed from a fight with his wife over the phone, the police got involved & it went from there. Long story, short- he had to move in with us temporarily until things get worked out in court later this week. I see another divorce in the family (my daughter was the first about 7 years ago). I knew, yesterday morning when my internet connection would not work correctly, it was going to be one of those days . . . Today, however has been very calm. I just hope the rest of this week will go smooth. I feel confident that the court thing will be resolved easily. We just need to get the rest of my son's stuff from his house. Then he's done with that. The only hitch in the plan is that there are children (2) involved & they are not quite sure what's happening. That will be worked out as well. We will survive, we've done it before. BTW, I have a king sized lone star quilt in the works to take my mind off this drama. I'll be fine. Stay tuned . . .

Too Hot Today

This was the temperature on Thursday afternoon about 4:45 in central KY, Lexington area. Its only mid July, what will it be in August? This weather is nuts!!

Latest Adventures

Actually I haven't been too adventurous lately. I'm caught up on weaving projects. I made 3 scarves & 3 prayer shawls. They turned out okay. I have a challenge quilt in the works, its 30" square & is a landscape, using fabrics specified in the challenge. At this time the piece is too dark & needs highlights. I plan to use colored pencils to do the high lights.

Things at home have settled down tremendously. Daughter has a new to her car, her ex is finally paying child support, as he's supposed to. For a time he quit & the law caught up to him. Anyway, family things are going well, so far. I'll post pics of the new projects when finished. Stay tuned . . .