Quilting machine

So I need some advice.

I am looking at getting a new sewing machine to do machine quilting on.

The machine I currently have does not have the features I want. I bought it because I was just doing hand quilting  at the point and just starting out.

What machine do you use?
What features do you like best? worst?

what do you wish yours did?

thanks for your help!

Debbie

Zeke mashup videos Dec 2010

We had a white Christmas and Zeke got to enjoy the snow since he wasnt napping anyway!

My quilts from the year.

I didnt get a picture of the finished wall hanging #1

in my living room #2

 Blog link here

the back #2

Baby blanket for Loren #3

Back #3

STILL not done

First doll blanket and quilting on my machine #4

 Blog Link here and here

The back of quilt for A. #4

Andrea's quilt #5

 Blog Link here  and here and here and here

back #5

Pet Partners Raffle Quilt # 6

 Blog Link here

back #6 (made about $200 for PPN)

My quilt #7

 Blog Link here

back #7

Dave Quilt #8

back of Daves quilt #8

 Blog Link here

Daves Quilt hanging up at work #8

Candles for church #9

 Blog link here

Candles at home #9

Doll Quilt for A #10

back of doll Quilt #10

some half square triangles

My lap quilt :)

This was made back in March but since I didnt start blogging until April, it never made it on here. 

when I started I thought I was making all the same sized diamonds

I think I like this large center diamond and the smaller ones around it. 

backed in flannel and so warm! (hand quilted)

I think it matches so well.

a new perspective

One of the blogs I follow is Lola B's


This Christmas she has done something wonderful with her kids to give them a bit more perspective in their lives.

You should really go over to her blog and see the pictures that she posted.

Below I just copied the text over.
enjoy!

I had been feeling these last few weeks that my kids……as much as i love them to pieces….

were starting to act a bit greedy….and their behavior was getting to me.

So i sat down with Bryan…and we hatched this little plan of taking a day….when the focus…

the perspective….was not on them….but on others.

I wanted my kids to experience something that would stay with them forever.

I bought a pack of sticky notes when i was out shopping a few weeks ago…brought them home…

and sat down with the kids…asking them to write what they would like….knowing that they would

be handing these little notes out to complete strangers.

Then….i decided…why not tie on a dollar bill to them….and make the focus….the perspective…

on people that were in need.

I realize…that just one dollar won’t make a huge difference….but to me…it meant that we could

make a small impact on what really mattered…and that was making someone …the recipient….

maybe smile…..on a day that was really tough on them.

I bought a pack of sticky notes when i was out shopping a few weeks ago…brought them home…

and sat down with the kids…asking them to write what they would like….knowing that they would

be handing these little notes out to complete strangers.

Then….i decided…why not tie on a dollar bill to them….and make the focus….the perspective…

on people that were in need.

I realize…that just one dollar won’t make a huge difference….but to me…it meant that we could

make a small impact on what really mattered…and that was making someone …the recipient….

maybe smile…..on a day that was really tough on them.

We got on the train this morning…and made it to downtown Chicago…where we met up with Bryan.

The kids placed the notes on parking meters….

We left a note at our table after we had lunch….

We handed notes out to anyone that looked a little down…

or had a cup in their hand…

..or just needed a smile.

The kids received oodles and oodles of smiles from people…

and that my friends….

did more for us in one day….then i could ever explain.

It filled our hearts…..with the exact thing that was missing…and that was Perspective.

My family and i are so blessed….so by us taking just one single day out of our lives…

to walk around the cold streets of Chicago…

and lifting the spirits of some down on their luck people…

is really….

what perspective is all about.

Dried up old cow...hummm

I'm kinda sad.

Zeke has decided to stop nursing. He has skipped his last 5 feedings (has a cup of soy milk instead)

I had weaned him down from 5 to 4 then to 3 feedings over the last 6 weeks. 

I guess going to 3 didnt keep up my milk supply or something. 

Its kinda sad that he doesnt want to cuddle in like that anymore. 

Also I'm now going to have to figure out a new bedtime routine sans boob.

A Googley Family Christmas Party.

Google had their Family Christmas Party at F.Futs tonight.

Here are a few of the pictures that I took.

I must say- Zeke was up for 2.5 hours past his normal bedtime and he was awesome!! He made us proud- the only fussing was when he fell off the stage!

There was a lot of good food and the kids even got to draw on the floor of the stage!

Christmas present?

Well Dave and I have gotten each other some interesting Christmas present this year.

It started with Dave getting me a new furnace and I got him an Air Conditioner. (you can read about it here)

and now we have gotten each other a roof!
How romantic!

Dave has a much better write up!

below you will see some of the pictures of the tearing off and putting back on.

time for some more cute Zekeness

working hard on mommys computer! (daddy was working from home)

ready to go outside

We got some new pillows (and then we also have some for our guests)

What do you do when you have a lot of new fluffy pillows?

belly flop!

rolling around

 Zeke had to come to my volunteer place (retirement home) since I didnt have a babysitter today. 

Here he is with some of the residents 

hear to heart talk about... shoes?

escaping - he saw someone else go this way

She was a good sport! He loves pushing the walkers.

Zeke has discovered the sock drawer and was bringing me many pairs of socks. I put one pair on his hands and he thought it was great! 

100 people I do not like on Facebook

I got this article from NPR

The link is found here

I hope you enjoy this list as I have.

I also hate/love/have been some of these people listed below :)

by DAVE PELL

The friending, the liking, the status updating: Sooner or later we all grow to hate it, but we can’t stop. Facebook is made up of those dinner party guests who just won’t leave even though it’s late and everyone else left two hours ago. After a while, everything anyone does on Facebook becomes irritating.

With that in mind, here are a hundred people I hate on Facebook (edited down from my original list of 500 million).

1. People who have the new profile
2. People who still have the old profile
3. People who are always on Facebook
4. People who show up once a month and think they have the right to chime in
5. People who check-in
6. People who have a birthday today
7. People who friend everybody
8. People who only friend people they know well
9. People who friend me.
10. People who share their travel plans by listing the airport codes of the two cities separated by a little arrow. Goto –> hell
11. People who think it’s about the journey
12. People who think “LOL!” counts as quality feedback
13. People who think elaborating on a joke is the same as making a joke
14. People who complain about their relationships
15. People who try convince us their relationships are totally awesome
16. People who change their relationship status before telling me their relationship status has changed
17. People who “like” my wife (keep your thumbs-up away from my woman)
18. People who announce they’re going to be offline for awhile
19. People who play Farmville
20. People who complain about people who play Farmville without first seeing how irritating it is for themselves
21. People who regularly tag you in their photo albums when it’s clearly a good photo of them and a bad photo of you
22. People who share party photos with people who weren’t invited to the party
23. People who post personal messages publicly (“Great seeing you last night!”)
24. Attractive people who aggressively share photos
25. People who post happy messages in the morning
26. People who are selling something
27. People who use Facebook to promote their company
28. People who use it for personal reasons
29. People who use it for political reasons
30. People who are overly enthusiastic about my updates
31. People who ignore my updates
32. People who share articles I’ve already seen
33. People who share articles I might have otherwise missed
34. People who comment on the Facebook blurb about an article without actually reading the article
35. People who never comment about anything
36. People who post their tweets to Facebook
37. People who focus on superficial things
38. People who use Facebook to discus anything of meaning
39. People who post mysterious status updates in an effort to get others to comment: “OMG, what do you mean? Everything OK?”
40. People who comment: “OMG, what do you mean?”
41. People who respond to rhetorical statements
42. People who just changed their profile photo
43. People who were hot as hell in seventh grade but who never share any current photos (and never apologize for ignoring you in Junior High)
44. People who were ugly in junior high and resent those who at least were attractive for a while
45. People who see child abuse as a serious problem and then who think: “Maybe a cartoon avatar would help?”
46. People to whom I am clearly superior but who think I should make the first friending move
47. Inferior People who dare to send a friend request
48. People who in 2007 said, “Facebook has peaked, what’s the next thing?”
49. People who are too old for this stuff
50. People who are too young for this stuff
51. People who think they’re the first ones to say, “I wish FB had a hate button.”
52. People who are overly nice
53. People who share joy
54. People who I’ve known since childhood
55. People I just met.
56. People who complain
57. People with ugly kid photos
58. People whose kids are more photogenic than mine
59. People who try to chat even though we haven’t seen each other for five years
60. People who try to chat even though we talk everyday
61. People who try to chat
62. People who go offline when I try to chat with them
63. People who poke me.
64. People who wish me happy birthday on Facebook
65. People who don’t
66. People who see you in person and then repeat the same story they already posted to Facebook and then just stand there until you say, “OK, like.”
67. People who post what they just ate or anything about their digestive system
68. People who share their exercise routine
69. People who share their schedule
70. People who share
71. People who try to be clever
72. People who try to be funny
73. People with the best of intentions
74. People who are thoughtful
75. People who type before thinking
76. People who complain about changes made to Facebook
77. People who passively agree to changes on Facebook
78. People who refuse to use Facebook because everyone else is using it
79. People who use the @ sign even though that only works on another site
80. People who think “I made some changes to my profile page” is a valid answer to the question: “What did you do today?”
81. People  you don’t know comment on photos of your family members
82. People who ask favors
83. People who share that they are sick, feel good, can’t sleep or just woke up
84. People who post about the weather
85. People who mention anything related to Burning Man
86. People who share stuff that everyone in the world has already seen, get no response, and then share it again
87. People who aren’t sure about a joke they want to make and so they preface it with: “Overheard:”
88. People who use the phrase “note to self” anywhere other than in the silent privacy of their own mind
89. People who write wonderful things about their new boyfriend even though we can all see that the dude is a chump and the same person will be writing terrible things about him in a few months and then expecting us to be surprised and supportive
90. People who think mentioning something about Darfur is going to somehow benefit the People in Darfur because every little bit counts
91. People who can’t accept that not all cats are cute and/or interesting
92. People who believe that you’ll be happy about their good fortune
93. People who are wildly uninteresting and painfully unfunny yet have a lot more friends than I do
94. People who write the phrase: “Um…OK”
95. People who post song lyrics
96. People who share YouTube videos that have already been viewed 400 million times
97. People who make snarky comments about Sarah Palin
98. People who are Sarah Palin
99. People who stay on Facebook even though they hate everyone on it
100. People who use Friendster

Dave Pell is a San Francisco based, Web-addicted insider, investor and entrepreneur. He has been blogging for more than a decade. This post first appeared on his blog Tweetage Wasteland.