Merry Christmas !!!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve....my favorite day of the year. It's been a busy few weeks with wrapping up projects:  a T-Shirt Memory Quilt for a customer referred to me by Santa Anna Quilter's Path; a red-work quilt for a friend, JoAnn in Midland; the Rolling Star for friend/relative, Mary Lee in Mansfield; and the Butterfly Blocks for Helen in Coleman......see "Then & Now" for details.

Last week, our local quilting guild, The Happy Creative Stitchers, celebrated our Chritmas with a luncheon and gift exchange.  Here is a photo of our group.  I really enjoy all these ladies and have learned so much by meeting with them once a week for the last year and a half.

Frenchy and the Sewing Room are on vacation for the next few days, but I have many plans for 2012.   I'm hoping to have a Sister Visit in January, so we can work on some projects together. 

So, enjoy your holidays; see you in 2012!

December 11

Well, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say.....Frenchy seems be doing MUCH BETTER!!!  I've stayed busy all week finishing up quilts:  I delivered one in person on Friday night, put another in the mail last Thursday, and completed one for a granddaughter today.  I've been re-arranging my sewing room; now I have all my pretty thread spools and cones out where I can admire them along side all my fabric stash.  It's like opening a new box of crayolas!

December

Frenchy has continued to give me problems with thread breakage.  I started a project a couple of weeks ago....a serious project for a paying customer....and just minutes into it, the thread broke.  I started again, and the thread broke....this went on for 2 more tries.  I stopped and called my local tech.  She was empathetic, came over to look at the machine, and then when the thread broke for her after readjusting the tension, she offered to have me use her machine until we can resolve the problem...AI GAIN!  So, the next day I loaded up the quilt and my threads and notions and off we went.  The quilt was finished in about 3 hours.  I expressed my concern that Frenchy has a gremlin or is a Lemon!    In response the next level up...Sales Manager, came last week.  After she worked with the machine and nothing significant happened, she offered that perhaps the tension adjustment should be replaced.  A new one was in the mail and arrived within 2 days (on a Friday and we were out of town).  The new part was put on last Monday.  Since then I have completed 3 quilts....and no problems.    I am reassured by both HandiQuilter reps that their goal is to have all customers satisfied and that most 'lemons' (of which there have been few) have internal issues, not thread breaks; so maybe the problem is fixed!   I have another quilt loaded and ready to work on it tomorrow with more waiting in the wings.  Only time will tell.