In January, 2008, I am leaving on a 90 day world cruise on the QE2! Anytime I am on a ship I take some quilting with me -- it's a wonderful way to meet people on lazy afternoons at sea, and I have a lovely souvenir of my trip. Anyhow, WHAT TO TAKE is the dilemna. I do every stitch on every quilt...

I do my quilting by hand, and figure on 3 spools of 150 yards each for every twin bed size quilt. Being basically paranoid, however, I always have 4 or 5 spools on hand!

From reading various posts about sewing machines, I gather that many people have a lot of sewing machines. How many sewing machines do people really have? Do you actually use them all?

I just got a new table for my sewing machine, and think I got a winner! It's the 601, from Arrow Cabinets, and is a fold-up table that will hold just about any machine and will work very well as a flat top. It's a very plain white, folds easily for storage, and is very sturdy. So many of the...

I just got back from the laundromat, having washed, dried, and folded fabric for 2 large quilts and some miscellaneous pieces of fabric I just couldn't pass up at the store. What a horrible job! I even had to wash the fabric twice since someone before me had seriously overloaded the machines with...

I just saved a bit over $100 by unclogging the garbage disposal myself and not having to pay the plumber to do it, so I figure that will get me a nice little pile of more fabric! Every time I have to unclog the disposal I fondly remember the plumber who showed me how to do it myself, and then go...

The last time I was in Circuit City I knew exactly what I wanted, found it, and only needed a "sales associate" to order it up to be at the checkout area for me to pay for and take home. (For those unfamiliar with that store, all fairly large or expensive items only have one actually in the...

I am putting the binding on a quilt I have been assembling while watching the Olympics, and will have the binding finished and all the basting removed before the games are finished. Then I'll take it to the laundromat and give it a wash and dry before putting it away. This is the third whole cloth...

I just finished a quilt, which is the third in a group of four I am making, one for each great nice and great nephew! The oldest child is 6 years, and the youngest 5 months. I want each of them someday to have a quilt I made. "Someday" is the operative word, and in the meantime they look very...

I recently acquired a Singer 99K, and it is absolutely wonderful to use! Through a variety of E-Bay sellers I have the machine, case, manual, repair manual, and complete set of attachments, and am delighted. For a total investment of under $100 I now have a small machine that I can set up on my...

I was just given a Singer 99K, which reportedly works very well. It should arrive in a few days. Does anybody here have one? Anything special I should know? I understand it's a table-top machine made in the mid-1950's. If it works nicely for piecing, I will save the money I had set aside to...

We had a wind storm last night. I woke to a "brown out". Turned off computers, scanner, etc. This morning my computer wouldn't power up. I've set up my email and newsgroups on DH's computer but don't know how much I can use it. This is not what I needed right now. Mary

Tonight I finished the first quilt top since January (paper pieced mystery quilt). Picture has been uploaded to my 2007 album in webshots. I also got a couple boxes of quilty stuff unpacked and put away. -- Mary http://community.webshots.com/user/mardor1948

There is a new quilt shop in my home town, and it's great! It's in Greenville, IL, which is about 70 miles south of Springfield, 50 miles east of St. Louis, and dead center between Highland, Vandalia, Hillsboro, and Carlyle. It is called Farmland Quilting and Embroidery and run by a very nice...

I am doing some quilting for travel I have planned (world cruise!), and am very pleased with the results! First, since I am taking some quilting with me, I wanted a soft (squishable in suitcase) "box" for my needle case, beeswax, some threaders, thread, scissors, thimbles, thread, copy of pattern,...

Anybody here booked on the 2008 World Cruise of the Queen Elizabeth 2?

Do you folks have trouble with jewelry store personnel flat-out lying to you about when things will be ready? This is the THIRD time a jewelry store in Springfield, Illinois has done it to my family! The first time, I took a modest collection of jewelry from my mother's estate to be appraised for...

I am finishing a pair of pillow covers, and think they're going to be very nice! A pair of pillows came with my new sofa, and they are a great size and very comfortable. However, they are really ugly and not washable, so I measured them carefully, got out the wonderful stack of stencils I have...

I am in the market for a sewing machine, and will appreciate recommendations. What I want is a machine I can set up on my dining room table to use, and then put away when company comes. I don't need a lot of fancy stitches, and have no interest whatever in embroidery, and would like to keep to a...

I moved the furniture in the living room, and it's really awkward now to reach for pins and threaded needles while I do stitching in the evenings! Thus, I have made a couple of wrist pincushions, and they're working very nicely! (One stays in the living room by my chair, and the other goes into...