Machine all set & Superbowl sewing

Well gals, my machine is all set, and I am calmed down, finally!
I went and saw the dealer on Friday morning and he got me all straightened out.
First let me say that when I saw that message about the 'circuit' I panicked big time because as you all know, my previous machine flaked out in a major way when the circuit board blew. So I probably overreacted. Okay, I'm a woman, it's allowed! :-)

Anyway, he told me that the thread probably jumped out of the take up lever and jammed down in the bobbin case (a horizontal one, I've never dealt with a horizontal bobbin before). He showed me a couple of tricks to make sure the thread is in there firmly and won't pop back out. Then he adjusted the tension, which was a little bit off. Then he sent me on my way and I've been happy ever since.

Over the weekend, I made a table runner to test everything out. This pattern is from Little Charmers II by Anka's Treasures I did something I don't normally do, and I used a charm pack, Red, White and Bold by Moda. You might see a few more things from Charm packs in the near future as I bought about 5 of them from the Fat Quarter Shop last week!



Last week I also forgot to mention the my guild had our annual Christmas Party (well, we no longer have it in December or call it a Christmas Party, but still...) A couple of years ago we all decided that we were so busy in December, we should have hour Holiday Party in January instead. So now that's just what we do! We call it the beginnings and endings party (out with the old, in with the new!), and so we just eat appetizers and deserts! This year the committee decorated in a multi-holiday theme, so we had a table decorated for Valentines Day, one for Easter, one of Fourth of July, one for Halloween, one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. Very clever! We also had a pincushion swap. This is the one I made, it has the pincushion in the center and spots for spools of thread around the outside.


You'll notice on my sidebar the graphic for !Bonnie's BargelloBowl this coming Sunday!
I've decided that though I don't need a new project, I am going to play along and make my own Scrappy Bargello Quilt in a lap size. I've wanted to make this pattern for a long time, but just haven't done it, so now is the time.

If you want to play, simply ct 128 2 1/2" wide X 16" long strips of whatever kind of fabric you have in your piles of scraps, fat quarters or yardage. Remember to throw in the junk, the uglies and some pretties then run over to Bonnie's website and download the pattern and play along.