Nervous Nelly

OOHH, I still get a little nervous thinking about it.

I've been eyeing this machine for awhile now, but couldn't get over the price. Mom and I visited a quilt store last weekend and they still had two left at the sale price from NQA so I got it (with a little bit of help from mom for my Christmas present). I had a nervous stomach the whole time -- this is the most money I've spent on myself (excepting a house or car).

Here it is in all of its (dim) glory. I was finishing up some curtains I promised to make Jaxon's daycare. Four layers of heavy weight home dec fabric?? No problem!!
Needless to say I love it. It is SO much quieter than my old machine, I don't have to worry about waking Jaxon up. I've spent the last couple of evenings playing with the different stitches and finishing up a few projects I was having trouble with on my old machine.

Here are a few of the specialty stitches...I love the Christmas ones! Charlie wants to know if I will make a blanket with bad words stitched all the way around the edges.
And these three blankets have been in my Etsy WIP pile for awhile because my machine wasn't handling the satin bias (tension issues). I whipped through all three in one evening! This will be up at my Etsy shop as soon as I have a nice day to take pictures.

Switching gears, I'm sure many of you in the blog world have heard about Nie Nie. For those of you who haven't, Stephanie (of the great blog The Nie Nie Dialogues) and her husband were in a horrible plane crash a couple of weeks ago. The flight instructor was killed, both Stephanie and her husband Christian survived but have a long road to recovery (read more here). Thankfully their four children are able to be cared for by family, and the support from all their friends (both "virtual" and "live-action") has been wonderful.

This has really hit close to home for me (as Charlie is a flight instructor) and I'd love it if you could all contribute in some way to Stephanie and Christian's recovery. You can do this by taking part in Nie Nie day (today!!) -- simply bid on one of the numerous auctions found here (there are also others if you search):

• DesignMom
• A Room Somewhere

I am currently bidding on:
Lemon Yellow Jade Drop Earrings edited: Drat! Outbid!
Pantograph Pattern Quilting Service

ed.-- Now also bidding on:
Dress #1
Dress #2

So don't outbid me!

If you don't have time to babysit an auction, you can make a donation:

Thank you!