Five Shadows

Sigh, the bobbin tension on my Bernina has been acting up. I did a search to find the closest dealer/repair service, since the shop in my town has closed. Upside of the story is my husband and I took a trip to Shipshewana to the Bernina Dealer today. It’s a fun town to visit. I imagine it was once a quiet Amish community but now caters to tourists, with museums, buggy rides, convention center, lots of shopping, etc. We ate at the Blue Gate Restaurant. Yummy homemade bread and pies! We split a sampler platter and shared a piece of apple crumb pie. We (OK, I tee hee) shopped at several quilting stores, and the B&N bulk food store. And we will have to return next week to pick up the repaired sewing machine. Today I limited myself to just buying items for the white quilties swap I signed up for through Lenna’s swap blog. While at the Bernina shop I learned that they sell attachments to turn a Bernina into an embellishing machine! I’ll have to think about the pros and cons of that over buying a separate machine just for embellishing. Any thoughts anyone?

A while ago, a friend told me about wool bags you can buy for about five bucks from the Army Surplus store. So I took a look and bought two. They look like they could have been made from old wool Navy blankets? My daughters and I have played around with them and here is one so far. It needs lots more embellishing. Anna used the letter tiles for the name – this bag will go to Aunt Jean for her birthday in the fall, so we have lots of time to finish up this project. Janelle added the hearts and stitching.  Charis wants to embellish the strap. I did needle felting by hand – and think one of those embellishing/felting machines would move this project along much faster! I’ve actually looked at two machines and might just convince the nice guy I’m married to that it would make a wonderful Birthday gift!  :-)
   

As a child did you ever make those paper Valentines where you cut two ovals, fold them in half and then cut slits in them? You ‘weave’ the two ovals together and end up with a heart pocket. I’m using that basic idea for the Valentine Swap. Only I’m fusing fabric to a stiff backing – the stuff used at the top of draperies. Then I started playing with couching fibers on to the edges of the slits. It looks pretty woven together. I’m thinking about beading some too. Fun!     

Happy New Year to all who happen upon my blog! This year I am venturing into some new territories. The first is a family activity of geocaching.  I gave John a GPS for Christmas and we have found 5 caches so far since Christmas. Today we trekked out in the snow to treasure hunt. It was a beautiful but cold day and we only ended up looking for and finding 2 caches. This time we took along stickers so we could trade treasures with others participating. The second new item on my list is that I’ve joined  a Valentine swap hosted by Lenna Andrews Creative Swaps.   The picture shows the fabric and fibers I’m using to create my Valentines.  I’m so excited about this swap! To be in touch with other creative souls out side my small circle here at home is something I’ve dreamed of doing, and now I have finally taken the step. I’ll show you pictures of my progress and the final Valentines once I’ve mailed them off to Lenna.