Road Trip for 3

This morning, Jen1, Jeanette, and I hit the road - headed for Your #1 Sewing Centre in Campbellford. The primary goal was to chat with Dennis, the sewing machine expert, about tuning up Jen's old Brother machine and looking at the possibility of buying a refurbished used machine. There were several machines to choose from but she settled on a Janome 4100 QDC with many bells and whistles - auto threader, push button start and stop, push button tacking, many specialty stitches, lots of presser feet, and an extender. If I didn't have my nifty entry level Bernina, I'd be coveting one for myself.

They had a wonderful selection of fabric. I've been in that shop a couple of times - the first time, I bought Rocky and Bullwinkle fabric to make Skip a pair of boxer shorts. They still had some on the bolt - probably the same bolt from years ago.

I couldn't resist these Peanuts fabrics.

Then they had this wonderful turtle fabric. The two top ones were in that series and the bottom two fabrics were 1/3s that coordinated nicely with the top ones.

We then piled back into the car and headed to Warkworth for lunch. Afterwards, we drove south to Cobourg and visit the Stitch Witch. It is a lovely shop that boasts 4000+ bolts of fabric. They also have a fine selection of patterns and accessories. I picked up one of these. It looks like a tube of lipstick.

But wait! It's a portable needlekeep/pin cushion! Isn't that cool?

I couldn't resist this fabric with a monarch butterfly and snagged a coordinating fat quarter.

This poppy fabric (cool! I just noticed the monarch butterfly!) spoke to me so, of course, I had to have it as well.

It reminded me of a couple of Dimensions cross stitch kits that use similar colours and Mason jars. I'm toying with the idea of getting one or both of them.

I'd most certainly ditch the Aida cloth and pick a nice evenweave or linen.

This quilt shop will also cut the fabric into fat quarters. I'm not aware of any others in our area that will do this. I will definitely be shopping there again and possibly taking a class of some kind. I also bought the kit to make the Color Wheel Pin Cushion from the License to Quilt series by Sheila Sinclair Snyder.

The kit is the foam rubber, composite circular base, thick tufting cord, and the screws for the feet.

I'm sure I can find 13 fabric scraps to make it. I've also got the crushed walnut shells that go in a muslin sac and lies on tip of the foam, under the outer fabric. Supposedly it's good for sharpening ones needles. It came in a pack of 2 so I split it with Jen. She has a big tuffet that she bought last year on one of our other road trips.

I now have visions of sewing projects dancing in my head.

I started the i-cord edging to my sock yarn blanket last night and got quite a bit done at spinning, afterwards at home, and then today in the car, when I realized I should be doing it from the back for the i-cord to sit properly on the front. So RIP! There went several hours of mindless i-cord edging. I have started again and will continue to putter away at it.

Jen1 is having some of us over on Friday for her new sewing machine inauguration. I think I'll make a couple of dumpling dishes and hopefully inspire some of the others to do the same.