Oh boy. Yikes! Back in September my husband bought me a Baby Lock, my first new sewing machine, as an anniversary gift. When I picked it out, I specifically told the sales gal that I wanted to be able to lower the feed dogs and use a free motion quilting foot. So she sold me a Crafter's Choice and a special foot, and I am just now getting around to trying it out -- and I'm doing it for the first time. Couldn't pick something easy, either -- it's an art quilt with lots of velvet front and back. Man! I had to plug in the foot pedal, since I can't take my hands off the thing for even a second if it's moving, and I'd gotten comfortable with the button control on/off. Anybody have any free-motion tips to share with a novice? It's not going too badly, after all -- I'm using a nice Sulky Blendables thread so the stitching on the front is mercifully buried in velvet -- you just get a sense of depth. Can see the fumbles on the back though...probably should have found a matching thread for the bottom, but oh well. Live n learn, right?

Greetings - I've been in the weeds at work, so I have not had much time to sew (except to construct some simple costumes for the Palm Sunday play.) In my travels though I have moments in which to work on my transit series. There's a show I'm curating to open in the fall, titled "In Transit," of artists exploring public transportation as a social justice issue. I hope to create some mixed media/cloth books of images and writing, so I'm working now to collect the visuals: bus stops, in all their daily, dirty glory. For more on this visit my blog, http://laptopconfessional.blogspot.com/

Wow, tons of positive feedback from my image gallery! Nothing motivates like a compliment. Thanks Christine! Perhaps unfortunately, I won't be back on the hobby horse until after I finish the costumes for the Palm Sunday chancel drama at church, and find some door prizes for the bowling fundraiser on Saturday. Still, even with March flying past at an alarming rate, spring is coming to recharge our batteries...

It's gratifying to note how many views I've logged in the Photo gallery. I just uploaded some new shots of works past and works in progress -- I'll need to start adding to this more consistently. My personal blog has more "works in progress" narrative but there's also the writing per "the rest" of my life, so reader be aware of this. Wendy has already checked it out and sent me her best wishes on a period of economic difficulty, but I'm hoping we'll muddle through this rough patch in the next couple months. Meanwhile, thank God for sewing and for kids. :-)

It's been a while since I went for one of these "friends" groups, but if it's a means of meeting folks with a common interest I'll give it a shot. Meanwhile, since I have ZERO friends at the moment, come see me on my blog: http://laptopconfessional.blogspot.com/