This is 95% complete. We just need to add the picnic table portion under the slide area.

Isn't she absolutely gorgeous?  Doesn't she just make you drool? Would you be simply dying to turn her on and sew with her for hours on end? I know I do.

My new baby girl came home with me on Saturday afternoon. After Sunshine went down for her nap, a friend and I took a little road trip north, back to the Husqvarna dealer. She wanted to better check out those machines, compare the features and prices and see if she could get a better feel for which one she wants to buy. To tell you the truth, I was a bit nervous during the trip because I knew what I was hoping to accomplish myself while there. So once we got there and after I waited a little bit (I wanted my friend to be able to ask her questions first), I asked about and tested out the Brother Laura Ashley NX2000 that was for sale that I posted about here.

While the shop owner wasn't very helpful to me, I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to rescue this beauty and bring her to live with me in a home where she'd be enormously happy and loved. Initially I didn't think the shop owner would negotiate on this at all but we were able to come to an agreement (I got a great bargain!) and my Lucy was quickly packed up in her mega huge wonderful travel bag. She is definitely traveling in style.

Putting her in the car and driving her home was immensely satisfying and a bit of a let down all at the same time. I know that she has so many wonderful features that I can't wait to try out. I know that she is going to sew beautifully and hopefully soon I will actually start doing the quilting myself. I know that she came with this awesome circular tool that will allow me to stitch great designs in perfect circles (really cool looking stuff by the way). BUT since I am working feverishly on finishing the teacher quilts and can't try to do that on a machine that I'm not familiar with, she is going to have to wait patiently for me. 

Besides we have another big crafting project that is in the works this weekend. Can you guess what this is going to be?

This is how far we got yesterday and hopefully before today is over, it will be a brand new complete swing set for my kidlets.

I'm not in love with the look of my blog. I haven't really been since the beginning but I was in such a hurry to actually get it up and running, that I winged it. Now I feel the need to finally make some changes.

I want it to be colorful, but also clean and professional looking. I want it to be reader friendly, easy for all of you to find what you are looking for. I've been scanning websites for ideas but have yet to hit upon something that says "Ah Ha! That's it!". I don't have the budget at the moment to pay someone to do a total makeover for me so I have to find a way to do this myself.

Any and all suggestions are very much requested and welcome.

The other thing I'm not sure about is the name of my blog. It seemed like an obvious choice at that moment because of my other blog, the family one, but it doesn't seem catchy to me. I love all those other quilty blogs that have terrific names and I want mine to be memorable too.

I'm not opposed to changing the name if I can come up with one that really sings to me. But maybe I shouldn't? Do you really like my blog name? Be brutally honest here with me people. Does it fit or not?

Help a girl out here please! I feel like my quilting life is growing each and every day and I want my blog to reflect that, not look like an amateur did it. 

Thanks! 

What did one certainly little boy need to finish his new fire truck bedroom in style? A fire truck quilt of course. Introducing:

Sound the Alarm

It came as no surprise that Jammer loves fire trucks. A lot! We probably have more toy fire trucks than the majority of households. We fully expect that he will want to join the local department as a Junior Firefighter as soon as he is old enough.

When this house was under construction, we let him decide the theme for his new room. His choice? Fire trucks of course. One entire wall is fire engine red (he actually wanted a totally red room) and they are covered with removable wall stickers, one that is 4 feet wide. It is the perfect setting for a hero in training.

This baby may be coming home with me soon!

Well the top is done at least. I handed it off my my long arm quilter this afternoon for her to work her magic. Sorry for the inside photo. It has been raining buckets here for the past 2 days.

The quilting blogisphere is chock full of chats and comments about thread, the different brands, the different weights, the different finishes.

I'm sew confused. Are you too?

Aurifil? Floriani? Guterman? Isacord? Mettler? Signature? Presencia? Superior? YLI? Sulky? Wonderfil?

These are just some of the names I've seen floating around the web. I've used Coates and Clark (my pre-quilting days) and I use Guterman now. My LQS only carries Mettler but I haven't tried it.  A gift of a spool of Presencia came my way but I haven't had a project in that colorway to use it on yet. I wanted to try Auriful but no one around here carries it. Luckily I found it during the NJ Shop Hop.

But what are the differences in these brands? This inquiring mind wants to know. Really. I want to use good products in my quilts but I certainly don't need to use the most expensive thread that exists. If one brand is honestly superior to the others, I want to know that. Perhaps a better thread would help my machine perform nicer.

Might you have the knowledge I seek? Or might you know where I can learn about this important quilting topic?

What brand thread do you use and why? What others have you tried and if you don't use them any more, tell me what happened?

And I've always read that quilters should always use cotton thread but I know of a famous quilt blogger who uses poly thread. That confuses me even more.

Help a girl out here. Please!

Or should I say "I'm on a charm pack"? But that doesn't sound right, does it.

Hubby is out of town at a fire truck manufacturer checking on the construction of the new ladder truck so I've been ultra busy in recent days and didn't get a chance to blog about my other recent win.

I got an email from Sharon at Vroomans Quilts that I won in her 1st May for Me giveaway. She was giving away 2 packs of different charm packs and I didn't know which I was getting until it came in the mail. I am now the proud owner of a pair of charm packs of this Love Letters from Moda.

My mailbox was stuffed full yesterday. Even more blocks arrived for the Tribute to Danny quilt. They are so gorgeous, I just have to share with you.

Ella in Georgia sent this solid beauty.

Marian in Idaho is the contributor of this cool, wild one.

Miki in Washington created this version.

And lastly for this update, Rachel in California went way above and beyond. She made not one, not two but six blocks for this quilt, each one terrific and unique. Here are the first two.

Next are this pair.

 And finally is this duo. She made the all white one for a signature block. I hadn't thought this far yet and I'm so glad she thought of it for me. It will be perfect for that purpose.

This purple and green quilt top was dropped of to my long arm quilter on Tuesday morning and I got her to take a photo of it first so that I could share it with all of you. It isn't the best picture and I will get nicer ones when I get it back but at least I can give you a peek at how it turned out.

I have a bunch more love to share with all of your...courtesy of some very generous quilters who offered to help with this project. First up is this dazzler by Meg who resides in Virginia. The black print.....totally wild!

Fellow New Yorker Lisa mailed this gorgeous pair to me. I do hope at some point to take a day trip her way so we can meet in person. There are some fabulous quilt shops in her area that I went to once, before I really knew, and I want to go back.

Lookie what I won!

It is a charm pack of Costume Clubhouse by Riley Blake. I came across the giveway at Quilt Taffy last night while catching up on blog reading. Resisting anything Halloween related is useless for me. I just had to enter. This was my comment:

"Oh I should have told you to hold mailing my Ghastlies order (which arrived yesterday, thank you) so that you could add this little win to the package. LOL

One (me specifically) can never have too many Halloween fabrics."

These fabrics are adorable and I can't wait to have this charm pack in my hands. Now I have to figure out the perfect little project for them. Ideas will be brewing for sure.