A week and a bit off....

Well it's been a while, but here I am again. Since I last posted I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which, although I was pretty sure I had, I took a bit of acclimatising to be "official". But now I'm all ok again, well, as ok as I've ever been. And also since I last posted my blogger has changed which has taken more getting used to than the Fibro.

So why have I got a week and a bit off? Well, last Friday I went to Quilts UK in Malvern, and also was out all day Saturday at my normal monthly quilting group, and knowing how feeble I am I took the day off before and also booked yesterday (the monday) off. And that's all the time I intended to take off. However, I have a friend who's husband passed away recently and his funeral was yesterday. So, being aware that if I went to the funeral I wouldn't get the rest I require to set myself up for the rest of the week in work, I went into work last Monday intending to ask for Tuesday (today) off as well. But Monday was such a bad day that by 10.00am I'd asked for the rest of this week off. And my boss said yes.

And what do I intend to do with my week? I don't have major plans - I want to clear up a bit as my son is back from uni on 2nd June for good. Where has that 3 years gone? In fact where has the last 25 years gone? Next Monday, would be my silver wedding anniversary (if I was still married). My eldest, who has just turned 24, is planning on leaving home to set up home with his girlfriend soon. Which of course means that the younger one will want to move into his bedroom. Which means..........

YES I can finally have a dedicated craft/sewing room. And so this week, I'm having a bit of a sort out in my dining room which is the room I try to stick to for sewing, - partly because I can't see my dining room table (or the floor for that matter) and partly because I've ordred a new sewing machine. Oh, did I forget to mention that.

I've been looking at new sewing machines for a few years. When I started looking at buy a new machine they had just started bring out the ones with the larger throat space for quilting, and now there are lots with the larger throat space and lots with fancy embroidery stitches. Every year when I go to a quilt show, I lust after the machines, but haven't bought one. And pretty much every year somebody who has travelled up on the coach with us comes back with a new machine. In the past 2 or 3 years most of my pals have upgraded, and the woman I sat by on the coach this year came home with 2 machines. A pfaff quilt expression 4 and a smaller janome one for workshops. So I thought "Right, that's it, I'm having a new machine" Now, if I'd had an ounce of sense I would have played with lots of them at the show, but we were only there a couple of hours and theere were too many othere things to be doing.

I have tried out a lot of machines in my time, and, if truth be told, I've always leaned towards Janome machines, partly because that's what all my family have had, and they are also the ones that tend to be in classes. So I'm familiar with them. But that's not what I've gone for, mainly because the one I would want is the £1799 (£1499 if you are lucky enough to find it on offer) Horizon. Most of the other machines I would like, without looking at the ridiculously priced sewing/embroidery ones in the region of £3000 or more, or indeed the very nice looking Bernina 820QE which are the rolls royces of machines (at least according to many of the sewists out there) are between £1000 and £1500. But then I found the Husqvarna Viking 875Q on offer for £999. And then I managed to get it for £899 with the quilting extension table included (possibly also a walking foot, but not sure about that)

Now, I ordered it online from Coopers/Sewing Machines Discount, and have heard both good things and bad about them. but I reckoned with £200 discount and a £100 promise of free gifts on special promotion from Husqvarna, and payable over 4 months, I thought it was worth the risk. I won't get the goodies until I've made the final payment, which is a standard thing with many promotions. Today I receive a free set of scissors(£39.99 on the website). I've had a couple of conversations with them, both by phone and e-mail and so far don't have any complaints, other than the fact that I won't be getting as quickly as I had hoped because they ran out of stock, so it's being despatched direct from Germany and I should get it by the end of the week.

When I receive it I shall do a picture heavy post to show all the goodies in the box.

And whilst I'm waiting I'll make the most of the good weather and carry on spraying my nettles with industrial strength weedkiller - it's too difficult to be green and dig them all out.

Later folks
xxx