I am grateful for…

… my family.  I know I say it over and over again.  But when I get to spend days at home soaking in my crafty time, away from crowds and traffic, I love them even more.  We’re such homebodies.  The kids do not need to be entertained every second of the day.  We give them their chores, they read, they play, they hang out.  Not a peep of complaint from them or the hubby.

… having a mid arm and a quilt frame.  It was used and it’s not the best out there but it works for now.  I’m in the middle of quilting and I’m getting better but I’m recognizing places on the frame that doesn’t run smoothly and may be why I have a hard time getting a nice curve.  I’m thinking that I will probably get a new frame at some point.  But not right now.  I want to see if as I use the frame more it gets better over time.  The frame was in the previous owner’s garage for some time before I bought it and it was in my garage until I brought it into the house.  So, being in the garages may have affected it.  I don’t know but I don’t want to buy anything until I’ve used it for awhile.  But when I do decide to buy a new frame, I plan to get a bigger one.  I think my current frame fits a queen size quilt.  And really, we only have queen size beds.  But I don’t like to feel constricted and not being able to quilt a king if I wanted to.  We’ll see what the price differences are.  Despite these issues, I love having it and learning how to quilt on it.  It’s not easy learning new things sometimes and when I watch tutorials everyone else’s machine seems to run so much smoother and less difficult than mine.  When I’m done quilting Tell It To The Stars, I may bring it in for a good servicing.  I don’t know when it was last serviced (I haven’t done it yet and I got it earlier this year).  It may run better once it has been serviced.

… living simply.  I usually do a newsletter during the holidays.  I didn’t do one last year and it is looking like I’m not going to do one this year either.  I want to enjoy the holidays.  I don’t want to stress myself out by trying to do too much like I used to do when the kids were younger.  I think we’ll make it a simple holiday season.  Already, we’ve got something going on every weekend so we don’t need to make it more complicated.

Have a good evening!