Today I learned some new stuff!

Hi, all!

I had such fun today - tried out two new things and wow am I excited! But first I have to share a couple of cute Lilli stories....

Lilli and I had a great morning over at my friends' farm - Lilli loves to go and give "cookies" to their miniature pony and some of the other horses. Today she made friends with Johnny Boy (the donkey), Shadow (the miniature horse/pony), and Oreo (the miniature pony). She just stuck her head through the fence and nosed up to the donkey, which made Shadow curious, so he came over. Then Oreo, not to be outdone, came over to see what was going on. The four of them stood there, nose to nose, for quite a while. Thank heavens for cameras on cell phones! I'd hate to have missed this shot...........

Yesterday, Lilli decided that she just had to take a balloon outside with her when we went shopping. It made it to the car okay, and through the shopping trip, but when we got back, she insisted on holding it herself when she got out of the car. (She's two, there's no arguing with her!) So of course, the inevitable happened - she let go of the balloon. I tried to catch it, but missed the string and had to watch as it went up in the air. Lilli, sure as always that Nana can fix anything, told me to find a ladder and go get it. By this time, the balloon is 30 feet in the air and still going up, so I told her that her balloon was going to visit Jesus. If you want to see a video of her telling her parents about the balloon, click here. It's worth seeing!

So now, the things I learned today:

I wanted to try basting spray instead of pins to put together a quilt I'm working on. It was a gorgeous day here, so I opened up my clothesline outside, hung up my quilt back, and started spraying! (By the way, just in case you want to try this - be very sure to put the back of the piece you want to spray facing you, not the finished side of the fabric. Sounds simple, but I found myself just about the spray the good side, not the back!) Putting the quilt sandwich together was so easy, plus I could lift and reposition until I got it perfectly smooth. Tomorrow I'll find out how it sews, but I don't anticipate any problems!

The second thing I tried out is an even feed foot for my sewing machine. This is an attachment that's designed to pull the top fabric through at the same speed as the feed dogs are pulling the bottom fabric through. Really helpful when you are quilting, because sometimes the layers will go through at different speeds and you end up with pinches in your fabric. It amazes me that I've never tried one of these before, but wow! It makes the quilting so much easier!

I also pieced two more squares of the Supersized Shoo Fly quilt today - when I have the whole top pieced, I'll take a picture and post it. I think it's going to look great! Next I have to figure out how to quilt it.....


Later!

Sarah