Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Sewing machines, cupcakes, and a giveaway winner...oh my!

The winner of my first giveaway will be announced at the end of this post – that’s right, I’m going to make you read my ramblings before you find out who it is. Conversely you could also just skip to the end of this to post to find out who it is, but that would spoil all my fun, now wouldn’t it?

I have so much to share, but don’t think I’ll be able to get through it all today. Let’s start with my amazing sewing machine story! Many of you have been through the dark times of going through three sewing machines (since May) with me and have already heard the stories, so I won’t repeat it here but you can read about it here and here.

I found a Janome RX 18S for a good price on Craigslist and my Mum offered to buy it for me as my Christmas present. I was a little sad when I thought about the idea of not getting any presents at Christmas, but figured that since sewing makes me really happy it wouldn’t matter. I posted about going to look at the machine in my previous post, but then something amazing happened!

The wonderful Cathi, who lives not that far away from me here in Toronto, emailed to say that she had a Janome which she had barely used and that it was mine for the taking if I wanted it. I couldn’t believe it! I went and saw Cathi that night, and met her very nice husband too; since the manual wasn’t with the machine Cathi showed me how to thread it (it’s a little bit trickier than others, although this may be because I haven’t had a machine newer than about 1974) and we chatted for a bit. I tried to offer Cathi something for the machine, but she wouldn’t take anything and said that she only wanted to see pictures on my blog of what I made with it – I can do that!



Isn’t she pretty? Her name is Genevieve.

Since the machine doesn’t have a case I had to haul it home in my duffel bag and ended up with few bruises for my troubles (the machine was smacking me in the knee and lower thigh all the way home), but it was worth it! Isn’t that the best story you’ve heard in awhile? I can never fully thank Cathi for the kindness she’s shown me – she’ll never know what it meant to me to have someone be so nice to me! Maybe, if you’d like, you could go over to Cathi’s blog and say something nice to her. She’s an amazing quilter, so you should go over anyway just to look at all her great quilts and blocks and pictures of her two cute kitties.

Now for a few other things. About a week and a half ago, right before the Singer died, I was working on a quilt top; I was pressing the seams and everything was going well until I went to move the top a bit. My exposed forearm managed to hit the hot plate of the iron and now I have a burn on my arm! I tried to take a picture of it to show, but because it was on the underside of my right arm, that would just not work. It looked pretty heinous there for awhile, but now it’s starting to flake and peel, although I think I might be left with a scar. Ah, the trials of being a quilter!

I also got a job last week and completely forgot to mention it in my previous post! I got a job in collections management at Robarts Library (the big library) on Campus. The library is actually attached to the Faculty of Information building so I’ll never have far to go to get to work and today is my first day! I’m very excited because it was looking like I was going to have to just take any job to help pay for school since I couldn’t find one in a library, but now I have and it’s wonderful.

This past weekend, as you know, was Halloween. Alex and I headed to an apartment party; I was dressed as Tom Cruise in Risky Business and Alex was Max from Where the Wild Things Are. I don’t have a good picture of us right now, but if one surfaces I’ll post it. I made the ears and tail (on Genevieve) for Alex’s costume and Alex made his crown and used pipe cleaners to make whiskers. I wore one of Alex’s white dress shirts, white socks, white boxers I have, and sunglasses.



I also made these cupcakes for the party. They’re Devil’s Food with vanilla icing. I dyed the icing orange and piped it onto the cupcakes running a skewer through it to make a spiderweb pattern. I also added chocolate sprinkles to look like little spiders. They were pretty good if I do say so myself!

I’m thinking that after I get my work done for this week I’m going to finish that quilt I started before the Singer died. I might also get some stuff done up for my Etsy shop, we’ll see how it goes since I’ll be at work on Saturday.

Okay, now for the giveaway winner...it’s Rachel from Lost in the Attic with Cupcakes. Congratulations Rachel! Please email me your address and I’ll mail it out right away. I really hope you like it!

10 comments:

  1. Wow, what a post! Congrats on your new job and new machine (Cathi--that is so incredibly generous!).

    P.S. It really cracks me up that you tried to take a picture of your burn! That sounds like something I'd do.

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  2. Oh wow, Cathi is a sweet pea! How generous and completely kind of her! I will be sure to stop by her little bloglet!

    Congrats on the jobbo! Yay! I am happy for you.

    And dang, those cuppies look adorable!!!

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  3. Robarts was always my favourite library - but just try getting one of the carols there! :)

    Congrats on your new job and your new machine! :)

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  4. Congratulations on your new job!! The picture of your cupcakes made me smile!

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  5. Sheesh you ran into a really nice lady in Cathi! I just went over there and left her some love since she was so nice to you sweet friend!

    Those cupcakes looks delish! Ron and I ended up with a few that were leftovers from a party we went to and they are not nearly as good looking as the ones you made!

    HUGS Kaye and congrats on your new sewing machine!

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  6. Congrats on the new machine -- I bet you'll use it lots! And those cupcakes look delicious!

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  7. Cathi's generosity to you just blessed my heart to pieces. Really, it just warmed me to the toes! A toast to Genevieve - May your stitches be straight or whimsical, and your friendship with Kaye last past her years of sewing quilts for grandbabies (which is a long, long time)! Happy sewing, you two!

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  8. Yea new machine! Those cupcakes look amazing! YUM!

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  9. OH MY GOODNESS!!! how perfect is this for me. HUGE thanks kaye, i'm thrilled! i have been sewing ALL week with friends and different locations, the goal is to sew SEVEN days straight to see if i can hold up. i have 3 more days to go now. imagine my surprise when i came home today to find that i had won your very first drawing. and do you know that i ♥ cupcakes too! LOVE your story on the new machine, i can't wait to see what you do with it - such great stories when they are hand-me-down gifts like that too. go forth and SEW your little heart out. cheers for a great week. ♥ rachel

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