What new toys did Santa bring you?

[Sandra Darlington]

Santa brought me a digital camera!! Yippee. Now I can share pictures with you all, as soon as I figure out how to do that.

I also received some other lovely gifts, but at the moment all I want to do is play with this camera.

I hope everyone is enjoying their day.

[TracyeQ]

I\'m still in shock, Santa Hubby brought me a Featherweight! A real beauty 1938 model w/the scroll face and perfect gold. I\'m afraid to use it! Maybe this one needs to be for pretty and I\'ll have to find a beat up one to use. He says "use it, it\'s a machine". So I think I just will.

[Judi]

Sandra and Tracye - lucky you two! We bought a new computer system,

(for the whole family of course - what we have now is over 10 yrs old)

which arrived last Friday and I think we will try and hook it all up today yet.

WOW! I just looked out and it is REALLY snowing - those BIG fluffy kind of

flakes!! LOVE IT!!! Turkey is in the oven.... presents are opened... plenty of

chocolate to go around!!

Oh - I also received a tiny little needle nose which I will love to use when

"froggin\'" threads or getting them into a needle to bury the ends, and a

very sturdy step stool-like little midget ladder. It only has 3 steps to it

besides the top. I guess he didn\'t like seeing me hop on an old wooden

bench to hang Christmas garland!! This will help around the house alot!

[Quilting Heidi]

HI all and Merry Christmas. I got Pre-design software (the hints worked...two different links LOL and it arrived yesterday!), some nested rulers for marking designs and Karen McT\'s Quilting for Show. I\'m so excited it was what I wanted! The software was in a really odd box and it was the last gift. I was sure I didn\'t get it, especially since I was certain that there was no way that box had a dvd in it! I was happily wrong. I need to get it loaded!

Heidi

[bsktsn3cats]

We got a new bathroom Our bathtub was in terrible shape so we ordered one of those "ReBath" ones that they put right over top of the old one. Well, if we were getting a new tub, we needed to repaint the walls and have new flooring too. As we tried to remove the 4 layers of old wallpaper and paint, DH just decided to tear the old out and put all new in. Soooo, that turned out to be our Christmas gift.

Tracye, I realize I\'m probably living in a cave but what is a "featherweight"?

[jazzsmom]

I got some Fons and Porter\'s needles, ginghers, snowglobe and DVDs of the Vicar of Dibley, Julia Child (1960s show), March of the Penquins and my favorite movie, Gosford Park. I\'m still hand quilting but hope to get an APQS in 2008.

[Judi]

Tracie - just go to ebay and look up featherweight! They go for around

$500 in working order.... a nice and tiny old metal - and very good looking

machine that just does straight stitches. Great little workhorse to carry "to

and fro" if you take classes at quilt shops too!! I would LOVE one!! I keep

looking at thrift stores and hoping.....someday! I do have two old treadles

I would like to fix-up into one really nice looking and working machine!

[smudges]

Well I got really spoilt, especially considering I only got my Milli 3 months ago! I got a base expander, a ton of bobbins, a spare bobbin case, needles, a couple of curly things LOL, thread, some books (less stress feathers and meandering magic), bobbin genie washer thingys, a SID ruler, 5 different piecing rulers, a block butlet design wall, 3 full size quilt kits with fabric and patterns, an extra 20 yards of fabric, half with polar bears and half with fire trucks etc (I collect polar bears and volunteer with my local fire brigade), a bejeweller thingy, cordless glue gun, and the list goes on and on!!

Of course it helps that I buy or organise pretty much all the pressies around here including most of my own LOL! It used to really bug me that I had to buy my own pressies, but I have realised that getting what you want is better than getting a surprise, and being able to shop for yourself without feeling guilty is bliss!

Susan

[TracyeQ]

Tracie,

Let me see if I can post a pictue.

I\'ve wanted one of these for about 7 yrs but really gave up on one a long time ago. I just kept looking at yard sales and auctions but never found one in good shape that went reasonable.

DH didn\'t get a steal on this but at $300 for as pretty as one as it is I\'m pleased.

I still can\'t believe it!

I\'m with you Susan, I\'m pretty spoiled. I just got to upgrade to a Freedom SR 2 months ago. I guess that means I\'m gonna have to stay out of trouble for a while huh? It\'ll be worth it.

[TracyeQ]

It didn\'t post.

Let me try again.

[SandraC]

Hey Sandra, you\'ll have to let us know how you make with your camera.

My MIL gave me a generous cheque and I was thinking of a digital camera but something inside me is balking....I don\'t know if I\'m afraid of the technology or what!!! I am still using the 35mm that I bought myself with my first paycheque approx 28 years ago. How pathetic is that, ay???

I\'ll have to think on this......Sandra

[bsktsn3cats]

Oh Tracye, that is so cute! Lucky you!

I looked up the one that they are giving away on the Longarm Quilting Cruise. I got a free cruise with the purchase of my machine so maybe I\'ll win it on my vacation!

[Judi]

Tracie - Free cruise with machine purchase?! Where are you going & when?

Sounds like a blast! Will the ship be full of other quilters? That would be

a REALLY awesome quilting retreat!!

[jmcclannan]

Tracye - That picture brought tears to my eyes. I have such rich memories of watching my dear mother sewing away on her featherweight making all my clothes. I lost her several years ago and the machine disappeared shortly after:( What a thoughtful gift.

[TracyeQ]

Oh Julie I\'m sorry for your loss.

Do you know what happened to the machine?

I had always hoped I would find one that had a story with it, like I found out something about the previous owner, but it\'s pretty darn fun just owning one.

My MIL has one that\'s pretty beat up but it was her mothers and has been used bunches. I got to borrow it years ago when my DSM was on the fritz and pieced several tops and even quilted one of them on it. It was such a trooper. There are only 2 girls in the grandchildren, my daughter (3yrs) and my niece who\'s 12 and let me teach her to piece a few summers ago. Hopefully she\'ll leave grandma\'s machine to one of them, if it\'s still in one piece, then they\'ll have a machine with a story. She uses it a lot herself for stuff (not a quilter though).

[victoriasews]

I had hinted heavily, actually came right out and told my husband I wanted some crocs. He preceeded to tell me how I didn\'t really want them as they were so ugly. Imagine my surprise when my daughter gave me a pair! Her and her DH also gave me an MP3 player so I could listen to music while I quilt. My other daughter gave me the headphones. I did bring those girls up right! lol

[bsktsn3cats]

Judi, here\'s a link to the cruise brochure. I hope you can see this okay.

Right now I think there\'s 125+ longarm quilters going on the cruise. We will have lectures and parties. I can\'t wait!

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/UFByRwiNBo0nD1ddZyX8yGz6K2zOQhfAH4NBlDw9Wxa-Z0GndZ_hMxOuwWZxemmeKd4G_XRFO0kX3-ITyqk2-VMQP-wvh1sp9Io0CT2vyNwX1ToHrmhhIw/BROCHURE/MachineQuiltersAtSea%20Brochure%202008.pdf

[ramona-quilter]

Merry Christmas everyone.

I also had a great Christmas. Santa brought me the Machine Quilters Business Manager and Organized Quilter. I had already signed up for the classes at MQS to learn more about using this great software. A longarmer friend of mine bought hers at Innovations and she loves it. I also got Kodak frame thingy that you put your camera\'s memory card in. When you turn it on, the photos display from the memory card like a slide show. I love it.

But my best Christmas present was my oldest son\'s idea. He asked us if we wanted to be at his house on Christmas morning when our grandchildren wake up. It was magical.

My youngest son called from Seattle. So far, he is ankle-deep in his first White Christmas. Here in San Diego, we had strong Santa Ana winds with extreme fire danger warnings but the wind died down by dinner-time. Thank goodness.

Hey Tracie, I tried that link and it does not work for me. I will try it from my other computer later. It sounds like a blast.

Judi, It sounds like you had a white Christmas, too. Enjoy it now because later you will need to get out the shovel.

[BethDurand]

I was pretty surprised when in the midst of opening presents someone pointed out that it was snowing. Nothing stuck, just enough to make about one really slushy snowball off each car. Kids and dad got to have the fight, I stayed on the sidelines.

Santa brought me a website! It\'s not up and running completely yet, but as soon as the construction is finished, I\'ll be posting a link, and hoping for suggestions from everyone.

Happy day after Christams, I\'m off to get a pedicure!

Beth

[PamelaA]

I must have been very good, Santa bought me a car. My old 95 Neon is starting to act up and I wanted something with better milage and reliability. I got a 2008 Toyota Prius. Of course since I am single I buy all of my gifts like this. My sister did give me the pattern and all the fabric to make a quilt I have been admiring. I will have fun making it.

Traci, I am going on the AQS sponsored cruise at the end of January. Is anyone else on this chat going on this cruise?

PamelaA

[RitaR]

Santa was very sweet this year.. He left me a microfleece throw, a gift card and TWO BoXes of choco coated macadamia nuts. MMMmmm Was blessed with a fun day with the kids and grandkids.. picked on grandson of course.. he picked on me, too.. and son-in-law and I spent a lot of time going back to the turkey for nibbles... all afternoon..

Had to come home to get away from it.

We were truely Blessed this year.

RitaR

[seakitten]

I opened my mail on Christmas Eve to find the lovely star templates I had ordered from Quilters\' Rule on Dec. 1 (after seeing MichaelAlan\'s great Santa quilt). Not in time for MY Christmas quilt, but there\'s always next year. So much for the romance of Tropical Island living.

My New Year\'s resolution will be to actually photograph my quilts, & share them with you all.

[Farmwife Darlene]

Santa brought me a Liberty! I actually got it a bit earlier than christmas but was testing it out yesterday!

I have already learned I need lots and lots of practice. Any and all advice is welcome.

I love looking at the chats each day. This is a great site and you are all wonderful ladies. Thanks for helping to make this a better christmas. I have been dreading the holidays since my mom passed on August 24 of this year. Reading the comments and participating in the secret santa really helped. Jen was great - I was so excited to open a real gift yesterday!!!! Thanks to everyone for sharing.

Hope that everyone has a safe and blessed new year.

[barbm]

Santa was soooo good to me, too! I mentioned to my DH a month or so ago that Edgerider wheels would be nice, but that he should check it out online to see if they were worth the investment. So of course I sent him links to all the chats here, which are nothing but glowing about those wheels, so Christmas morning I got to open up a tube of wheels!

My DH wanted to put them on this morning, but he\'s taking younger son back to Seattle today and won\'t be back until late Saturday or early Sunday, and I really didn\'t want him making major changes on my baby and then leaving.....

The other gift I got that was sooo special: I had to go to the airport on Monday to pick up younger son - my DH said he couldn\'t go, \'cause he had to work on his computer here at home. While I was gone DH and oldest DS mounted the counter top on the cabinets in my studio! This has been a temporary install since June () so it\'s nice to have it all attached. Now I can actually put stuff in those cabinets, instead of spreading it all over the counter top!

It snowed here last night and you can barely see our small grand-dog through the snow, but he loves it! The sun is coming out and it\'s soooo beautiful! I love living in the Northwest!

May everyone here have a wonderful and productive New Year!

[chickenscratch]

The best gift I got was a set of pictures Linda Rech took when she went to visit my son and grandson at Ft. Lewis. Nothing in the world could be better than that (except maybe actually having them here, including Linda)