The weather actually felt like spring today! Kevin and I went out grocery shopping and running errands this afternoon, and everyone in town was in such a good mood — people with their car windows rolled down and music blaring, kids riding bikes, ladies walking their mini-dogs. Man, It’s so great to feel the sun on your face…

I took a little bit of time off today and spent this beautiful afternoon pouring over the yarn selection at “Serendipity Yarn”:http://wowyarn.ca/ I love being in a well organized yarn shop, it’s fun just taking my time touching and examining all the different textures.

After much browsing, I ended up purchasing two hanks of Butterfly Mercerized Cotton for a “Margaret Nicole”:http://www.margaretnicole.com/index.htm inspired summer clutch. I also plucked up two balls of Debbie Bliss Cotton/Wool from the sale bin for 50% off. Even though I don’t rally have a plan for it, I’m still kicking myself for not buying more — such a deal!

Yesterday was the big day — Kevin and I drove to Toronto to pick up my new “Janome Memory Craft 6600″:http://janome.com/product_show.php?id=731 from “Sewing World”:http://www.sewingmachine.ca/home.html.

I’ve sewing on it nonstop since we pulled it out the styroform — I’m completely smitten with all its fancy features, and it sure makes my old Kenmore 8 Stitch look like an antique. Listen to this, if you can believe it: automatic cutter, knee operated foot lift, over 500 stitches, start/stop button (instead of pedal powered), 1000 stitches a minute…I could go on and on.

But one of my favourite features and the major reason I wanted this model is the AcuFeed system, which makes for nice even sewing of multiple fabric layers without pulling or puckering. It has been amazing on my appliqued purses so far, and now I’m getting all inspired to start a quilt.

I’m spending some time this weekend getting something together for “Fred Flare’s Next Big Thing Contest”:http://www.fredflare.com/customer/nextbigthing.php, but I’ve got to hurry, the deadline’s in six days! I didn’t even realize, time’s been moving so fast.

For those that don’t know, the Next Big Thing is an annual call-for-submissions from Fred Flare, who picks the best crafty & cute stuff and sells it on their fab website, here’s “last year’s winners”:http://www.fredflare.com/diary/nextbigthing.php?xid=117fbb83b8294438b28cfe2cd417b3c0.

Ok, back to my entry…