Be careful what you don't wish for

For years off and on, I have been thinking of purchasing an embroidery sewing machine.  First I think it'll be so much fun to have one and then I think about how much it will cost in ratio to how much I would actually use it, and lastly I think about where I would put yet another sewing machine since years ago we moved from a 2-story house into a new double-wide mobile home planning for retirement (yes, I was only 36 at the time and hubby was 41, but he does construction for a living and absolutely did not want to think about having to use those stairs in his old age).  

A few months ago the subject came up again while I was teasing my hubby about another gun purchase in comparison to my hobbies and he said he knew what I was going to get for Mother's Day this year.  I guessed what he was thinking, and I finally put my foot down and said that I no longer wanted an embroidery machine until I retire and actually have time to use it.  He then came up with an alternative to the sewing machine...

This is what I got for Mother's Day!!! At least that was the excuse he used to validate the purchase.

 

Don't get me wrong - I love riding quads.  We had one already and my older son has one, but there are 4 of us in the family counting another teenage son.  My husband thought that if we had 1 more quad that we could spend time riding together as a family.  So far, we have ventured out once and had a great day spending time together.  This upcoming weekend here's an open house at an off-road park and we'll be heading there for a day of riding with my cute butterfly helmet for protection. Of course, there will be a quilty traveling project for the road trip to and from! 

Re-thinking a project

Have you ever started a project thinking you were happy with the fabric choices only to discover down the road that well, maybe you are not as happy with them as you thought you were before??   The next dilemma is then - do I keep on going with my choices hoping that I will be happy in the end or do I change up my choices so that I want to keep working on this project? 

I posted about this  My Portable Project not too long ago.  I love working on it, really I do, but the gray background that I chose was nagging at me.  I kept thinking it would be wonderful, but at the same time I was thinking maybe it was a little depressing and sad looking.  After much thinking on this, I decided to swap out the gray for a cream tone-on-tone print to perk up the quilt a little bit.  I am glad I chose now to change background colors with only a little ripping or unpicking to do. 

Usually I am pretty good with my fabric choices, but this time I just could not see finishing the project unless I changed it out.  I wonder how many people have unfinished projects because they are not happy with the fabrics in them.  Has this ever happened to you?

On a side note, this is a picture of a purse I finished about a month ago.  The pattern is a Lazy Girl Design.  It is called the Towne Purse and it went together fairly quickly in an evening.  The thing that surprised me the most about carrying it is that it is so much lighter than carrying my leather purse.  I love it!  You can find the pattern here -Lazy Girl Designs