One of our best investments yet

When my husband and I were first married, we got a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner. It worked alright, but the engine quit a month after the warranty expired (two years). Considering it was somewhere in the $60 price range, that costed us $30 per year.

Then we "upgraded" to a Bissell bagless model that was closer to $90. We've had it for about six years now, but it quit picking anything up awhile ago. Dare I admit on my public blog that I haven't bothered to vacuum in months? Honestly, it never did any good, so it was a waste of time.

I had company overnight about two weeks ago, and I literally had to go over the dark green carpet in my guest room with a clothes lint brush (the kind with tape) in order to get it looking presentable. I used at least ten of the sticky sheets on that roll. I had already run the vacuum cleaner, and all the dirt and lint was still there when I was done. It hadn't picked up a thing. That's when I said, "No more!!" I didn't care how much we had to spend, we were going to get a good vacuum cleaner this time.

Two days later, an offer showed up in our mailbox from Oreck. My husband and I looked it over and decided to think about it. I looked up the reviews online and it looked pretty good, but $200 is still a lot of money to spend at once (at least for us). So we just held onto the paperwork, hoping for some kind of direction before the offer expired.

At our last ladies' meeting (three days before the offer expired), I noticed that our hostess had just gotten a new Oreck vacuum. Of course, I inquired about how she liked it. Everyone there sang the praises of Oreck vacuums, and several of the ladies have done housekeeping for a living. Needless to say, we felt like that was our answer. I went home and ordered the Oreck.

Wouldn't you know, it came today. Meet my new housecleaning best friend:



I can't tell you how impressed I am with this vacuum! There was just a tiny bit of assembly required before I could use it, but I figured it out after a few minutes of browsing through the multi-lingual instruction brochure and using a little common sense.

I couldn't wait to try it out, so I immediately vacuumed my dining room. I was thrilled to hear it picking up the dirt! Yes, I could actually hear it sucking up dirt particles. (Remember, I haven't had a vacuum cleaner that worked properly in well over a year.) Not only did it clean thoroughly, I was impressed by how easy it was to push and pull. It truly is lightweight!

Then I wondered what it might do to my kitchen rug that sits in front of my sink. It's a beautiful rug, but it catches every piece of dirt that floats by, as well as all the lint that ever touches it. I had thought it was ruined because I couldn't get all that junk off. Imagine my surprise to see a new-looking rug after two swipes with the Oreck! Too bad I didn't get a before and after picture. You really wouldn't have believed your eyes.

But I did think to get a before and after picture of the rug in my hallway. Here it is before I ran the Oreck over it:



See all that lint? I've vacuumed this countless times with my old vacuum, and it still looked like this when I was done.

After two passes with the Oreck, it looked like this:



All gone!! I didn't know I could get so excited about lint-free rugs and a vacuum cleaner, but I did. I vacuumed the whole house to see the transformation it made in each room. :)

It did wonders for our tired-looking carpet. It raised the nap again, and it even left marks to show where I had swept. (I'm sure there's a term for that, but I don't know what it is.)

Of course, I wasn't paid anything for this review. I just wanted to write it to help out anyone else who might be "on the fence" about shelling out the money for a good vacuum cleaner. Trust me - you need to do it! :)

Homemade Gift: Yellow Zig Zag Vintage Sheets Quilt

Yes, I've made another quilt. I fell in love with this zig zag design from the first time I laid eyes on it, but I didn't like the idea of piecing all those triangles. As a virtual beginner in quilting, I figured I'd probably mess up triangles. So when I saw these instructions from Bee Square Fabrics for piecing the zig zag quilt with rectangles (then joined on the diagonal), I knew I had to try one.



(Please excuse the horrid picture, but it was the only way I could take a picture to show you the full length of the quilt.)

I added a row or two, as well as an 8" border all around, in order to make mine big enough for a twin-size bed.



I followed the zig zags (1/4" away from the seam on both sides) to quilt that part. I read one lady's blog who said it took her forever to quilt it this way, but I thought it went pretty fast. I guess anything is going to seem fast after my first big quilting project, right? :)



I used the free-motion meandering stitch on the 8" border. The more I do it, the easier it becomes. I really do like it - both doing it and the looks of it.

I used plain white binding on this one because I wanted to emphasize the yellow and white contrast in the rest of the quilt. (If you're looking for a great tutorial on making your own binding and sewing it onto a quilt, I highly recommend these two.)

I had my moments when I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. But now that it's done, I love it!

Another peek into our homeschool room

It's been awhile since I posted any pictures of our homeschool room, but I finally remembered to take pictures of our new jungle theme, so here you go:



I know the toucan isn't in proportion to the rest of it, but my kids love it! They especially love the monkeys with their fingers up to their lips. They were originally part of a set with the reading monkeys, so I think they were supposed to emphasize the fact that we should be quiet when other people are reading. However, I thought they looked a bit mischievous, so I had them poke out from behind the trees in various places. I think they're my kids' favorite part of this whole bulletin board! :)

The toucan and palm trees were luau decorations from Dollar Tree. The monkeys were in a bulletin board set from Dollar Tree. (There's more of that set in the next bulletin board.)



This combines a few different Dollar Tree bulletin board sets. They aren't all the same style, but my kids really do love this board, so who cares, right?



And lastly, I decorated the door with this parrot (also a Dollar Tree luau decoration) and hearts from a Dollar Tree valentine bulletin board set (the rest of the elements were used on the second bulletin board).

It's nice to walk into this tropical rainforest in the dead of winter!

Calendar Challenge: February 2012

It's the last day of the month, which means it's time for the Calendar Challenge that my friend and I are working on to show our calendar page for next year's month.

Here's mine:



Supplies: paper (The Paper Company); stickers (conversation hearts by Creative Memories); punch (Martha Stewart).

February's calendar page is pretty simple compared to January's, but it's what I had in mind when I thought about what I wanted to do. Hopefully next month's will be a little more fancy to balance things out a bit! :)

Now you can go check out my friend's blog to see what she came up with for February. She's working on several calendar gifts, so she'll have more than one idea.

Homemade Gift: Chef's Apron from a Tablecloth

I found a gorgeous 100% cotton canvas tablecloth at Goodwill last week for $4. I almost didn't get it because I knew I couldn't get more than two aprons from it, but common sense won out. Where else could I get this much gorgeous canvas fabric for $4? So it ended up in my cart. After all, $2 for an apron this nice is still an awesome price.

To make things as easy as possible, I used my favorite apron as a pattern. I also used ribbon for the ties, which is about 100 times easier than trying to make ties from canvas material. (Yes, I started to make one before I realized this.) It's also 100 times more comfortable around your neck!

Instead of making this one reversible or lined, I just turned the raw edges under twice and stitched them. Of course, I sandwiched the ribbon in the appropriate seams before I stitched them, too. It worked great, and it was fast and easy!

Since I was able to get two of these out of the tablecloth (with some fabric leftover), I'm considering keeping one for myself and putting the other into my gift stash. I love roses!

Homemade Gift: Yellow "For the Love of Patchwork" Vintage Sheet Quilt

It's done! How do you like my first all-vintage-sheets quilt? Personally, I love it, but that's going to make giving it away that much more difficult.



I seem to find lots of vintage sheets in shades of yellow, so I decided to build this simple patchwork quilt around shades of yellow. Here you can see the quilting a little better. Since I did this in the quilt-as-you-go style, I was able to do different quilting on each square. The stripes got straight line quilting, and the florals got a free-motion meandering quilting.



Here is a peek at the back, for my friend who (like me) loves the quilting on the back! :) I used a thrifted high-quality white cotton sheet for the backing.



This is also the first quilt I've bound the traditional way, and I must say that I really like it. I pieced the binding for this one, using scraps of the fabrics I used in the quilt itself.

I love quilting and really admire a nicely-pieced, intricate pattern. However, as I've collected pictures of the quilts that really "strike" me, I've discovered that it's the simple square patchwork ones that I love the best. Maybe because they seem so "homey"??

Just in case you're interested, my squares were cut at 8" square.

Enjoy! :)

Frugal Tip: How to save money on sewing thread

If you're on a sewing kick and (like me) go through 10 regular (400-yd) spools of thread in a month, you know that thread expense can add up. It's one of those hidden costs that you don't think about when you're starting a project.

After I went through those ten spools of thread in one month, I was on the lookout for a good way to save money on it. Even though I got them for $1 each on sale (a great deal considering they're usually $1.99 or more), $10 a month for thread is a bit more than I was willing to part with. I know, I'm cheap! :)

At any rate, as I was reading library books on the subject of machine quilting, I came across a tip that is worth every late fine I've ever paid at a public library! It's from the book Machine Quilting: A Primer of Techniques by Sue Nickels. If you're looking for the best book to introduce you to machine quilting, this is it. Don't let the cover fool you - it's not all about fancy embroidery machine stitches. It's the most practical, helpful book I've read on the subject. (And I've read upwards of ten, so you can trust me on that.)

But let's get on to the tip ... You've probably seen those wire hanger-type things that are designed to adapt cone thread to a regular sewing machine. Well, you don't need to buy that wire hanger-type thing to use inexpensive cone thread on your regular sewing machine. Check this out:



You simply place the cone on the table behind your sewing machine. Then place a bobbin either on the spool holder (which didn't work on my machine) or on the bobbin-winding-pin (whatever the technical name might be). Pull the thread through the little hold in the top of the bobbin and thread your machine as usual.



Here you can see how it works on my machine. You may have to experiment just a little bit for your machine, but it's fairly easy. You just want the thread coming from the same general direction as the spool pin usually feeds it.

In order to wind a bobbin with the cone thread, I simply threaded my machine as usual and held the cone in my left hand, just slightly behind the machine, on level with the top. It doesn't require as much coordination as it sounds.

I haven't had any problems with the cone tipping over and rolling around on the table. I'm about halfway through with the cone, so I'll be sure to let you know if it becomes a problem - and what solution I come up with. :)

So, how much money can you save this way? I bought this 3000-yd cone at full price (Hancock's) for $2.99. I would have paid $7.50 for that same amount of thread at the sale price (400-yd/each), and almost $15 for that same amount of thread at full price.

This thread is 100% polyester. Since I do most of my sewing with poly/cotton blends, it works great for me. If you do quilting with 100% cottons, you'll probably want to shop around for cotton thread on a cone. I didn't look for any, but I'd guess they're out there - and for a lot cheaper than regular spools. If you go to thrift shops as much as I do, you've probably even seen a few industrial-sized cones, too. They're generally as cheap as dirt in a thrift store, but be sure to check the fiber content.

I hope this helps you as much as it has me!