If you need all the details…click review this report on the bottom…if not skip it…
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 750,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 14 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!
I just received my year-end 2012 blog results from WordPress…I am so busy quilting I pay no attention to some of the techy stuff….but found this pretty report very informational…
Here goes…my blog was viewed 750,000 times in 2012! I posted 99 times…not counting today…so 100 times….The busiest day on my blog was December 19…A Primitive Christmas post…was viewed 44,360 times….My blog was visited by 122 countries…all I can say is WOW! I had no idea..My most commented on post in 2012 was My home town…Moda Designer Blog Post..
These are my 5 most active commenters:
Cincy 28 COMMENTS
Teri LaVoy 22 COMMENTS
Sue Schultz 21 COMMENTS
Ann 21 COMMENTS
Denise W 21 COMMENTSThank you all for commenting, but if you are one of the top 5 send me your address, your Gravatar should match the one in front of your name here…I might have something for you…just a little something!!! Amy is going to kill me…she is keeping track of all of my giveaways….I will post who we are still waiting to hear from…I do not think we sent any 12 Needful prizes out yet…so thanks for being patient while we enjoy our holiday season….
Here is what my weekend consisted of…if was perfect…
I made this recipe from Pinterest this weekend…Nick said I can make it again…lots of good stuff in it.…Recipe here: Chicken Enchiladas with Avocado Cream Sauce
Sorry it took so long for me to pick the 12 winners but there wasn’t enough hours in a day some days…Nick and Amy picked numbers between 1 & 99 for the winners…
Each of the 12 winners below need to send me their address so we can send out a kit for my Sheep ornament:
The number before your names are the comments numbers…so if you are unsure if this is your name check the comment number please!!!
2 Carol Eberhardt
4 catskillquilter
9 Kathy B
16 Jodi
23 Tammy Whaley
33 Elaine S.
57 sandy
68 Kathy MacKie
74 Marsha Bohling
78 JJean Nolting
86 Toni R
99 Mary
Enjoy!!!
Did anyone find any good buys out there today?
LB
My hope is that all of you are having the BEST Holiday possible…and remember sometimes things are as good and YOU decide they are going to be…
I want to thank everyone for making it possible for me to be able to do what I love…and that is to create and educate with my stitching…without you all it would not be possible and I just want to let you know I am grateful!
Mom and I are busy getting our Holiday meal ready…she picked number 67 for the winner of yesterday’s post….MarieDecember 24, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Lisa, I had an opportunity to learn about the Juki machine years ago and was unable financially to purchase one. Later a friend of mine was selling her Brother Nouvelle 1500 which is basically the same machine with a few minor differences. LOVE IT! I too would rather sew on that machine than any other. Well later another friend was selling her Juki 98Q and I was financially able to purchase it (she had too many machines and favored another). Anyway I was blessed to have 2 wonderful machines. I actually like the threader better on the Brother and the 1/4″ mark on the throat plate on the Brother, although the needle up/down on the Juki is rather nice. Both are wonderful machines! I have sewn on others but these two are my absolute favorites hands down!
Marie…send me your address and we will be sending you a Christmas Care Package…in other words we will be putting stuff together for you, kind of like a Big Christmas Present!
I will pick 12 winners of the Christmas Blog Hop tomorrow…
Merry Christmas All!!!
Day 1...Juki Sewing Machine 
Now I know we pretty much all have a sewing machine…or two or three or even more…But I just have to talk about the sewing machine I use 99% of the time…It is my #1 Needful thing…Most of you probably have never heard of Juki…so let me just say they are not new to the market…Juki is well known in the garment industry and are mostly industrial machines. I think I have had a Juki for about 8 years now…I also own 2 Berninas, 1060 and a 1530, and a couple of featherweights…one black and one white. I confess this to you so you also know what I am comparing to and you all know I teach all across the country and have stitched on many machines.
I bought the Juki with the intention to use it as a second machine to have set up for machine quilting my little quilts, and also so I didn’t have to change the walking foot from my regular foot on my Bernina…that would have been nice, right?…Juki has entered the quilt world with a semi-industrial machine for quilters. Here are a few of the features that the Juki machines have…all metal…no plastic bobbins, no plastic feet, comes with all sorts of feet including 2 free motion feet and a walking foot, a larger 9″ opening between the body and the arm, so machine quilting would be easier to handle. It has a nice extension table, this is nice for retreats, I have it embedded in my table usually. The machine ONLY stitches straight. Now this might be an issue for some, but I was only going to use this for machine quilting…The fact that it only stitches straight is actually a plus…nice tension all the time, single hole throat plate . It holds large cones as well as regular thread…It has an automatic thread cutter, automatic needle threader , knee lift and stitches 1500 stitches per minute or something like that, in other words it is FAST.
After stitching on this machine and using it. I did not want to stitch on anything else. It “pieces” beautifully…I didn’t have to hang on to my threads at the start, the feed dogs are nice and close together and fed my little pieces in nicely. Having the single hole meant my piecing wasn’t sucked down into that oblong hole… and again…I could stitch, cut my thread with my foot(or there is a button, but I like my hands free to hold on to my patches) knee lift my presser foot and be on to the next thing…I especially love piecing triangle paper on the Juki for all the reasons I just stated…Now I know being fast really should not be an issue, right? We want to be accurate! But let me tell you, if I am stitching strips, borders or you name it…fast is handy…I tried going back to my “regular” machine to piece on…it was almost painful!!! Just shoot me…I loan this machine at The Gathering, but it comes with a warning…if you stitch with it you WILL be going home with it! I think only one person didn’t buy one after she stitched on it for a weekend…lol…They also have updated the Juki recently…I have a TL98Q, now they make a TL2010 Q1, they have updated to an LED light…they have added a Turtle and a Hare button, if you want to control how fast it can go…and they changed the foot pedal, a bit…I love my 98 and the features they added do not make a difference to me…so I am keeping my 98.
Here is the only con to my Juki…it is heavy…but it is all metal! You can’t have metal parts and it be light!…I think of it like today’s featherweight-but it is not light. Anyone can work on a Juki…it is a basic machine, it has no computer…it just needs to be oiled and used and it is happy!
So if you are ever in the market for a machine, please check out the Juki’s and you can read all the technical words I should have used to explain it. They now have a presence at the larger quilt shows and will soon come out with a long arm, that will be most reasonably priced. I do sell the Juki 2010Q1 at my store…I could sell other machines but remember what I said, I only sell what I use…therefore I sell the Juki’s. I am placing the Juki 2010Qi on sale now until the end of the year at a special of $899-(yes…not a typo) including shipping. This is a great deal. We will order more for this same price as long as you order before the end of the year. JUKI In 2013 they will go back to $999.00 still a great price when you think about what you all get with this machine! Please allow a few weeks for delivery…we will not charge your card until we are shipping it.
In this “needful series” I could have talked about a lot more things…but I promise to do so in posts in 2013 or like I said the YouTube videos, where a video would be easier than taking a 100 pics and writing about it.
Here are some of the things on my list for next year: 1/2 square and quarter square triangles….single and double fold binding….instant antique….fusible web..especially Steam-a-steam 2 LITE….Cutting….Blanket stitch…stem stitch…colonial knots…couching…and that is what is on my list so far…if you have anything that I may have missed or you need help with please email me and I will let you know if I know enough about it to help you…I am also going thinking about doing a Stitch-along project on YouTube…we will cover each block and have step by step lessons for an ongoing project. Hopefully you can join me…we will offer a kit so you will have everything you need to Stitch Along…let me also know if you think this may be something you are interested in…
Yesterday’s winner is….Comment #112…Pam Miller December 23, 2012 at 11:49 pm
Lisa, I love all the tips you have given us. The circle template will certainly improve my circle making. I can’t wait for a few free minutes to get started on another project. I made the candle mat in your Primitive Christmas book and sent it to my sister in Virginia for Christmas. It turned out great and I can’t wait until Christmas Day when she calls me to let me know how she likes it. I could have used the circle template to mark all of those circles. Maybe next time. Merry Christmas!
Pam…please send me your address and we will send you some Snowman Gathering goodies! It will be a surprise!
Please comment today, as I will be picking winners for today’s post…as well as a sheep ornament kit for 12 lucky winners from my Christmas Blog Hop…so if you didn’t comment on that post get back there and do so…hope you all are enjoying your families at this time…LB
Day 2…Circle Templates…and the best marking pen…
Circle templates are very useful and I mostly use them to trace circles onto fusible web instead of trying to trace them from the pattern…I will take my template, figure out what size circle the pattern is using then trace the circles using the template instead of the pattern…You cannot cut perfect circles if they are not drawn perfect first…and let’s make a point here…there are no perfect circles in my world, but I try to get them as nice as possible and the circle template does this…
Another use for the circle template is to draw a circular line on your wool penny and then stitch to it!…so your stitches are not random all over the place…See my photos and descriptions below:
Look for circle templates at your local shops or at office supply stores or if you don’t want to bother we will have them on sale here too! Circle Template
I know I could go on with this Needful things for awhile..but I will sneak a couple in…like this marking pen, it is from Clover…it is liquid chalk…it irons away when you are finished…It does not just rub off like the Sewline white chalk pen does and then I have to remark…I do not like doing things twice…now if I was hand quilting on my frame I would like the Sewline white chalk pen because it would rub off while I am quilting the next rows…and I would not have to remove it…But when I have marked on my wool project I want those lines to stay until I have to remove them…with the Clover it is done easily with steam…
One more thing about the
Clover white liquid chalk marking pen…if you are unfamiliar with it, you may not think it is working…It is a liquid chalk, you have to lightly roll it on, like a gel pen. Do not press really hard or the liquid chalk will not come out…You also have to kind of move it back and forth to get it going and make sure it is marking…then remember it is liquid…it needs time to dry, then you can see the chalk!!! So sometimes you don’t notice it, but then when it dries it is like Oh! there it is…I suggest to play with it when you first get it to see how it works… Here is the marking pen…it will be 25% off automatically if purchased after Christmas for however many we have in stock… Click here for the Clover marking pen: Marking Pen
These 12 posts have been my Holiday Gift to YOU!!! Now…I know some of you have asked me many questions in your comments …if I did not answer it is probably because there is no pattern, or the answer was in my post, you might not have read it all the way through…I love that fact that you ALL are enjoying this and that is was worth my time and effort…If I did not get an answer and you still need one, please email me and I will answer you…but this time of year is the problem…If I continued to do posts of these Needful things I would have no stitching time!…but I do promise to blog more and Utube is in my future…my goal is to stay home more…I LOVE to teach but it is really hard being on the road…so if I can “teach” from my blog and Utube videos this will make a difference in the quality of my life and for all of you too!!!
Please tell your friends about my blog, my shop and my Moda fabrics and so on..Pin my stuff on Pinterest as long as it links back to my site or my blog post…if you are unsure about this figure it out it isn’t hard….this is the best compliment you can give me is to spread the word about Primitive Gatherings….I so appreciate you actually reading these posts and commenting,…Keep in mind…I am not a gadget person…I only buy things if they are useful to me and if they make my quilting better…say for instance the binding tool…I don’t use any of them…I can put a binding on perfect without a tool…I don’t carry lots notions in my shop if I don’t need/use them…so I don’t have every gadget under the sun on my site or in my store, just so I can sell them and make a buck…only things I think are NEEDFUL will I endorse or explain why you have to have one of these…with a few exceptions of course like earrings!!!
Please make sure you watch those Utube videos when they start appearing in 2013…
Now today’s winner from Yesterdays post is: Comment 108… Arnett…please email me your address so we can hook you up with all three of these new Kit & Project keepers…printed with your favorite shop’s logo!..lol…They are 8×10, 18×20 and 20×20! See them on our site here: Kit Keepers
Arnette JaspersonDecember 23, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Sure wish you were closer Lisa. I love your whole concept of quilting and Christmas!!
