Mystery Prep!

Welcome to the new-bees, the old-bees, and the excited-bees! I've had emails asking what else there is to do besides gather the fabrics for the Mystery.

Other than gathering your fabrics, there really isn't anything you need to do to prep, without me going into a whole lot of detail and opening up a whole lot of questions that would take much more explanation than if I just do it per clue! So that kind of prep will come with each step of the mystery. It's just easier that way.

It's only a few more days, I know you can wait!

But here are some things you CAN do:

*Be sure you have a new blade in your cutter.

*De-clutter your cutting surfaces and your sewing area.

* Clean and oil your machine, and change the needle.

* Wind a bunch of bobbins.

*Buy yourself your favorite smell-good candle so you can bring MOOD AMBIANCE into your sewing space!

*Make a menu plan and shop ahead so that you can throw things in the crock pot and immerse yourself in sewing and not have to worry about dinner.

((Here is a great recipe for Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore!))

*Get your CD's ready, or download books to your MP3 player so you can enjoy a good "read" while sewing! Those who watch TV while you sew...get those DVDs out and pick the best ones that you can "listen" to and not have to look up so often.

*Plan on washing the sheets and bed linens the day before....so you get a good night's sleep on the 18th in a freshly made bed. Okay, this might sound silly, but that is the best sleep in the world to me, new clean tucked-in-tightly sheets!

Do you have a leader/ender project ready? Even if I am doing one step repetitively while chain piecing, I don't chain lengths of pieces together any longer than my ironing board. When I get that long, I run a leader/ender through.

Otherwise....big long long long chains of pieces get tangled and twisted and it's a mess. Ironing board length means I can lay the whole chain up there, press, cut apart, de-dog-ear if needed and go sew some more. It gets me out of my chair more, which is what we need. It also helps me breeze through those leader/enders more often than once every 500 pairs of triangles O_o !

Are there any other things you like to do? Think of this as our Holiday Stay-cation At Home Retreat! What other ideas give you the best, most relaxing, most fun "at-home" sewing experience?

Bonnie