Who's a lazy girl and thrift shop treasures

Me! I've done no quilting on my Lazy Punk Quilt. Yesterday I went for my walk and found some treasures (more on this later). When I got home I had to make some Block of the Month samples and just as I finished the steam trigger on my pricey Rowenta Pro Precision Steam Station (fancy name for an iron) bit the dust.

I originally bought the iron in January 2012 and nine months later the boiler was defective and leaking. I took it to S.E.B. for repair and a week later a newer model of this machine was delivered. That was October 2012 and now one year later there is a problem with the new iron! So I contacted S.E.B. (the manufacturer) about this problem. It was a few days out of warranty and they agreed to repair it under warranty which is terrific. I spent part of my afternoon packing up the iron so that it was ready to go to the repair shop this morning. The technician advised me that the trigger is the weak point of this device; there are two little plastic pins that the trigger swivels on and they tend to break. While I am happy that it is being repaired under warranty I worry about this happening again at which point it will not be under warranty. While the iron performs really well I don't fancy a lifetime of repair bills for what I thought was a top quality, reliable iron. I'm going to write to head office about my concerns and we'll see what I get back.  So far I've been very happy with the service I've received so I am hopeful that S.E.B. will do what it can to ensure that it has a happy customer!

Now back to my walk! At the Salvation Army Thrift Shop I managed to find some interesting things that I think will make for some nice tiny world make-do pincushions. And if not, I'll just re-donate them to the shop!

I just couldn't resist starting another pincushion so I'm using another Japan mug. I love the olive colour with the teal and turquoise "dribble".

I call them Japan mugs because they are made in Japan.

I've made the "world" and have stitched down a flagstone path which is bordered by little purple French knots. I'm adding some green for foliage! I'll just keep adding green French knots until I've use up the piece of floss I cut.

One thing I should mention about these pincushions is that while the houses are permanently attached to the world, the trees can be moved around so you can do some landscaping!

Hopefully tomorrow will be a quilting kind of day! Until I post again, happy sewing and landscaping!