Pattern Weights

Hello everyone. I'm sorry about the holiday hiatus. I don't know about the rest of you but I was holed up working on people's christmas presents until the ninth hour. This was exacerbated by the un-precedented (at least in my life time) snow that we got here in Portland. Christmas shopping was hard without snow plows. Anyways I would like to do a post about pattern weights. People seem to have very strong feelings about where and how they use their weights. I have also never been able to buy pattern weights I liked and have therefore made my own. I imagine that its the same for many of you. So, I would like people to send me pictures of your weights and comments about how you use them. Please send them to carlymick@gmail.com.
Cheers and a happy new year!

Sewing machine shopping

It's been awhile since I've posted anything! I have a very long mental list of posts that I would like to make, I'm hoping I get to them soon....
For now, I have a question for the sewers out there: Does anyone have any good advice as to what brand and make of sewing machine is high quality but not too pricey? A friend of mine is on a hunt for a good basic home machine, and I'm sad to say I didn't have a lot of advice for her. Any feedback would be lovely. Thanks!