let's start at the very beginning

This has been a very eventful week here in Maine. Tuesday morning I showed up for a normal day at work and first thing I was called to a conference room to be told that my position was being terminated. You know that dropping feeling you get in your stomach when you just can't believe something is happening? That was me. I gave my all to my job, working nights and weekends. Spending multiple Mother's Day weekends at client sites. Having to have relatives pack for a move because I had to travel to take care of a client emergency. You would think your job would be there for you. Not so. I do think in this case they may have made a grave error in judgment. We had a very small and close office and no one can believe that I was let go. I was an effective, dedicated and loyal employee going more than the extra mile in most cases. I was a go to person who people came to for help. The remaining employees are seeing that it doesn't matter how hard you work, the company has no loyalty. I know of a number who are now updating their resumes and starting a job hunt.
I spent Wednesday making phone calls and I already have a few leads on new jobs. Some good friends (former employees who have left and have been trying to get me to leave for years) have told me I will be much happier in the end. I already feel less stressed.
Soooo what do you do when you lose your job??? You go sewing machine shopping of course! I have actually been looking for a while. My Bernina 1230 has some issues that I have tried to have fixed, but the fixes doesn't seem to hold. After the fiasco with my Bernina 200 I am not attached to the brand as I used to be. I looked at Juki, Pfaff, Janome, Elna and Bernina. In the end I really liked this BabyLock Quest Plus (ignore the mess). It has all of my minimum requirements plus some extras I was really impressed with. It came with this extension table complete with seam guides etched in. Love it! There is also a built in walking feed. It's smooth and solid making for a nice stitch. I used it to put together my October Road blocks today. Very easy to keep a 1/4" stitch.
And for a pleasant change, I'm thinking this must be some sort of good omen. On Tuesday I got an email from LaVieEnRosie saying I had won some cool wool and linen cuts for posting on the Fall-o-ween blog hop. I never win anything so this is a good sign. They arrived in yesterday's mail so I had 2 exciting packages to open last night. She also included this nice tray from Ikea. I love Ikea and I can never go because it is too far so I was excited to have this cool little catch all. It took me 5 tries to get this picture without a kitty in it. They must have liked the smell of whatever finish is on the fabric.