Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Road Trip

 

 

The Row by Row Experience shop hop was a good excuse to take a road trip on Saturdays in August.  I really enjoyed it, but now it is time to wind down.  I didn’t get to do all the Georgia shops that I would have liked to, but we did get to visit many new to us shops in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.  The first trip took us to five shops in NE GA.  The first stop was Intown Quilters in Decatur, and then on to Georgia Sewing & Quilting in Buford, Betty Sue’s Quilt Shop in Flowery Branch were the people were so friendly.   We also found the people very friendly at Annie’s Pretty Pieces in Hartwell and lastly, we just did make it to Thread Bear Fabrics in Cumming before closing time.

The 2nd Saturday found us heading to Tennessee where we again visited five quilt shops. Our first stop was Ready Set Sew which carried Janome sewing machines and was a nice shop.  Our second stop was Spools, the home of the Bad Ass Quilter’s Society.  I like the atmosphere and will stop there again when I’m up that way.  Next, we headed to Pins & Needles and was very disappointed to find them closed and no sign telling us why, although there posted hours said they were open on Saturdays from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.  I hope that whatever reason that kept them away wasn’t too serious.  It looked like a nice shop from what we could see through the windows.  We moved on to Bernina Sew N Quilt Studio where they had there demo machines on sale.  It was so tempting to buy a new Bernina. At least I know to head to Chattanooga when I do get ready to buy a new machine. Our next stop was Chattanooga Quilts in Ooltewah with lots of old time charm. 

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Here are Jean and me in front of Hyderhangout: Quilt Fabric & More in Cleveland, our last shop of the day.

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We stopped for some good Barbeque before heading home. 

The third Saturday, Jean, Nancy and me headed to North Carolina.  We stopped at the Fabric Center & Quilt Shop in Blairsville, GA on the way north. 

 

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We stopped to enjoy the scenery along the way.  We finally arrived in Franklin and A Stitch in Time.  Our next stop in Franklin was Deb’s Cats N Quilts where we found lots of stuffed cats, but no real ones.  It was a nice shop and well worth a return visit.

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Next we visited Bless My Stitches Quilt Shop in Murphy, NC.  We ate at a retro diner that had real malted milk shakes.  It sure did bring back memories of my younger days.

The fourth Saturday started with Jean and Mine’s first stop being the Comcast Cable office.  From there we went to The Stitchery in Rome, GA.  She has some really nice fabrics.  I couldn’t resist getting a FQ bundles on clearance.  We then moved on to Douglasvill,e to a wonderful shop, Pickleweeds Quilt Shop.  We kept wondering why we hadn’t heard of it before now,  It is worth the drive.  On the way home we stopped at a little fruit stand advertising “the world’s best peanuts”.  I have to admit they are pretty good.

There is one more Saturday this month, but I’m pretty well shopped out.  Unless Jean and Nancy really want to go, I’m through,.  It will take me awhile to get all the rows made that I’ve already collected.  I don’t know if I will have one large quilt or two smaller ones.  It has been fun and maybe next year I can get to some of the ones I wasn’t able to this time.

Passing Through

 

 

It seems like lately all I do is pass through my sewing room on my way somewhere else.  I’m beginning to wonder if I will ever stop in long enough to do any sewing.  Needless to say, I am very behind on my BOMs and Quilt Alongs.  Maybe I can get caught up next month.  I am working on the EVQG July mystery clue.  I haven’t even been to the website to get the August clue yet. 

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This is the June M for Mystery clue.  July and August’s kits are still in the envelopes they came in waiting on me.  Soon the September one will be here. 

I worked very hard tying to get caught up on the Delightful Stars blocks.

 

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Lesson 16                                                        Lesson 17

 

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Lesson 18                                                                              Lesson 21

 

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Lesson 22                                                           Lesson 23

 

I haven’t made the block for Lesson 19 yet, plus there are a couple more, lessons 24 and 25, that I need to make.  The block for Lesson 20 is made, I just didn’t take a picture of it.  The instructions call for joining it to some of the other blocks and of course I haven’t done that yet. 

 

We went to Villa Rica and bought 10 baby chicks.  One was sickly and died and another was killed by our other chickens.  The babies managed to get out of the coop and into the chicken run were the other two were at.  We sold 3 of the roosters from the first chicks.  We kept one and plan to get rid of it when the babies get old enough to put in with Juni.  I think we should keep a rooster as part of prepping just in case we don’t have the luxury of buying chicks from a hatchery. 

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We got 2 each of 5 different varieties.  On of the pale yellow ones was sickly and one of the brown ones was killed. This picture was taken right after we got them.

 

I got a new phone, a Samsung Galaxy S 4 active. I really wanted the S 5, but At&T isn’t giving them away.  The cheapest price with 2 yr. contract that my daughter found was $149.00.  The most I’ve paid for a phone is $49.00 and that was for the S 2. I was so anxious to get it and then when it arrived last Wednesday I was chicken about activating it.  Maybe I will give it a try today.  I’m worried about getting all my contacts and pictures moved to the new phone.  Although I think most of the pictures have been sent to my computer, or at least the ones I wanted to keep, so I don’t know why I think they need to be moved to my new phone to take up space I’ll need for new pictures.

Friday, August 22, 2014

New York Trip

 

 

Our New York trip was short but nice.  We visited relatives and went to the class reunion.  We stopped at 2 quilt shop on the way up.

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We stopped at Batiks Etcetera and Sew What Fabrics in Wytheville, VA. I’ve never seen so many batiks in one place before.  It is definitely the place to go for batiks.  Just wish it was a little closer to me.  Even my husband liked this shop.  Think he liked it because it is in an old house in the old part of town.  There were several quaint little shops on that street. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask for their license plate for the Row by Row Experience shop hop. Our second stop was at The Sew’n Place in Chambersburg. PA. That shop was in a strip mall and didn’t have a lot of fabric, but it was a nice selection.  Think they were more in the business of selling sewing machines. 

We took our Granddaughter with us so she could meet her great great grandfather.

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Lydia with Grandpa and her great great grandpa.  The Urn on the coffee table contains his wife’s ashes.

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This was taken at one of the rest areas we stopped at. 

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We ate supper Friday night at this retro dinner in Watertown, NY.  I like the atmosphere in the old timey restaurants.

On the way home we stopped at 2 quilt shops in NY.  We had to drive a little out of our way to get to them.  The first one was in Ithaca, NY.  The Quilter’s Corner was a nice quilt shop.  We stopped there on our way to Pucky Huddle Delight in Candor, NY.  With a name like that, I just had to make the detour  to check it out.

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This is my granddaughter’s favorite quilt shop because it is purple.  There was a house for sale right across the street.  I was ready to move.  The trip was over all too soon.  There were several places I would have like to gone to, but time didn’t allow for it.

 

Well, I’ve managed to get hooked on another book series; this one is by William Kent Krueger.  It is the Cork O’Conner mysteries. 

My legs are sore. I haven’t been to the gym in several months.  I lost my exercise buddy and I so hate going by myself.  I really need that friend to be accountable to, to keep me going.  I went yesterday morning early and got on the treadmill for 50 minutes.  I didn’t think walking on a treadmill would make me this sore. One thing, the gym is quiet early in the morning.  It doesn’t start getting busy until around 7:45.  Hope I have recovered by Monday so I can try it again.