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Saturday, October 08, 2011

And I drove and drove…..

I left the house about 9:45 am yesterday morning, with Sadie pouting about being left behind.

And I drove.

How’s that for a short post?!

It was a beautiful day for a drive and I even enjoyed having the sunroof open for a bit ---

You know, if I had to pick the one thing about to day that I was the most grateful for, it would be google!

Thursday night as I was getting everything ready and packing the car to go I plugged in my magenta featherweight to give it a test run only to find that the light bulb was burned out.

In typical “make do now” fashion since it was after 9 pm, I ran down stairs to STEAL the bulb from the black featherweight. No bulb in it.

The white one didn’t have a working bulb either!

((Yes, I’m a featherweight hoarder, I have 3! A black one, a white one, and my midlife-crisis hot magenta metallic baby with the ghost flames on the machine bed:

I’ve had this baby a year, and I admit it. I get giddy when I take her out of her box! I start singing Stevie Wonder! “Isn’t she lovely, isn’t she wonderful……” :cD

But alas…NONE of them had working light bulbs and I was on my way out the door. I googled sew & vac on my phone from the car. Up came a little map thing with red tabls listing where they were. I picked the closest one on my route through Richmond, VA and called.

“I need 3 featherweight light bulbs”

“No problem ma’am, we’ll have them at the counter for you!”

Another bonus?? GPS took me right there no problem! The only hiccup was that the shop was closed for lunch when I got there, but I was hungry too, and there was a great Korean place just across the street that I never ever would have experienced if I hadn’t run out of functional featherweight light bulbs!

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I loved this place! ((Korean Garden)) I was the only Anglo in there, which to me is a very good sign. I ordered a hot and spicy soup with meat, veggies and soft tofu, toped with an egg. The soup comes boiling to the table and the egg cooks as you stir it around, kind of like in egg drop soup. The servers wear traditional Korean garb. I was the only one in the place speaking English. Such a fun little side trip that might never have happened!

After lunch I went back to the sew & vac shop, the owner was back from his own lunch, and he quickly replaced the burned bulb in the magenta machine, and sent me on my way with two spares for the other machines. ((And yes, he LOVED the paint job!!))

Always be willing to leave the interstate for the road less travelled. It just might be the best part of an other wise long predictable drive!

I arrived in the Lexington Park area around 5:30 pm. Gosh I love driving and seeing the Chesapeake Bay!! It was unbelievably blue ---there were boats on the water. It's so picturesque when you take the bridge over...

I’ve been welcomed into Julia’s home --- fed a wonderful dinner of grilled chicken salad served on her back deck. And we set to puttering!

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Instead of sewing this trip, I’m kitting UP for next week’s trip! See that big tub of neutrals? I’m behind in my cutting down. Not of my OWN scraps, I do that automatically as I make them…..but when people give me boxes or bags of scraps, they tend to stack up until I get get around to sorting through and cutting them into their sizes. This is neutral hunks and chunks of various sizes that could easily be cut into usable quilt-parts. And that’s what I’m doing. I’ve spent the night cutting something like 200 quarter square triangles, 100 bricks, 100 squares….and it hasn’t even made a dent! I’ve cut the left overs from THESE units into 1.5”, 2”, 2.5” squares and 1.5” strips. Stuff that is less than 1.5” are going in the neutral strings. It’s still not making a dent.

All I can say is the scraps look far better when cut down to size so they are ready to use, than when they are just in a tub all scrambled!

Today is a Bricks in the Barnyard workshop!! It’s been a couple of years since I’ve taught for this guild, so I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone again!

13 comments:

  1. So happy to see the FW's. I know you have them and was wondering when they get to play. Seems that all of your hotel room sewing pics have the Bernina in them. Just curious...how do you decide which machine to take?

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  2. Do you ever stay home on a weekend? You are the most 'going" person I know of.

    Your magenta Featherweight is a hoot! I saw red ones on the internet a while back. Pretty but I don't think my babies want to be painted.

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  3. This post is particularly funny, because I grew up in Lexington Park, and when describe where it is, I tell people to drive until you think you're in the middle of nowhere and then keep on driving some more. Enjoy your visit, and if you go to the quilt shop in Prince Frederick, be sure to stop at Stony's on Solomon's Island for crabcakes :)

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  4. Anonymous9:06 AM EDT

    Bonnie, when you cut down scraps like these, how do you do it? Do you stack fabrics until you have a pile worth cutting into to or do you cut each piece one at a time? How much do you worry about grain line? I, too, cut my scraps into useable pieces as I make them, but occasionally I receive a gift of scraps. It's a huge job! Nyla-Jean, Kingston, Ontario

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  5. Lexington, Maryland...never been there! Enjoy the Chesepeake - it is a good food area!

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  6. I try to cut the scraps to usable sizes but they got way ahead of me....what is the best way to get control of the scraps? I have scraps everywhere and honestly I just think about throwing them all away and starting fresh!
    Help Super Scrappy Woman.....where do I start?

    Have a good day, get out and enjoy the sunshine too. Happy Sewing

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  7. Love the magenta featherweight!
    When we travel we have googled locations for all kinds of things--it is great. Especially love it when DH googles quilt shops and takes me right to one!

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  8. haha--that magenta featherweight is TO DIE FOR. i think i would feel the same way every time i got her out to sew with her. how fun!! sounds like you had a great drive!

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  9. Bonnie that's a lot of scraps to tackle - where's your "GO!" cutter? Love that magenta Featherweight!

    Linda

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  10. Ah -- ditto Joanna's comment on the crabcakes. Enjoy your visit -- it's such a lovely part of the country!! :)

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  11. I've been there! I have family there! In "California" aka "Great Mills" there is a fabulous dim sum place. Hmmm... what's the name of it? I think it's around the corner from a Marshall's. There is a local maritime museum nearby with a big sailmaking sewing machine on display.

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  12. My weakness would be a hot red machine ;o)
    Love trying new foods so that looks ueber-cool and those scraps look good enough to roll around in LOL. Hope I'm fit and ready for your next mystery as I'm intrgued with the cutting and kitting which could be for anything, but I like to speculate LOL...

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  13. I would really like to get a machine repainted but have no idea who does that type of painting. Anyone know? I travel in an RV in summer so location isn't a problem...

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