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Saturday, November 22, 2014

Planes, Turkeys, Naps, IKEA & 5 Min. Power Purge!

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How do you list your day in a one liner?

I just did in the title of this post!

If you ever wondered what Indianapolis was like from the inside of a 5am shuttle in November…this is it!

The miracle is, I MADE IT!  I almost didn’t!

And let me tell you, I sure got mumbles and grumbles and finger pointing and even a bit of twittering laughter when I pushed the heavily laden hotel baggage cart to the hotel door where the shuttle was waiting just beyond, loaded with passengers.

EVERYONE was only partially awake, and headed off to far away places, perhaps on vacation, or returning from a business work week away, or heading back to where their roots are to spend a week home with family and friends for the Thanksgiving holiday.

As for me….all I could think about was getting to the airport, finding a skycap to help me get 100 lbs of quilts to the ticket counter and GETTING HOME!

If the airport in Indianapolis was crazed with travelers at 5:30am, you should have seen Atlanta at 8:30am!

After waiting at the gate for much longer than we thought we should to begin boarding, the gate agent came on and notified us that “Maintenance is aboard the plane.  The plane has a flat tire..it’s all JACKED-UP on one side!”  Jacked Up is a great description!  Within the next 30 minutes we were rushing from this gate at the end of the terminal, to another gate at the other end of the terminal for a new plane.

When you are this tired, hilarity steps in, and passengers all around me were laughing about how “Jacked Up” air travel can be!

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Good things happen though!

As the gate agent scanned my original boarding pass,machinery spit out a new seat assignment for me.  Seat 2A, first class upgrade!  ((This is NOT Jacked up!!))

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Not Jacked Up at all!

This is how far I’ve come on this next fill in section 4 of 6.  I finished all 4 of the diamond sections, did the neutral crossed path that joined them into one large diamond, and am now outlining the upper edge with more neutrals.  In my glass?  Bloody Mary mix.  A girl must drink her vegetables, you know!

Our Thanksgiving dinner table plans have grown from 5 to 7 to now 9 as both boys think they CAN make it for Thanksgiving dinner!  Hooray!!

With less than a week to go, we headed over to the nearest Sam’s to start the shopping for the week of groceries I’ll need up at Quilt Villa.

Let me tell you, Sam’s Club on the Saturday before a major holiday is MIGHTILY JACKED UP!!

But – we found what we were looking for….

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Hello, Hickory Smoked Turkey!  Come to Mama!

Never had a smoked turkey?  Let me tell you, they are delicious.  Fully cooked, just slice and warm before serving.  And the LEFTOVERS make the best soup and sandwhiches ever.  The price is a bit more than a plain turkey, but these are also very moist and good and though we don’t do one every year, it’s nice to switch things up a bit. This one weighs in just under 12 lbs.  Should feed our crowd of 9 just fine and leave some great leftovers!

**Intermission** In which Bonnie and Sadie take a 2.5 hour nap!  ((Much needed, very blissful!))

Upon waking, I noticed that Mr IKEA had been busy in my living room!

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New storage table under the TV.

I’d like to get baskets for the upper cubbies that you can’t tell are divided because it was dark out and the lighting in my living room is just not that great.  But this is SUCH an improvement!

Which means…I needed a 5 minute ((Actually about 15)) Power Purge of MY stitching corner in the living room.

Do you have an area that looks like this?

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Shelves of Confusion!

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I put EVERYTHING on the coffee table and began to sort and purge.

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SEW MANY Pin Cushions!

Just a quick glance around the room proved that I have been hoarding pin cushions and I wasn’t even aware of it!  They ALL had pins and needles stuck into them.  And while pins are easily retrieved, I was reminded of how easily needles can get lost in the depth of a pin cushion if there is not a thread through the eye as a safety line to retrieve them.  The only way to recover sunken needles?  SQUEEZE the pin cushion and just see of something comes out the other side, hopefully missing your fingers!

I retrieved all of the wandering needles that I could and put them instead in a felt lined needle book where they won’t get lost in the depths of stuffing and ground walnut shells.  Pin cushions are for pins, not for needles in my book!  Here I’ve corralled them all in a vintage crate for displaying on a shelf, and I can use one when I need one, but they don’t ALL need to be cluttering the shelf space at once.

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My mom’s fabulous paint work!

It has been said that if you turn your back on any available surface, you’ll come back around to find my mom has painted something on it!  I’ve had this notions box for years and I love love love it, so it has to stay.  It holds random sewing notions like thread heaven and my hand quilting threads close at hand.

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Bird sewing box!

I also love this bird sewing box that mom painted for me…I never did get around to making a pin cusion for the wing hole area…but the scissors go in her head and the blades become her beak.  FAVORITE!  I love having this by my comfy sewing seat.

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Storage inside, thread snips and other must haves!

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BETTER!

It’s a dark room except for the light from my Ott Light!  But this is the corner where I do all my hand work and I’m much happier with how things are now.  I didn’t purge that much.  I rehomed some stuff back down to the basement sewing studio, but mostly, just a bit more organizing and wiping down of dust makes me eager to nestle in and do some binding sewing tonight.

And to celebrate my 6 weeks of leave ---and our impending release of clue 1 of Grand Illusion ---

How about we do an AFTERNOON QUILT-CAM tomorrow at 2pm Eastern??

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a Sunday at home to do it.  I know our European Contingency wishes for more Quilt-Cam at a time they can join in live ---and I definitely want to celebrate with some Sunday Afternoon machine time!

Join me here on the blog tomorrow, Nov 23rd at 2pm EST and we’ll spend some time together.  Bring a project, or sort some fabric, or cut some blocks out – whatever it is, I look forward to spending time with you then!

Have a great evening, everyone!


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6 comments:

  1. Again! it was so nice to be at your class yesterday. I saw you posting at 5:30AM and wondered if you were going to the airport. I however just couldn't sleep any longer. After my 4.5 hr drive home from Layfatte In. to Cincinnati yesterday I was so tired (it should have been a 3 hr drive) I fell asleep shortly after I got home. So I was up early.

    Again I learned so much!

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  2. Glad you got home in one piece. Hope to turn on the Quilt Cam tomorrow. Hope you have way better sleep tonight.

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  3. Hi, I'm from England so it will be great to tune in live to the Quilt Cam. I'll probably have to sneak away to the bedroom and knit or work on my wool hook rug x

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  4. I do have a corner in my family room..well an end table and half a coffee table. Sometimes I feel guilty that my stuff is in full sight but I am a quilter and won't apologize!!
    Why do we have so many pincushions? I am on program committee this year at one of the guilds I attend and that was my one wish...no making of pincushions!!Will be watching for quilt cam tomorrow. I have decided to join in on Grand Illision mystery, just have to pick out fabrics yet...I know cutting it close!!

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  5. Looks like you need a "Martha Washington" table, a smallish oval table. the sides lift up, to store all your projects into the depth of the table. the 3 center drawers have a dowel to put your thread spools, a lift-out work tray and and storage. found mine after looking for years...at Habitat for Humanity!

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  6. Wow; you pack a lot into a day! Love your sewing boxes; especially the one with the swing open door. Your mother has great talent and you are lucky to benefit!! I imagine people say the same about you when you gift them a special BONNIE quilt. Look forward to quiltcam!

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