Home a Runnin!

I walked in my front door after 11:30pm last night.

I kept telling myself that I was still on Minnesota time, so my body clock was only registering 10:30, but travel is long, hard, exhausting and let’s face it – I’d been running at full tilt even while relaxing with family.

We filled every minute!

I’m still laughing at the scenario at yesterday’s breakfast – eggs all around, who wants toast?  And Uncle Steve accusing mom of sneaking yet another piece of strawberry rhubarb pie. “I was just straightening up the edges!” She confessed.  Too funny.

I love watching my mom interact with her siblings the same way I interact with mine.  I love hearing of the growing up years, the weekend cottage on Lake Minnetonka where the younger of the 4 learned to swim, how Grandpa taught my mom to drive the boat and would just hand her the keys and say “Go!”

Stories before I came along.  And then in 1962 I became part of the story too.  Uncle Steve was reminiscing over how he used to baby sit me when I was little.

Good life long memories.

Lookie what I found!

Free Westinghouse, 1950s!

This was Kathryn’s grandmother’s machine!  I spotted that cabinet right away, even if she was trying to disguise it as a bedside table. LOL!  I had to “Free the Machine!” to take a peek.  How sweet!  I told her it wouldn’t take much to get it up and running – the bobbin case and bobbin are in place already.  A bit of oil, a bit of adjusting, it could be stitching in no time at all!  Let’s see if we can plant that seed in her to pursue it!

When it’s a family machine it is just EXTRA special. I’ve got my Great Grandma Manuel’s Singer 15 that I lugged home from Minnesota years ago.  And every time I sew on it, I envision my hands touching the same place with the same motion that not only my Great Grandma’s hands touched, but also my Grandma, my mom, and my aunt’s.  Several women I love.  It’s a connection. 

I’m also on the lookout for a 301 for Auntie Joy.  She had TWO plastic cheapie machines out on the table asking if I could help fix them.  She wants to quilt.  I need something like a 301 or 404 for her – and here I sold my back stock earlier this year and I’m shooting myself.  But we’ll be on the lookout for something that she can not just piece on, but free motion on.  The 404 would make dropping the feed dogs easy.  And still be fairly light weight. 

Anyway – I’m on a mission and we will make it happen.

Oh Waffles!  I miss you already!

Cousin Sadie is happy I’m home!

A bit blurry, she can't sit still!

Check this out!

My advance sample of my soon-to-be-released Eco Pouch sets featuring my Box Kite and Wild & Goosey quilts from the addicted to scraps book are here!  How fun!  I’ll have these available in the Quiltville Store as soon as the big shipment arrives.  We've been waiting for these for what seems like forever!

They are great for sewing notions, busy bag projects, even cosmetics!  Made from recycled water bottles, they are eco friendly – and the zippers are already sewn in.

Be watching for our Show & Share from Iowa in TOMORROW’s post.  There are a lot of photos to edit and a slide show to prepare, and this morning is already half gone.  Chiropractor at 11am, and the broken tooth extraction and bone graft at 1:20 pm.

In between those two I have to get my photo done for my China visa – that trip is coming up quickly! And I thought it would be better to have that photo done BEFORE I’m missing a tooth.  LOL.

Needless to say, it’s going to be a week or so before we can fit in a Quilt-Cam depending on the healing of this mouth and what I feel like doing.  I’ll keep you posted.

Last night’s round of plane-stitching!

I added two more rosettes to this border length.  I’m getting closer to being able to turn the corner on this border….and then I’ll start on the opposite side.  As I slid the familiar thimble onto my right middle finger I realized that I hadn’t had a thimble on in 11 days.  I missed it!  We were just too busy to stitch, and playing cards and talking with family members seemed much more important in real time.

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

Happy is good and so much happy happened over the time I was gone. And I am so happy to be home.

Happy Monday, everyone!

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