>>>>

Tuesday, April 03, 2018

Road Trippin’ With Mona!

20180402_091512
The first REALLY nice day of spring – and I mean NICE!

As in short sleeves – (my ever present denim over shirt was quickly discarded on our journey, and we were both baring arms!) and almost wishing for flip flops!

Oh, there WILL be a celebratory pedicure to usher in the official start of flip flop season, but my toes were wiggling within my shoes begging to be let out as temperatures climbed to a lovely 81 degrees during our day trip to Asheville.

From Mona’s place in Boomer we pointed Moby south enjoying the lovely countryside first through Lenoir, and then on through Morganton.

I warned Mona ahead of time – there WILL be stops for photos on our way.  There is no set time to do anything, just go where our hearts lead us – let’s explore!

20180402_095806


Little log church!

The sign said Chesterfield Church of Christ, and I thought I could google it to find more information on when it was built, but I’m not finding anything.  Still, cute cute cute – and I love to see those logs “dove tail” at the corners of the building.  Mona and I crept up to the windows in the front door to take a peek inside:

20180402_095904

Simply lovely!

This would be such a great spot for a wedding, wouldn’t it?  A quick walk around the back of the property took us to what we had FIRST seen on the highway, causing us to make this detour:

20180402_100117

Teeny tiny log church!

Actually, it turned out to be a storage shed – full of folding chairs, extra tables and the like – but we had fun taking a hike across the grass to check it out.

From here we headed further into Morganton, looking for any antique malls that might be open.  NADA.  Not only was it Monday, but the one place that would have been open on Monday was still in the midst of a planned 3-day weekend, and so we wandered over the old courthouse instead.

20180402_101546

Oh this day – prettier and prettier!

20180402_101707_cr

Placard showing the courthouse as it WAS before.

20180402_101633

Raided by union forces, 1865.

20180402_101825

Soldier memorial.

It was another good leg stretch and we headed on down the road toward Asheville.  There was ONE great antique mall stop – and I’m going to post that tomorrow because there is so much more, too long for one post, so I’m jumping to the whole reason we planned this road trip – Suzy!

20180402_131053

Mona’s new 503!

We have had this on the agenda since NOVEMBER!  On November 22nd, I received this note from Suzy:

Hi,

My name is Suzy and I live in Asheville, NC.  I remember Mona was looking for a zigzag machine. 

I have a Singer 503 with cams and attachments if she is interested….

Famous last words! LOL!  At this time Mona was traveling back and forth to Ohio due to ill family members, the holidays and other stuff that clogs up the end of the year.  When we thought we could do it after the new year, she ended up in Arkansas as an uncle was passing away…it’s just been a heck of a year.

And then there were winter weather issues.

And then you throw MY schedule into the mix and this 2 week span of Spring Break for me turned out to be the best time of all -- -

Mona is thrilled to have “Polly Pack-a-Day” as her first zig-zag machine – so nicknamed because she smelled like an ashtray when Suzy first claimed her.  She doesn’t smell like that now, but the name is too funny to let go of.  Oh, if only these machines could talk!


If you look closely behind Mona and Suzy you will see a bit of pink machine in a cabinet – that’s a Necchi Nora for ME!

20180402_175611

Sweet!

I love my Necchi’s.  The one thing about them though – they don’t fit a Singer cabinet.  The hinge pins are smaller.And I didn’t want to have to bore out the pin holes in the back of the machine to make the Singer pins fit.  This cabinet will fit not only this lovely pink Nora, but my black one:


Finally!  A cabinet for you!

And since it was such a pink machine day, how about another?

20180402_175654

Hello, Pink Atlas!

The pink of the atlas is almost Crayola  inappropriately, un-inclusively and unrealistically “flesh” colored.  We stood there in the parking lot behind Suzy’s office laughing about her being “Barbie skin pink”. 

Yes, I have two other Atlas machines – but now I have one at the cabin that will fit my cabinet.  A girl needs options.  And I love these fun machines.

Besides, Suzy said it would help HER greatly if we unburdened her by taking all 3.  Who was I to say no? HA!


(Suzy, it was wonderful to meet you and now I know where you are, I hope we can meet up again the next time I'm through town and do lunch, or fabric shopping or something!)

We made it back to Mona’s, I gathered up Sadie and my other over-night items and headed back to the cabin, arriving by dinner time.  A bit of machine sewing, a couple hours of feet-up binding time after dinner and we called it a day, falling asleep to the gentle fall of spring rain.

My plan has evolved into staying here until Sunday.  Spring Break in the mountains – boy do I need it.  And there are 2 new machines to play with.

IMG_20180403_073759_517000_wm

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

This quilt is one we found yesterday – I’ll post more about it tomorrow.

While your comfort zone may feel comfortably safe, it is keeping you from growing?

Don't let go of that dream!

Have a wonderful Tuesday, friends!


13 comments:

  1. Aahhh, there's nothing like a road trip with a dear friend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So happy for the both of you! Bonnie you sure pulled Mona down the “quilting/vintage machine”
    🐇hole! 👍💕 And she didn’t even scream or go down kicking, what a great friendship match.
    Have fun with your older new babies, enjoy your cabin - home time. Thanks for taking us along on your adventures.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the scrap quilt in the Quote of the day! Look forward to more about it tomorrow. It just looks like a really great super scrappy possibility.

    ReplyDelete
  4. If getting rid of 3 machines helped Her, it makes me wonder how many she had in her herd. lol. Great roadtrip. Glad you get more cabin time for playing with your new to you machines. Happy Spring!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like a wonderfully fun day. Relax and enjoy your cabin time. 😊

    ReplyDelete
  6. Today my dream is for 81 degrees. Another 5+ inches of snow in Minnesota the last few days and it is still snowing. My daughter's birthday was yesterday and I took her sledding. If we are still sledding at the end of April for the other daughters birthday I am quitting Minnesota and moving !! love the machines.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Three really cool machines. Seeing them makes me wish I'd kept my grandma's old New Home machine. I know now that the repair it needed was a simple & inexpensive one. While you were listening to the gentle fall of Spring rain we in Nebraska have more blowing snow.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've recently discovered your blog - after I discovered your books. I am now totally hooked. I've been a scrappie quilter from the beginning of my quilting career and after all these years now, forty or so, finding myself really enjoying my lifelong hobby even more now. I believe I may be the #855

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh my, you & Mona hit the jackpot!! All 3 machines are great...I just donated my Nora to a women's shelter. Can't wait to see your next post! Love your shopping sprees...We were having snow here too in western Ma. All day snow..crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love a good road trip, and yours sounded like the absolute best! I loved meeting you in Lockport, and just wanted to let you know my new Leaders and Enders is (drum roll please!) Sister's Choice!

    ReplyDelete
  11. All I can say is score! What a productive day. Love the quilt you took the picture of. Looks complex but on further inspection easy peasy.

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a fabulous way to spend your day, all the smiles tell the story.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I just love reading about and seeing pictures of these lovely machines! I'm going to be on the look-out for a cool old vintage machine after following you.

    ReplyDelete

If you are commenting as "anonymous" please leave your name at the end of your comment.

Did you know that ad space on this blog provides for all of the free patterns and free mysteries and challenges at no cost to you? Without ads, this blog would not be possible.

Thank you for understanding the many hours that go into this blog 6 days a week, 52 weeks a year. :)