Same old, same old

OK, so my design wall looks pretty much like it did last week. Of course, I have the excuse that I didn’t get my machine back until mid-week. AND, I was gone all day Friday and Sunday, AND, when the machine came back I worked on Christmas gifts which I can’t show. I’m getting pretty good at this excuse thing, huh?

However, we did decide that we will be going to MD for Christmas. Yes, I am still concerned about weather but I am really excited to spend Christmas with two of my favorite people. What was really nice was that my sister wrote and suggested we spend Christmas with them. And earlier another DIL invited us to be with them, but they are in CO which I didn’t think was any better than being in MD. But isn’t it nice to be wanted all over the country?

This week, besides Christmas stuff, I hope to cut out a comfort quilt for the guild charity (fabric sitting on cutting table) and a flannel log cabin (fabric in basket on pressing table). I have a UFO I really need to pull into the mix but I think three projects at a time is just right for me. And besides, I really need to finish the one on the wall first and it wasn’t even counted in my “three projects.” Oh, my!

The snowmen on the wall are all appliqued down and soon I will be taking them into the house to do the hand embroidery. I’m not as nervous about that as I was earlier this year when I worked on the Lace and Baskets quilt, it seemed to come back to me pretty well.

Be sure to check out Judy’s blog to see what lots of others are doing. And, have a great week.

Yippy!!

Look what came home yesterday!

After a very depressing phone call on Tuesday, I didn’t expect to see it for quite some time. My very nice repairman told me “oh, we are not doing well, at all.” With much trepidation I asked “why.” Well, he said that he and the main repair person at Brother had decided that one of the problems I was having was that there was thread still wound around the wheel, deep inside the machine. He also said that he cannot just take the wheel off because it is part of the “drive shaft” and if he takes that out I would have to have a new drive shaft (about $400). So he is doing what I did back in June 2009: please go see http://gariquilts.blogspot.com/2009/06/one-of-those-days.html before you read any further.

I knew I had not gotten it all out but I had taken out all I could reach. He said that he works on it in between other jobs, about an hour at a time is all he can stand, and I just need to be patient.

And then yesterday morning he called and said it was ready. When I went to get it he started describing how he got the thread out and it was exactly what I did back in June 2009 except that he had sharper and thinner tools to work with. The procedure is “cut threads, pull threads out, sometimes one at a time.” It is a very tiring procedure and here is what all he got out of her.

Anyway, she is home and we spent several very productive hours working on our Christmas projects.

Prior to that I had to make a block for the guild swap and I had to make it on a machine I have never tried to do a quarter inch seam.

I did a pretty good job anyway and it came out measuring 12 ½”. How about that!

And yesterday I also got some of the sashing cut for my Christmas project.

Although it doesn’t show very well, this 100% cotton fabric has a metallic finish so it really does look like gold. I spent a great deal of time looking for it (fabric shopping, what a shame) because I had thread just the shade/color I wanted and nothing else would do. I was so excited when I found this.

And to top off yesterday’s good news, DH invited me out to lunch and then later DD invited me out to dinner. One can’t do better than that.

I think I have a pretty good life (and family).

And, speaking of family, earlier this week DS#3 called to invite us to his and DDIL's house for Christmas. Now, normally I would love to be with them at this special holiday season. However, many years ago we were on our way to the DC area to be with my folks for Christmas when we hit ice on bridges in Atlanta. We watched the car in front of us do 360s and then we "crept" across (on more than one bridge). After snow on the way back I vowed I would never go north again in the winter.

Then many years passed and DS#3 invited us to spend Christmas at a timeshare in Virginia, just south of DC. I told him of my concerns and he assured me the weather was going to be fine. And we have a beautiful drive up there but when we woke the next morning everything was covered in a very thick layer of ICE. It stayed all the time we were there and was with us for half of the slippery drive home. Needless to say, I was not happy to be out of the deep south.

When the same DS#3 called for this invitation I reminded him of all of this history and he assured me that because they had experienced such a bad winter last year (driven out of their house becuase of no heat/electricity after a BIG snowstorm) this year would be much warmer and that it never snows before February (a big fat lie, by the way).

So, I am confronted with a dilemma. I really want to go to MD to spend Christmas with my son and his wife. I really do not want to go north at Christmas. What's a mother to do?