Field Trip!!

While Millie is at the spa, Miss Ellie and I are spending time together in the studio working on this month's UFO Challenge.

But, while browsing on FB Market Place, looking for a table, I came across .....

I shall name her "Baby Doll"

I decided it would be a nice little machine for my grand-niece, Savannah.  Savannah has decided she wants to learn to sew....not necessarily quilt...(there is plenty of time to get her addicted to quilting.)

Back story:  While the family was here in P-town for dad's Home Going last October, I gave Savannah the "toy" machine I had purchased a couple years ago so I'd have something to do while staying with my dad...refresh your memory HERE. 
It is an OK machine...it will get the job done. 
But, really it is a toy.

 

Savanah took it home and her g-ma (my eldest sister) helped her get started.

Truth be told, I always felt a little bad that I gave a budding sewist such a  toy.

So, today, my baby sister and I drove out to Elkton, KY and picked up the above machine, that I'm hoping is a bit better.

I looked up the model number on line and I think I got an OK deal.  It is quite dirty and unkept so first-things-first...
a good cleaning.

Your score card:

Back to the story.... Elkton KY is more than an hour from where we live so Joy and I decided to explore the area.

We found a quilt shop in Hopkinsville.  It is in an historic building and run by a mennonite woman, Irene.  She had a nice selection of fabrics and the prices were excellent, $5 per yard of the yardage I inspected.  But the best part was all the quilts they had made and hand quilted...all for sale!  They were beautiful.

 

 

Clearly this is not a shop you would stumble upon...it's not even on the main street of Hopkinsville.  But while we were there a local woman came in to buy several yards of fabric, greeting each other by first name.  Certainly the locals know about this gem.  It would be worth the drive back, shopping list in hand.

 

Our final stop before heading home for a nap was BBQ at The Wood Shed in Hopkinsville.  One of those local restaurants where everyone seems to know your name...and the food is yummy.

Just DO it!

There are a few life-changing moments that shake your world....one of them is the death of a parent.  

Dad's airplane quilt - 2011
Yellow Brick Road, on point.

 

 

But that was a month ago!  Life should be normal again, right?  But, the weeks roll by and here I sit....twiddling my thumbs.... I just don't know what to do with myself!  Every night when I finish work I think "... now what do I do..."  until it's a respectful time to just go to bed.

 

 

 

 

I'd heard it said if you do something for 21 days straight, it becomes a habit. That is true statement...for more than 21 days, every day ... morning and night.... I'd drive over to sit with dad. 
I swear, now every time I get in my car, it fights me to drive to dad's.

 

 

 

While you need to give yourself grace, there comes a point in time when you simply just Pick Yourself Up and Just DO IT!

 

 

 

So, that is what I'm doing....forcing myself to sit down at the sewing machine every evening and sew, even if it is for only 10 minutes
(usually turns into an hour or so.)  

 

 

I'm starting with the project purchased from Country Sampler in Omaha last month.  HERE

It's new and fresh and fun...and easy, mostly....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hardest part...flying geese.  I only need 60.

 

 

 

 Other things to restart my life;

*perusing quilt sites and saving pictures of quilts I like; 

*this Saturday my quilting friend, Carolyn, is coming over for tapas and wine and she's bring a show-n-tell....what else.... Oh, yes, 

*A niece, Lauren, (who I met for the first time when she and her family came to Paducah for dad's memorial) is a new quilter!  She lives in Chicago, but there is Zoom, so we'll connect.

 

 

That makes two nieces who are quilters!

 (Dez's first nine patch.)

 

 

There IS life after death....both for me and for dad....
He is alive in heaven, worshiping at the feet of Christ all day long.  Psalms 95:6