Rolling, roling, rolling...

I have lived on the shores of Lake Erie most of my life. I am used to having the lake as a directional landmark. When you live in this area, you usually know the lake is always north and from that can determine which direction you are headed. If the lake is on your right, you're headed west. It's quite simple. I have grown up with trips to the beach, lots of snow and not much sun. Summer temperatures reach 90 an average of 5 days a year. This summer, we had a hard time reaching 80. My mother used to say the temperature had to reach 80 before we could wear shorts. If I still listened to her advice, I would not have been able to wear shorts this summer. I compromise with shorts and a sweatshirt. All of this is about to change.

Honey and I (and all the little ones) are moving south. We are headed to Jacksonville. I am exchanging the lake for the ocean. I'll have to adjust to the ocean being east instead of the lake up north. It is quite an adventure. I have brought the kiddies down with all the essentials. Honey will follow with the remainder of the house.







If you have heard about my cat Cleo, you'll know that she is afraid of everything. I thought she would be the biggest challenge. She will hiss, spit and whap you if you upset her. She can be very playing, but does not like being picked up and held. She's not a very big fan of petting either. I tricked her into going into a cage by setting her food in it. Fortunately it's a soft cage. She tried to jump out after I closed the top. She really surprised me by settling down about an hour into our trip.


Charlie is my Great Pyrenees. He's 10 and is just starting to have hip problems. Oh and he weighs about 150 pounds. I had to lift him into the car, front half and then back half. The little boys, Booboo and Petey hopped right into the car and we were off.



I took my time. I was pulling a trailer and had some concerns about going through the mountains of West Virginia. We stopped to stretch, to get gas, to sleep, and to get hamburgers for everyone. Now, we're in Florida and the real adventure can begin.

Not Quite What I was thinking...

The word is out... Honey and I are moving to Florida. I have been packing, packing, packing, and living with boxes up to my eyeballs. I have sorted all of my clothes. Winter clothes go to Goodwill. The few I am saving are probably 10 times what I will actually need. Do you think the Goodwill in Florida has a market for a down jacket? or wool blazers? I guess I'll find out.
I have given away about 25% of my basement stores and the attic hideaways...and I am still up to my eyeballs in boxes. The accumulation of my fabric stash was a little shocking when I pulled it out of the attic and stacked it all together. Somehow it remained in the GO TO FLORIDA PILE though, even with a kind offer to help me sell some off.
We decided we had to do something about the kitchen counter top and floor before we put the house on the market. We have an amazing friend coming in to help replace what needs to be replaced. I knew that would be messy. I wasn't expecting this. Counter's strewn everywhere and mixed in with my boxes (sigh). The boys are very confused. Booboo is trying to climb into every box he thinks might be going. Petey sits on the couch giving me the big sad eyes. Charlie is trying to sleep through everything and hoping it will all go away.Even the cat is being more friendly. Maybe she's afraid she'll get left behind also. Just wait until I try to put her in the car. Friendly cat will disappear I'm afraid and witchy-witch cat will return.
So we are off on another grand adventure.

Changing Things Up

I think our vacation to find summer really woke me up. I realized I had been falling into a routine that had become monotonous. It's time to shake things up a little. I decided to take a little break from quilting. (Jaw drops in shock!) Don't worry, not a long break. I decided I needed a new jacket. I went round and round looking at patterns, trying to find just the right combination. conservative enough to last forever (almost anyway), stylish enough that I will want to wear it and was easy enough that I wouldn't get bogged down in making it. That's quite a tall order. I decided on a McCalls pattern, made the muslin and hated it. Good thing I used muslin first. Remind me about this jacket the next time I want to skip that step. I finally settled on Vogue 1064. I ordered a grey wool three season suiting and a grey silk lining. I have to say, it went together beautifully. I still have to send it out to the cleaners so they can press it.

Then, I promised to make the Amy Butler Weekender Travel Bag for T. It is a beautiful bag, but has piping all the way around. It has been some time since I have done piping, so I thought I had better make a "sample" bag to make sure my piping skills were up to speed. Off to the quilt store because (of course) I didn't have anything that would do in my stash. I bought a beautiful black/grey and tan fabric and a very cool stripe for the piping. I came home and cut everything out and realized...I can't use the stripe. I have to cut the piping strips on the bias and the stripes were already on the bias. So back to the quilt store for more fabric. In the end, I like how the bag turned out. Now I just need to fill it. Hmmm.

I'm ready to add some color to my sewing again. Working with all this grey has been soothing but it's time for another change.

Home Again, Home Again...

Summer has been a little slow in coming to Erie, Pennsylvania this year. Our temperatures have been in the high 60's and low 70's for most of June and July. If I wanted to see summer, I had to take matters into my own hands. Fortunately, We have family in Jacksonville, Florida. Last week Honey and I headed south. We took the motorcycles. The little puppy boys (That includes my Great Pyrenees) went to Camp Diane and Camp Bonnie. Diane NextDoor watched the cat for me as well.

The weather was a balmy 65F when we left Friday evening. We made it to Clarksburg, WV on Friday. If you are ever near Clarksburg on a motorcycle, make sure to head East on 50. What a great road. Unfortunately we missed that side trip this time. We had 700+ miles to go. The mountains were beautiful as always. Very misty which turned into rain at the higher elevations. We rode the rollercoaster between rainy and cold at elevation down to hot and muggy in the valleys. Ah well, the joys of riding. Once we cleared the mountains, the weather was beautiful.

Most of our trip was spent visiting family. Honey's brothers, sister, and mother were all happy to see us. We took a short 300 mile (round trip) ride to visit my sister in Tallahassee. What a beautiful town. I agree with her the live oaks are stunning and Tallahassee has plenty of them. She also has a really cute quilt shop. I stopped in the Quilting Patch and looked around.

My sister-in-law has the same crazy infatuation with fabric that I do. She took off an afternoon so we could do a little shopping. We visited Paula's Fine Fabric and looked at the Bernina Sewing Machines. Neither Chris or I are really looking for a new machine, but it was fun to look at what is new. Paula also had rows of beautiful apparel and handbag. I love the Michael Miller collections she carries. Paula's focus is clothing, not quilting. She did have a few quilts that must have snuck in her back door though. She also has a service person in the store on Wednesdays. Chris and I agreed it would be nice to know you could drop off your machine Tuesday and pick it back up on Wednesday when it needed a cleaning. After Paula's we went down to Old Green Cupboard. They have quite a fabric collection. We were there a long time. I bought fabric to make a new bag and more of the In The Beginning Wintergraphix snowflakes. It's really too bad we can't buy more time to make the beautiful things. Old Green Cupboard has plenty to offer in addition to fabric. The store was full of pumpkins last week. They were all so cute. It's a good thing we brought the bikes down, or I might have brought many more home with me.

Unfortunately we only had a week to spend in the south. We took 2 days to come home. The weather cooled off again as soon as we hit the mountains of West Virginia. It's still in the high 60's and low 70's here at home. I hope summer arrives before September. I would like a little warm weather before the snow starts to fly.

Time for a Vacation

This week has been a crazy week. I started a new top on Saturday. I have not made too many knit tops. Just a silly fear on my part. I decided that fear of knit was irrational. I know, I know, when is fear ever rational. It was time to have confidence and move forward. I used Butterick 4886. I was able to do most of the sewing on my serger and that was a good thing. My regular machine stuck it's tongue out at me. I had to take it to the shop to have the thread cutter fixed. My sister said it needed a vacation.





I did get out my old machine in the meantime. This is the Singer I learned on. It's older than I am. A little cleaning and a little oil. It runs like a champ. The top is finished. It's not perfect, but it is wearable (with a cami of course).

I move on to a little quilting on my longarm. My machine is in the basement which is great most of the time. This week though it has been a little damp in the basement. Time to get out the dehumidifier. It as been in the high 60's and 70's here all week. Not exactly our usual July weather. Why does all that matter? I've been having tension issues. I think my thread has absorbed some of that dampness. Similar to paper kept out of the package this time of year tends to jam the copier. So I spent last night and this morning ripping out stitches. I don't really mind taking them out if they come out easy, it's the thought of having to put them all back in an no guarantee the tension is fixed (heavy sigh). Maybe I'm the one that needs a vacation.