Neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night...

shall stay these quilters from their appointed rounds! LOL! This weekend is shop hop for the nine quilt shops here in Metro Atlanta. Last year there were 13, and I made it to all of them! I think the total trip was 300+ miles, with Patrick's in Covington being the most distance away. This year, my quilting friends and I planned to go to lunch (we must eat to meet!), go to the three here in Cobb County, and go to a couple of bead stores, but Mother Nature majorly interfered with our plans. On Friday night, the Weather Service was predicting severe weather for our area, with thunderstorms, tornadoes, flooding...everything but fire and pestilence...so reluctantly Friday night we called off our plans. Yesterday morning, it was raining hard, a few claps of thunder, but nothing that would prevent a few hardy souls from getting out on the road. By two in the afternoon, it wasn't even raining, so we conferred, decided we would not melt if a few drops of rain hit us, and off we went! We managed to make it to Red Hen, Tiny Stitches, and Little Quilts. While we were in Red Hen, there was a brief cloudburst, but it was barely drizzling the rest of the day. We did our part for the quilting economy, and then had dinner and margaritas! End to a perfect day! I got home a little bit before 11PM. Al was just starting to send out the search party for me.

"Life is a glorious banquet, a limitless and delicious buffet."
--Maya Angelou

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

I haven't had time to write because I have been so busy learning my new machine! It is a very steep learning curve. I have to just say how much I love it...today. At one point, I was ready to throw it out the window...or jump out myself! I have to admit that most of my problems have been when I have been trying to prove that I am smarter than she is. She is way smarter than me, and the sooner I admit that, the better off I'll be! Resistance is Fu-tile. She's stubborn, too! She has a name...Big Momma, because she is quite big, and in honor of all the Big Mommas and Madeas (and Aunt Dot's) who taught us to sew.

There are so many features, I can't begin to list them all, most of them designed for convenience. I decided to take the plunge and do the Latte Quilt on the new machine...it's a great way to learn the machine and all the features. I love, love, love the jumbo hoop, which allowed me to stitch out the first block out all in one hooping. Which means that I didn't have to deal with placement issues, trying to line templates up, I was able to just put it in the embroidery hoop once and go - one and done! Check these blocks out:



This will go to my Sister-in-Law Audrey, who loves the color blue. I'm trying to think of a name...Blue Latte, Cloudy Latte, Out of the Blue.... what do you think?

I've also had another birthday since my last post. Inspired by Regina's birthday party, I decided to have a non-birthday party birthday party for myself. That's where you don't tell people it's your birthday...although some knew it was, and brought gifts. I had a blast! We had chocolate martinis, we played bid whist, we listened to good music. Bessie has improved on the martini recipe, with both light and dark creme de cacao...she had one at a restaurant and the bartender shared his recipe with her and made her promise not to tell - that the recipe was "just between us girls." So she promptly told us (he said, "just between us girls." We're girls!), and I must admit, it is mmm-mmm-good. Our last guests left at 1 AM! I know my mother was spinning in her grave, but I did not finish cleaning up - just went to bed, and got up Sunday morning and finished the dishes. As much fun as we had, it made me miss Regina and Harriett. Harriett's birthday is in December, then Regina's, then mine, and for several years we have gone to Calistoga to celebrate. We rented a wonderful guest house at a B&B...massages, champagne, good food and good friends. I miss them!

The next day, Sunday the 28th, it snowed! And a big snow, not a little piddling sprinkle! Flights were cancelled, and our neighbors' kids had enough snow to build a snow man! I was a California Sissy and did not even go outside to take pictures...these were taken from inside the house! LOL!




"The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes."

--Frank Lloyd Wright