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Hi all!!

Bill really likes his new job! YAY! He started on Monday with an orientation and being brought around the area for introductions. Yesterday he was told a little more about what he would be doing and today I think it’ll be a dive into the training material. He is really comfortable with that... his last job didn’t have much of a training program and had little documentation or written down “knowledge dumps” so he had to rely on coworkers a lot to help him out. This is much more like the other companies he worked for over the past 12 years, so I think he’ll be much happier here. Bill still will get home later than I do (he wasn’t home until 7pm Monday, but he also started late). It sounds like his hours are going to be pretty regular, so he should be home about 6 every night (if the bus cooperates), where I get home about 5:15 if I go straight home. That will be more like the old schedule (or even a little better since it will be more predictable). Hopefully he’ll still do the majority of the cooking. ;-)

I didn’t do any sewing last night or the night before, so if I can get my errands done quickly tonight, I can get going on that. After I sew the rest of the compass blocks together, I have another project (baby quilt) that I have to finish up before I start putting more things together. I haven’t decided if I want to quilt the stars separately or put them in their respective row and then quilt the whole thing. I’m leaning toward doing them separately since I want to use the walking foot and that’s going to be a pain to turn with another 22” of fabric attached between the blocks. Then I can meander on the stuff in between and move on to the next round. :-) If all goes well (ha) I should have the compass round done by November 23. The 22nd and 23rd are other weekend “down” days where we don’t have plans and hope not to make any plans so I can go into exile again and can’t come out of my room until I’ve made noticeable progress.

This week seems to be “friend catch-up” week. I talked to my maid of honor on the phone Monday (while I was rummaging at Ross - more on that in a minute), and then last night I had dinner with a friend I haven’t seen for a while, so that was really nice. She showed me some quilt things she’s been working on, and we got to catch up on what’s been going on since probably May. She’s one of the troopers from the Seattle area that made it to my wedding in Minnesota last year (361 days ago, actually).

Okay, the Ross rummage. You know how I had my design wall fall on me (okay, not ON me, but you know what I mean)? Well, I decided if I could find a one-piece cloth then I wouldn’t have to worry about sewing or duct tape. Well, there are apparently no tables in the US that are more than 60” wide. I make queen-size quilts (when I make quilts), so that wouldn’t work without cutting and patching a few togther (which is what I have now). So I happened upon a 52x70 tablecloth. Now THAT would work! That would give me 104x70 if I put two together. Now we’re talking. However, can you believe that it was the ONLY 52x70 flannel-back tablecloth I could find there? And I looked and looked and looked - you can ask Kim - I was talking to her through the whole search. People were asking if I was talking to them. No one avoided me like I was a freak. Very disappointing. But anyway, there was one more bin of Christmas tablecloths on the way out the door, but it was stacked higher than was practical and if I tried to get near then middle (let alone the bottom) everything was going to come crashing down. I don’t know whose idea that was, but it was a bad one. So now that I’ve decided that the one seam on the two tablecloths would be easier than the five seams I’d have to put in the 3 tablecloths I had on hand and cut up and taped together, I’m on a mission for that elusive pair of tablecloths. I also need to find shoes since I managed to injure my foot a few weeks ago and there aren’t many shoes that are accommodating enough to not make my foot hurt, but rubber sole shoes (like sneakers) work about the best. I have a pair of summer Skectchers that I really like, but I don’t want to mess them up (have you ever been to Western Washington in the fall?). My sneakers have a slippery sole when they’re wet (have you ever been to Western Washington in the fall?) Plus, I don’t have anything in a brown. So the place I’m going to go (assuming they haven’t closed it yet - that mall’s days are numbered because they’re building a new mall) is right next to Ross, so I’ll check at the shoe store first and then go to Ross to see if they happened to get another 52x70 tablecloth in.

This weekend Mom and I are going to the Northwest Quilt, Craft, & Sewing Festival. I just got the program downloaded today, so I’ll have to look that over to see what fun there is to be had before we get there. It’s not as big as the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in February, but it should still be fun (and nowhere nearly as overwhelming).

Blah, blah, blah... aren’t you glad you bothered to stop by? At least I put the good stuff at the top. ;-)

Have a great day!!!

Blessings,
Kristin