Aren't these guys just the cutest? I have no idea who they are. They look like they may have been crammed in one of those photo machines. You know the kind that used to print strips of 3 or 4 photos? I came across this picture in a box of old pictures that my uncle has. I just thought the trio was very appealing. Looks like it might be from the 40's.

So, how's the weather where you are? I had to scrape ice off of my car windows this morning. It turned out to be a sunny day in the 50's. I haven't really given into having to wear a coat to work, until this morning, then I was overdressed by the time I left this afternoon. I just thought that I would check in and let you know that nothing outstanding is going on here. I am clearing a spot for my sewing table and I hope to get to use it by the weekend. Pictures soon!

Yarn moment!!! I got this beautiful sportweight hand dyed silk yarn to make a shawl called TUSCANY . I would probably look completely ridiculous with a shawl wrapped around me, but, one of my beautiful thin daughters would look lovely. This is the first time I have worked with 100% silk. I hope that the knitting doesn't go as badly as just trying to wind it into balls! It is slippery, and slid off of thebottom of the winder. Then one skein fell enough to get tangled on the swift and I had to hand wind it. I think that I only had one ball actually wind minimally normal. Sigh.
This used to be one of my favorite places to go in Amishland. But he has grown his business into a tourist destination. Still the same baked goods and bulk food, but just not the same quaintness. Everything down there is getting so commercial. We used to know where to go to beat the tourists, but those places are few and far between now. At least, Miller's, my favorite quilt shop is the same! One of my favorites.
My friend Kaye and I went to a long arm guild's show. It wasn't really a quilt show, it was more a shopping opportunity. Different vendors, and many of the major long arm dealers. The guild had a challenge. they each had to make a red and white Ohio Star and quilt it. Everyone was given a chance to vote on their favorite.

Nothing much going on here, I think autumn is finally here. It was cool and rainy all day. I hope that it is sunny and warm where you are!

Hi,
I haven't had a lot going on, and I didn't want to bore everyone with ADL (activities of daily living- I think that is some old medical jargon I picked up). Anyway, hubby and I are going to Amishland. They always have different fresh popcorns and I used up the last of mine the other night. I think I will stop at Miller's Dry Goods and pick up some more of that Moda "Monkey'n Round fabric. I think I will make a tote. I have to drop my friend's sewing machine off to get a tune up.
By the way, my friend Lindy came over the other day and oiled my grandma's machine up, put a new belt on it, and it does work! I actually did have a shuttle and one bobbin, but I just didn't know what it looked like. She showed me how to fill the bobbin. The feed dogs are moving, but it still sews in one place. I have to mess around with it some more and figure out what is going on. Would have come in handy when we lost power yesterday for 3 hours. Talk to you all later!

SERENDIPITY

We went out of state to visit my Aunts, Uncle, and cousin. One aunt and uncle are the brother and sister of my mother. They live in the small town they grew up in, although my uncle lived near Philadelphia until he retired, and then he moved back to his boyhood home. When driving through town, a yarn winder in an antique store window caught my eye.
We planned on going home on Saturday afternoon, and my family said they were taking us to lunch and we would go to the antique store. I'm not much of a traveler, and I was anxious to go home. I said, "We don't have to go to the antique store, I don't really want to buy anything, and I don't know if the yarn winder would fit in my car anyway. But since the antique store turned out to be next to the restaurant, I decided I would at least look at it through the window. They wanted more for it than I wanted to spend, and I would have passed the shop up completely if my aunt hadn't said " do you want to go in and see your grandmother's sewing machine?" She said that she and my cousin saw it in there. It had been sold after my grandmother died 30 or so years ago. So it has been somewhere in town all this time. The antique store was within walking distance of where my grandparents lived. My aunt identified it, and said that my grandmother taught my cousin how to sew on it and it was my cousin who put the scratch on the table that flips out. I always wondered what had happened to it. I probably never asked for it because although it was a treadle, my grandmother had rigged up some sort of motor on it. I never thought that it could have been removed. And I was also in my twenties, and never thought that I might want it later in life. It is a Brunswick vibrating shuttle machine.Made by Montgomery Ward. Odd in the fact that the restaurant next door was the town's Mongomery Ward store a long time ago.

Well, I have it now. It had been marked down three times to $75.00. I may never get it to work again, and it has a shuttle bobbin that I have no idea how to use, But my favorite grandparent, the woman who had the patience, and took the time to teach her young granddaughter how to stitch that first churn dash block, must have known I was ready to have her machine, so she pushed me in the door of that antique store. What a great day.

I was so excited to go to a large library book sale today. Then I get there and have to pay to get in. Okay I can live with that, it goes to help the library. But then I go in hoping to find some knitting or quilting books, and the place is crawling with "scanners". They have hand held scanners flipping through the books scanning ISBN codes on the back. I assume these are people who buy up out of print books and sell them for out of reach prices on ebay and through Amazon etc. You know, I know this is a capitalist system, and they are just taking advantage of the opportunity. But I was really disappointed that these people quickly scanned books and put the books that triggered something in their big boxes. There was a guy by me that needed a receipt so he could get the books "over the border".
I don't know, I just wish that the library would give the general public, their patrons, the people that pay taxes to support them, first dibs to buy books.. sans scanners. I like to go to these sales hoping to get a book that will be used. A book that I want. I wouldn't buy something I don't like as an investment. I just felt I was at a distinct disadvantage. Kind of like these ticket scalpers that buy up huge amounts of tickets and extort them on ebay. (Hannah Montana tickets ring a bell?)
I managed to find an old magazine with knitted baby sweaters, a few recipe books. Those little self published soft covers. I got one that had sorghum recipes in it. I found a small well loved bible. But nothing exciting. It could be that these scanners didn't have anything I would want anyway, but I will never know.
One time I got a book called STAHMANS SHAWLS at the library. I really liked it and wanted to buy one. I went to amazon, and as you can see, all of the books were at least $85.00. I don't want anything so bad that I will pay nearly 4 times the original cost. Then one day I walked into a local knitting shop and saw that she had several brand new books, still in the shrink wrap, and I only had to pay $25.00 for it. I know that some of the quilting books I own would have some of these people salivating. My husband has a collection of leather bound signed first edition books. I have made sure that my kids know that even though the books may mean nothing to them, they should check out the market before they toss them, or sell them in a yard sale to someone with a scanner....

It's almost finished. I took my machine out and put it on the top of the table, and measured for the insert. I had to leave enough room at the end of the machine to change the bobbin which is on the very end of the arm of the machine.
My Pfaff's bobbin faces towards the front and luckily there is an opening in the front of the drop down unit so that I can easily change it. This one needs the added support of that oak board in the front so the drop down that will hold the machine will fit right up against that board. When that part is all finished, I will have to make a template for the acrylic insert. When we move the table to my sewing area, Bill will re-attach the back and sides that will lift up to give me room to work.
Now comes the part where I have to find somewhere I can open it up.
Maybe I will actually get some Christmas gifts finished. Nah...

HEY, ISN'T IS SUPPOSED TO BE COOL OUTSIDE?

Well, it's Saturday, and it is over eighty. Crap, I can't even wear my kitted woolies, because it is too hot. This is northern Ohio for cripes sake!
Well, let's see, we finally got shed of the piano that I couldn't even give away. Finally we found someone willing to take it. It was an oak upright electric player piano. We had a lot of fun with it, and was one of the most expensive purchases we made in our early marriage.

Maybe if Matt would have shown as much interest in his piano lessons as he did in the computer, we would have had a reason to keep it. Or if we had sent our kids to public schools, we would have had the extra money for piano lessons for all three, or if I would have had the will to constantly nag the kids to practice, they would have learned. Whatever the reason, the piano was taking up valuable space in my house and it had to go. I'm glad it's gone

In case you don't look at my knitting blog, this is what I'm working on now

It is cashmere and it is the softest yarn I have ever worked with. You can get more details if you click the knitting blog link to your right.

Bill is almost finished with my table, and I am going to scoot, I have a rare 50% off JoAnn's coupon. I have to see if there is something I can buy with it. Michael's craft stores also accept JoAnn's coupons, so I might find something I want there instead. Have a good weekend