Monday 31 March 2008

Vacation - Day 1

Who'd have thought that we would run into road construction so early in the season? Surprised us! We had just nicely driven into North Dakota when we came upon some very industrious road workers doing road repairs.

Of course, as the official map reader, if we got lost or took a wrong turn anywhere during the trip - it would be all MY FAULT. Not really though . . . Randy was pretty forgiving with my map reading abilities . . . he even scratched his head a couple of times as to the map being nowhere near the way the actual physical place was. He's still trying to figure out how the road numbering and street addressing is done in some of the towns, counties and cities we drove through.

First stop was Devil's Lake, ND and I was required to choose only one of the quilt shops - what a dilemma! How do I know I chose the right one?!? Anyways, I chose Rose's Stitch and Sew and thought the shop was wonderful . . . spent way too much money, but managed to stroke two of the things I was looking for off my list and purchased a book and some fabric as well. I completely forgot to take a picture of the store front and that is why I'm showing you the front of their newsletter. Lots of classes and information.

Just South of the town of Devil's Lake is this fascinating stretch of water - frozen water - for miles and miles, as far as the eye could see. The water appears to only be a couple of feet lower than the road surface and you have to wonder how wet the road gets when it gets really windy in the summer.

In between interesting sights along the way, I managed to make all of my little snowmen cheerful. I know the one in the bottom of the photo appears to have a deep frown going on, but really it does turn into an impish grin shortly after the photo was taken. After these guys were all safely tucked away, I brought out the knitting needles and finished a pair of slippers and started on a second pair. I hate travelling and not accomplishing something along the way - I even worked in a few hundred pictures of various interesting and not-so-interesting things!

Here is the second quilt shop we stopped at - Designer Fabrics in Carrington, ND. I found some wonderful "scrap bags" for $3.95 full of wonderful prints in varying sizes. Some pieces were almost as large as a fat quarter, which I thought was fantastic! Good pricing. I think I also bought a book or two here and a couple of yards of some background fabric.

We did get home on Saturday, on schedule! This was the scene that we woke up to on Sunday morning . . . lots of sticky, wet snow that was packed in everywhere by the strong winds. Really glad we decided to come home all the way and missed the worst part of the storm. Driving in that would not have been very pleasant.

Can you tell I love books? Here is the collection I got on this trip - three Whimsical books, a jelly roll book and a charmer book. Can't wait to try some of these designs! Even though I know I shouldn't right now - have to rein in my enthusiasm for a while.

At one of the quilt shops (we stopped at 6!) I bought a lovely collection of Whimsicals fabrics. I found these in the "sale" section of the store and felt like it was Christmas - finding fabric I really like . . . plus a sale! Now I have the books and the fabric - they can join the stack of other lovelies that are sitting in my sewing room tempting me. Someday . . . soon . . . I hope . . . I will get around to each and every project that is waiting.

Check back tomorrow for "Vacation - Day 2".

'til next time,

M.

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