Our trip to the FW Shop and other stuff, too.

Here we are, the last week of June (and, my birthday week) so it's time for our FWs SPA day.  You can pick any day this week but lets get those precious machines all oiled, greased and lubed for the next six months of use.  Well, you need to oil them more often, every 8-10 hours of sewing to be exact, but the SPA day will help them work at their optimum. 

And what a great trip I have to tell you about.  Kathy and I drove to Idaho from the UP and I took the advanced FW sewing machine maintenance class at the FW Shop.  I have so many things to tell you all about that.  I'll have lots to post about for weeks and weeks.

I learned about motors and gears, special finish techniques and how to repair those handles.  Latch repair was covered as was special info about products to use and so much more.  There will be some fabulous new products coming soon for your sweet machines.  I'll keep you posted about those items as they become available.  At the end of the two days I got a certificate that says, I completed the class so now I really feel official.  That's Christian on the far left, then Carmon, me, and Burl, the head technician for the FW Shop.

And, the trip there and back was gorgeous.  I have to admit that driving over 3000 miles is a bit crazy but I wanted to see the countryside and experience everything along the way. Having airline personnel throw my FW cases into a cargo area was not an option. That last 3 hours before arriving at Kooskia was so beautiful.  US-12 runs along the river winding around mountains with rapids and steep curves in the road.  The Bed and Breakfast owner where we stayed told us how dangerous that road can be and while we were there an older couple drove off the road into the river in a camper and nearly died.  Beautiful and dangerous are the only words to describe that road. Needless to say, we were careful.

We were right in the middle of the Nez Perse Indian reservation so we stopped at that National Park before we returned home.  We didn't get as far as the River of No Return but we were very close.  We were surrounded by beauty and history that clearly spoke to us.  I can highly recommend a trip to see Idaho's panahndle.

Coming back, we stopped at the Teddy Roosevelt National Park and it's another beautiful area to see.  We watched prairie dogs in their little villages and Bison across the way.  You just can't see that stuff from a plane.  The rock formations in that area are so unique. Yes, I love rock formations, too.

And, we shopped at quilt shops and antique stores as well.  You really can't go on this kind of outing and not do a bit of shop hopping. Neither one of us broke the bank shopping but we did find a few things that we couldn't leave behind.

All in all, it was a great trip and, like I said, I have a lot to tell you all for weeks to come. 

How could I forget?

The FW dust cover.... how did I forget to post that one?  I finished it last week.

It's perfect to put over my FW when I'm not using it..... well, that's not too often.

Welcome to Summer

Hello, Summer with your warm days and sunshine.  Welcome to fishing on the lake and sewing in my corner overlooking the water.  I'm so happy to have the  hummingbirds, goldfinches and robins at the bird feeders.  Welcome mosquitoes and black flies.  Wait!!  I'm getting carried away here.  The mosquitoes and black flies can fly away any time.  I'm tired of them already and they've barely begun.

The UP has so much beauty but the bugs aren't one of them.  But, we do have cans of OFF in every room of the house and garage.  There's a can in each of the vehicles and the boat.  When you live in the woods, OFF is the perfume of choice.  That's just the way it is.

We've been here a little over 2 weeks and it feels like home again.  It's a lot of work getting everything unloaded, unpacked, and put away.  We got the dock put out and the boat in the water but as always, there are things that need work now that we're here.  We pulled the boat back out of the water because the onboard trickle charger isn't working correctly.  We'll have that up and running again soon because those bluegill tasted pretty good that we caught the other day.  Fish from a clear water lake are really pretty good.

And, I've been sewing like a crazy woman.  I always bring things to work on and this summer I downsized a bit.  I brought my Little Brown Bird quilt to work on.  It's number 1 on my UFO list.  And, I brought some scraps to make a few preemie quilts for donating this winter after I get them quilted.  Here's what I've accomplished so far.

This one is a scrappy quilt that I made from a bag of 2 1/2" squares that my neighbor up here gave me last summer.  There are some vintage fabrics and I used up one of the grey fabrics from the elephant quilt, too.  I am trying to use up a bunch of fabrics I have this summer to reduce my stash. I already had all those scrappy blocks put together when I came up this year.  I used them for my leaders and enders while I was making the elephant quilt last summer.

This one is a preemie, again made from a bag of scraps that my neighbor gave me last summer.  I don't remember the quilt she made using the instrument fabric but there were just enough of those pieces left to make this one.  Yup, I used up more red scraps from my own stash.

This one is a UFO that I've had on my pile for about 3 years.  I'm calling it my Easter quilt and I just needed to embroider the eggs with Easter stripes or other designs.  I just couldn't find the time to finish it up this winter even though I wanted to have it done for Easter this year.  Maybe I can get it finished for next year. It's ready for quilting now.

And, I'm getting excited to go to Idaho to the Featherweight shop for my additional training on FW repair.  I leave a week from today and when I get back, I know I'll have a ton of things to tell all of you about our precious FWs.

Yes, I'm going to take pictures and it will be time for our biannual  spa day for our FWs when I get back as well.

I hope you all are having a great summer so far.  I love to hear from you when you get a chance.  I'll report back in a couple of weeks.  Till then, quilt away!