Look out NC I'm here!

I finally arrived in NC to stay, on Friday, to stay. DH wanted to know what all I had managed to bring. Told him I couldn't tell, it was like Christmas and he would find out when he opened the presents/tubs of stuff.
I brought my bare necessities to survive.
Two trunks and a large suitcase of my antique quilt tops and quilts, a few projects in progress, my 7570 Pfaff, my Featherweight, a serger, a couple tubs of kitchen staples and equipment, case of Escargot, the contents of the bar cabinet and a small suitcase of clothes.
Previous trips brought a set of bunk beds and folding chairs that we use camping. Real furniture will arrive in a month or so (oops 4 or 5 months - Jan. 12, 2009), after all the painting and repairing is done. As long as I am set up to sew and sleep I'm good.
Quilt guild here meets on Tuesday, I look forward to going and finding new friends to quilt with.

Packing

Packing can be a real pain. Unpacking can really be fun, it's like getting Christmas or Birthday presents. We have always managed to unpack boxes that weren't unpacked the move before. I know I will get gifts of fabric, I actually picked and bought for specific projects. The past four years I have been staring at bolts of fabric left from my fabric shop in Florida, of twenty years ago.
DH leaves in 3 days for his new job. I will pack and sew, then pack some more. Maybe I can finish his missing 5oth birthday quilt as a surprise. Of course will have to find out where it hid during the "mistake" I mean move to WV.
I have been work on a blue Triple Irish Chain for his sister on Tuesday nights. this summer. Tuesday night, my friend Janet keeps her quilt shop open til 9 pm.

Wandering in Lexington

We went exploring today. Stopped at Quilting Quest, Lynne has really decent prices on her fabrics and is a very nice lady. She just happen to be the BBQ City Quilt Guild president and invited me to the next meeting if I am in town.
Stopped at Walmart and was glad to see they didn't lose their fabric department as many of their other stores have. I go through bolt after bolt of their osnaburg.
Dropped DH at LMH for his pre-employment jabbing and stabbing. Then went downtown to explore on my own for a couple of hours.
Other fabric shop in town is a little "pricey". DYS took us there several years ago, then I remember why I hadn't been back.
Art Gallery across the street had a nice display hanging. Of course the 2 paintings I really liked were on display only, but I will return to the gift shop for some Christmas shopping, when I get here permanently.

NC or Bust

DH leaves in 14 days. I miss him already! Oh well, it will give him and DYS time to get the floor in my new studio. (Floor born finally in December), who has a time line?????????????

Escaping WV for NC

I'm doing the "Happy Dance"; we are escaping WV.
We drove down to Lexington, Wednesday after we both got off work. Yesterday, DH had interview at Lexington Memorial Hospital and was told he unoffically has the job he applied for. HR director asked if I needed a job, also. Nope, I'm going to play full time Grandma. I'll have little Miss Maddy sewing by the time she turns 5. DS said maybe I can teacher her Mama, to.
Last night, DYS signed official contract on the house we are buying. Tonight we go measure rooms and delegate my paint stash to the different rooms.
I called dibs on the garage as my new studio, 20" X 20" +/- of uninterupted space. Old studio is same size, but chopped up into 4 rooms. Needless to say "Hermione" (my short-arm) reaches wall to wall. Crawling underneath to load quilts and reach bobbincase, really stinks. I am to old for that nonsense.
DH had to drive back to WV last night to go to work, he will come drag me back to WV Sunday; that will be me kicking and screaming, "I don't want to go back!".
I stayed to get ready for yard sale Saturday. The first of several yard sales here and back in WV. I have a bunch of piles to weed out.
Next Monday I tell the quilt guild I'm moving and that I am having a "thinning out the stash sale".

Survival of the fittest!

I am would seriously do the happy dance, if at all possible. The quilt show is over! Yeaaa! I have been there, since 5:15pm Wednesday; except to come home to sleep. I worked all day then went straight there, to get quilts checked in for the show. There again 9am til 7 or 8 Thursday, to hang the quilts. Slept. Went to work 8 -10, then hit the show til 9 pm Friday. Today I was there 8:30 til 7:30. My VP told me this morning I looked "whipped bad"; looked in restroom mirror and thought "This should have been a 2 bag day". Nothing that a Marguerita, supper and a good nights sleep won't cure.

Millennium Quilters 4th Annual Quilt Show

Millennium Quilters 4th Annual Quilt Show is this weekend. We did registration tonight. I worked all day, then headed to the high school to help get everything set up and the quilts checked in. It was so much fun getting to carry the quilts to their proper pile, after the girls got them labeled and signed in. There were six at the the sign in table and me sorting and carrying. Unfun was getting to carry them again to another room for judging. The old body is griping up a storm and reminding me of how old I am, "How Rude". Couldn't get home for the Ibuprofen fast enough. It's going to be a "Flexril night" or I won't get out of bed in the morning or be able to lift my arms to hang quilts tomorrow. Only 4 more days to survive!

Cleaning out my house & studio

It is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate. In my pile of clothes I wear, I weeded out 3 - 18 gallon storage containers, for the first of several rummage sales. (Only have 2 closets - old house had 14.) Really dreading cleaning out the attic!
My quilt guild will be excited at our picnic when I hand out maps and announcement I am selling almost all my bolted fabric for $3.00 a yard. I had a fabric shop in Florida and kept all my bolts of cotton. Haven't used much of it, so it needs to go to a new home.

WV - Enter at your own Risk!

Boy, do we wish we knew four years ago, what we know now. Four years ago we had an eleven hundred dollar a month mortgage. We saw real estate prices in WV and thought "oh wow", lets move there. DH was wanting to retire in the next few years. A higher hourly wage and a $350 mortgage seemed very attractive.
What we didn't know about was all the higher or hidden costs and taxes. House here was a 4th of the price - taxes there were $680, now $1000 on house & $400 on garage which is in very bad condition. Then the tax on personal household property. Dog tax for county and tax to city, on top of rabies tag. At this rate Maggie will have to go find a job, if we don't escape WV soon. Some towns even tax you on your cats, this one is trying to pass that ordinance. Ok, then Daisy and Crissy will need jobs, also. Maybe Daisy can apply for "Kitty Social Security", she is at least 16 or 17 years old; isn't that like 80 or 85 in human terms?
My 18 year old car is taxed $83 a year, $32 for license plate, and $12 for inspection sticker. We had to pay sales tax on my car when we moved here, even tho we had paid sales tax when we bought it in another state 13 years ago.
OK, thanks for listening to me whine! The cloud of dust, you will "hopefully" soon see, will be us leaving WV!

Birth of My Blog

Today my bouncing baby blog was born. Hopefully I will be a good parent to it. Hopefully I will be able to add links and stuff to it. I am not the most computer savvy person in the world. If I could sew and quilt it I wouldn't have any problems.