Black Friday - November 23, 2012

Can't believe it!  We got up early (at least for us - about 7), went to the Dixie House for breakfast, then went to the mall!  We had NO traffic going down the main drag toward the mall, there was not a huge crowd at the restaurant, and we had no problems getting a close parking spot at the mall.  We were able to get our scooters out, had no problems getting around in the stores and on the mall walkways.  We went all over the mall, found the few things we wanted, managed to get excellent service, and we were out of there before 11 a.m.  The good thing about going to the mall was that I managed to get exactly what I had been looking for - for a ridiculous price!  This is something I've been wanting to get for my youngest daughter since she married...something just for her.  She had a very small private wedding with just immediate family and a couple of friends.  There was something I always wanted to purchase for her but couldn't at the time.  I did for her sister for her wedding.  Anyway, I love that I got the real McCoy for such a rock bottom price!!!

We also stopped in the tool department at Sears - only because it is right next door to the tree trimming and ornament area.  There was this really cute tool caddy for $9.99 - in PINK.  It is perfect for quilting and sewing stuff.  I got one for my room - we also got one in black for Ken to use on the garage workbench.  This thing is large enough to hold my quilting squares and rulers, cutters, scissors, tracing wheels, etc., etc.  Now to get the sewing room cleaned up and organized!

From there we went to the fabric store again - a few things I needed that were on sale.  Needed a couple of pillow forms, some cookie tins, some corduroy to make dog toys, and 1.5 yds of black fabric...don't know how it happened, but I was completely out of black (I use it a lot for interior borders on quilts).

I spent the rest of the day quilting the Christmas lap quilt for my brother Jerry.  On this one it is once again straight line quilting but is from corner to corner.  I thought I would never get this thing finished.  Some of my "straight" lines may be a bit "wobbly," but it looks ok.  Tomorrow I'll do the measuring and trimming of the backing fabric - I trim down to 1.5" then fold it once and press, then fold it once again, this time over to the front of the quilt.  I don't do applied bindings on these kinds of quilts -- and don't do mitered corners either.  Not necessary, and the flat binding looks much nicer.  Applied bindings take far too long because I refuse to attempt to sew the final stitching around the binding by machine -- I've never seen one done by anyone yet that doesn't look sloppy. So I do mine by hand - and it is very time consuming.  I don't have time for that so I do the roll from back to front using a wider binding to the front.

Other than that...life goes on.  I think we are "done" with shopping for a while...we've still got to figure out what, if anything, we are going to do about Christmas gifts.  We'll think about that next week!  I think we have a plan to do a little bitty tiny bit, but certainly far less than in the past.