sew * berry * special: What I did on my summer vacation?

I can remember being back in school on the first day and having to write about my summer vacation. This one would be a beauty. I do have to warn you. There is so much to talk about and only a little bit of time.

"I went on vacation to Northern Georgia, but I don't think that a vacation is what you would call it. My Aunt was trying to call it a crafting workshop. That is close. (but I cannot say to much because i have warned you before that I am not sure who instigates who?) My husband and I got up @ 4:00 in the morning and drove 12 hrs. Once we got there I grabbed the embroidery machine and sure enough there were no hugs and kisses or hello's it was right to work. We did have a schedule. My aunt taped the opening ceremonies of the summer olympics so we could watch it later. That unfortunately was not on the workshop schedule. The first thing we tried on the embroidery machine was a wedding towel she was giving it as a gift. I have done alot of thing on the machine, but I still hit and miss alot. I needed a beer! And after we tried the towel, I needed a second beer! Of course the bobbin thread shows on top and ruins the towel. We tried everything and we could not get the embroidery right. We were going to have to take it to the quilt shop the next day. Luckily that was on the list already. After dinner we went to her friends house to cut material for a new bag they had just learned and were going to teach me. I have never laughed so hard in my entire life. You had to see the 3 of us try to figure it out. I thought I was in an old episode of I love Lucy! I know how Ricky feels.

The next morning they had a pancake breakfest down at the lodge. We ate as much as we could because we were not sure when the next food break would come. My husband and uncle spent the day looking for berries on the old mountain roads. Lucy, Ethal and I went to the quilt show first. There were some absolutely gorgeous quilts there. Afterwards we went to the quilt shop. It is my favorite place to go. The ladies that work at "Deb's Cats N Quilt Shop" in Franklin, NC are the nicest and most helpful people I have ever met. They were very busy but made time to help us out with our machine. Of course you know when something goes wrong and you take it in to be looked at, it works perfect for them. It did turn out that the bobbin was threaded in the wrong direction. We made it back up the mountain to change and go back down the mountain to go to church and have some dinner. But break time is over and it is time to embroider everything!

Sunday morning was to start sewing the new bag together. I gave up after I sewed it together and missed some of the steps and had to take it apart. We also had to make jelly with the buckets of blueberries the boys had found the day before. My husband Mikey and I took the afternoon off and went panning for some ruby's. We did it last year and had fun doing it. Although I don't get it, they look with tweasers. I look for big rocks. I want it big, not the flakes they are looking for.

Monday morning we rearranged and reorganized my aunts craft room. It was not that hard to do because the embroidery machine was on the poker table and the cutting board and inoning mat was on the ping pong table in the other room. Then we finished sewing the new bag the right way. I love it! My aunt and I then ran down the mountain to another fabric shop to get upholstery for the $5.00 set of 4 chairs she found at habitat for humanity. Mikey stripped and painted the chairs. We got back and put the new fabric on. They turned out really cute. Mikey then went to help out their nieghbors with cutting the brush down on a very steep slope in front of their house. Of course we had to pick the blackberries first before we cleared out those thorny bushes. He would pick and then cut and I would pick them up of the ground walk them up the drive way slope and up the hill to dump them for trash pickup. They were the cutest couple. The wife has alzhmier's and would be out there sweeping after me and just laughing and dancing the whole time. She said the same comments to me everytime I went up the hill with brush and down the hill to get more. The picture of Mikey berry picking uptop is the brush that we cleared.