Technology abandoned me

WELL, the last two weeks have brought some challenges to my free time activities.  I took my sewing machine in for a 'ONE DAY' cleaning and then was told that it needed a new computer board.  I sadly told them to go ahead and order the part which was suppose to be there in a couple of days.  However the repair person (I think she was new to the job because the old repairman wasn't there) didn't get it done AND didn't get it done and  kept putting me off with little things until I finally went in this past Monday and they said that someone would work on it that day if they had time.  I told them that I would be back that afternoon and I wanted to take it home then,.  SO, they complied and got to work on it.  I was very happy to pick it up after it had been gone for over a week.  I am thankful that it is back at home 

To make things even more difficult here at our house, the computer was in the shop for a couple of days too.  It had been slowing down more and more and we decided to get it checked over.  It is old for a computer, about 6 years old, but we are in limbo about what to do in the way of a new home computer. We wanted to put off buying a new one while we were researching what to buy.  I am thankful that this old one is back in working order.  

 While my machines were being repaired I needed to find new ways to entertain myself.  I had lunch with a friend and we went to our local museum.  The quilt landscape artist that won Art Prize in Grand Rapids had an exhibit and we spent some time enjoying this art.  The picture above is one of three panels  depicting the Pictured Rocks in the U.P.  It is a beautiful piece.  I have taken a couple of classes from this artist and she is very inspirational for the quilting world.  It was a great way to spend the day if you can;t quilt yourself and lunch with a friend is always nice.

Bud has been very busy with his outside chores before winter arrives.  The trim on the house is all painted and he started working on the front deck.  Today he is doing the last step, staining/preserving the deck boards.  It looks great.  He has been taking half days off this month to complete his projects. He has been very busy, maybe he will be like this in retirement?????  It makes me look a little lazy but I have had more practice at this retirement thing and he continues to work as much as possible at the office.

I wish that I knew how to rotate a picture once it is on the blog but I don't know the secret so tip your head to the left to view this unusual piece. (or maybe not if you like it hanging this way) It has a funny story.
A couple of years ago I went for an overnight quilting retreat with my great friend Mary Anne.  We were told to bring along several different types of fabric and I really can't remember what all of them were except I know that one was suppose to be black and white and one was suppose to be something we considered 'ugly'.  When we arrived we were to make these blocks with the fabric using a fusible to put them on the background.  I think the directions were to use every one of the fabrics in each block and there were some other directions too but I can't remember.  ANYWAY, I bought these blocks home and I was to 'stitch' around each of these pieces that I fused  on the background.  I am not fond of that process so it went into a box to be finished later or thrown away. Just before my machine abandoned me I found these blocks and decided I should do something with them  When I got my machine back I went right to work and did all that tedious stitching and put the blocks together.  It is now hanging in my sewing room.  One more UFO (unfinished object) completed)
The class was suppose to be followed up with a 'therapy' session with the person running the class.  I can only imagine that she would have us talk about our fabric selections and why we put them is this order and arrangement.  I didn't go to the session.

So, there you have it our accomplishments and challenges.  Aren't we lucky that we have such small challenges?