Catching up

Shortly after returning from visiting my sister, I left again to go to Quilt Camp in the Pines; this made my thirteenth year there, so that tells you how much I enjoy it. Camp was under new ownership this year, with a few predictable hiccups in the changeover, but I still had a wonderful time. I met up with my very good friend and quilting buddy Phyl, and we took a class together from Helen Frost and Cathy Skow on how to do beautiful bindings on our quilts. The class was certainly worth taking! I have a big notebook full of samples of different kinds of bindings to refer to in the future. 🙂

Phyl and I also spent some “quality time” with EQ7, going through the PDF lessons that came with it, though we both have a lot yet to do to get familiar with this new version. We also made a side trip to a little quilt shop in Williams, where I found a pattern for Pot Pinchers — a sort of pot holder. Aren’t they cute?

All of that was the good news. Unfortunately, there was also some not-so-good news.

Last year while driving to camp, my car had several “tantrums”. I’d be cruising along the freeway when suddenly the car would no longer either accelerate or even maintain speed; in fact, it seemed that the motor was completely stopping! Ack! It was all I could do to get over to the side of the road before being squashed like a bug by one or more of the semis coming along the same freeway. This happened three times before the car simply wouldn’t start up again after a rest. I had to call for a tow, leaving the car in Williams and relying on a friend to get me to Flagstaff for camp. Phyl then drove me back to Williams a day or so later to pick up the car; the mechanic couldn’t find anything wrong, nor could the mechanic in Flagstaff or the mechanic in Las Vegas when I got home. Okay, so it must have been a fluke, right? WRONG!

It happened again — twice — while I was driving to Flagstaff again this year. Luckily, it never got so bad that I couldn’t start the car back up again; but it’s rather disconcerting, to say the least, to be trying to zip in between trucks to get off to the shoulder of the freeway — all while the power in the car is dying quickly. While I was sitting on the side of the road, I called my husband and told him that I flat refused ever to drive this car to camp again, and I don’t think I was being unreasonable.

So now I’m home, and my husband and I went car shopping yesterday. It seems that it’s a very good time to buy a car, as interest rates are quite low! We got a very good trade-in on the temperamental car, and I’m now the proud owner of a Toyota Prius! It’s going to take me some time to learn how to use all of its features, but I love the fact that I’ll be using lots less gas and that the car itself is completely biodegradable. I haven’t had a chance to take a decent photo of my car, but this is what it looks like in Blizzard Pearl, like mine. There’s lots of room in the back for sewing machines and fabric, too! 😀