The Back Story

I made it my goal to stitch Mistress L's Band Sampler this year.  I emailed the designer and asked if she was teaching it anywhere.  She replied that she was teaching it near Indianapolis.  I didn't know who to contact until my friend Shelley happened to email me about a different class to take place near Indianapolis - with the contact person's email address.  Yeah!  I got the information.  Then I thought about whether to sign up.  I wanted so much to take the class but it meant driving (according to Google maps) 3 1/2 hours.  Now I'm not a good driver.  I learned to drive in the dark ages before interstate highways, merging and ramps.  I grew up in a small rural town where roads were hardtop or gravel or dirt.  Basically, I am afraid to drive very far or in big metropolitan areas.  But I really wanted to take the class.  I looked into flying.  Then I thought about renting a car.  My car is a senior, 17 years old.  It shakes at 70 mph.  But I really wanted to go.  I told my BFF about the class.  I decided that whatever it took, I was going to take the class.  I loved the second class offered too.  And if you are in class you often get the opportunity to buy other supplemental kits.  Luckily, BFF decided to take the class too.  She took pity on me and flew to my town and offered to drive me down.  Isn't she just the best?  So I rented a car and made hotel reservations.  Yes!  The class is a go.  So on Thursday my BFF flew in and I picked her and the rental up at the airport.  I was so tickled to get to show her my stuff as she has never been to my house.  The stuff I wanted to show her is my two curio cabinets of stitching,

 my sewing room (in its real actually messy state) and the world's most beautiful sink that happens to be in my bathroom.

 I also showed her my collection of cookie molds since we discovered that we both like to collect them.

We were finally ready to begin our trek to Indy at 2 in the afternoon.  I trained to be a Montessori Teacher in South Bend and drove there many times so I knew I could handle at least that far.  So off we went.  There is a nifty store in South Bend called Erica's.  It has quilt stuff and other stitching supplies.  We decided to check it out.  We had Matilda with us.  Matilda is my GPS that Son#2 gave us.  It hasn't been updated for a while but it has gotten me places that I could have never gotten by myself.  I was absent on the day sense of direction was handed out.  Matilda got us to Erica's.  We had fun shopping.  Erica's has a lot of stuff and a lot of models to tempt us.  I needed more thread to finish Dylan's quilt.  I couldn't believe that I had used up the entire spool of thread I got last Monday.  This is what I got.  What am I going to do with this fabric?  I have no idea - yet.

Now poor BFF hasn't had any lunch and it is 5 p.m.  We decide to stop at Steak and Shake for dinner.  They have great skinny hamburgers and great skinny fries.  They have these mini size root beer floats and shakes.  Perfect!  It was a delicious treat.
So here it is after 6 p.m. and we still have a long way to go.  The sign says 118 miles to Indy.  BFF keeps saying 180 as it seems like such a long way.  I keep driving as things are going well.  Indiana's speed limit is 60 most of the way.  I can handle that.  In fact, it seems really slow in my rental car.  The roads are great in this state.  Many look brand new.  The land is very flat in Indiana.  We do fine getting to Indy but there is road construction that puts us on a detour.  Matilda is not happy with all the new roads and keeps saying "recalculating".  So how do we get to our hotel that is back on the road that we have detoured from?  We go one way, nope, that is all residential.  I see a Fire Department and assume that is where our class will be on Saturday.  We turn around and go the other way.  Then we make another wrong turn and have to go the opposite direction.  Finally at about 8:30 we make it to our hotel in spite of ourselves.  Whew! We are tired.
We get our rooms.  You would think that would be the end of our day but no, there's more.  I'm looking at my email and there is one from Janet.  Janet is in the Cabinet of Curiosities class and has read my blog and knows I am going to be in Indy - and she lives in the area.  Now this is providential.  Only last week DH changed our main email address to gmail and I can get it on my ipad.  Otherwise, I would have never known about Janet's email.  I am excited as Janet is the most creative person on the planet.  She has photos on her blog of the most interesting workroom I've ever seen.  She asks if we can get together.  Absolutely!!!  BFF has gone to bed but I will ask (beg!) her in the morning about getting together with Janet.  I try to email Janet.  When I get excited I get all bumbly.  I email and discover it is no reply.  I accidentally email myself.  I'm an idiot.  I leave a message at the ning Cabinet of Curiosities site, I try to leave a comment on her blog.  I'm hoping she'll get one of my messages and we can meet.  More tomorrow.
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