Come Stitch With Me

Hopefully, you’re a shopper who also likes to search for any discount codes before you hit the check-out button when online shopping. The same is true for buying most of your sewing and quilting needs. Unless you need it right away, you can save real money by shopping around.

My local dealer informed me that a wide extension table was not available for my Elnita EC30. (Well, yes there is, but it would have to come from overseas.) He stated my best bet would be to buy one directly from Sew Steady, the manufacturer. In case you’re unfamiliar with a Sew Steady table, it’s a clear acrylic table that is custom cut to fit your sewing machine to provide a larger flat work surface.

Manufacturer direct price: $89.00 plus tax and shipping. Total: $106-$120, depending on shipping option

Pocono Sew & Vac price: $69.00 plus tax and FREE shipping. Total: $73.50

I had to wait an extra 10 days by ordering through Pocono Sew & Vac, but I saved $35.00. This works for me since I don’t need the table until late April. PS&V is my go-to for feet & parts for my modern sewing machines. I use other companies to supply necessities for my vintage machines.

Joann’s is a great place to take Sadie because it is pet friendly; however, it’s not my regular go-to for sewing and craft items anymore. They’ve marked up the prices so much that it’s usually cheaper for me to buy things at the competition than wait for their special sales. The coupons now have so many restrictions or everything’s already on sale, so the coupon doesn’t apply. It can get frustrating. I was in the Cumming (GA) Joann store on Sunday killing time before I needed to head to a baby shower. I walked the scissors aisle. Fiskars pinking shears with the regular orange handles had a shelf tag of $39.99. Those same pinking shears are $29.99 everyday at Hobby Lobby and about $25.00 at Wal-Mart. It just so happens that the pinking shears are on sale this week at Hobby Lobby for $14.99. This is $25.00 less than the listed price at that Joann store. The Featherweight Shop, which I love, also adopted a similar pricing strategy. It’s raised prices to the point don’t buy from them unless there’s a major sale in progress on an item I need or want. Being a thrifty shopper here means I have more $$ to put toward fabric at my local quilt shop.

It’s so unsettling to be one foot in and one foot out the door at work. There are small signs that next year might actually turn out to be quite promising (fully staffed library, extra monies, flex schedule 4 days per week with only a fixed rotation every Friday for genius hour, kids who could do the book battle and morning announcements from Day 1), then there’s the incessant barrage of stupid stuff coming from everywhere else that makes me want to run for the door and not look back. Today’s librarian meeting was a preview of all the initiatives being rolled-out for the upcoming school year. No, thank you. The value of attending today’s meeting was that I am now totally confident in my decision to move on to whatever’s next.

Hubby officially retires in 3 weeks. He’s been a pain in my posterior as he winds things down. Like me, one of the activities he thought would fill a good portion of his free time has changed. It’s not due to COVID concerns either. Events have been cancelled because equipment needed to participate in the event is expensive and/or hard to come by due to supply chain issues. Gas prices and higher travel costs have also caused some participants to curtail the number of events they attend. Then the mask mandate was extended. To top it all off, his cancer check-up is in mid-April. So that’s front and center again.

We celebrated his birthday on Sunday. Over dinner, we discussed what our plans were for the next 3-6 months. He seemed concerned that I only had events booked through June when he had things booked out through October. I reminded him that I’d deliberately left July and August open in case I had to return for another school year. There is a major quilting event I am planning to attend in mid-September. If working, I will burn my personal days so that I can attend. Did he want to go with me? (Yes, he does.)

Once June travel comes to a close, I plan to hole up in my quilt cave and decompress until school starts. I’ll only venture out for special celebrations, therapy dog visits or quilt camp volunteering. Come July 22nd, I’ll either be reporting back for a new school year or planning August travels and therapy dog visits.

As I’ve stated previously, my plan is to join hubby at the end of May, but nothing will be officially decided until early May. If hubby doesn’t stay busy and tries to “manage” me, I may just decide to find a part-time job as a way to maintain my sanity. 🙂

What I do look forward to in retirement is a slower pace of life where I can enjoy spending time with people – not crossing stuff off a to-do list. Yes, Pat’s closing Stitch N Quilt did throw a wrench in my plans for Tuesdays and the occasional Saturday. I’ve discovered there are other options. It may take some time to visit and figure out exactly what I want to do, but that’s okay. It’s part of the process.

Here’s to 47 more days!

Open since 2009, Stitch N Quilt will close its doors on March 31st. Today was bittersweet as it marked my final class at the shop. More than one quilter told Pat how much being able to gather with other quilters meant to them and how much they would miss not having a gathering spot on this side of town. Every other quilt shop on the west side has closed.

There’s a core group interested in continuing on with the table runner club, but the group leaders had no answer as to when or if the group would continue. Based on our conversations, my guess is that we will split off into smaller bee groups, based on geography. I offered up my sewing space to host small groups of 4-6 on a Saturday mornings once a month. We’ll see if I have any takers.

One positive that came out of today is I now have a regular quilting group to join on Thursdays once school’s out. The group meets at a church in West Cobb (about a 20 minute drive).

Miss Pat indicated that she would be converting a barn behind her home into a “she shed” so that she could host sewing friends because she would miss that the most once her shop closes.

I taught an adult beginning quilting class in April 2021. One of my former students sat next to me yesterday. It was wonderful to finally be able to see her without a mask. I was taken aback when she said she shouldn’t have sat next to me because I’m a much better quilter than she is and it made her look bad. I responded that we were all there to learn and help one another – it wasn’t a competition. She didn’t talk to me very much after that. WTH? I jokingly told my husband that maybe this means my skills are finally good enough to join a certain local guild. 🙂