Back Home in Virginia Again.

Hi friends,

I have been away again - caring for my sister in Michigan for the last week.  I'm back home again as of today, and am happy to be back by my sewing machine.  No sewing was done for the past week, but a lot was accomplished, and progress was made in my sister's care.  

While gone, I took a big ball of yarn with me, and here is how far I got with it:  It's to be a baby blanket for an infant - a donation project.

I made a mistake in the pattern about two inches into the blanket, before I memorized the repeats and the pattern changes.  I left it there, as I don't think the baby will notice it.  I asked the little dolls, Sophia Grace and Rosie, and they said it looked fine to them.  I am starting the second ball of yarn, and it is going quite fast.  Knitting is a great calming project when I am dealing with stressful things.

The trip back took me two days, and for the second day, I drove across lower Ohio and West Virginia, and across Virginia.  Much better plan than the boring PA turnpike route.   I picked out four quilt stores to visit, and here is my rating on them:

(1) Sew Many Blessings Quilt Shop
     1925 Adams Avenue, Huntington, WV
Wonderful shop, with helpful staff, and I found several things I wanted there.  They asked if they could help me, and when I said I was just looking, they let me wander around and look at my pace.  The store was very nice, with beautiful displays.  I bought several things on sale.  I gave it an A!

(2) Textile Mills Cloth Shop Inc.
     5303 MacCorkle Ave. SW, South Charleston, WV
I should have researched this one better on the web before I drove there.  When I saw the sign outside "Custom Draperies and Bedspreads", I knew it was not going to give me what I wanted in civil war repros and shirtings.  I looked around a little bit, but didn't find anything that wanted to come home with me.  I gave myself a D- for choosing something that wasn't a quilt store.

(3) Nancy's Fabrics
     218 W. Edgar Avenue, Ronceverte, WV
When I arrived at this quaint little town, the storefront had a "for rent" sign, and was closed and empty.  I have looked at their website now that I'm home and see that they have closed the store and plan a "quilt store on wheels" in a school bus. My disappointment was not too great, as I thought the most promising quilt store was yet to come.  I gave this store an incomplete grade.

(4) Old Trinity Schoolhouse
     3200 Trinity Road, Troutville, VA  
The shop owner was very helpful and the shop was full of all the kind of fabric that I love.  I could have stayed there browsing for hours, but since I arrived at 4:30, I was the last customer out the door at 5:00.  I will come back to this store.  Several shirtings, and reproductions of civil war era fabrics came home with me.  I also bought a beautiful 108" wide quilt backing fabric.  
Grade A+
Here's a picture of the Old Trinity Schoolhouse quilt store:

It was a great way to break up the long trip, as I was traveling alone, but I am happy to be back home and am looking forward to sewing on my sewing machine later today.

I am frustrated with Blogger in that I no longer get emails when someone comments on my blog.  I don't know how to find your email to reply to you.  I used to get an email when someone commented, and I could then just hit "reply" and answer any questions, or thank you for a comment.  But I do not get emails of comments now.  If anyone can help me fix this problem, I would be very grateful.

If I reply to your comment right at the blog, do you get the reply?  There is so much I do not know about Blogger, and Blogger+, whatever that is.