There may be light at the end of the tunnel....

Friday was a really fun day.  I got up and headed to the Quilt-In at St. Raphaels by 9:30 AM.  I had the back of Miss Gaddy packed with the trash in bags that was the result of a two-week collection.  Many of you know that I have always hated trash collection since Rudy died.  It was a job that we had always shared and I really hated having to do the whole thing, to have the garbage out each week on Tuesday night for a Wednesday morning pickup.  Here, the North Star Borough does not have trash pickup but we can take our garbage to a transfer station, at no cost, any day that we choose during the hours they are opened.  So I am free to take my trash on whatever day I feel like taking it and I can drop it off first thing before going to other appointments, shopping or events.  I stopped there on my way to sewing.

The wonderful thing about a 2-day sewing event is that the first day you lug your stuff to sew, but at the end of that day you can just take your purse, coats and lunch stuff home and leave your sewing machines set up with your projects so you can arrive the next day and just sit down to begin where you left off.  So I was able to do the trash on Friday as my car was empty of cargo.

Friday I took my camera to the event.  I know that my Sew Much Love ladies are wondering what I find when I sew with my new friends, here in Fairbanks.  So, here are some pictures...

This is one of the projects that was on the floor being looked at and adjusted for color.  Tammy, the lady who invited me, is doing this from scraps that she has accumulated.  She did some sewing on it after I took the picture.

These are three of the tables that were set up for sewing.  The one closest is for Marie.  She is Tammy's daughter.  She is also working on a scrappy quilt, although she was working in the church office when I took the picture.  The table next to hers is where Tammy was sewing.  The last table is Camille.  She lives in the same subdivision that I am living in.  She is working on a very complicated, applique quilt for a family member.  I think it was to have been a Christmas Quilt.  She was working on it the first time I went in the fall and is still doing it.  It is lovely and she is fussing with borders now.  I am hoping to get a picture of it finished.  It is a pattern from a magazine and Camille says, never again!!

This is the cutting table.  They use PVC pipes on all four legs to bring it up to cutting height.  In the background, you can see the single ironing board.  On Friday they added padding to the ironing board making it a much better surface than it had been.  I will be bringing my little, personal board.... as soon as I uncover the one that is still in the box.  I have found the loose one that was in my sewing room, but no clamps yet.

This is Camille working on her project.  She has a Janome, but it was giving her some issues on Friday.  Of course, it did not help that she had taken her first Yoga class the day before and was a tad sore.

This is a little six-panel quilt.  The children who are doing 1st Communion each make a block.  Tammy squares them up, adds sashing then makes the quilt sandwich and quilts it.  There are several on the walls of the room we use.

These are double tables that are set up and Friday there was a third one added for projects to be laid out on.  Tammy is on the left and on the right is Lynne (her first day with the group).  They were folding bulletins for the Sunday service.  The church Secretary, Nancy, was in Hawaii for a quilting retreat.

This is a picture of the project I have been working on for the last three sessions.  It will be a really springy heart quilt that Jenny Doan (MSQC) did several weeks ago for her tutorial.  It is all charm packs and I was able to find what I needed to do this one in the boxes that have been unpacked.  It is going to be very light and pretty.

This was my table.  I was working on one of the big 25 patch blocks.  There are 9 of them in the quilt.

I left around 2 PM, a little earlier than I usually leave, but Rob had texted that he was heading to the house to take a load of cardboard to the recycle center and I thought I should be there to help.

I got home to find he had already come and gone.  The cardboard was greatly reduced, making the garage look much larger.  Rob returned and we talked about dinner.  He had suggested going to Ivory Jacks as Friday is prime rib night.  But it was also Valentine's Day.  So Rob called to check times and availability thus we headed to Ivory Jacks for a 5 PM dinner.  Check the link for their website.

We each ordered Prime Rib with Fried Shrimp.  Rob had mushroom soup and I had New England Clam Chowder that was to die for...!

Rob took a picture of his meal before he began eating.  I just dug in.  But here is the picture that Rob took...

I have had this meal here before and it did not disappoint.  So nice to know where I can go to get a great Prime Rib dinner since I can no longer get to Shadymaple!!

We came to the house and watched the NASCAR Truck race from Daytona.  The race had been run while we were doing other things, but SlingTV, who is my TV provider, added 10 hours of DVR to my package, so we recorded it and watched it when we were ready.  (We did the same thing for the Xfinity NASCAR race today.)

This morning we woke up to 30 below.  Rob has been having issues with his new car in this really cold temperature.  He had already loaded the remaining cardboard into his car, but when he started it, the dashboard lit up like a Christmas Tree, so we moved the cardboard into my car took the remaining broken down boxes to the recycle center.  It was easy and free and gave us a lot of room to make some dents into the remaining box pile.

So upon returning, I left my car out in the cold and we closed the garage door, left the door into the house propped open and began to tackle the boxes.  Little by little, we opened boxes, unwrapped things from the newsprint and guided them to the rooms they needed to go to.  The boxes are "marked" but what is written is not always what is inside.

I found my big Singer sewing machine but not the table that attaches to it.  I found the majority of my rulers and templates.  I found rotary cutters.  I found most of my Accuquilt dies but not the machine.  I found two more boxes of bathroom stuff, so I have more than enough towels and hand towels.  The table that we cleared is covered with totes full of fabric and projects and we have not yet opened all of the boxes marked "totes".

We found more tools and the air compressor.  Rob moved the big parts of the quilt frame out to the woodshed so we can get to some of the built-in shelving in the garage.  This will allow me to organize the craft supplies in a better way and perhaps even some other things there.  But we have not yet gotten all of the boxes opened yet.

Tomorrow we will go slowly.  Rob is still fighting a cold and all of the bending and moving has my right hip screaming again,  So we will watch the Daytona 500 live and then get back to the unpacking.  But we made great strides.  There is now, a light at the end of the tunnel and I no longer have the feeling of being overwhelmed.  The end is in sight and I will be getting into a more normal lifestyle.  I will take some more pictures of our progress at the end of the day tomorrow.

BTW, it is almost getting to normal light.  Driving to sewing this week was in daylight and not just dusky light.  Last night, when we drove home from dinner around 6:30 PM, there were still lights showing behind the hills.  It will be up to 25 ABOVE on Tuesday and that is because the sun is getting higher and higher in the sky.  So, I think I have made it through my first Alaskan darkness and it was not bad at all.

I hope you are having a good weekend.