Back in business

Last week I wrote about my machine troubles. I was sure I would be without machine for a while, but the day after I wrote the entry I had a call. The machine was fixed and was ready for pick-up. I could not have asked for better service from K.W. Sewing Machines and Janome.
So it is back to machine quilting the Smile quilts, one per week.
This block is ready for embellishments. I have quite a few ribbons, beads and other things, but they were stashed in different places. That meant, that at times I would forget what I had. So after a trip to the Bass Pro Shop for small tackle boxes and a set of watchmaker tins from Lee Valley, I'm in business. Everything has its place. Now I have to be sure to put it all back in the right place.
My mother-in-law has been in the hospital for over a week now ( tomorrow she can come home again). At least one of us will visit her each day. On Saturday Jenny and Tony came for lunch and then went on to visit grandma.
She left me with some yarn and some needles.

I taught myself to knit before I went to school. I watched my mother , sitting across from her and since I'm kind of ambidextrious it was not hard for me to just knit mirror wise. But once in school I got into trouble, because that was not in the Dutch knitting curriculum. No standing in the corner or other punishments changed my style of knitting though. Over the years I did a lot of knitting, but about 10 years ago I had too much trouble with my shoulders and back, so I quit. Jenny has been knitting for a few years now and has quite a stash of yarns. I'm feeling pretty good, so decided that I should see if I could still knit socks. This time, instead of Jenny raiding my fabrics, it was me who wanted some yarns from her stash. This is Koigu and it knits beautiful. I promised myself to only knit after supper for a few minutes ,but that is very hard to do. I'm not a patient person. It is still winter around here. We did miss most of the snow, but it is still bitter cold. But for me there will be a spring tonic tomorrow in the form of a visit to the Stratford Garden Show. If that will not get me in the mood for spring I don't know what will.