Stitches in Bloom Quilt Show: Fourth Batch

Today and the rest of the week are going to be getting kind of crazy. We're taking off on a trip to Death Valley, Joshua Tree National Park, and Borrego Springs. Today I'm getting my monthly pedicure, and then I'll come home; but I'll need to make another trip into town before Friday. For one thing, Big Bertha has been giving me grief, taunting me with one of these two messages:

The very first time I turned her on after purchase, I got a message that said simply "Maindrive Sync Failed". Of course, I called the store to ask what to do about it. In the process, I managed to clear the problem myself by snapping the threader lever down and letting it release up. With one of the software updates, the rest of the message began to appear. That just tells me this has been a problem common enough that they gave the "error" a number and included instructions on how to clear it. Once the error is cleared, one gets this next message.

This has gone on occasionally over the three or so years I've owned the machine. Recently, however, I've been kind of holding my breath every time I flip the on off switch, hoping this won't be the time Big Bertha fails me for good. Sometimes I have to restart the machine so many times in order to clear it that I fear it won't ever clear, and I'll be stuck. 

The other interesting part of this story (interesting to me, anyway) is that one time I cleared the error and then Big Bertha would only sew backwards. Whoa. That was weird. Eventually, I heard a sort of grinding noise come from the right side of the machine, and she started sewing normally again. Then, just recently, I cleared the error, but I was hearing a sort of clicking sound coming from the same right side of the machine. When I heard that, the needle would lift up, and the machine would sew only haltingly. 

So, it seems as if this trip away from home is a good time to take Big Bertha in for a spa treatment. She's been working awfully hard, and she's letting me know that she needs a little pepping up. I absolutely hate being without my machine, and she is telling me...warning me...in so many ways that she is unhappy. Being away from the sewing room is a good time to give the old gal a break and some "fluffing up".

Aside from that, it's a good time today to get my many torn and printed travel articles sorted and filed away. Sometimes I can find some good surprises for traveling excursions. For now...you don't care about any of that. You just want to see the rest of the show. So here goes:

Gorgeous colors in this one.

This quilter did a fabulous job interpreting Multnomah Falls. Here's a picture of the falls for those of you who have never seen it. It towers above the landscape falling 611 feet to the pool at the bottom.

Here is Gloria Richardson's quilt:

This next quilt is some of the best thread work I've ever seen.

Here's one for the counted cross-stitchers among you.

I was sorry not to be able to get a good picture of this next quilt because of the bright sunlight. After seeing the rest of the show, I walked back to see if time had improved my chances any, and it was a little better. 

So that's all I have from the show. I'll probably blog one or two more times before we take off on our trip, but I'm thinking there probably won't be much sewing. Oh yes, I almost forgot. I made these muffins yesterday.

It's a recipe from Dorie Greenspan, and they are really quite tasty. The cornmeal in the mix gives them just a little bit of crunch. I used golden raisins in mine, and I left out the flaxseeds for the seed sensitive people in our family. I ate one for lunch yesterday and then froze the rest. This morning, I removed one from the freezer and popped it in the microwave for 30 seconds. It was just a good as the first one. I'll be taking the rest with us on our trip.