Listen to Your Inner Voice

In some ways today was a really bad day, but in others it was good. Does that confuse you? Just listen to the story of my day. Today was the first day of JoAnn's President's Day sale. I posted about wanting to go so I could stock up on Guterman thread. I went to bed last night, thinking that really there was no need for a special trip to town just for thread. After all, I have at least 5 more spools of it. (grin) I even got up this morning still thinking this. By 8 o'clock I had talked myself into going, even though a little voice inside me kept saying not to go. We had a snow storm coming it. I figured I'd run to town, stop by Wal Mart, then JoAnn's and be home by about 10:30. I got on I-29 and the car started to vibrate some. I just figured it was mud since dh had driven it in some mud the day before, but I slowed down anyway. I made my stop at Wal Mart and got the few things I figured I couldn't live without in case we were snowed in this weekend.(grin) As I came out of Wal Mart, I noticed it was really starting to snow, but it wasn't sticking, so I planned to hurry down to JoAnn's and then get back home. I stopped at the light coming from WM and made my left hand turn, even got into the left lane as JoAnn's is on the lefthand side of the road. I had only gone about 10 feet when I heard this horrible racket. It sounded like something dragging. I am in the left lane and traffic is steady in the right lane, so I pull over into a wide space between the two directions of traffic. I know this is not how you are supposed to pull off of the road, but I wasn't sure I could get over to the righthand side. I sure didn't want to be stranded in the middle of the road. I had no more than put the car in park, when a sheriff's deputy pulled up to ask if I was all right. I told him that I was having car trouble, but had a cell phone, so I would call my dh to come help me. He then went on. I called dh. He asked if I could go backwards, so I tried a little. Still the horrible noise. By this time a highway patrolman had stopped to help. He wanted me to come with him to their office so I would stay warm. (I guess I looked helpless. LOL) I declined, because I thought my dh was coming to help me. He gave me his number and went on. By this time, I had talked to dh numerous times and tried to get hold of Isaiah. Then two city police cars pulled up, one beside me and one behind. I do not like being the center of attention so I am starting to get kind of embarrassed. (sigh) I was on a busy road with, now, 4 different law enforcement cars stopping with lights flashing. Everyone was slowing and looking at me. I am sure they thought I was some sort of hardened criminal. LOL One of the police officers got out and looked under the car. He said the leaf spring (don't really know what he was talking about) was broken and dragging. No way the car could be driven. The cell was ringing as he was telling me this. It was dh saying that the battery in our pickup was dead. He had the chargers on, but it would be a while before he could get there. He called work and took a vacation day, cause I would not have been happy if he had gone on to work and left me sitting along the road. (another sigh) The officers tell me it must be towed and they will stay with me till it is off the road. I have no idea who to call. One of them was nice enough to suggest a towing company. (He said he couldn't recommend anyone, but if it was his car he would call ---, so I told him to go ahead. The plan was to tow it one block into Ryan's parking lot. I called Ryan's and they said it would be fine to leave it there for a day or so. This was going to cost $50. Luckily I had that much on me. Then K calls me and says to find out how much more it would cost to tow it home. We were quoted $125, so we decided to just have it brought home. The tow guy shows up with a flatbed hauler. (I guess that is what it is called. First time I had ever had to be towed.) It was a young man, named Steven. He told me to hop up in his truck. (I guess I will add here, that I was wearing a skirt and the wind was gusting. It was all I could do to keep it down where it belonged. I really didn't want to moon everyone who was driving by! LOL) I was like a little kid watching the whole process. We got it loaded and headed for home.

Steven and I visited the whole way. He was such a nice young man. We were almost home when he grinned at me and told me he had forgotten to take the mileage. He said he was going to call it 20 miles. I know it was a little more than that. Steven's dad owns the company, so I figured he could do what he wants. We got home and got it unhooked. K asked him how much he owed him. Steven said $85. My dh told him that wasn't enough, but Steven wouldn't take any more than that. What a nice and considerate young man he was!

So that was our day. It was rough, but also some good things in it. If I had listened to my inner voice, I would not have gone to town this morning. But this could have happened to me or dh while we were driving much faster on I-29. So I feel like the Lord was protecting me, even though I wasn't listening to His warning. Another good thing, we met a very nice young man who did a good deed. I know he gave us a big discount. Kevin finally got the battery charged on the pickup. Isaiah called. He was so sorry. He had gone outside to work on his pickup at 9 this morning and didn't take his cell. He was afraid it would get broken. I reassured him that I was fine. He and his dad had a long conversation on the phone. (Something that hasn't happened in quite a while.) I never did make it to JoAnn's. See, I really wasn't supposed to go there today. (grin)

Enough of my sob story. (Carolyn, Cathryn, and Hazel, if you are reading this, no laughing at your mama!LOL) Yesterday I decided to just work on a fun quilt. I drug my Thimbleberries books out and picked one called Tulip Patches. (Any Thimbleberries pattern is always fun for me. I love Lynette Jensen's designs!) This was so much fun, but any time I work on pattern pieces that are reversed, I always have trouble. This is how each block is supposed to look.

I made one block, then chain pieced the other eight. This is how the leaf section turned out on every one of those 8. See my trusty little ripper. It got a good workout. LOL

I had to rip 2 seams from each of the 8 leaf parts, but I got them turned right.Didn't this turn out cute. I didn't follow the pattern exactly and went my own way with colors, but I just love this one.

Here are a few more pictures of it. I didn't have my camera with me today, so no interesting pictures of policemen or tow drivers. LOL So you just get the tulip quilt.
Of course, Aeris had to give it her seal of approval. LOL Callie was laying on another one of my quilts or she would have been right there. She was curled up beside my sewing machine throughout much of the work on this. I used about a 1/3 of a yard of fabric for the background and 5 fat quarters for this little quilt. All of it came out of my stash. It is about 28"X26". I think it looks like spring. I needed that since it is snowing outside right now. LOL It would have sewed up quickly if I hadn't sewed the leaves wrong, making for lots of ripping.

I guess this is it for tonight. I think dh feels sorry for the day I had. He told me that if we aren't snowed in, in the morning, he will take me out to eat at Ryan's (my all time favorite place to eat) for Valentine's day. He said we may even make it down to JoAnn's. I am not pushing for that! Everyone have a happy Valentine's Day tomorrow. If you stayed with me for this long, thank you so much. Please come back. This is not a normal day for me. LOL