Every time I go on a road trip I wish that I had an RV. Today Keith and I went to an RV show and I’m ready to buy one but he’s not convinced yet.

Ideally, I’d love a Class B (van) but it’s really just too small (Keith is 6’4), I’d never buy a big Class A (bus) or one that has to be towed (although I do love the little tear drop trailers!),  but a small Class C would fit us just fine.  We did look at a couple Jayco RVs — I don’t think this was one of them but it gives you an idea of the size.

I was surprised that there were a lot of Class C’s that were too small in the “cockpit” for Keith to fit in but we did find a couple that would work … now if I could only convince him to buy one I’d be happy.

Do you RV?

Bonnie asked about the quilt in the background from my last post … it’s this one…. half square triangles and 4 patches – easy!

Others have asked where I pick up the inexpensive Jelly Rolls. Both Connecting Threads and Craftsy have them on clearance … you just have to watch for them. I recently bought all three of these from Craftsy.

You’ll want to watch the ones from Connecting Threads because they don’t always have 40 or 42 strips in them but even with fewer strips, I find their clearance ones can be a great bargain. If you remember all those Happy Block quilts I was binding last month … I used deeply discounted 2.5 inch strips for the binding and also used some of them to frame my Happy Blocks.

I posted a few weeks ago about the opportunity I had to order and review woven labels. I was pretty excited because I’d looked at the possibility of ordering some several times for my quilts but each time had chosen not to.

When I got home from Maine the labels were here – the turnaround time was quick – they say it takes 7 days to produce them and since I wasn’t home, I’m not sure how long the shipping took.

There were two things I didn’t think I understood fully when I was ordering them although I can go back and clearly see that it was my error.

First, when you have dark text on a light colored label, the thread from the text shadows through so your white label, isn’t exactly white. They add an option to preserve the light colored background calling the option “double white”.

My second mistake or misunderstanding was that there is a row of text colors at the bottom that are metallic – I chose a red for the HeartStrings label not realizing I’d chosen a metallic thread although again, it is clearly called a sparkly red.

Having said that, when I first saw the labels I wasn’t sure they were going to work for me but now I actually like both of them a lot. The shadowing on the HeartStrings label makes it look pinkish and I’m OK with that and the shadowing on the other label wasn’t noticeable once I stitched it to the quilt backs.

What I love is that I stitched all 3 of these doll quilt labels on in just a few minutes and while there aren’t dates on these, I’m OK with that too especially on the HeartStrings labels where I often finish quilts in a different year than they’re actually donated. I’m going to go see if I can design another one that I like with 2019 on it and order a small batch for my personal quilts. I’m also going to see if I can write in the date on the edge of the label with a permanent, washable marker.

Another thing to keep in mind is that because there’s not a folded edge, my stitches are more visible. I’m OK with that too and if I wasn’t, then I’d use a more decorative hand stitch like a blanket stitch.

If you’d like to order some yourself – the website is Dutch Label Shop and if you do choose to order soon, I think there’s a little time left on the 15% discount they offered using the maryquilts15 code at checkout. I’m going to go order a couple more myself.

I need to go NO buy … where is Stephanie?? She has more willpower than anyone I know.  I think it’s time for me to stop buying fabric!

The tire is fixed and we got on the road this morning. And believe it or not after a few hours of driving, a rock was thrown up from a neighboring car and  now we have a large crack in her windshield.  CRAP!!!

We were up and on the road early this morning, the drive was going well, and we expected to be home by 8pm …. that’s not going to happen now but I’m still thankful.

In spite of being hit with something from the side causing a flat tire, I’m thankful that the car handled well at 70 miles per hour, that we were able to get off the highway, re-fill the tire with air and limp to Walmart where they’ll get it repaired by this evening before they close. Thankful that there is a nearby hotel that allows dogs, thankful that Keith was with me, and thankful that having made it to Savannah, the drive home in the morning won’t be bad and that we should be home by 12pm.

I’m even thankful for Uber – I’m NOT a fan and never take Uber myself but Keith uses it frequently and was able to get a car fairly quickly to come pick us up and drive us to the hotel so we didn’t have to sit at the auto center for hours!