Frustrated, and finishes

I went to the LQS again... sadly, the same woman treated me in the same rude fashion.  She stares at me like I'm a shady character, follows me around the store, and when she rings me up, makes visible faces at my purchases and no attempt to be friendly. Whenever I ask her questions, or even try to have a conversation, I get treated like an idiot. And it started with the walking foot on my machine...

See what I had to do to make it work right?

Notice the wire.

 I had to (pardon the slang) jerry-rig it to get the lever to go down when it's supposed to drop naturally. When I had my machine serviced, they checked out the walking foot and said it worked fine. The Mean Lady, who is the same one that scoffed and asked if I even put it on right, was supposed to let me verify in the store when I picked it up, but she literally put my machine as close to the door as she could without putting it outside in the rain that day and said, "You're all set" before walking away into the store's back room. My husband asked me what her deal was, so I told him in the car she is the one who is always so rude to me.

When I was in their today, I made sure to avoid her as much as possible. It makes me sad to say this, but I'm looking forward to moving so that this is not the closest quilt shop, all because of that one unpleasant woman. My walking foot sticks- I'm not crazy, or stupid. After sewing about 12 inches, it starts sticking, and the bar doesn't drop to make the foot "walk". I'm sure they didn't sew further than that, which is why they said it worked fine. However, since I'm deceptively young looking, no one would listen to me when I tried to explain the problem. And I sure as hell wasn't going to get into it again since I already know this woman would have been the one I would have been referred to again.

Hence, the wire. You know what? That piece of wire didn't complain, call me stupid, or try to shove me out a door. I like my wire. If only I had the welding equipment to make a new end for the walking foot's lever that would grip the needle screw like the walking foot does on my Singer....

Vision realized!

Since the wire worked, though, I did get my placemats done. I've showed them to a couple people, all of whom said I should market them (but how???).
Frankly, I'm just happy to have this set done for us. And unless they find some way to colossally mess things up further, we should be moved in time to use them. There's been another snag-- our paperwork was supposed to come back from the underwriter on WEdnesday, didn't then of course yesterday was Veteran's Day, and then no news today, so we don't know what's going on. AND I HATE THAT. I'm guessing this means no closing Monday (man, I feel horrible for the current homeowner-- she moved out a week ago!). A few weeks ago, it looked like a sure thing that we'd be moved and unpacked by my birthday. Then it was looking like we'd at least be moved. Now, we won't even be fully packed from here since everyone who can is dragging their feet while we dance anxiously on ours. My new goal it to move before Matt Lauer hits 65 pounds... he's gained three (up to 53 lbs) since we brought him home, so that might not even happen... big, resigned sigh.

To top off my frustrations, I don't know what to do about the giveaway- I want to send the prize to Beth, but have no way of reaching her. I want t send sleeves to the others, but can only get a hold of Cheri and Sophie from previous emails since blogger is not getting along with my computer (I can't open email addresses from people's profiles--and then there are those who don't even have a profile). I got their sleeves made (Hope you like them, ladies!). It seems my only recourse is to "roll over" the prize for some other giveaway if it's not claimed. Which, I think, is the sanest thing to do rather than drive myself crazy over another problem on the list of things I can't control.
If it isn't claimed by Thanksgiving, then prizes assumed forfeited and will be rolled over into a new giveaway, TBA. That is PLENTY of time for any of the people who commented to contact me... those who said they follow have no excuse to have missed my postings asking for them to contact me TRTLGRL15 at YAHOO dot COM

Good night. Thanks to those of you in advance who I know will have the encouraging words my ears need to hear. You help me keep things in perspective, both in your comments and when I read your blogs. If life were any easier, they'd call the whole thing Vacation.