Hi Leslie:
Nice reading your bio. Years ago we lived in Rhode Island when my husband was in the Navy at Quonset Point. I loved all the textile shops that were adjacent to the textile mills in the Rhode Island area. I also loved Cape Cod. We have many fond memories of visiting the Cape, looking at the Kennedy compound from across the bay and visiting Plymouth Rock. We had a great 2 years on the east coast. Now we are on the West coast and love the beach, the mountains and my passion is quilting even tho I've only been at it for a couple short years. I take every class I can take through our local community college and I belong to a quilt guild with 12 other ladies who are wonderful teachers, mentors and friends. I'm a retired social worker and spend my free time making quilts for foster kids, Assisted living patients and Vet's Homes with my quilt guild friends. You said you are machine shopping... I have a Memory Craft 8000 New Home machine that I love and an inexpensive Brother machine that I use for all my classes. Both are wonderful machines. My last machine was a Kenmore that I used for about 35 years then gave it to our daughter when I got the New Home. She said she finally "retired" the machine a few weeks ago so it gave great service to our family for at least 40 years! Keep sewing! Have a great holiday.
Randy