Whew!

The sewing for the party is done. All of it. This is what the centerpieces will look like. I thought of putting some kind of bow around the top of the vase, but it just seemed like it would be too cluttered. I got white tablecloths to put underneath but now am wondering if purple would have been better, though purples can be difficult and since there are a variety of purple fabrics that may not have worked that well anyway.

My plan was to send a centerpiece home with each female head of household, so I needed 16 of them. I really didn't want to just give them out in plastic bags, nor did I have the money to go out and buy gift bags for all of them, so I made them. This is the "package" that will go home with each lady at the party, there are a few different florals used for the bags. These went way faster than I expected them to, which was a good thing as I wasn't able to start them until yesterday morning. All but one was finished when I went to bed last night and that one was cut, with handles made.

I finished the album quilt Tuesday night and that was a big relief. There was a short time there I really didn't think it would get finished at all, and I was dreading the thought of having to bring it home to finish it after the party. I'm very pleased with how it came out and look forward to having everyone sign it. I plan to bring some wise words from I Corinthians 13 to fill in any blank spaces. Here is a closeup of the border.

The weekend ahead will be quite busy. We are picking up the tables and chairs from church on Saturday morning and bringing them to my sister's house and setting them up. We'll get back in time to start getting ready and then will head back over to her house for the afternoon and early evening. Our older kids play on the church softball team, they are in the playoffs and have a game at 8:30 Saturday evening. I expect they will be leaving before the party ends, but since it's starting at 2:00, I don't expect it to go much past 8:00. I'm hoping we can get it all torn down and even get to see a bit of the game before heading back home again.

Sunday my husband's family (his mom, his siblings and their families) comes into town and that starts a week of activities ending Saturday with a big reunion of their whole extended family. While we will still have work obligations to fulfill, we will participate in as many of the activities during the week as we are able to.

I'm really looking forward to the week, but also looking forward to next Sunday, when all the craziness is over and I can relax in front of the Olympics with a project of my choice. To that end, I'm already daydreaming about what I want to work on in the spare minutes of the coming week and the (hopefully) abundant minutes of the following couple of weeks. I plan to get a lot of handwork done, but also hope to finish the strip block top. There are only a few pieces left to sew on each block but 288 blocks to sew so still quite a bit of work left on that.

Our oldest daugher, Rebekah, graduated from cosmetology school in June. She's taking her state board test on Monday and will find out that day if she passed. She's been applying for jobs but not really having much luck until this week. She went for an interview and had to bring a model to do a haircut and partial highlights. They said she did a fantastic job and want her to call the day after her test. That job is sounding quite promising on many levels (hours, pay, and benefits are all good) and she's very excited. She did haircuts on Lucas and I the other day and Ruthie had to have one, too. She needed her bangs cut which we usually do quickly with her in one of our laps. Right now her hair is quite long and usually in a ponytail or braid, but come fall I'd like it to be a few inches shorter with layers. We thought this would be good practice to see how well she might sit for that. She was quite pleased with the whole process and had to fluff up her hair just like Mom does when she is finished. I think there will be lots of fun hairdos in her future with a talented sister to take care of them for her!

So that's my very long and rather all over the place update. Here's to seeing you on the other side!

Sue