Where to Begin....

There has been so much activity since my last post I barely know where to begin. I spent most of the time working on Marshall's quilt and finished it at about 10am the morning of his party (last Saturday.) I was very pleased with the results and he was thrilled. Here is the full view (or as much of one as I could get in my limited space, the grass was wet so I couldn't take it outside.)Here is a view of the border design. I enjoyed doing it so much (and the look when it was done) that I'll be doing more of these tessellating type designs in my borders. I like how it fills it all out, and it was really fun to do.While working on Marshall's quilt, we also were preparing for "junk day" here. With Marshall's quilt done, it was time to get quilting on one of the Christmas tops. I chose Arnie's quilt to do first, as it probably has the most quilting on it.
At this point, I should be able to go right from one quilt in the hoop to the next until all four are done. With Katie's top already done and Emma's well under way, I'm in really good shape as far as my Christmas quilting goes. I pulled out my design board, and I think I'll try to find a way to keep it out for a while, I'm enjoying being able to see her top in progress and will enjoy doing this with the next ones, too. Here is Emma's top on the design wall. 30 of the 40 hearts are appliqued and I'm making the 9 patches in groups of 4 so I can place a row at a time.
While I was quilting on Marshall's quilt, we also prepared for "junk day." Our garbage service requires us to buy special bags and everything we put out must fit in them. Between storing what we didn't want and couldn't throw out, and saving things we weren't sure we'd use again, our crawlspace was WAY too full. Jonathan is our project doer, he offered to bring everything out, a couple of things at a time, while I kept quilting. It worked out great, we got rid of LOTS of junk and Jonathan cleaned out the garage, too.

We had a lot going Memorial Day weekend, I had something every day from Friday through Monday, and that's a lot of activity for me (and for Ruthie.) I spent most of the week trying to feel normal again, I quilted a lot, caught up the laundry and all of Jonathan's organizing work make me even more anxious to go through some other things in the house (I've been slowly doing this.)

As the kids get older, it's becoming easier and easier to keep up, which makes me VERY happy. While the older kids will be very busy this summer, with jobs and social activites, so far it seems that it should be rather quiet for me. I plan to spend a lot of time quilting, hopefully a good part of it outside. So far it's been either too cold or too wet to do that.

While cleaning the garage, Jonathan came across this bike trailer and asked if he could try it out on his bike. I wasn't sure if Ruthie would let him pull her in it or not, but she liked the ride. They went around the block a couple of times and then headed to the park, but she'd had enough before they got there so he turned back. I suspect that I'll have a few quiet afternoons as he's offered to take Lucas and Ruthie to the park on occasion. She was all smiles after the first time around our block.

Ruthie tends to go off by herself when people are here, at least for a while. When our friends came on Memorial Day she went into the kitchen. My husband found her like this. She really can sleep anywhere!

I had planned to quilt by the firepit today, but it's cold, damp, and has rained so everything is still wet. I'm really hoping for a better day tomorrow, the Cubs play at night on ESPN, we don't have that channel, so it would be a perfect night to sit out and listen by the fire for a while. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

For now, it's time to get back to quilting before needing to start dinner. My husband is only home for dinner on the weekends, so I try to make a really nice one whenever possible. Today it's western style barbequed ribs with oven fried potatoes and a couple of vegetables.

Nothing more will get done if I don't scoot! I hope everyone has a warm and relaxing weekend :)Happy Quilting!

Sue