My Wonderful Weekend

I had a BIG birthday this past weekend. As the birthday maker in our house, I had decided to tell my family what I wanted for the BIG birthday was to not cook or do dishes on the day.

They had better plans than that :) About 10 days prior, my husband told me that I'd have two days off for my birthday. So Saturday and Sunday, I didn't have to cook, clean or do dishes. He took me to lunch Saturday and then to the mall to walk around for a while. He knew that I couldn't just sit while my family cleaned around me. Their plan, he told me, was to have the cleaning done and the food prep done before we got back (he was doing the grilling when we returned.)

What he didn't tell me was our good friends and their family would be here when we got back, for dinner and to spend the evening. This is what my friend brought me for my birthday. I was very excited, it's been a long time since I had all new fabric to work from for a quilt. There is a yard and a half each of the colors, 5 yards of muslin. The batting is 81" x 96". My plan is to buy a yard and a half of pink and purple to add to them, and I should then be able to make two quilt tops. The first is planned, I hope to do a block in the next couple of days to show. This one will be hand pieced...and take a long time in all likelihood.

I have a friend who calls me her adopted daughter and she will often give me money for Christmas and my birthday. My daughters decided that since I take them shopping for new clothes and out to lunch for their birthdays that this time they would take me. I got all those nice clothes at Christmas time, but my summer wardrobe was just as sad as my winter one was before. The girls told their brothers and my dh about their idea and they also chipped in what they would have spent on a gift. My mother in law also sent me money for my birthday so we pooled it all and hit the stores.

I was a little discouraged at first, finding things that really didn't look all that good on me. I had an idea what I wanted, and really needed to concentrate on "bottoms." Tops are easy to pick up here and there and easy to fit, not so much so for the bottom half.

We got on a roll, though, and this is what I came home with today. The skirt on the right is a blue/black denim.

The skirt on the right in this one is denim, also. I love wearing skirts and dresses, the denim ones are for when I'm out and about doing errands, practices, etc. They can also be dressed up a bit with nice shoes and a nicer top for Sunday wear.
Next up are the shirts, there are 4 of them along with 2 camis, one cream, one brown. I have a black one and will start to collect other colors, along with some solid color tops to make all of this more usable. These are both florals (obviously) the one on the right has long sleeves and the background color is brown. It will actually work for all seasons since it's light enough for a cool summer night, yet with a shirt under will be cute as well.
The shirt on the left is a bit gauzy and more casual. I loved this one on and was a little disappointed that the only other color of this one was out of my size. The shirt on the right is a little more dressy, with the rhinestone pin on a ruffly thing on the front, the outer layer being a floral sheer fabric.
Next up are a dress and jacket. The jacket is black and when buttoned fits really nicely. The dress is brown and cream, and is really comfortable.
Next we hit the shoe store. I have a few pair of black shoes, and a couple of pair of brown that are good for winter, but not so much for summer. I just had to have the yellow shoes, they will go great with the skirt with yellow in it or pretty much whenever I want to add a pop of color to my outfit. The brown sandals are for every day wear and the peep toe brown wedges ( they look black in the picture) for when I want to dress up the every day look a bit. They also go with the dress.
Lastly the accessories. The yellow blouse that I really liked to go with the yellow skirt was too big, so we didn't get it. I'm going to wear a black cami and the jacket for now and keep an eye out for something yellow to wear instead. Rachel decided I needed something else with yellow and she was thrilled to find the necklace and earring set. Since the jewelry was buy one, get one half off, I also got a set of bangles. I love bangle bracelets, but they usually won't fit over my hands. I've always had broad hands with short fingers. These fit nicely and I was so excited to find them!
Everything but the denim skirts were on sale, so I was able to get much more than I dared hope to get.

Of course, good Old Murphy, how dare we have a good day without having something bad happen. My husband had to stop quickly with our van and a piece of equipment fell forward and broke the gear shift. He had his wits about him enough to not get himself in a position where he had to back up since he couldn't shift at all.

I work hard to be a cup half full kind of gal so I'm focusing on the good and trying not to cry over spilled milk. While we certainly didn't need that expense right now, it is what it is.

In spite of my busy last few days, I did get a bit of sewing done. I now have 4 blocks together on my sister in law's quilt. I plan to applique a bit more tonight.

It is a lovely, cool evening here, so I'm going to do some more sewing tonight. Tomorrow the high is only 69 here, which is rare for the end of June. I'm going to take full advantage since my house is still clean from the weekend. I'll be doing some laundry, but other than that I hope to mostly quilt. It will be cool enough to hand quilt, so I may spend a good part of my day on that. I also hope to get the first block of the new quilt going since the Christmas quilts are moving along so well.

And lastly, Ruthie.

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Time Flies When You're Having (mostly) Fun....or How I Spent My Last 3 Weeks

I've gotten a lot done in the past few weeks. I've been hunkering down and trying to work my way through some things, I have a BIG birthday coming and it's brought up feelings for me that I didn't expect. What better way to work through some emotional baggage than with busy fingers! So I've been working like a madwoman and am really excited about how much I've gotten done.

Arnie's quilt is done. I'm thrilled with how it came out, it's bound and ready to be sent in early December.

Here is a closeup of the quilting.

Katie's quilt is in the hoop and I've begun the quilting. The last several days have been warm and humid here, so not good for a quilt in the lap. I avoid the a/c whenever possible because of the expense, so I've been working on applique these last few days. The a/c is on today, though, and I'll hand quilt some of today and tomorrow while I'm holed up inside, hiding from the heat and humidity. Emma's top is done, too. I'm really pleased with this one. I'll be basting it in the next couple of weeks so it's ready to go when Katie's is done.If you look closely, you can see little fingers holding the right side of the top, Miss Ruthie had to help, too, then had to have her own turn holding it up for me to take a picture.
Peek!
Debbie's is well under way. All of the applique is prepared, the background pieces are cut and I've appliqued one block and am on the second. This one has posies appliqued on the corners where the blocks meet, so there will be more to do as I begin to assemble the blocks, which I plan to do as soon as a few of them are finished.
Along the way, I've come up with a couple more projects as well. I printed out paper for another strip quilt, one to go on the little couch in my sewing room, and this time the blocks will be smaller to make better use of some of the scraps, and for variety. It was hard to get a good picture of these, but you can see the sewing lines. To each side of center will be a 3/4 inch strip and outside each of those will be a 1/2 inch strip. The triangles will be background fabric and where they meet will leave a nice space for quilting.I also have a couple of scrap quilt ideas floating around my head and hopefully those will make it to paper soon. In spite of having things that need to be done, it's nice to take a break from them to work on something else for a day or two.

With the Christmas quilting well under way, it's possible that as many as 3 of the 4 quilts could be finished by fall. That leads me back to wanting to get the roman shades made, so piecing the finished strip blocks will begin soon as well. While typing this, I realized that while fabric searching for other quilts, I found a piece that I'm pretty sure is big enough for the roman shade for our bedroom (this one is appliqued and I didn't want there to be any seams, which are more visible with the window light behind it) so that may get a start sooner than I expected as well. Below is the pattern piece, at the end of each calyx will be a 3 dimensional rosebud. There will also be a vine with these same elements going around the sides and bottom of the heart shape and across the cornice box so it is a complete picture when all put together.

I've done a bit of applique so far today, and am babysitting for a few hours this afternoon. While Ruthie and her little buddy are occupied, I might get a bit more done, but with keeping them occupied and a few quick chores, I don't expect to get much more done before dinner time. After, though, it will be time for putting up my feet and doing some more applique or some hand quilting on Katie's quilt. It's nice in here right now with the a/c on, so as long as I don't get overheated with chores, dinner, and dishes, it might just be cool enough in here to quilt.

Keep Cool and Happy Quilting!

Sue

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

Prolific Production

I've had an unbelievable couple of weeks since I last posted. All 5 of the quilts that need to be done this year are under way. The most pressing is Marshall's, his is in the hoop and the quilting has a nice start on it. I need to have this done by the 23rd and am feeling pretty confident that I can do this.

While I was piecing Marshall's quilt, I was also piecing Katie's quilt. I used the same pattern for these two quilts, it worked up really quickly and was quite a lot of fun. I may do a scrap version with smaller pieces sometime as triangle paper makes these projects so easy for me.

I continued to ready applique pieces for Debbie's quilt, and just this weekend decided on a pattern for Emma, which also has some applique. Hers will be an Irish Chain, with hearts appliqued in the spaces. I have the applique pieces for both quilts in a storage box and I'm in the process of basting down seam allowance. Tomorrow I plan to cut the background fabric for both so I can begin the applique. This is perfect "take outside and watch Ruthie" work, she loves to be out and this allows me to get something done while supervising her outside.

Today we had a fire in our firepit, and I basted some pieces while sitting out there. Also on the agenda tomorrow is cleaning off our porch, so I can sit there and sew when she's playing out front.

Friday night was Prom night and Rachel and Marshall went to his. Rachel wanted to have her hair highlighted, but wanted it to be a surprise so we stayed up late Thursday night and did it after Youth Group. Friday, Rebekah switched her work hours so she could do Rachel's hair, along with 2 of her friends.

Here is the front view:

And the side view:

Here they are, ready for their big night:

While Rachel and Marshall had their big night out, I had a big night, too. I had planned a sewing night with a friend. We've been trying to do this 2 or 3 times per year and I love the "sew till we drop" aspect of it as it's almost like a mini retreat to me. She had a conference that day, so we weren't able to start until 5:00, but we picked up Chinese for dinner and then dove into our planned projects for the evening. Our "usual" is quitting around 2:00am. We've done it twice, so far, and each time I came home and put on another movie and sewed a while longer.

With the kids out at prom and due home around 2am, I knew we'd make it until then. As it turns out, we were still pretty wide awake when they arrived so we kept on going. My husband had to get up really early for work that day, imagine his surprise to see us still going at it at 4:00. My friend finished up her projects (she made two baby quilt tops that night) and I took her home (she lives only a few blocks away.) I walked in the front door, turned off the lights, walked upstairs, quickly changed and climbed into bed about a minute after hitting the front door. I looked at my clock, it was 6:45.

My project wasn't quite finished, so after a few hours of sleep I got up and got back to it. By mid-afternoon, Arnie's quilt top was done, too.

When I cut for tops, I nearly always cut and make the binding, too, so the fabric doesn't get misplaced or accidentally used for something else. Since 3 of the 5 quilt tops are done, and I hadn't yet made the binding, I did all of them yesterday afternoon along with planning out Emma's top.

Ruthie continues to be a joy. She had her first big day outside today in a while. We've been out for short amounts of time before now, but it's been either too wet or too cold to be out much. We had a fire in the firepit, she played ball, sat on her lawn swing, played on the swingset and generally just enjoyed the nice day. She's doing very well with potty training, staying dry all day on most days now and rarely needing to be reminded.

Her speech continues to improve by leaps and bounds, with both her vocabulary and her enunciation improving daily, it seems. In spite of her delays, she's very much a 4 year old and can be quite entertaining. While she's grown so much since last year, she's still quite small. We sometimes forget that until we see her with other children. Here she is, sitting in a plastic basket.

Several times a week, we find her sleeping somewhere. She'll be awake one minute and sound asleep the next, though the little stinker actually pretended to be asleep on the floor last night. No pretending here, though, she was OUT.

Hopefully I'll be out soon, too. It's getting late and since I got motivated to do this post and some needed paperwork, both of which were on tomorrow's agenda, my day will now be wide open for quilting. With any luck, I'll make a serious dent in Marshall's quilt by midweek.

Happy Quilting!

Sue

I Admit It....

I've been stalling, or at least uninspired. I have 5 quilts that have to be done this year as gifts, and several more that I'd like to see at least started.

I picked patterns for a few of them, made templates for one, printed triangle paper for two more, but still, they sat. My desire to finish the ring quilt, and my lack of enthusiasm for the new projects, prevented me from starting them, and distractions have made the last border of the ring quilt take a lot longer than I'd have liked.

BUT...it's done. Finally. And with the finishing of it Saturday night came a very welcome surge of energy for the new projects. The quilt is so big, I don't have anywhere in my house big enough to get far enough away to photograph the whole thing...and it's too wet to take pictures outside. Here is a stretched out view, such as it is.

Below is a view of the border motifs.

And here it is draped over my little couch by the window.
I spent my free time on Sunday pinning fabric to triangle paper for part of Marshall's quilt (I'm hoping to buy at least one more of the needed fabrics this week) and for one of my nieces' quilts. The pattern I said was Emma's quilt has changed as I didn't have enough of the background fabric I pulled for the whole thing. As I chose new fabrics, the new choices seemed to fit Katie more, so it has become hers and I have to choose a new pattern for Emma.

The triangle paper is pinned for Katie's quilt, and I've cut the larger 1/2 square triangles and pinned them together.

I had a nice stack of sewing waiting by machine this morning.

As Rachel and I decided to watch a movie after her Bible study, I really didn't want to start the machine work yesterday because I couldn't to it and watch the movie at the same time. Instead, I got the freezer paper templates all marked for Debbie's quilt (my sister-in-law) and I cut that out while we watched the movie. These are the stems and leaves that are cut from freezer paper, the green fabric is what they will be made of.

When my husband has to go to bed earlier than I can fall asleep, I make a late night out of it if I'm able. Last night, after watching "No Reservations" with Rachel, Lucas, and Ruthie, both Lucas and Rachel went to bed, but Miss Ruth was still raring to go. We settled in to watch "27 Dresses" and about midway I looked over to see this...

On today's agenda is the stack of sewing by my machine, then cutting apart the triangle paper pieces and maybe even pressing them and pinning them for the next step.

The quilt that weighs heaviest on my mind at the moment is Marshall's as I'd really like to have it finished by his party, which is on May 23rd. I'm hoping to get both the red and the border fabrics on Thursday, the batting next week and be basting the weekend of the first. That will give me 3 weeks to quilt it.

Once that one is done, I can breathe easier as the other 4 are all for Christmas. While I'd still like to work my way through them and be done by the end of September, only time will tell if that is a realistic goal.

I also really want to spend some time on the posy and celtic as I'd love to be basting that on hunting weekend, which is the weekend before Thanksgiving. I still have to secure the second side of several sections of the applique and need to get fabric to make more bias for the border design. It may be hard to find the combination of colors I'd like to see in one fabric, so that's an unknown at the moment.

Ruthie came downstairs a little while ago in this getup, she was in Rachel's room and got into some of her accessories.

While waiting for pictures to load, I've been able to get some of the sewing done, so the pieces for Marshall's quilt are sewn now. We have sports fever in our house these days, with both the Bulls and Blackhawks in the playoffs in addition to our baseball addiction. Tonight will be spent in some combination of machine sewing, unpinning, perhaps repinning, pressing fabric to freezer paper and cutting for yo-yos while watching first the Bulls, then the Blackhawks both go for wins in their games.

Time to get to it!

Happy Quilting,

Sue

What Have I Done!

I will be quilting my fingers off this year. While the list is daunting, even for me, I'm really excited about it and feel really challenged.

The bad news is that the flying geese quilt will not be the next in the hoop. I'm disappointed about that, but with the addition of a graduation quilt to my list, the money for batting for the geese quilt needs to go towards fabric for Marshall's graduation quilt. Marshall is Rachel's boyfriend, they've been dating for nearly a year now and he has given her a beautiful emerald promise ring. He's very likely going to school only about an hour or so away, which will make weekend visits possible and I'm sure they'll be on the phone for at least a few minutes each day. It dawned on me just the other day that we will be invited to his graduation party. We really can't afford to give cash for a gift but a quilt for his dorm room should fit the bill. Rachel talked to his mom on the sly to make sure they didn't already have a plan for his bedding and I was given the go ahead. It is now about 2 months until the graduation and I don't even have the fabric, nor can I get it for a couple of weeks. It's an easy pattern, though, so still doable (except it will have to be set aside when he's here, LOL) and if all else fails I can wrap it undone and take it back to finish as he won't be needing it until August.

This pattern will actually be made twice this year, once for Marshall, in red, black and white and once for my niece, in mauve, peach, and aqua with a small print background. I have triangle paper printed for both quilts and plan to cut fabric for Emma's today. I was able to pull from my stash, so hers will be started first, though the piecing on this one will be set aside if it's not finished before getting fabric for Marshall's.

While thinking of the strip block shade for my sewing room, I decided to go ahead and print foundation blocks for the quilt to go on the couch by the window. I made the blocks a little smaller for this one to make better use of the scraps and it will take 256 blocks to make the size I want. This will most definitely be an "I need a break day" project or something to work on if I'm at an impasse on everything else...which isn't too likely. I can't help but keep one of these in progress, it helps to keep my scraps under control and allows me some mindless busy work if I need it.

This is the pattern piece for the shade for our bedroom. This, unfortunately, will be a back burner project. I was really hoping to have it done by the end of this year, that will depend very much on how everything else goes. If some of these projects that need to be done go more quickly than I anticipate, then there still might be time. With warmer weather coming and Ruthie loving the outdoors, that will eat into my sewing time, though I've thought about bringing my machine out to the picnic table, and of course I can hand quilt outside if it's not too hot or windy. This pattern was a pain to enlarge, I don't draw well freehand at all, so I used our business copier and enlarged it in small bits and then pieced it together like a puzzle. It was a challenge, but actually quite fun to do. At the end of each calyx is a folded 3D rosebud. I'm really looking forward to this one, and am still trying to figure out what to do for the cornice cover.

Here's the recap of work for this year.

Have to do:

Marshall's quilt, which I really hope will be done by the end of May

Brother in law's quilt, for Christmas

Sister in law's quilt, for Christmas

Quilts for 2 nieces, also for Christmas

Want to do:

Roman shade for sewing room

Roman shade for our bedroom

Cornice covers for both shades

Finish applique sashing and border on posy and celtic quilt

My tentative plan for hunting weekend this year is basting several quilts. The posy and celtic if it's ready, the flying geese quilt and at least 2 more tops in my pile.

Today, something very unusual is happening. For about 2 hours, I will be alone in my house. My husband is taking Lucas and Ruthie to a movie (Ruthie's first time to a movie theater), Rebekah is working and the other kids are at a youth conference. I plan to pop some popcorn, put on a movie and quilt the whole time they are gone.

I'm finally on the borders of this one. The one inch border just got a quilting line 1/4" from each side. The floral border has hearts in it, I'm just about to turn the corner and then one side of those is left. The outer border has the flower/leaf unit from the ring blocks and the flower worked into a feather motif going around the quilt. I can't wait to get to that outer border, which is being quilted in pink thread and as each is finished I know that I'm that much closer to being done with this quilt! The binding is made and waiting and my machine is set up and ready to go.

Speaking of my machine, I've switched for a while to the Featherweight, for a few reasons. One is that I was pretty discouraged when the reverse lever BROKE OFF of my regular machine. I don't use it very often as I mostly piece quilts with it, but it made me sad nonetheless. Another is that I have more bobbins for my Featherweight than for my White and the bobbins actually hold more thread. With all of the sewing I have to do this year, having to stop fewer times to change bobbins or thread them all up again will be nice. The fact that it's a smaller machine is also nice as I can sew and still chat with the kids, my husband, or friends without feeling like I'm hidden behind my machine. It also makes the table look less crowded so I don't mind it sitting there when not in use and it's really nice to be able to sit and sew a few seams if I find myself with unexpected spare minutes.

Ruthie's hair is nearly always in a pony tail, but last Sunday I left it down and curled it with a curling iron. It was adorable and she looked so much older in her tiny little body! Potty training is going well, she still has accidents but overall I'm very pleased with how well she's doing. We've graduated to pullups at night and when out, so no more diapers!
And here she is with the ever present ponytail. Her speech is also improving immensely, she's adding new words all the time and the "old words" are becoming clearer. She is walking faster and beginning to run, can walk (rather than scoot) down the stairs, and is taking in everything around her. I'm so glad the other kids are such good examples for her, because she mimics so much of what she sees.

I'm really hoping to have the hearts done before my moviegoers leave so I can spend the time they are gone working on that outer border. I'd better scoot! Have a great day and
Happy Quilting!
Sue

Long Time, No "See!"

It's been busy here! Not really anything particularly different or interesting, just the "usual" busy-ness of a household of 8 with a quilting Mom. I had hoped that by the time I posted again the ring quilt would be done, but when I laid it out and saw how much there really was to do, I knew that was unlikely. It's getting there, though, I have 11 blocks left to quilt (of 64) and the borders to do. My plan earlier in the week was to be on the borders by the time the kids left for the campout tomorrow noon, that won't happen. Now I'm hoping to be on borders by Friday night and binding by next weekend.

Since I last posted, Jonathan has had a birthday, he turned 15. Birthdays in our house are pretty nicely spaced overall. Our oldest two have birthdays only 11 days apart, but the rest of us are spaced 6-8 weeks apart, all year long. Birthdays tend to run several days in our house as my husband works evenings. The big birthday dinner always happens on the weekend, when he is home. The kids get to choose what they want for dinner and dessert for the family dinner and now also get to choose the meal on the actual day, if it's during the week. Now that they are bigger, most of them opt for shopping and lunch out for their birthdays, rather than us trying to pick out something they'd like. Jonathan wanted tools and camping equipment, so my husband took him to shop and then they picked me up and the 3 of us had lunch out. His birthday dinner was lasagna with homemade rolls, his choice nearly every year, and a trifle for dessert. We eat our big meal soon after church on Sundays, so the trifle was served at supper time, along with a variety of snacks.This is the next set of strip blocks. They were going to be "just" a throw quilt, but once I decided the roman shade for my sewing room would be made of them, I shifted the plan. I thought I'd be using some of the blocks for the shade, and could add a few more to make a matching throw for the couch by the window...but boy did I figure wrong! I actually had to make an extra 28 blocks to have enough for just the shade and cornice cover. The throw will have to wait, though I enjoy these blocks so much that I'm sure very soon another set will be in the works. I still have a lot of strips left, and more scraps to be cut. This project will be on hold for a bit while I get the Christmas quilts going.

Also still in progress is the posy and celtic quilt. This one is my takealong right now as it fits nicely in a bag with the few supplies needed to work on it. The braid pieces are all on, though many of them are only sewn down on one side. The finishing part is really easy since no pinning or thinking are involved, which make it the perfect "keeping my hands" busy project right now. I'm still trying to figure out the border, I don't have enough braid bias left to use that, which was the plan. I'm going to poke around and find something that incorporates most or all of the colors in the quilt, or see if I can get more of the green.

Next up in the hoop is the flying geese quilt. I'll be getting the batting for that with my groceries tomorrow and when my fingers need a break from hand quilting I'll be marking and basting this one.

The Christmas quilts will also be started along the way here. I have triangle paper printed for one niece's quilt, I have to practice with my curved piecing quilt for the other. For my sister-in-law's quilt I need to ready some applique and pull fabric, this will be the project to work on when Ruthie wants to be outside. I probably will need to buy fabric for my brother-in-law's quilt, so that one will be waiting a bit. When I have this many projects in the works, I keep a list of the next thing to do on each one, so I don't have to try to figure it out every time I switch projects. I think I'll make that list today, it really helps me stay on task.

Here is Lucas on Crazy Day at Awanas. He wanted to wear the clothing they wore for the Awana Games the weekend before and we put this gold gluey stuff in his hair to spike it. The ribbon is the first place medal his team won at the games, he was so excited!

And Ruthie! She is doing so well and is so proud! Potty training is well under way and most days she is staying dry. I think we're going to try pullups this week for nighttime and when out. She says new words every day and often is answering questions with words we didn't even know she knew yet. She loves to be outside, though the weather hasn't been too cooperative, yet. She eats well, sleeps well, and we're falling into quite a lovely routine.

So I guess that's it for now, if I'm going to get my big list of things to do actually finished today, I need to get a move on!

Happy Quilting!

Sue