Hunting Weekend....sort of. And a Challenge Update

My husband and two older sons are on their way to where they meet up with a few other guys for their 6 hour drive north.

Unfortunately, my husband isn't able to go with them and is dropping off our sons and coming home. He decided quite some time ago that going this year is probably not going to be possible (not enough money, nor enough people to cover his work while he's gone) and, though he's disappointed and I'm sure wishes he was going with them, he is excited about the list of projects he has in mind to do because, you see, though he is unable to make the trip, he took the usual days off his second job anyway. His last evening (he works second shift) was last night and he doesn't go back until the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Which means *I* don't get hunting weekend either. I think I'm taking it worse than he is, LOL.

Hunting weekend for me means as little cooking, dishes, and cleaning as possible, combined with as much sewing time as possible. It means stretching out in our big bed instead of being scrunched on one side (my husband is tall and restless when he sleeps) and it usually means staying up until all hours of the night sewing and watching movies.

This year, it means projects that my husband decided to do that he will inevitably need me to help out with, cooking regular meals, and not really getting a break. I told him that, while I'm really sorry for him that he can't go, I'm a little bit sorry for me, too. He told me I should sew as much as I want to :) So we'll see how the weekend goes. I'm glad to have him home more for the next week and a half, that's for sure, but launching into the holiday season without my little 5 day respite makes me sad.

BUT, I'm a cup half full kind of girl, the emotional adjustments have been made and I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time (except when he's frustrated when a project isn't going just as he planned *snort*) We're going out to breakfast tomorrow morning with Ruthie and Lucas so that should be a good start to our day.

Amvets is coming tomorrow so we cleaned out a bunch of closets and drawers. The big project of the weekend is redoing our closet. The organizer is falling apart (it's 25 years old) and he's basically pulling everything out, repairing or replacing what he needs to and then putting it all back together again. I actually went through a lot of my stuff already and hopefully by the end of the weekend we'll have a more functional closet (I've barely been using it for some time now.)

I did try to plan easy-ish meals which will buy me some quilting time and I don't sing this weekend which means no practice Saturday and not getting up extra early (I'm NOT a morning person) on Sunday.

As for quilting, Debbie's quilt is done. It's actually been done for a couple of weeks already and, though it wasn't really fun to work on, I do love how it came out. I'm thrilled to have all the big Christmas projects done before Thankgiving!

Here is a closeup of the quilting.

With Debbie's quilt done, the Flying Geese quilt is in the hoop. This one is really enjoyable to quilt on and I love how it's coming out. So far a single geese strip is quilted, as is a double and the connecting border strips. I'm on another double geese strip now. This one will go quite quickly, it seems.

Usually I plan a special project or two for hunting weekend, so decided to abandon quilting on the flying geese quilt for a few days and to focus on the posy and celtic quilt. I may spend a little time on other challenge quilts, too, but I don't multitask with my quilting as well as I used to and do better working on one thing for at least several days at a time.

After sewing some of the posies onto the border vine several weeks back, I decided to match up the rest to make sure I didn't end up stuck with too many of the same color at the end.

Here is the posy basket, holding all the matches, some of the leaves (there are still more to be cut), and the threads needed for sewing.

I've finished sewing on a posy set and now am on a set of leaves and hope to settle in after dinner for an evening of hand applique.

Here are Rachel and Ruthie, camped out watching a TV show. See the grin? She knows the camera is out, the little ham. She loves this little couch, and often settles on it later in the evening when she's getting tired. She also goes running to it whenever Say Yes to the Dress or So You Think You Can Dance are on the TV.

Ruthie turned 5 this past Monday. We had her family dinner on Sunday (though some of the family had previous plans, they gave her due attention on Monday) and we decided on ice cream instead of a birthday cake as she's not a big cake eater. At first she was hiding her face until we said we wanted a picture, then the smile came out.

All in all, life is good. Everyone is happy and healthy, we're headed into this holiday season much less stressed than the last couple of years and for that I'm very thankful!

And now it's time to run, my sewing is calling me and I need to take advantage of every minute I can find.

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Over the Tops - Moving Along

My intention was to update more often than I have been of late, but I've been so busy that it's been easy to put it off. Fortunately, even among the busy-ness, I've been able to spend some time on my challenge projects.

I'm also thrilled to have finished the purple paper pieced quilt, I put the last stitches into the binding yesterday afternoon.

Here is a closeup of some of the quilting.

With this one finished, my sister-in-law's quilt is next to quilt. I had to mark the blocks and border and then baste the quilt. The basting gave me fits this time. I try to be frugal with my batting and backing because scraps of each can be used for other projects. Sometimes that comes back to bite me as I get far enough to shift the quilt on my table only to find that either the batting or backing doesn't reach as far as I thought. This happened TWICE this time. I was NOT a happy camper, but knew that I really wanted to get it basted that night so kept at it. Of course, once I've finally got the basting done, I'm not happy until those first stitches go in. I've been quilting on it for a couple of days now.

It seems as if this one is going to go pretty quickly and I love the border design so am anxious to get to it.

Sometime in the next week or two I'll be marking the flying geese quilt, it will go into the hoop next. I'll also be having a few small Christmas gift projectsto do along the way, but I'm determined to keep a big project in a hoop as much as possible.

The challenge project that has gotten quite a bit of attention in the last few weeks is the posy and celtic quilt. I'm really, really happy with how this is coming out. Here are the last of the flowers and leaves to be added along with the yo-yo maker I've been using and the stack of fabrics that are being used for the yo-yos.

I'm anxious to get back to this one, but want to pace myself. I have a lot of hand quilting to do before the challenge is over and I don't want to end up with all the tops done and waiting for quilting. I'm enjoying this one so much that it's hard to put it down. Here you can see a bit of the vine border up against the sashing and a block.

I hope to spend quite a bit of time quilting this week and plan to get a good bit of Debbie's quilt done and I would like to also get a fair portion of the vine/leaf/posy part of the border done. I should also do something on another challenge project, I haven't decided which it will be, yet.

I came out of the kitchen one day to find Ruthie laying on her belly watching the TV downstairs, which is a half flight down.

She is talking more and more, which we are really loving. She still has a long way to go, but is making good progress. She'll be 5 next month but is very small for her age. Combined with the speech delay it's easy to forget how old she is, but she really is more like a little girl than a toddler these days. I think that's it for this update. I'm watching playoff baseball and quilting, but took a break to write this post. The current game is nearly over and there is another yet to come, I've stoked up on coffee so I can stay up late and sew and will enjoy sleeping in tomorrow. We're keeping our heat at about 60, so the house is chilly in the morning. It's so nice to be snuggled under a few quilts while I lazily wake up in the morning.

My family is pretty busy tomorrow, so I should have a lot of sewing time. I'm making one of our favorite meals for dinner, boiled spareribs with sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and rolls cooked on top of the boiling pot. They will all be outside for a good part of the day and this is a perfect cold weather meal. Thankfully it's also a rather low maintenance meal while cooking, so it should leave me plenty of down time.
Happy Quilting!
Sue

Musings, Updates, and Ruthie

I saw the movie "Julie & Julia" yesterday. My husband surprised me the night before, asking what was going on the next day. He often asks, to find out what's up with all of the kids for the weekend, but I could tell there was something different. When I finished the rundown of who would be where, I asked why. He said he wanted to take me to a movie. We haven't been to a movie together since "Sleepless in Seattle" came out. Generally, if we have the time and money to go out, we go out to dinner so we can talk, but he knew I really wanted to see this movie.

It will be on my Christmas list if it's out on video by then, I LOVED it. I also plan to get Julia's first book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." I love to cook nearly as much as I love to quilt and was completely mesmerized by some of the dishes made, and some of the exerpts read in the movie.

I was enthralled in the movie theater, I think perhaps because I see some of each Julie and Julia in myself.

Quilting is to me as cooking is to Julia. Julia tried several things before learning to cook, because she needed something to fill her time. I learned to knit at 10 years old, and have done some form or other of needlework since then. I knitted in study halls at school, at home in front of the TV, I added stamped cross stitch, needlepoint, crewel, and counted cross stitch to my repertoire as the years went on. I can remember bringing cross stitch projects to stitch during my break time at work.

Then one day, I got an advertisement in the mail for a quilting book. I was intrigued. I was intimidated. I WANTED that book. Eventually I bought a quilting book. Little by little, I read my way through, studying it, learning the steps, daring myself to try it. Pregnant with Rachel, baby number 3, I decided it was time to try. What better trial project than a baby quilt? I bought supplies, carefully made my templates, and spent afternoons hand sewing those attic window blocks with the fussy cut inset squares. I made a baby quilt and changing table pad, hand pieced and hand quilted, in just 3 weeks. I WAS HOOKED and I was off and running. Much like Julia was with her cooking.

Julie, on the other hand, was trying to find her way. She took on a big project, something to keep her busy, something to focus on, and something to finish. She was obssessed.

I understand that obssession. I feel that way often because quilting is so much more to me than just making a blanket. Along with being a creative outlet, time spent quilting is also spent praying, meditating on God, and thinking through problems. I reminisce and daydream, plot and plan, all the while the machine humming while I piece, or the needle gently gliding in and out while hand quilting or appliquing. It brings me peace and it's such a gift.

I'm planning a "Julie" project. I haven't decided what it is, yet. Maybe it will be multiple things, a list of techniques I want to try, and projects I want to finish, a list that hold me accountable for the rambling "someday" things that run through my mind.

In the meantime, I've got quite a few projects in the works!

Debbie's quilt remains on my design board.The main reason is that I got on a roll with the purple paper pieced quilt and decided I wanted to finish it before moving on. Often in the past, I've needed to set aside quilts to take on deadline projects, or have put projects aside because they were tedious to work on, only to have them sit for a very long time before getting picked up again. I'm attempting to break that habit.

I've also learned how to play mind games with myself to make less enjoyable parts of things more palatable. I decided to quilt all the purple blocks first, because those were more difficult. I had two different motifs in the alternating blocks, and one of those was much easier than the other.

The little heart wreath is adorable, but there is LOTS of turning the hoop involved. I decided all these needed to be finished first. I then moved onto the other motif and those worked up quite quickly. I'm now doing the white border (also being quilted in purple thread) and it won't be long at all now until this quilt is finished. Though I really wanted to finish it before moving on, in the back of my mind I was pretty sure it would get set aside yet again. The fact that I've plowed through the most difficult part and now find myself just a week or so away from finishing this has given my motivation a big push. I've been more diligent about using my time wisely, and hope that I'm setting myself up for good habits come fall.

I also spent some time on the triangle paper project.

I still have quite a few sheets of triangle paper left to find fabric for, and I may work on this some tomorrow. The 1/2 square triangle units in the box are all sewn together and waiting for pressing, which will be done a few at a time. Quite a few of these will be made into Pinwheel blocks, the rest are left as 1/2 square triangle units.

Soon to be in the forefront is the posies and celtic quilt. I spent a couple of days last week making more bias tape for the outer border.

I still haven't decided for sure what will go into that outer border. I'm pretty sure there will be a vine, leaves and posies. I might also need to do a smaller braid type thing between the blocks and the vine border to finish it out properly since there is so much applique in the sashing. I plan to concentrate on this more as soon as the purple quilt is finished.

I'm pretty sure I've decided on a project for the fabric I got for my birthday, and it might be part of my Julie project. While typing this post, I already thought of a few things I'd LOVE to finish as part of this challenge. I guess part of the challenge will be naming it!

And now for Miss Ruthie. She's been in rare form of late. Because of her limited vocabulary, it's easy to forget how much she really understands. She still catches us off guard sometimes when she answers questions. Today, Rachel was asking her a bunch of questions, all to which she said "no." Rachel asked if no was her favorite word and Ruthie paused and looked at her and said "Yes!" Rachel was quite amused, "most little kids would say 'no' again!" she said.

She was playing in the kitchen one day and called me to take her picture.

She had some rearranging to do.

She then smiled big and said "picture" in her own inimitable way.
I can't get away with pretending anymore, she demands to see the picture in the back of the camera once it's taken.

She likes to dress up. She will often find a hat, then find me and ask for a picture. Really, though, who wouldn't want to capture this for posterity?

Or this? This is her current "shopping" getup, she'll put on shoes, the hat, and the purse and push her little cart around the house. The other day, she stopped, reached into the purse, pretended to put something in her mouth, grinned and said "gum!"
And now, believe it or not, my update is finished. I hope to post more often now that we're starting our school work and, in general, things are less busy here. In the meantime, I'll be thinking about the currently nameless self challenge and what it will entail.

Until then,

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Summer is Winding Down

Our first day of school is the day after Labor Day. Our local schools start today, but we home school so can pick our start date. We enjoy these last couple of weeks of summer very much and this year it's much cooler than usual for the middle/end of August and that is just adding to the pleasure of these days.

I have even surprised myself with how much quilting/sewing I've done this summer. Usually I'm more than ready for Fall to arrive so I can ramp up the quilting, and in spite of what I've accomplished, I actually could do more if the computer didn't call my name so often.

The table runner went far faster than I thought possible and the quilting and binding were finished just 3 days after I started.

The completed table runner gave me a boost to finish the last of the blocks for Debbie's quilt. I assembled this one as each row was finished as there is applique where the blocks connect and that would be easier without so much bulk. I'm looking forward to beginning the quilting on this one. I plan to mark it in the next couple of days and baste in the next week or so. We had a few warm and muggy days, today isn't so warm but is very damp because of rain, so hand quilting isn't appealing today. It's to be in the lower 70s by the end of the week, though, which is very cool for this time of year here, so if the basting isn't done the purple paper pieced quilt may get some more attention. Here is Debbie's top.

I trimmed down the triangle paper I printed off so I may ready and sew a few pieces of that to get the next scrap quilt started. I also need to mark and trim the blocks for the next strip pieced quilt, which is good muggy weather work.

I couldn't resist this pose. Sometimes Ruthie will ham it up for the camera, other times I try to catch something she's doing and she'll move before I can get it. She got passed down a bunch of princess dress up, she loves it. Yesterday she spent most of the day running around in this dress. Princess Ruthie had finally worn herself out. Hopefully my next post will find Debbie's quilt well under way and a couple of new projects under way as well. Remember this one? I LOVE this top and came across it straightening up the growing pile of quilts in my sewing room. I've promised myself I'd finish the purple paper pieced top before moving onto the flying geese top, I'm hoping that will be the incentive I need to forge ahead with the purple one. I love it, but the blocks are tedious to quilt and it's sucking the fun out of it some. I know that I'll be very glad to have it finished, so it stays out where I can see it. I'm going to try to quilt at least a block a day on it (not a huge feat, the blocks are only 6 inches) and hopefully quilting one will lead to another. If not, one a day will eventually get it done!

I've also pulled out the Posies and Celtic top. I finished sewing one side of all the sashing pieces down some time ago, that's the most tedious part because it's where the placement and trimming of pieces happens, so now I just have to sew down the second side of it all. I spent a good part of the last couple of days doing that and am now getting to where there isn't much left. The big problem is I still haven't figured out what to do with the outer border. I haven't even sewn it on, yet, because I didn't want to limit what I could do there. I want to put another celtic design but decided using the same green as the sashing would be way too much green. I had hoped to find a floral that incorporated a similar green and at least a few of the other colors, but so far no luck.

I have a book of celtic borders and I figure if I peruse it enough, and keep checking out my stash that something might come to me. This one will have a huge amount of quilting on it, it's being quilted like the table toppers I made last year and will also have all the celtic that needs to be quilted around. I'm looking forward to this one, but know it will probably be a long term quilting project as it will be quite tedious to do.

In the meantime, it can't be quilted until it's done, and nothing will get done with me sitting here! So off I go, to sew down some celtic, pin a few triangle paper fabrics for sewing and to do a bit of quilting on the purple quilt. My inlaws are here for the day tomorrow, so a bit of straightening needs to be done as well. That will happen later in the day as, with all the coming and going here, anything done this early will surely be undone by later!

Happy quilting!

Sue

Lucas' Day and, of course, Some Quilting

Lucas turned 9 yesterday. He's been looking forward to his birthday for weeks now, as he knew he would ge to go to his favorite Chinese buffet for lunch and choose his dinner. He likes to eat! My husband was able to take the evening off, so once he finished his morning work, we headed out for lunch, just the 3 of us.

After lunch, we took him shopping for his gifts. This became the birthday tradition for the girls a while ago because they usually wanted clothing and it was more practical, and more fun, to take them out and let them pick what they want and try it on so they weren't disappointed with ill-fitting clothing.

Lucas had a few specific things in mind, so off we went. He had money from us, some from his grandma and some that he had saved from his allowance. His brothers and sisters gave him the PS2 memory card that he wanted and he was able to find the video game, the board game, and the nerf gun he wanted.

He had enough left to get a small wall mount CD player for his room, and an inexpensive CD. He thought he'd be saving for a long time for that, so was quite happy with his treasures as we arrived back home.

His chosen dinner was deep fried calzones. I got a deep fryer a couple of Christmases ago and it's the hit of all the kids' friends. Last fall, Rachel's boyfriend wanted to try making calzones in it and they came out great. Shortly after that, Lucas decided that he'd found his birthday dinner choice.

They are a LOT of work! Only a couple at a time fit in the fryer, thankfully Rachel's boyfriend manned the fryer while I made the calzones and we were able to keep it moving pretty well, but couldn't really all sit together and eat. No matter, though, they had fun playing video games while eating with occasional ambushes from the nerf gun and a good time was had by all. Rebekah and her boyfriend found a couple of video games for him as well, so he has a lot to keep him occupied on gloomy days.

His "cake" choice was an ice cream cake. When the kids were small, they liked the boxed cakes because they could pick the cake flavor and icing flavor quite easily, but several years ago now we started making all different things for birthday desserts. Trifles are one of the favorites, and we've done cheesecake, various homebaked cakes, giant frosted cookies and a myriad of other things as birthday cakes.

This is the second time that Lucas has chosen ice cream cake. The bottom layer is crushed chocolate filled chocolate sandwich cookies, then vanilla ice cream with chocolate swirl, followed by a drizzle of both caramel and chocolate syrup, a layer of whipped topping, and another drizzle of caramel and chocolate sauces. It really looked good! And tasted even better.

What a busy day it was! Rachel's boyfriend left at about 11 and everyone went to bed but me. I settled down in my quiet house for a while to just relax.

After a jam packed day of activity here yesterday, today is remarkably quiet. Joshua left a while ago to help out with "Family Faith Night." It's a yearly event here tied to our city's Fiesta Days where they get a Christian artist to come perform in the park for a reasonable entry fee. There is a lot of set up and tear down work, done mostly by volunteers from local churches. He won't likely be home until it's all over, late tonight.

Rachel is babysitting all day and into the evening, and Rebekah is working and then going with her boyfriend, it's his birthday today, to his parents' house for their second birthday dinner in two days. Rachel's boyfriend had promised Lucas they would roam the small woods near his house and make dinner in the woods. Jonathan and a couple of other guys were going as well. They've already left and are going food shopping, then preparing what they need to for their forage in the woods and will cap their day by cooking chili over a fire. Lucas has been looking forward to this for weeks.

I don't expect any of them back until later this evening, which leaves me and Ruthie here alone for the moment. My husband is out working but should be home soon. I'll spend my day mostly sewing, I hope, and taking my time with dinner (chicken wings) and kitchen clean up.

Emma's quilt is moving along, I'm on block 24 of 80 (6 inch blocks.) I will spend a good part of my day working on it.

I've also started the next block of Debbie's quilt, and will alternate hand quilting and applique as time and motivation allow. Ruthie is hanging out in my sewing room with me. My husband will probably spend some time out in the yard and I'm sure she'll take that chance to go outside. For now, she's happy in the big chair, with her newly painted pink toes, playing with whatever odds and ends happen to be within her reach.

Sundays tend to be quiet here as well, the kids usually have activities planned for after church, though there is a bit of coming and going and friends popping in to meet up with them, which is fun, too.

Of course, since I started writing, things have already changed a bit, Joshua is back and will probably be here all afternoon, though that could change if one of his friend's shows up. What that means is my nice quiet quilting and Cubs game afternoon has gone out the window as my husband, who just got home, and Joshua will chatter through the whole thing! They'll be happy, and that's what important, and I can always sit in another room :)

For now, I'm going to sign off and get to my quilting. I should be able to get a lot done today. With several new project waiting for me, and the hope of quilting the flying geese this year after all, I'm feeling pretty motivated to get these Christmas quilts done as soon as possible!

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Some Quilting and Some Ruthie

Our cooler-than-normal-for-northeastern-Illinois summer has been GREAT for quilting. There have been very few days that are too warm to hand quilt, and on those I was able to applique.

This week, I finished Katie's quilt. Simple and warm, I hope that she likes it and it keeps her cozy through their Montana winter.

Here is a picture of the border, the design is more easily seen since since I haven't washed out the marking, yet. I've been really enjoying these all over type designs in my borders lately. As much as I love fancy motifs, these all over ones fill the space and frame out the quilt nicely.

I now have 3 rows of Debbie's assembled, with 8 more blocks (2 more rows) to make. This one made me nervous at first, I wasn't sure of the colors but I'm really happy with how it's coming out, so far. It's a pretty simple design and I'm trying to decide how to quilt it. I think that I'll be outlining the applique (as I do on all of my applique) and then freehanding stippling in the spaces.

Just minutes after putting the last stitch in the binding of Katie's quilt, I was clearing my table to baste Emma's. Thinking ahead, I pieced the back of hers when I sewed the binding to the front of Katie's quilt so as soon as the binding was done I could begin the basting process. Emma's is now in the hoop and progressing nicely.

If I continue at this pace, I could be just about done with my Christmas quilting by the time we hit Labor Day, which would be thrilling! With other projects waiting in the wings, the thought of finishing early and working on other projects, projects that can be put aside to do various other small Christmas gifts, is almost hard for me to comprehend as I usually spend from September or October through December working like a madwoman to finish for Christmas.

Waiting for "time" are several projects. One is the shade and cornice box cover for my sewing room window. The blocks are finished and need to be assembled. I may assemble and baste the cornice box cover soon as I have scraps of batting that should be just the right size.

Also waiting are two new paper foundation projects. One is a strip quilt for the couch by the sewing room window, this one has two different sized strips and more background for nice quilting spaces. The blocks are also a bit smaller. These are printed and ready for me, I need to draw on the sewing lines and trim them before I begin. I also need to cut up some more scraps. I have a lot of various light background scraps that are hard to use up, so I should be able to use up quite a bit of that as well.

The other paper foundation project is being made with triangle paper. This one has 3 different sizes of half square triangles and will be another great scrap quilt. One nice thing about these quilts is I can sew for as little or long a time as I feel like on my machine and make some progress. While our weather has been wonderful, I imagine a hot spell will come at some point and machine sewing is a really good activity for hot weather. I can sit still with a fan blowing on me and still be productive!

There is also the shade for our bedroom, that for sure will be waiting until after the holidays, it will take quite a bit of concentration and planning and winter will be a great time for that.

Of course, there is also the posy and celtic quilt, which has been calling me of late. I still have to sew down the second side of some of the appliqued braid. I'm also searching for just the right fabric to make a celtic design in the outer border, and am hoping to find one that incorporates most, if not all, of the colors in the quilt.

There are not really enough hours in the day to do all I want to do. I've often said I wish that I didn't have to sleep, but my family did because that would mean many uninterrupted hours every night!

And now for Ruthie. She is doing just great. Her language skills and vocabulary seem to be improving daily. She used to be more quiet when other people were around, but has gotten more used to some of the kids' friends and will engage them by showing them her toys or one of her new skills. Here she is with Lucas, who will be 9 tomorrow, on the swing in our backyard. Unfortunately, poor Lucas has the same trouble with brightness as I do, and all the pictures I took of him out with Ruthie that day he has the same scrunched up face.Here she is eating ice cream. She LOVES ice cream and we have to make sure she's finished her meal before we mention the word or she's DONE and ready for ice cream!

Ruthie has been wearing this scarf around her neck quite often these days, it makes me hot to just look at her. This day, she wanted Jonathan to put it on her like a hat.

When I know she's tired, settling her in on my little couch will usually mean she'll sleep pretty quickly. She will often ask for a "pilolow" and a "banket."

And finally, whenever Rebekah is cutting anyone's hair, Ruthie wants hers done, too. Usually we trim bangs or a bit off of the back, but last time I told Rebekah she could do whatever she wanted and to think about it. It was getting quite long and really needed something, whether just some taken off the bottom, or a "style." Here is what she did.

She had about 7 inches cut off of it, I nearly cried! I love the ponytails and will miss them, but this cut sure is cute on her. It's stacked a bit in the back and the bit of curl is because Rebekah curled Rachel's hair that day, so she had to have some curls, too. I'm hoping she'll start to let me use a blow dryer and curling iron on her occasionally.

That same day, we took her to Olive Garden with a gift card we'd gotten a few months ago. The other kids were all busy, so she got to go on a date with us. She was the hit of the wait staff, the cheese girl especially was just enamored with her. When our dinner came, she came back to ask if we wanted cheese on our entrees. I hadn't even put food on Ruthie's plate, yet, but the girl asked her if she wanted cheese and she smiled really big and said "yes!" and the girl happily obliged, making a little pile of grated cheese on her plate.

All in all, it's been a busy summer, but mostly the kind of busy I enjoy. Keeping it all together here, with lots of time for quilting. I hope that you all are having the same!

Happy Quilting!

Sue

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