What I've Celebrated, Sewn & Read This Week

Our week started off with a "bang" when on Monday my younger daughter both celebrated her 15th birthday AND had her first day of high school. 

(I think I caught her mid-blink?)

Some important asides here-- I met my husband when I was 15, and let me tell you, having her this age is kinda blowing my mind! I went through these shocked feelings when my older daughter hit 15, so I'm surprised to feel them so strongly again. 

I mean, really, WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?!?! I look at her & realize how young we were!! NO WONDER OUR PARENTS WERE FREAKING OUT!!!!

Anyway, the other aside here is that my dear daughter has spent the last three years as a homeschooler. So we're severely out of practice with getting up so early in the morning! 

She's holding her own though & is loving school thus far. 

I'm NOT loving the early morning wake-up but do find I rather like being up that early. It just doesn't come naturally to me. I'm amazed at how much I've gotten done & realize it's "only" 10am. 

The side-effects of being up earlier are that I 1) tend to work longer & be on my feet longer, thus my body has actually been in pain a few days after being on my feet for the better part of 13 hours, and 2) since I'm up longer, my body seems to think it needs to eat more (grrrrr).

One day I face-planted on my desk, literally fell asleep in that contorted position & was startled awake when my hubby walked in the front door. 

Alright, change of topics from What I Celebrated to What I've Sewn:

 Show & Tell

A chocolate-themed tote bag with a zipper. This is for the car waits-  I have such difficulty just sitting & waiting. I have to bring something to work on or to read when sequestered in a car & waiting on a child... 

 ... and the zipper ensures that when I go careening around corners, all my stuff doesn't go flying all over the car.

I've been working on this Halloween square table topper for a couple weeks here & there.  And it's quilted with GLOW IN THE DARK thread! How cool is that?? I'm going to list it on etsy & see what happens.

 Here's a back shot, which as is so typical, shows the quilting off a bit better.

A smallish Halloween table runner...

 Again, a back shot shows the quilting.

Finally, I thought I'd share what I've read this week: "Echoes of Lies" by Jo Bannister:

While not the best book I've ever read, I did find it entertaining. The story kept me engaged & wanting to read more.

Brodie is a woman who "finds things" for a living. When the man she "finds" for her client ends up brutalized, she becomes enmeshed in his story. Obligatory feelings lead to a true friendship which stands the tests of threats, violence, & tragedy. 

Now I'm onto "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. This one's been on my to-read list for some time, but being a cheap, avid reader kept me from buying it full price. I've been scouring Bookmooch & Paperback Swap faithfully to no avail. I've waited patiently for Barnes & Nobles to send me a 50% coupon for naught. And I'd even searched at Borders since they're having their going-out-of-business sales, but NO GO. With the movie out, my search became almost frantic. My girls want to go see it. I want to go see it. BUT I'm neurotic about reading the book before seeing the movie, and so I caved & bought the dang thing full price. Ugh, I still haven't recovered from that failure!!

I hope you all have a fantastic, long weekend! 

Labor Day Shopping Spree

I'm so lucky to have two terrific friends whom love to shop & sew & eat & blab with me! They are both from the next town over, but I'm in Quilt-shop Heaven, Lancaster County, PA. They both headed out my way on Labor Day to do some bargain shopping. Fabric + shopping + good friends + FOOD + a gorgeous weather day = a terrific fun-filled friend day :-) 

The fabric I was most looking for was something having to do with Toy Story. I've been looking high & low for several months to no avail. I could've ordered it online, but truth be told, I'm a fabric fondler -- I like to feel & see it "up close & personal" before I decide if it can come home. I finally found it (rather some kindly quilter woman found it when she overheard us lamenting about not finding it.... we quilters are so nosey & eavesdrop all the time, don't we?? But usually, no one cares either! Cause we all know we're nosey!) at Zook's Dry Goods. We have tons of Amish and/or Mennonite shops out here, and this is one of them. If you ever go, there's a shop next door that sells pretzels & homemade lemonade --YUM. 

Anyway, back to the Toy Story fabric. I want to make a snuggle blanket for a little boy whom I've never met, but who's very special to my heart. He's gearing up for his first back surgery to correct scoliosis. His mom & I are friends online because they're from Australia. Her little boy has Marfan Syndrome. My little boy had Marfan Syndrome. She has two little girls, and I have two girls. My little boy had also had this spinal surgery..... 7 times. I know I've written about Montie before... but just in case you're reading for the first time, Montie passed away March 19, 2009 due to complications associated with Marfan Syndrome. He'd received numerous snuggle blankets during his 13 surgical stays & during other illness related stays. For some reason kids really respond to a cuddly blanket when they're hurting. At some age, they realize, too, that someone's heart & time went into making it -someone who didn't even know them! That's how much they're loved. I've made a handful of these kinds of blankets for donation to  Project Linus and Quilts for Kids . 

Now to come up with a pattern!

I also grabbed some Christmas fabrics and .....

Halloween fabrics (I've got two mini quilt
tops done for my mini frame Zlaty!)

Stan Stan the Hairy Man -- Stanley the cat likes to curl up in my sewing room now that the weather has been cooler at night. I put him up here on my table so Smokey the spastic black lab puppy wouldn't try to chew on him.

I have lots of things I'm either in the process of making or gearing up to make. I'm going to try taking some of my wares to a couple craft shows this November, get my website up & running (it's out there, just with no content!), and set up an etsy account.

Stay tuned to see what I've been sew busy doing!