My Slow Sunday ~ How I Miss You!

Ever had a weekend with which you just weren't ready to say goodbye? I'm sure most of us have! 

The whole weekend wasn't enjoyable, but Sunday my home felt to me like a little slice of Heaven.

And here's what I was up to:

Snuggled for awhile with the kitties before getting dressed...

Spent some time leisurely browsing all my various, addictive social media outlets I typically rush through during the week...

Organized my recipes & began putting them into 3-ring binders with page protectors...

Took my girls to rent movies & they didn't bother to "get dressed" ~ lol!

 Periodically checked on my dear hubby, who's painting my sewing room for my upcoming birthday!

And watched this movie, The Goonies, while prepping & cutting fabric to make my penpals some bookmarks...

I'd spent some time earlier in the week cleaning up Montie's room a bit (it's through that door.) We'd put our entire 1st floor on either the 2nd or 3rd floors in advance of the flooding in Sept. if it was small enough to go up the stairs, and most of it has been brought back down except for my sewing room boxes. But while I straightened things & began sorting through boxes, I found things like luggage & an old dog crate that were used around flood time too. So I dragged a bunch of things to the 3rd floor for storage, and after having made more room, put the boxes of fabric that had been in the room shown below into Montie's room.

I feel like I can move in this large landing-not-quite-a-room!!

I was THRILLED to set up my full-sized iron! Small things thrill us simple folk, and after ironing for the last 6 months on a table-top ironing board, using the full-sized one feels like some sort of luxury! Ah... perspective is everything, eh?

For dinner I threw some cheese on top of left over spaghetti with meat sauce & called it Baked Spaghetti. Salad was left over from the previous night's dinner, and I reheated some rolls in the toaster oven. For those of you who remember, I don't like to cook and so having a decent meal that isn't bought out but that I didn't really have to do much preparation for is Heavenly for me!!

I ended the evening by starting the movie Act Ventura: Pet Detective with the girls, but we turned it off at 9pm when we realized Long Island Medium was on for the first time this season!

Then I happily crawled in bed around 10:30 with my latest great read, The Hunger Games. I HAVE to read it before we go see the movie!

Now onto Monday & all the fun a workday brings.

Happy End-of-March all!

Finishes, Friends & Fly-Fishing

This is the 2nd grid-work quilt for the same woman this week. It went well, but it was a little hard on my back! I know I'm close to needing bi-focals, and I'm not sure if they'd help with something like this, but I was bent over a bunch checking out the SID & other lines!!

The best way to describe this quilt would be "tapestry". The fabric was heavy & felt a bit like furniture fabric. I was sooo worried it'd break needles & whatnot, but instead it quilted up beautifully & gave me no troubles whatsoever.

TODAY: 

I attended a "sew-in" @ Stitch & Craft and had a fabulous time getting away from the household duties for a bit. This is just a tiny sampling of the delicious foods that showed up as part of our pot luck:

I always enjoy seeing the different projects all the ladies (and one teenager!) are working on, different ideas about mixing/matching colors, and brain-storming projects & techniques together.

As always, it went fast & I got less done than expected ~ lots of talking, laughing & eating were done though...

My hubby made these, not I... He's become interested in fly-fishing in the last couple years & has begun making his own flies~ I just thought they were cute & wanted to include them :)

Tonight I'm enjoying a night in with my kiddos & a friend watching Blades of Glory. I can't help but love this movie & laugh hilariously~ we have the entire Grublets On Ice dialogue memorized!

Sewing, Swimming, and School

We're winding up our summer this week. 

I meet this time of year always with a bi-polar personality. 

Half of me is eager to get back into a more structured day. Something about the urgency & business of the school year helps me to be more organized, more methodical & thereby more productive. 

But the other half of me resists this structure & wants to further enjoy these free-floating days.

And this year is even "more" as I send my younger daughter, now the youngest here, off to public high school on Monday. After being so wrapped up in my kids' schedules & homeschooling them, I'll find myself with time on my hands.

How many days & hours did I fantasize about "me time" back when they were all younger? And now the prospect of me time sounds, well... kinda lonely. But I'm very good at keeping busy! I have three client quilts to work on this upcoming week, amongst other various projects lined up that have been in my mind but on the back burner until I had more time. 

Then there are personal, career-oriented goals I haven't seriously thought about in years. 

And now I am.

In between school shopping & trying to get in last-summer swims, I've gotten a little sewing done as well.

Made a couple checkbook covers:

This sunflower checkbook cover matches the sunflower purse I just made!

And later I wanted to play with a new eyelet punch tool, so I made this very simple bookmark:

Has anybody used one of these? I ask because the front of the eyelet retained it's red color, but you can see the back of this eyelet rubbed off in the stamping process & has been left silver instead. I'm not sure if I squished it like a beast & thereby rubbed off the color in my quest to MAKE IT STAY?? Or if I have cheap eyelets? Or if this is just the way it is???

It's Friday. We're planning to take a bike ride & enjoy this weather today. 

Saturday through Sunday we'll have hurricane Irene come past & so we'll start honing in on the weather report to see how bad our chances are of getting more of the heavy rain which would cause the Susquehanna River to flood our town... my home. 

And Monday my daughter will start high school... on her 15th birthday. She's excited to see what high school is like but wishes she were able to sleep in on her birthday! 

Random Quilt Finishes

I've been finishing client quilts left & right, but I've also been winding up our homeschool year & dealing with numerous appointments, and just generally being hectic, that I haven't kept up with posting the finishes. 

So today's blog is short on words & long on eye candy 

(or pics for those of you who don't "dig" quilts)

Remember these are quilts pieced by clients & given to me to do the actual quilting part:

Flannel plaid blocks pieced by an unknown client through the quilt shop Stitch & Craft in Manheim, PA

Quilted with freehand Puzzle Piece pattern

Front

 Back 

(I almost like the quilting on the back better because it usually shows up more)

Victory Quilt pieced by Renee Thomas

Quilted with Freehand Leaves, Ferns, Butterflies

T-Shirt Memory Quilt pieced by an unknown client through Stitch & Craft

Quilted freehand Puzzle Piece pattern

 A couple shots of the blocks in closer detail...

The back is a pieced dark/light fleece. 

Not sure the name of this quilt pattern, but it was pieced by an unknown client through Stitch & Craft

Quilted with freehand Diagonal Water pattern

This is a $5 BOM pieced by the shop Stitch & Craft

Quilted with freehand Custom Quilting 

(meaning each block and/or sashing area is quilted according to it's individual pattern & piecing)

This is a "before" shot

Some of the sashing/border work

I tried to keep the writing & descriptions to a minimum. I hope I didn't cause eye-glazing to occur with so many pictures one after the other??

 Tomorrow I'm hosting a Sanity Saving Sewing day here at my house-- actually we're celebrating a dear friend's birthday, but it'll also help save my sanity :)

And I'm hoping to have another Christmas present or two finished....

Just the latest...

Thought I'd pop in & say hello! Has everyone got the TGIF feeling??

Me too! I got all my grading caught up, which means I can work on the report card Monday (imagine evil music & tittering in the background here.) 

And other than looking forward to having lunch with my BFF tomorrow, there's nothing on my calendar. I'm hoping this means I'll have some serious sewing time, but time will tell.

How often as Moms do we set out with one plan in mind, only to have our kids stomp them into the ground?? I really don't mean that to sound harsh. After all, I love it when my kids & their friends hang out here.

BUT they can shake things up a bit :) 

(Just this past week, in fact, we've unexpectedly made red velvet cupcakes, played 500 Rummy, watched Sixteen Candles, and taught a teen how to cross stitch-- How cool is that?!?!?!?)

Anyway, this is a client quilt I finished up & delivered this week. It's a memory quilt (for a daughter whose Dad passed away) made of t-shirt blocks & denim sashing.

I thought it turned out well. The client picked out this meandering heart pattern. My only trouble was some smooshing going on with the shirt fabric here & there. I had to pick a couple areas to avoid wrinkles in the quilting. Not sure why because they had interfacing? It's the first one I've quilted... I wonder if this is typical?

And I always like to show the backs. Sometimes it's easier to see the actual quilting this way.

Sew my agenda for the next couple days is: 

write

sew

work on a client table runner (which is code for SEW)

have lunch with BFF

and enjoy a slow Sunday with my peeps (my Day of Rest) eh hem.... MORE SEWING

Happy Weekend!