Not enough time

There just isn't enough time to do all that I want to do!  My sister and nephew are visiting for a few days before they drive my mom back up to New Hampshire.  I want to spend time with them.

The next session of the SEW Cool Afterschool Program starts soon, and I need to make class samples for all the projects.  The theme is "Picnic in the Park", and we'll be making a water bottle carrier, a sun hat, a placemat roll with cutlery pockets, and a picnic quilt.  Since the sun finally made an appearance, I made the sun hat sample first.  It's reversible - denim on one side, quilting cotton on the other.

I want to finish the Ohio Star challenge for our quilt guild.  We have to make a small (114" in circumference or less) quilt that incorporates the Ohio Star block.  I've been wanting to play with selvages, and my idea was to spell out OHIO using Ohio Star blocks as the two Os.  I don't think it really works - maybe if I remove the brown borders from the H and the I.

Plus, I have so much knitting I want to get done - I'm not sure it was such a good idea learning to knit and crochet; I feel like I am pulled in so many creative directions now!  I spent an entire morning last week making a bunch of citrus blossoms and leaves to decorate a bar branch that I put in my shop window.

My mom did find time to finish her first quilt while here, an 80" x 80" denim and flannel rag quilt.  Isn't it lovely?  She did the whole thing, start to finish, in just 6 days!!!

Renaissance Family Day

I woke at 4:30 AM to take my sister and her family to the airport to go back home. :(

When I got back home at 7:45 AM, I went back to sleep until 11:00 AM. :)

When I finally got up, I played dominoes with the boys, and then forgave Jason for beating me so badly (little twerp! Shouldn't we parents get to win for at least a little while after we teach them a new game? It is hard on the ego to consistently lose to a 7 year old!) and agreed to help him work on his quilt for a while. He has been pestering me for some time now - he is hoping to get another ribbon at the fair this year - and after helping my sister all day yesterday, I couldn't really say "no" now, could I?

He already had the fabric picked out from before, so he ironed **Angela - do you see the placemat you sent me for Pay It Forward? I keep in on my cutting table when I am not cutting and I LOVE it - thanks!**


and I cut (see my new self-healing cutting mat I got for Xmas? It is so big it doesn't fit on my cutting table! I am absolutely thrilled, because my last mat is nearly shredded at this point),

and he sewed,

and sewed,

and sewed.

I couldn't be more proud! We need to buy more black flannel, but I think you can tell from the design wall what he is doing. One side of the quilt has hunting and fishing fabrics, and the other side has wild animal (African? Jungle?) prints. It's going to be pretty cool! And we decided that it will be the perfect size for a car blanket. (After all, I don't want him making this just for a ribbon at the fair, I want him to make it to be functional, too.) **Cheryl - do you see some of the fabrics you sent me in there? He snapped up the bits I didn't need for my buzzsaw quilt faster than you can say "please"!**

Once we did all we could do without the extra black flannel, we practiced our karate. Now he and Donald are watching BOLT while I catch up on blogs. Happy New Year, everyone! Mine has started out GREAT! I hope yours is, too!

A new quilting convert!

On Christmas Eve, I got water!

On Christmas Day, my husband and children came home!!

On Monday, my twin sister and her family came to stay with us!!!

As you can tell, life just keeps getting better. We've been having a good time playing with our four kids, running (OK, running isn't fun, but I feel virtuous for having done it), quilting (me) and knitting (my twin) while watching Season Seven of Gilmore Girls, and generally just hanging out. Today, I taught her how to make a flannel rag quilt. I am so impressed that she got it all done, save the seam snipping, which she is working on as I type.

She ironed,


she cut,



she sewed,

and voila!

A new convert!