My life = work

There is no time for anything except work right now. Please quilt a little for me. Right now, I am keeping myself going with this gift from Em - thanks, Em!

Weekend fun

Finally, some time to relax! (Well, for the most part - we had a leak in a pipe for which we had to place an emergency call to a plumber because it was flooding our NEW, FINISHED basement, but I'm only focusing on the positive in this post.)

My mom arrived on Friday evening. We had a lovely candlelit dinner, and then watched Rosemary and Thyme while the kids watched a Mickey Mouse movie downstairs. We went to bed relatively early so we could get up and go to the auction first thing. What fun! We were there from 8:45 AM until 5 PM with a short break to meet the kids at karate to take a class and eat some pizza. Then, the kids came back to the auction with us. While we were in the gym buying things we didn't need, the kids had a ball playing on the playground in the sun. Since they were so good, I had to buy something for them.

Here they are with their new (old) Lincoln Logs, which they have combined with their 2009 version so they can build even bigger buildings. They played with them for hours when we got home yesterday, and are up there playing with them now as I type. Some toys are classics that hold generations spellbound.

I also bought some furniture for my quilting studio. I wanted somewhere for visitors (kids) to sit if they wanted to be with me while I'm down there creating, plus a place for me to sit and read, or hand quilt, or dream up new quilts or even nap when my creative activity wears me out. This little set fit the bill nicely, cheap and cheerful.

I have been wanting a wrought iron cafe set for my porch, but they are so danged expensive. This little set was a steal!

I have a twin bed that needs a frame. I thought this little wooden frame was too good to pass up. It turns out, it wasn't - the side rails that came with it must have come from a different bed because they don't fit. I've put it aside for now, but I'm determined to find a way to make them work.

Last year I bought a ceramic salt box to collect my counter-top compost. When I saw this enamel one this year, I had to have it, even though I have no purpose in mind. What do you suppose I could do with it? Any ideas?

Finally, my mother's birthday was this week, so my hope was to buy something for her at auction. She has everything she needs, so it had to be something whimsical or decorative. Unfortunately, her tastes are expensive, and everything she wanted, all the antique dealers with deep pockets also wanted. They won out on most stuff, but I did hang in there long enough to score this cute little frog and wheelbarrow for one of her flowerbeds. (Ignore the auction stickers on his nose and in his wheelbarrow)

I felt a little bad about it, because the person I was bidding against was my neighbor/babysitter's grandmother, but I was running out of options for what my mother actually wanted.

Anyway, it was a fun day, but also tiring, so after dinner and bathtime, I sat with the kids to watch Eddie Murphy's latest family movie, Imagine That, with them. It was cute, but I recognized myself in there a few times when he would only half-listen to his kid or tell her to go play when he was busy working. Gotta be vigilant about not taking my time with them for granted!

Today, I napped, I cleaned, and Jason and I prepared for his lesson that he is teaching tomorrow for his cub scout den - how to tie your own tie. I have a whole bag of discarded ties that were given to me for quilting that I haven't dismantled yet, so first he taught me how to tie a tie (actually not that hard once you know how to do it!), and then we made an illustrated handout for him to give to his cub scout colleagues after tomorrow's lesson. I'm so proud of him! Of course, Donald was not interested in learning how to tie a tie, but rather spent the time intimidating us with his best Hulk impression.

Never a dull moment in the Hutchinson household!

Reasons to smile

I'm afraid I don't have any quilty news to share. My life has been consumed by my job lately - I have 184 high school seniors coming to campus for a 3 day scholarship competition next week from all over the country & beyond (AK, Costa Rica and France included!) and the coordination of this effort has eaten up every spare moment. I haven't even been able to go to karate!

Without quilting and without karate and without getting to spend much time with my family, it can sometimes seem like I have no reason to smile. But I do! First, when I heard the kids' alarm clock this morning, I gave them the usual 10 minutes or so of waking up time, and then went up to make sure they were getting dressed. Not only were they getting dressed, they were getting dressed up - just because!

I love my kids!

And then, there's this big, fun auction this Saturday. My mom and I went last year and had a ball, and actually came home with quite a haul.

I invited her to come with me this year, and not only is she coming, but she's coming tonight for a sleepover, too!

I love my mom!

So, even on the days when I don't love my JOB, there are plenty of other things in my life for me to love. Have a happy Friday, everyone, and hopefully, I'll have something quilty to post by the time the weekend is over.

Productivity strikes!

I've been in a bit of a lazy rut lately, not getting much sewing done. Instead, my few waking hours at home have found me with a book in hand and tea by my side, sometimes reading, sometimes dozing. I guess, when your body has reached its limit, it just shuts itself down. My mind, unfortunately, was not on board with this relax and rejuvenate plan, so I've been feeling guilty about not getting anything done.

The good news is, I am over the hump! My husband's team lost on Friday night, and after going to work on Saturday morning, and then to my son's basketball game, I came home and spent the afternoon in bed reading and napping and snacking and generally just being a bum. But Sunday was a whole different story. I woke up on a mission, and had our taxes filed before 9 AM, and all the bathrooms cleaned before 11. I did dishes, two loads of laundry, swept the entire first floor, put another row of stitches in the border of my Bright Idea quilt while watching another episode of Rosemary and Thyme, helped my sons clean/purge their room while preparing two boxes for Goodwill and one for the dump, and finally, I got my Strips and Scrap-plique top together.

(ignore the dirty window and dying plant - I told you I've been lazy lately!)

I am trying for a frayed, dimensional look to the flowers and leaves and vine, so I sewed them all down roughly (very roughly!) one quarter inch in, and am now in the process of snipping the edges of applique pieces (think rag quilt) before I throw it in the wash to see what happens. If it works the way I want, great! I'll sandwich it and hand quilt it. If it doesn't work, I'll pull the applique off and try something else, but that probably means it will get relegated to the dark recesses of my closet for a time while I get over my disappointment and frustration. Let's hope it frays up the way I want.

All the naps and reading were nice while they lasted, but I'm glad to have my energy back, if for no reason other than to keep up with these two (last weekend they made sock puppets - fun, fun, fun!).

Alive and kicking!

I'm still here, life has just gotten in the way of quilting and blogging. I am buried in work



and I'm cheering on my husband's basketball team, which is playing in the conference tournament tonight in a rematch of last year's championship game.



Hopefully, I'll be watching basketball all weekend as they win tonight, then tomorrow night, and finally the championship game on Sunday. But I sure do miss my quilting time...


Sew a little extra for me, will ya?

Life is getting back to normal

First of all, there is SUN! The kids are out playing on the swings - there's nothing better than looking out your window and seeing your kids outside having fun!

Jason and I spent some time earlier this week making valentines for his class (I know we were late, but they didn't have school for two and a half weeks because of snow!). He didn't want to make cards, so we made 1" square valentine cubes out of construction paper and tape, each with a Hershey's kiss inside. That was fun, and a geometry lesson to boot.



Today, I finally got some patches sewn onto Jason's and my karate uniforms. As much as I like to sew quilts, I abhor sewing on patches. Wouldn't you know that our two main activities, karate and cub scouts, have tons of patches!


And while I've made some progress on my Strips and Scrap-plique quilt, I'm not ready for photos. I'm trying a new technique that will require laundering before I know if it works or not. Hopefully it will, and I can take a photo later this weekend.

I did find the time to make a House Block for Bumble Beans's project. It took me forever because I am lousy at following directions and spent quite a bit of time unsewing. I finally tweaked the pattern a bit - I hope you don't mind, V.

And look, I put myself in the block!



Now I'm off to visit an old quilting friend who moved away and then to watch my hunband's team kick some Eastern Mennonite University butt! Enjoy your day!

Sewing to unwind

Last night, I disappeared into my sewing studio to create. I was wound up from a fantastic, yet frustrating, basketball game, and just needed to unwind. I have plenty of ongoing projects to work on, but there was black thread in the machine and I was in the mood to do something new and unstructured, so i just started sewing strips together and cutting out freehand flowers and leaves.

Here's the quilt I had in mind as inspiration:

I don't know whose quilt this is - I must have seen it online somewhere and saved it for inspiration. If it is yours, please let me know, so I can give credit where credit is due. If it is yours and you want me to remove it from my blog, please let me know and I will gladly. I think it is wonderful, though, don't you?

Anyway, this picture is saved on my laptop, which I had left at work, so I didn't have the photo to use as a guide last night, just my faulty memory. Here's what I came up with: (note that nothing is sewn together besides the strips; everything is just laid on top of a folded piece of fabric on the floor)

I finally left it there last night and went to bed to read for a while. Today, of course, I am exhausted from only getting 5 hours of sleep, but I'm curious to see how I feel about it when I get home tonight. What do you think - is it worth pursuing? I think I like the three columns of strips like the inspiration quilt, how about you? What about the flowers - I couldn't remember how the original was made, which is why I made them the way I did, but then I was at a loss as to how to place the leaves. Also, I was thinking that the applique and the scrappy columns would not go from end to end, but they do in the inspiration quilt. Which do you prefer?

If I follow through and make this into a quilt, I'm thinking of calling it "Stripes and Scrap-plique".