Just had to share

Yesterday, I spent nearly an hour in a doctor's office waiting room. I got a little bit of hand quilting done on a project I've been working on for myself (yes, for myself!). I thank goodness for handwork to keep my mind occupied during times like those. I'll show a photo once I'm done, but I wanted to share this article with you from the Wall Street Journal about truckers taking up quilting and knitting during the down time between loads while on the road. It's great, and if you can, I encourage you to watch the video embedded in the article.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704896104575139990857438962.html

Quilt Guild Auction Finds

Here's my take from last Saturday's auction at my quilt guild meeting:


1) a sewing machine for Jason and Donald to share! It seems they always want to sew when I am sewing, and while I want to encourage them to sew, I don't really want to share! This will help solve that problem! Now, two of us can sew at the same time. You should have seen their faces when I brought it home - definitely a Kodak moment (of course, I didn't have my camera ready)

2) Lots of fabric! First 10 1 yard cuts of various quilt shop quality fabric, including a Jinny Beyer:

Then lots of plaid scraps and yardage - I've done two plaid projects in the past month, so I'm excited to replenish that which I have just used.

Some random scraps up to about 1 yard pieces:

Plus lots of pre-cut squares from 2" up to 4.5". Those went straight into my scrap tins. (no photo)

3) Some books

the one I really wanted was the one on the left - there are two quilts in there that I absolutely love - this one, that I am not nearly brave enough to try to make, (sorry for the lousy photos)

and this one, which I definitely plan to make, but am trying to hold off until I finish some other projects.

4) A whole slew of orphan blocks! I can't wait to put these all together into a free-for-all type quilt, much like V at BumbleBeans made, probably for charity, but possibly to keep.

While at the auction, I kept my hands busy quilting so that I wouldn't bid on absolutely everything. I finished this frayed edge quilt, and threw it in the washer when I got home.

I love the way it frayed. I dried it on my new clothesline, and it smells absolutely lovely. I just wish it were bigger so I could snuggle up in it!

I've washed all my new fabric and dried it all on the clothesline. I hope to get a chance to use some of it this week.

I've got lots of good reasons (excuses)...

I've got lots of good reasons (excuses) for not blogging last week.

Mon - Karate after work, then grocery shopping since I had just gotten back from vacation and the cupboard was BARE!

Tue - I had to work until 9:30 PM - enough said! Ugh!

Wed - Two karate classes back to back after work - we test for our blue belts this weekend!

Thu - Our renters moved out of our rental property sometime last month without bothering to tell us (or pay the rent, or clean up after themselves, or even completely move out!). On Thursday, we borrowed a friend's truck and spent two hours lugging out all the CRAP they left - 3 trips to the dump, one to the food pantry and one to Goodwill. The place was a sty! There was food left on the stove, coffee in the coffeepot, clothes in the washer, you name it. I swear it looked like they went out for groceries and never came back! Anyway, it was gross, but also a bit fun as a family project. I gave the kids disinfectant wipes and the Swiffer Wet Mop and told them they could clean anything they wanted. They are still young enough to think that is fun...

Fri - Opening night of the drive-in movie! I volunteered at the booth where they sell glow stuff and t-shirts and stuff, so I had to be there 2 hours before the movie started. They played The Blindside (loved it!) and It's Complicated (we left because I wasn't sure it would be appropriate for the kiddos).

Sat - Our quilt guid had its annual auction where members bring in unwanted quilt related items, and we auction them off to ourselves. We raised over $1000, and I came home with some great finds. There will be photos in my next post, so stay tuned. Then, that afternoon, we had a Bike Rodeo for cub scouts. Again, lots of fun - although the cop who ran the event wanted to know where Donald learned to drive (his bike) in that kamikaze way - he seemed to think it was a learned behavior, and gave me an assessing look. Nope, not me; I am a sedate driver - that must come from his daddy!

Sun - I have been wanting a clothesline for a long time, and on Sunday my hubby went out for the materials, and our family project was setting it up. I LOVE IT! I had forgotten how good line-dried clothes smell! I did four loads of laundry, and spent the time in between loads on the porch reading and sipping sun tea and enjoying the view.

So, I haven't been blogging, but I have gotten a tiny bit of quilting done - again, photos will come in a subsequent post. I've also been reading. I read two books in a cozy mystery series that I had never heard of before, and it is fast becoming a favorite. I finished the first two books,

On What Grounds and Through The Grinder in the Coffeehouse Mystery Series by Cleo Coyle. There are eight books total, and I guarantee I'll be reading the next six.

Tonight there is karate, and then cub scouts, but I hope to also post some photos of my auction finds. If I say it, I will do it (or so I tell myself).

April Shower

Last week's vacation ended with a surprise baby shower for my younger sister in Philadelphia. What fun! Here I am with my mom and sisters. Doesn't my sister look glamorous? I don't know how she does it, when I was pregnant I swear I looked haggard at all times.


Here she is again with her growing belly and her growing family.


The food was delicious and the games were fun, but my favorite was the presents. I love giving! The Bright Ideas quilt I've been working on forever was for her new baby - I could just never say it in case she was reading my blog.


And my twin sister is a knitter. Isn't this sweater, hat and mitten set just adorable? I wish I could fit into them.

As you can see, my sister had the same thought!

And here are some random photos from vacation, the horse and buggies that shared the road with us,

the teams working the fields,

a potting table that I want to make for myself.

So, after all that fun, I was dreading coming back to work, but guess what! We got free 15-minute massages at work today! Life is good!

Having a ball!

I'm having a great time with my twin sister here in Lancaster County, PA. This morning before breakfast, I sat on the B & B porch quilting, and saw Amish in their buggies and Mennonite on their bicycles cruise by on their way to Good Friday church service. After breakfast, we hopped in the car and went EVERYWHERE! Obie's Country Store, packed to the rafters with quilts and fabric,

the Goodville Fabric Outlet (Fabric and Outlet in the same title - you KNOW it is good!), Smucker's Quilts (both traditional and contemporary designs), the town of Intercourse with all it's touristy goodness, including the People's Place Quilt Museum

and my favorite quilt in the museum, Plaid Posies,

and finally the town of Lititz, where we found a consignment shop and bought lots of fun clothes.

Here are my quilt-y purchases - yardage of 3 different fabrics, some Jumbo Ric Rac, and a Lisa Boyer book:

I also couldn't resist these horse and buggy socks:

Tomorrow, we're off to Bird In Hand. Better get to bed - my feet are killing me from all the walking we did today.

Cutting a quilt and cutting a rug

My husband took off late last week for a few days of R & R at the beach. The kids and I were invited, but we're going on vacation in just a few days ourselves, and it isn't a good time for me to miss work and the kids to miss school. Which means that I had some lonely hours to fill in the evening after the kids went to bed. Thank goodness I'm a quilter!

I finished the hand quilting that I wanted to do in all of the inner borders of the Bright Ideas quilt. Now just two more outer borders that I want to tweak, and then it is DONE. Really, I'm going to put it down and move on.

Lately, I've been intrigued by quilts with some texture and dimension on the front. Remember this experiment?

Well, once washed, the flowers frayed as I had hoped, but now they look puny, and I don't like it, so I'm going to take them off. Oh well, I'll just applique some flowers on and give up on the frayed edge look.

However, a friend of mine lent me some books, one of them being Frayed Edge Fun. There was a quilt in there that caught my eye.

(For some reason, I've really been moved to use my plaids lately.)

I have plenty of large tops to quilt and eventually throw on the beds, so I thought I'd make something baby-sized. After all, I have a ton of juvenile fabric that needs using up. I tweaked the pattern quite a bit and got to cutting, and here's what I've come up with (just cut out, not sewn together yet).

Hopefully I can sew it all together today, then pop it in the wash tonight (I am so much more motivated to do laundry if there is a quilt or some new fabric mixed in there) and see how it turns out.

Then, last night was the annual "Fancy Dress Ball" at the University where I work. Jason has gone with me the last two years, Donald joined us last year. They have been waiting for this day all year! So, we dressed up, and went out to cut a rug.

Now, my children love to dance. I knew this already. They crank up their Michael Jackson or Jason Aldean and have dance parties in their room nearly every night - it sounds like elephants are trying to crash through the ceiling. What I didn't know was that they are GOOD! They have MOVES! I'm almost ashamed to dance near them because I look so stodgy next to them. Photographers stopped to take their pictures. Women flocked to them and asked them to dance. Men gathered around them and cheered them on.

Jason can do a cartwheel and end in a full split on the ground. (That was QUITE the crowd pleaser!) He can also do that breakdance move where you kinda crabwalk around your hands on the ground in a circle, really fast. Both of them have great spin moves, and both of them have rhythm. I had SO MUCH FUN!

Oh, and to make the wonderful day even better, my husband surprised us by coming home a day early. He missed us. I sure do love my family!

My son, the artist

Yesterday evening found me downstairs sewing a couple more rows of my Ribbon quilt together, and Jason upstairs clipping some seams on his rag quilt. I can't wait until he's done and we can wash it and see how it ultimately turns out. I'm so proud of him.

Then, after dinner, we went to the art show at his school. Apparently, he is not just creative with fabric, but with paints as well - he won a 3rd prize ribbon for some beautiful spring wildflowers that he painted. Can't wait for those wildflowers to actually bloom in real life - I am ready!