Lost in blogland

After work yesterday, I told the kids we were just going to go home and relax. Every day, there is something going on - swimming, karate, a movie, a birthday party - and I am pooped! Plus, I haven't even turned on my sewing machine in two weeks! The plan was to help Jason finish his quilt and put the last couple stitches into mine since the fair starts on Tuesday.

Entering something in the fair every year is important to me. I'm not at the point where I expect ribbons, and I doubt I will ever be, but getting objective feedback from someone who doesn't know me is useful. My friends are very nice and supportive, and I need that as a novice quilter, but I doubt they would point out all the flaws in my work. I need that, too, just in much smaller doses. So that is one reason I enter my quilts in the show at the county fair. The other reason is that I love going to quilt shows and seeing lots of quilts. I feel that I am setting an example by entering my quilts. I can't complain about a show with very few quilts if I'm not willing to enter mine, now can I? Also, I hope that by entering my amateurish attempts at quilting, others will feel emboldened enough to think to themselves, "now, I can do that!"

Anyway, last night, we got about half of the buttons tied onto Jason's quilt before I could see his interest flagging. It is hard for him to tie the thread (although if you put a Transformer into his hands, suddenly he is Mr. Nimble Fingers!), and as much as I itched to do it for him, I knew that would be wrong. So, we'll work on it some more tonight. While he was tying, between "I need some help here, Mom"s, I thought I'd catch up on what my friends have been doing in blogland. HOURS later, I finally stumbled off to bed without having even touched my quilt. My, you guys have been busy. And I kept seeing interesting names of other blogs on your "Blogs I Follow" lists that I just had to check out. And then there were all the links you guys added. STOP! How's a gal to get any quilting done!?! I think I'm caught up now, and as long as I never go away without internet access again, I might be able to avoid the Blogland Black Hole that I disappeared into last night.

I did decide to do a Celtic Knotwork Mystery - see Lynne's blog on my sidebar. I've never done a mystery before, I've been wanting to try a Celtic looking quilt, and this one uses scrappy 2 1/2" squares, of which I have two tins already pre-cut. I know I shouldn't be starting something new, but this will at least give me just one or two blocks to work on a week so that I am still using my machine while I am focusing on getting more hand quilting done.

Do fish have testosterone?

On the way home from vacation, we stopped at my in-laws where my boys became the proud new owners of 2 Betta Fish Kits. Their first words each morning since have been, "Are we getting fish today?" They are good boys - I couldn't say no. Off to the pet store we went. All you can get there are male Bettas. And they can't be put together or they will kill each other. Great. A husband, two sons, two tomcats, a male puppy, a father-in-law for half the year, and now killer fish. I need a little girl to balance out all the testosterone in my house. But look at the grins on my boys' faces. I am sure the fish will be worth it. (While previewing my post, I just noticed the title of the book laying sideways on the bookshelf. How appropriate! I'll have to check it out...)


It is hard to photograph fish. Here is Colorful, Jason's fish.


And here is Mr. Red Red, Donald's fish.


Would it be insensitive of me to grill tilapia for dinner? I guess it is chicken, AGAIN!

Squishy mail!

No matter where I go for vacation or whom I am with, I always love coming home. As much as I like adventure and change and new places/people/things, I am a homebody. Even when greeted with a horrendous smell of food gone bad and faced with the onerous task of cleaning out the fridge before bed after driving all day, I was thrilled to come back to my little piece of the world on Sunday night. But it was made even better when I checked the mail and found 3 squishy packages!

The first was the fabric I ordered from This-n-that Fabrics (Oh, how I hope I win the Singer Featherweight, but regardless, the prices couldn't be beat!). Then there was the ducky fabric from Trina to hopefully help me finish off that Rubber Ducky UFO. And finally, there were 2 6" purple fabric squares for a Purple Charm quilt QUILT TREE that a friend of mine sent me.

***Hey, does anyone want in on this QUILT TREE? It involves sending two 6" purple fabric squares to 7 quilters, 3 who will already be listed and 4 more of your choosing. Supoosedly, you'll end up with enough purple squares to make a quilt. Let me know and I'll pop some in the mail to you.***

I'm trying to maintain the momentum I gained exercising with my sister (have I mentioned yet how in awe of her I am? I am gasping after running a mile, and she has run a MARATHON!!!). I went for a 2.8 mile run yesterday morning before work. Let's just say that it was much harder and much less fun running alone. Needless to say, I didn't quite run the whole way, but hey, walking works, right?

The County Fair and quilt show is next week. Jason and I need to get moving and get our quilts done. Nothing like a deadline to motivate me. Gotta get going. But I'll leave you with a photo from vacation, me and my boys (and the back of my sister's oldest son).

Quick vacation update

I love vacation! I have taken two naps in two days - unheard of! The kids and I had a great time exploring Yale once I had finished what I had to do for work. Here they are on the steps of the Yale Law School, armed with paper airplanes that they charmed out of the security guard.

By the time we were ready to take the train to Massachusetts, they were wiped out.

Staying with my sister and her family is always fun. We took a bike ride (8 of us). How neat to have kids who can begin to do for themselves.

I finished the binding on her quilt on the way here. I am still hand quilting it, though. I also read Shadows in the Night by Janet Babin. I hope she writes more - there wasn't as much quilting as I had hoped, but the story was fun.

Well, gotta run. Literally. My sister is a runner, so I get exercise when I am here. It takes all year to recover from visiting her.

On the road

We hit the road after work yesterday. We spent the night at my mother-in-laws last night. For those of you who followed my old blog, she is looking and feeling MUCH better. I'm so glad I prepared all this handwork to do on this trip. I've been working on securing the scrappy blue binding on the Crumb Cake Stand quilt for my sister, and I like how it is looking. I hope to have it done by the time we get to her house tomorrow afternoon.

Well, the road is calling! I'll check in again at a later stop.

I came to my senses

Yup, I was definitely biting off more than I can chew when I started dreaming about making a lampshade BEFORE I head out on vacation tomorrow. You know all those details that need to be dealt with before a vacation? They were really stressing me out last night. I was snapping at the kids (poor things!), going about my household and motherly duties as if I held a grudge. Finally, my husband, who deserves to be named a saint, told the kids I needed some alone time and took them into another room until bedtime, at which point he put them to bed. Meanwhile, I read. I mean, I have 3 million things to do, and what do I do, but sit there with a book. Are you ever so overwhelmed with a to-do that you can't even get started? That was me last night.

Finally, I said to myself, at least get ONE thing done. The sleeves for my niece's and nephew's quilts should be quick and easy, right?



As usually happens when I begin to sew, I found my groove. From there, I created a sleeve for my Guild challenge quilt from last year.



I sewed on the last binding edge for the quilt I am finishing up for a generous woman that I met in Atlanta this April. She had a quilt that needed just a bit more hand quilting and then binding, and for that she sent me all of her quilting notions, books and fabric since she wasn't going to quilt anymore (WHAT!?!) and wanted to free up space in her house.

I whipped up a scrappy blue binding for my sister's Crumb Cake Stand quilt and sewed it on, so all I have left to do on that quilt is finish the hand quilting and sew the other side of the binding down, all of which can be done by hand. I went to bed feeling pretty good about myself, although I am bleary eyed this morning because I was up until 1:30 AM! Tonight, I just need to was one more load of laundry (I got one done last night), pack for me and the kids, and get Jason's quilt done with him. Then, I can go on vacation with a lighthearted, self-satisfied step!

The quilter's version of cramming!

I leave for a week's vacation this Thursday after work. I'll be traveling first to Yale to attend a program for work, and then on to Amherst, Massachusetts to stay with my twin sister and her family. With all the preparation that goes into taking a trip, that means not much sewing is going to be happening in the next few days. Before I leave, though, I need to make sleeves for my niece's and nephew's baby quilts - my sister wants to hang them on their walls now that they are older. I also need to finish hand quilting her quilt and at least attach the binding and sleeve so I can finish it while I am up there visiting her. I also need to help Jason finish his quilt so that he can enter it in the County Fair. I had hoped to have several finishes done to enter in the fair myself, but I may just have to put my sister's quilt in. I sure am good at starting things - it is the finishes I struggle with.

But perhaps I can tackle just a little project before I go. The kids destroyed a lamp shade in their room. I'm not mad, it is just an opportunity for me to try something I've been wanting to try - making a fabric lamp shade! How about something like this?

(photo from Moda Bake Shop)
It seems quick and easy, especially since I already have so many strips cut. Plus, I could use those tiny bias tapes for the top and bottom edges, right? Hmmm... If I can make the time before Thursday (notice I said make, not FIND), I just may have to give this a try.

While on vacation, my goal is to finish taking apart my grandmother's quilt. I'll bring along a rotary cutter, 6" ruler and my mini foldaway Omnigrid to see if I can get everything ready for sewing it back together when I return.

(do you have one of these? If so, don't you love it!?!)