Despondency

Jason is despondent. School was closed yesterday because the roads out here in the county are still covered with snow. He's starting to think that the school week is only 4 days long because the bad weather we have had nearly every weekend has affected school nearly every Monday.


Donald was despondent. The thought of going to Pre-School while his brother was at home doing whatever he wanted made those big green eyes turn to liquid. Along with his eyes, my resolve, so he stayed home, too.


I was despondent. Things were finally a bit quieter at work, so I took Monday morning off - a little "me" time. Unfortunately, my kids don't understand the concept of "pretend Mommy is not here", so that didn't quite work out as planned. I eventually rode in to work with Adam so I could hang out with the Monday morning quilting group at the library where I got a tiny bit of hand quilting done, not nearly the progress I was hoping to get done yesterday during my time off.


And when I got home from work, the kids were ready to do something other than dress up and play superheros or watch TV (I'm pretty sure that is all they do when I am not here). So once dinner was in the oven, I took them downstairs to let Jason work on his flannel rag quilt. His quilt got kicked off the design wall when I started working on my Nickelmania quilt. (I think this is the pattern I'm going to go with, although I believe I'll put one more row around each side so that the white outline is complete)

We had quite a time trying to remember how it went back together until I remembered that we took a photo of it - thank goodness for digital cameras! He sewed until all of the pieces were at least sewn to one other piece, and then we called it quits - I could smell the lasagna and garlic bread in the oven and could no longer focus. Before putting it away, however, he made row labels so it wouldn't take us so long to lay it out next time.


In addition to restless children, there was a package waiting for me at home. I thought it would be my new Bonnie Hunter book, but instead, it was more flannel from Cheryl - thanks, Cheryl! My flannel buzzsaw quilt will get completed after all!


So, all was well in the Hutchinson household until I got the call this morning - school is closed again...

Ribbons and string

I've been thinking about cancer a lot lately, about family and friends that I've lost, family and friends who are fighting as I type. It rears its ugly head in books and movies and news broadcasts without warning and without apology. You've probably noticed my CLICK DAILY link to the Breast Cancer Site on my sidebar. I am vigilant about clicking, vigilant about wearing my Pink Ribbon Pin, vigilant about checking myself in hopes that I will be around to watch my children become senior citizens.

Therefore, I wasn't surprised while rearranging blocks for my Nicklemania quilt yesterday to see that it was taking shape as a ribbon. I like it. I just don't know which arrangement I like better. I don't have all my blocks cut yet, but I think you can see where I was going with these two arrangements. Which do you like better?

While I was sewing, the kids were being "hooligans" here in the house - Jason's word, not mine. They only lasted a few minutes out in the snow - none of us really like the cold - so they created with Legos, put tattoos on their chests, pretended they were spies and even made tin can telephones. They had to talk where they could see each other because otherwise they couldn't coordinate who was supposed to be talking and who was supposed to be listening. No surprise there - these are the two most talk-ingest kids I have ever met!

I just can't help myself!

Most of you know that my husband is the men's basketball coach at the university where we both work. What you may not know is that we play in an extremely competitive conference, with 4 teams ranked in the top 20 IN THE NATION this year. (We are Division 3, not Division 1, so you'll never see them on TV)

Tonight, my husband's team traveled to Ashland, VA to take on the Yellow Jackets of Randolph Macon College as we do every year. Last week, they were ranked #2 nationwide. This week, they were ranked #9 nationwide. I'm pretty sure that next week, they won't be ranked because...

WE BEAT THEM!!!

For the first time since February 1959 - 51 YEARS - our team beat them on their home court. Can you see how wide and bright my smile is right now? I am so proud of and happy for my husband and his team. Go Generals!!!

Two winners!

When I access the internet, my home page is a page that I set up for myself with links that I use regularly. It also has one of my favorite photos of myself wearing a cowboy hat my mother bought me for Christmas one year - I've always not-so-secretly yearned to be a cowgirl. As you probably noticed, today I changed my Profile photo to this cowgirl photo. It is an older photo, and I am no longer nearly that cute, but I can pretend, right?

My homepage also features a Quote of the Day at the top which changes daily, just something to keep me inspired. You know what today's quote was?

"When I give, I give myself." - Walt Whitman

How appropriate on the day that I am drawing winners for my giveaway! So, as promised, at noon I wrote down on a sheet of paper the names of those who left comments on my 100th post, cut them all apart, and put them in a candy dish that I keep on my desk (the candy dish was empty since I conveniently finished all the candy yesterday afternoon). Then, I went downstairs looking for someone who wouldn't mind having his/her photo taken to pull the winner's name out of the bowl. Here's Kiki - a first-year student at my University who is also our work-study student in the Admissions Office, a wonderfully loud basketball fan, and one of the most helpful and cheerful people you could ever hope to meet - pulling out a name.


Congratulations, Cozy Quilter! Send me your mailing address and I'll pop that fabric in the mail to you.

But wait, do I really want to have to put all that fabric back into the closet? I told Kiki to pull another name, and if this person requested different fabric, then I would send that along, too.
Congratulations, Nancy! And since you can't decide on your favorite, I'm certainly not going to try to decide for you - I'll send you both. I don't need your address - I KNOW where you live! For now anyway...

And today is also a giving day in that I am sending one of my quilts to Kristie, AKA Cowgirl Quilter, to quilt for me as I am hoping to give it as a gift to a special someone later this winter. I've only ever sent one quilt away for quilting, so this is exciting for me. But if I wait until I can hand quilt it to give it away, who knows when that will be. I call this quilt "Calling All Scraps" since I foundation pieced it on pages torn from an old phone book. You can see the shreds of paper at the top of the photo.

I'm pretty sure that this special someone doesn't read my blog, but just in case, I'm not saying anything else for now.

Thanks for reading my blog, everyone. I love the feeling of connection I get when I hear from people all over the globe. Oh, and if you want to see what my homepage/dashboard looks like, you can find it here.

An extra day at home

I woke up to the phone ringing - school closed yet again, this time due to flooding. I thought I would still try to go to work since it is a pretty critical time there for me, but I was thwarted. My first clue was the creek at the bottom of the hill. Here's how it usually looks:



Here's how it looks today.


All the little roadside creeks are raging.


And the road disappeared under the river.


So, I'll be working from home today if my children let me. They are getting a bit of cabin fever; they've been out of school since the middle of the day on Thursday and I have limited their TV time so their brains don't turn to mush. Thank goodness we finished the basement. Right now, they are down there playing sock hockey with swimming noodles as hockey sticks. Socks sure do slide well on Pergo floors!

Rewards - for me and for you

Finally, a day off! Two in a row, actually. Saturday was super busy, with Jason and me testing for our Green Belts in Karate in the morning, followed by Jason's first basketball game, then a trip to the store for groceries and hurrying home to listen to my husband's game on the radio. It was all fun, but it was all a bit exhausting, too, so today, I vowed to not leave the house, my reward for making it through the 12 days straight of work and a day of family time.

First, I finished reading Talk Before Sleep. If you need a good cry, this is your book. If you want to reflect upon the strength of friendships, this is your book. If you are fresh out of tissues, don't even crack open the cover.

Then, I decided to try to make something small, something for me. I see people making tablerunners all over the place, maybe I could do that. I started with a quilt-as-you-go technique with strips - pink and white and red for Valentines Day.

Kinda blah. I feel like it needs something. Perhaps some colorful freehand hearts?

Not really feeling that either. I've set it aside to let it marinate for a while.

Then I found this photo of a quilt I had cut out of somewhere at some time.

I don't really need a whole quilt of pumpkins, but a few on a tablerunner would be fun, right? And I have all these small plaid scraps I've been wanting to use in something. So, I threw this together.

Yeah, the color of the pumpkins isn't right, and you can't even tell they are pumpkins at this point, but I am hoping that quilting will help that. The little 1" x 2" flying geese are made the 3-dimensional way with just one seam, fun for a tablerunner, but probably not so great on a bed quilt - they make for some really thick seams.

So, I came up here to the computer to share the fruits (or vegetables?) of my labor with you, and saw that this is post #100 for me. Isn't that a milestone of some sort? Everyone else has giveaways, I should do one, too. After all, I have gained so much from the world of quilting, and from this blog - new friends, inspiration and encouragement, squishy mail, hours of entertainment - that I should give something back.

But what do I have that anyone else would want? (besides my adorable children, but they are definitely not up for grabs!) I'm not prolific enough to have made anything that I could give, and most of my fabric is scraps. Although, there is that one tub of yardage in the closet...

So, from the days before my self-imposed no-buy, I present you with some of my favorite fabric that I bought with no purpose in mind. It has just been languishing in a dark closet, waiting for inspiration from me to transform it into something special. As a thank you for reading my blog and enriching my creative life, I invite you to leave a comment, with the possibility of winning your choice of one of the following:

1 1/2 yards of Dragons Dancing (I've already made two projects with this fun fabric)

1 yard and a couple inches of SpringView (I can't quite figure out how to use this diagonal print)

1 1/2 yards of this multicolored Yoshiko fabric with golden highlights

2 yards of this Bethany Reynolds Stack-n-Whack fabric (I keep meaning to do one of those)

2 1/3 yards of Jane's Exotic Garden (I can't bring myself to cut into it, perhaps you can)

1/2 yard each of 6 different Stix and Stones fabrics (I had planned to make something bright and graphic, but I haven't gotten to it yet)

I know everyone has different tastes, so I tried to pick some distinct options to choose from. I absolutely love all of these fabrics, which is why I am offering them here - what is the sacrifice if I give something I don't like? All the fabrics are 100% cotton and pre-washed. All have wrinkles because I don't iron much unless I am actually creating with that particular fabric. All are from older fabric lines - I think the most recent purchase was two years ago. My home is smoke-free, and my sewing studio is pet-free, for those of you with allergies.

If you see something you like, leave a comment letting me know which one you prefer, and I will pick a winner at noon EST on Tuesday, January 26 (something to look forward to to break up the work day). If there is something you REALLY want, blog about me and leave another comment, and I'll give you another chance. You do not need to be a follower to win - if you are like me, you are already following more blogs than you can possibly keep up with.

I hope your weekend was a wonderful as mine!

Sitting Pretty

Before...


After...




I love it! I used some of the Leaders and Enders 1.5" squares that I've been sewing together for years now. Then, of course, I had to sit and sew a couple more Nickelmania blocks on my machine to try out the chair. I am so tickled! It is so ME!