Friday, May 29, 2009


Yesterday was almost a bust in the quilting progress category. Vince and I went to Millington to shop at the commissary there. It is a bit of a ride, so we make a day of it, enjoying the time together.
Knowing I would have an hour in the car on the way there, I brought along my Snow Crazy blocks. I started this quilt in February in a Class at the Quilt Barn in Arlington. I still have 5 snow man head blocks to embroider. I decided to do the embroidery by hand instead of machine because I loved the look. In the car on the way there and back, I finished on block and completed 3/4 of another.
Grocery shopping always takes all of my energies---looking for wise food choices, picking items that do not have loads of plastic attached (a futile search most often!)!! Not to mention the numerous times I have to handle those groceries.
1. pick it up and put it in the cart
2. take it out of the cart.
3. (fortunately I am spared bagging as the commissary bags for us)
4. putting bags in the car.
5. taking bags out of car and putting them in the wagon to bring them to the house.
6. taking bags out of wagon
7. unloading bags and putting groceries away.

Whew! I touch those items 6-7 times before I even prepare the food!

This morning, I cleaned the studio, putting away items that I have been tripping over in there! I also worked on Pieces of the Past--marking squares for diagonal sewing! I finished the flying geese for the center part of the quilt.

Then, Vince and I actually went to the movies! We saw Star Trek, which was good.
We also went to Lowes and purchased the materials necessary to complete the painting job on the upstairs. That is my task next week. I will be repairing holes in the walls, and painting!

I weeded the garden and turned the earth for tomorrow's plantings. Vince made tomato cages for the garden and tomorrow we will fertilize the garden and get the remainder of the plants in the ground.

Vince and I washed windows today as well; he brought in the ladder to handle the high windows facing the pond. I scrubbed the puppy nose prints off the lower windows!

That's all folks!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Further Progress


On Monday, I completed this quilt top for a friend of mine.

Today, I finished quilting and binding it!

The fabric is based on a book by Eric Carle, Brown Bear, Brown Bear. It is wonderful fabric and will be perfect in Elizabeth's classroom next year!

Today, I also finished the binding on Balloon Race, finished trimming the 144 half square triangles for Pieces of the Past, worked on ONE snowman head for Snow Crazy and started some handkerchiefs for my mom.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Summer Vacation is Here!


Now that school is over for the year, I can focus on all of those unfinished projects I have accumulated since August!
Today, we were still recuperating from our weekend in Rochester so we spent it at home.
As usual, I woke up early, so I started working on a quilt top for a friend of mine (not the one pictured here!) It was the only item on my "to do" list for today, so once I finished the top, I started a few other little projects.
The quilt top shown here is for my mother in law, I started it last summer and stitched the last part of the binding this morning. It is finished and ready for delivery!

I also machine sewed the bindings on the "Just Can't Cut It" king sized quilt and the Underground Railroad quilt. I did a little work on "Pieces of the Past", a kit I have had for more than a year! It has loads of half square triangles and flying geese in it. It is rather challenging so it will require a lot of my attention! I am finally sitting down to hand stitch the binding on the "Balloon Race" quilt, a top I bought the fabrics for 2 years ago at my last Quiltaway with Sherry!