Summer Sewing and Such

Summer vacation days seems to just fly by.  School was officially out the Friday before Memorial Day since they passed a law to allow us to excuse the days due to the tornado and power disaster in Alabama. We already had to make up six snow days, so that reprieve was a relief! We kicked off the summer with a long weekend visit from Meghan and the boys. We didn't do anything really exciting but we had a wonderful time eating and shopping and playing with the boys. Meghan and I went to see Bridesmaids. We watch lots of movies at home, but we don't go to the theater except on rare occasions.

I've spent lots of time sewing. I finished this winding ways quilt. The piecing was really pretty easy once I got the hang of where the center point had to meet, but the free motion quilting is such a challenge for me. I like the overall look of what I did, but let's not look at the details of how evenly spaces the circles are or how smooth each one is! I know, I know, the only way to improve is to put in the hours of  practice, and that's what I'm doing.



I also have managed to catch up on all of my  Civil War Block of the Week blocks, so now I have 24 eight and a half inch blocks  finished. It is fun to look forward to the instructions and accompanying history each Saturday morning. I have such a good time digging in the fabric for just what I want to use.





The other big project I have underway is a quilt I am making with the half square triangles I got through the Sisterhood of the Traveling Triangle exchange. I learned about it through The Quilt Show when they featured Edyta Sitar on a show this winter. Someone decided to head up an exchange, and much to everyone's surprise, more than 200,000 half square triangles were sent in. During the power outage, I had time to go through them and see where my 224 came from. Mine represent some 36 different states and 19 different locations out of the US. Wow. We ran up to Franklin, TN to the Stitcher's Garden last Saturday (with a fun trip to the Nashville Farmers Market and the International Store there) to get the fabric for the background squares and rectangles and the borders. I am ready to pin it to quilt, but it is a big one at 84" square. I am not ready to start that today. Maybe tomorrow.



I know the picture isn't that great, but maybe you can get the idea. It is a wild combination of colors from the exchanged triangles, and then the Edyta suggests using prints and batiks together, which was what I used.

Besides extra time to read, relax, shop, eat out...I am helping Shannon out with some of her babysitting this summer, not every day, but usually one day a week --- this week a bit more. Isn't Georgia a little peach?



Ozzie's a bit jealous, or perhaps overly interested is another way to say it.



Sorry -- one more baby picture to go. Yesterday, I decided that while I love her to pieces, I do not need to hold her for every minute of the day. So while I am blogging, she is sitting in her new bouncy seat napping right by me on the kitchen counter.



Perhaps I can try to get back to blogging a bit more often. Today's agenda is baby and sewing. And I think she is waking up.....