Finally Quilted!

Contrary Wife - finishes up at 82 X 99. The quilting is not done by me - I send my tops out - this quilting pattern is called Popcorn. I got the quilt pattern out of an old Quilt magazine. ALL from scraps/every dwindling stash other than the 2 border fabrics which I bought after I got the top together. I also purchased extra wide quilt backing special!

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I made this quilt 2 summers ago - July, August, September, finishing in October, adding borders in November (2006). I actually started it the summer of 2005, but then went to Austria for the winter so it got set aside. Ah well, good things take time.

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All quilted and bound now. Here is what it looks like on 2 different beds - spread out. My bed has a lovely curved footboard so I always put my quilts on my own bed sideways.

Except - can you keep a secret? I don't like a big quilt on my bed! If I sleep with a quilt I prefer a small lap sized one, flannel backed preferably! Oh sure, I will spread them out and admire them, say hello to the lovely fabrics, rotate them around from time to time during the month - but the quilt almost always comes off at night. Most times if I do have a quilt on the bed - it is back side up or under my down comforter - just to spread it out to help prevent crease lines! Of course, School Boy loves to make forts with them so that helps with the crease-line thing no doubt! Not that I don't love my quilts and seeing the fabrics and all, I just prefer a very plain bed covering. Maybe it is my subconcious way of off-setting the 2 tone paint with wall papered birds on the wall - there when we bought the place and although not my favorite - I didn't see any need to change it. See how puffy my bed is? I have a feather mattress and then a puffy flannel backed down comforter under there. It is so cold here that I sleep with that down comforter year round! SB has a matching down comforter - smaller sized of course for his wee bed. HE prefers to sleep in his sleep sack (year round) with fleece blankets and if it is cold then the down comforter on top. Not that he doesn't have his very own bedroom with a twin bed, but it is way across the house and up a flight of stairs... Helps out our electric bill a bit in the winter this way anyway - we only heat the 1 room at night. He still fits in the little bed, but at the rate he is growing, I imagine this will be the last winter. HE has a stack of quilts that fit his twin bed just fine - come the day.

A New Chapter

Introducing... SCHOOL BOY!!!

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With his new mini-backpack, lunch box and a slightly bewildered look on his face as he walks out the door to wait for a school bus for the very first time! Let me tell you - we had to look high and low for a small back pack that wasn't plastered with comic characters that he doesn't even watch anyway. The Children's Place didn't let us down.
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To start Kindergarten - the school sent home a little shopping list... Let's see what I can remember off the top of my head... very brand specific!!! 2 packs Crayola Washable Markers, 2 packs Croyola 24 pack crayons, 2 jumbo Elmer's glue sticks, 2 black dry erase markers, 3 Hilroy Scribblers, 12(?) Duotangs (those colorful paper folders with pockets), 2 white art erasers, 1 package of Dixon pencils, 1 box big ziplock bags, 1 box Kleenex, 1 foam squirting hand soap - unscented, 1 pair of sneakers - never worn outside for gym... I am pretty sure that there were other things on that list but seeing we did our shopping over a month ago, I can't remember! Now, I am not complaining - they certainly sent the list home early enough that I could get myself to the store to shop (keeping in mind that the nearest Wal-Mart is 3 hours away). And I have just 1 child. But do realize that about 10% of my local population uses the food bank in the winter... It would have been nice had they given me a bit of notice about needing a sweatsuit for gym... seeing that I MAKE all his pants and don't have any jersey on hand. He is so thin that it is really a complete waste of time to even go to the stores, find pants, get him to the dressing room, undress him, try the pants on and then find out they fall straight to his knees. If he really loves them than there is either great sadness or Momma has to buy them and then take off the waistband to shorten it and then take darts in on the sides. Nope - 100X easier just to make them and avoid that entire situation!!! Anyway! I sent him with a pair of shorts today and added jersey to my shopping list for next time I go shopping.
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SCHOOL BOY really was a LITTLE BOY when I first started blogging... w-a-y back in November of 2005. How time flys. But now, without a doubt - he is School Boy (SB for short) - a name I am pretty confident I can be "safe" with for awhile now - seeing he has just started Kindergarten. Here's a photo from right around the time I started blogging...






It has been a super great time, bringing up this Little Boy, all day, every day. But - the last year, well as much as he really, truly does LOVE Momma, well - it is time for him to explore a little further from the nest. And I am really hoping he likes Kindergarten - it is a mixed grade - K-2. So, it is a NEW CHAPTER for both of us! Whatever will I do with all my new "free" time???


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Guess I could always sew? This is what my blue quilt is looking like with 2 segments laid side by side. Oh, I am SURE I will find something to do, including catching up on oodles of paperwork. But it is more fun to think about sewing right? It is a long day though - he leaves at 8:30 and doesn't get home until 2:30. About 2:10 I am looking out the window for the bus - ready for him to come and tell me about his day.

August Rolls By

August rolled right on by in a blur! Summer is the busiest time of year for my business and I am usually pretty right out straight busy! The past few days there has been a bit of a lull before the schedule picks up again and I've been relaxing. I think that today was the 1st day all month that when I got out of bed in the morning I didn't have protesting pain shooting through my feet and legs. Is it no wonder that during my free time I seek out the peace of nature?

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OK, so maybe biking on our hills isn't so relaxing, but LB dearly loves a bike ride. We don't have a bike trail or even a shoulder of the road to ride on and then add in the hills... so we have this lovely tandem bike - a wonderful solution! We can go about 7 miles with 2 bum breaks for LB - I am thinking that maybe he needs a more comfy seat? We didn't go as often as I would have liked because I just didn't think I had the energy in my legs all the time, but glorious autumn days are fast approaching and my schedule won't be so busy (which also means less traffic to boot).

Bird watching is very popular in our area as we are right on a migratory route. Here is LB looking through a scope at some sort of very exciting bird to see in this region (all I know is that he was reddish and sort-ov big - I know, dismal!). That is a very well known bird guide (who travels all over the world leading bird groups) introducing LB to the wonders of bird watching with a powerful scope! Bird watching through the lens of the camera - now that I can handle - and here are a few shots. I think that yellow bird might be a yellow warbler, but don't count on it! LOL. I think that the duck shot of him landing - I can sharpen it up and fix the lighting a bit better - but when I just don't know! I just liked the 2 photos together as a series so thought I would share.

We are never too busy to stop and enjoy a beautiful vista in our travels. This is a little place that we stopped along during our trip to Hopewell Rocks area. That lighthouse is sometimes called the Traveling Lighthouse because it is thought that it has been moved 6-7 times.

The flowers of August seem a bit more subdued than July's. The poppys are going to seed and the neighboring gardeners that have poppys have shared with LB. It is amazing really - those pods dry up and the top has holes - when you can shake the pod and hear the seeds rattle around you can pour the seeds out - almost like a salt shaker (bottom right of the photo collage)! Don't laugh. I am NOT a gardener! But with help from kind gardeners in the area, I am learning. LB just delights in gardens so I really am trying to learn all I can!

Here are 2 photos of friends gardens...

I do have a funny gardening story to share, but another day...

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Sewing? Not so much. I have made bits and pieces of progress on my blue quilt. And I've knit 1 sock for LB. The mate is just started so give me a week or so....

Goodbye August. You have been alot of work, but alot of fun too. We've had fun!