President's Day

Today was a day off school for the kids but not for the teachers.  Kurt took the day off and went with the kids to Legoland.  It is new and we hadn't been yet.  It was a big hit.  So much so that they had record crowds and ended up staying open late to accommodate everyone.

That left with me with some quiet time at home after my training.  Allergies have gotten the best of me, and I didn't feel much like sewing.  I did spend some time ironing and folding though. Not all of this fabric is new, some just got pulled and auditioned or had some cut off to be used.  It does seem like a lot of fabric though, doesn't it?  I'd better get it put away before people start asking what it is all for. 

Beautiful Backgrounds

There is a quilt shop not far from the museum for the Girl Scout outing this morning.  We made a quick stop and got for lunch before heading home.  Because I had a gift certificate from Christmas and no particular quilts in the works, I hit the sale wall and focused on backgrounds.  Sydney added a couple of her own choices too.  She didn't quite agree with my neutrals are always necessary philosophy.  Everyone seems happily involved in playing with friends now, so I think I'll sneak in to sew a bit before somebody needs me. 

Purple and Green MAM

We are just back from our favorite annual Easter tradition.  Each year my good friend Meisje hosts a big party where the main event is an egg hunt for the kids featuring cascarones.  I have no idea if I'm spelling it right, but they are confetti filled eggs that get smashed over the heads of innocent bystanders.  We always come home with confetti hiding out in all our nooks and crannies.  This year we managed to go without a camera, so I'm hoping that somebody will have pity and send me a picture or two.  The kids all passed out as soon as we got home and Kurt has run out to get goodies for a morning egg hunt of our own.  His family always hid entire baskets instead of eggs when he was a kid and mine did both plastic and dyed eggs, so we always "argue" about what we should do each year.  For two years in a row Kurt had the kids convinced that the party was the "real" egg hunt and we skipped the tradition entirely at our house.  The kids wised up though and requested that the bunny visit our own house as well. 

I'm zooming away on my mile a minute blocks.  If I were ever home for more than 10 minutes at a time I'm sure they'd be all done in no time at all. I just keep popping them back in for another round until they end up large enough to square up.  So far only 3 purples have come out at the end of the assembly line, but there are a bunch that are almost ready to be finished up.  I am thinking of finding a funky purple and green print of some sort to use as sashing between the blocks.  Mostly because there are a bunch of seams that would try to fight each other if the blocks go next to each other. 

The second session of practice AP exams went well this morning. Several of the kids made a point of coming up when it was over and thanking me for coming in on the weekend to help them out.  I thought that was very thoughtful of them.  When we were all finished up at school I popped into Sears to look at refrigerators again.  We've been having trouble finding the style that Kurt wanted (double door fridge on top and freezer drawer on bottom with water and ice in the door) in a color that matched all our other appliances (bisque, also known as beige).  They happened to have just the thing I was looking for -- and it was on sale!  It should be delivered on Monday between 12:45 and 2:45! I'm sincerely hoping that nothing else breaks in the near future, 'cause I'm all shopped out. 

Goodwill

We haven't been dropping off at Goodwill recently because the Red Cross picks up at the door once a month. It has been very helpful with trying to keep things organized and get rid of things we don't need. They will visit while we are on our cruise, so I took a load over to the NEW Goodwill. I have gotten shirts at the old store, but even shopping the sale tags, it doesn't turn out much cheaper than buying yardage. The new one has a clearance center though, with clothes for $0.99 per pound! I found these 9 high quality cotton shirts along with a two yard piece of fabric with the tag still attached. The grand total, along with three paperback books was just $5.44. They are all in the washer now. When they come out I'll spend some time cutting them up. I'm thinking of making a simple quilt with the same basic pattern of four patches that the quilts for kids uses. 6.5 inch squares alternating with four patches that finish at the same size. It should come together quickly and I'll have something else to use for quilting practice. I tried to pick out spring sherbet types of colors. I could have also gone red white and blue, those seem to be popular colors. I may make a denim quilt next time. It would be more expensive because denim is heavy, but it wouldn't need batting and it would be nice for using outside.

Shopping

I seemed to be out of a lot of the fabrics to go with the blocks I had already made. I couldn't finish Spinning Stars, because I needed a green to sash it with. I wanted to use red to alternate in Four Square, but didn't have any. I am ready to finish of several quilts that will need backing fabric, and there is not a scrap of batting in the house. You get the general idea, right? A trip to the fabric store was definitely in order. The kids and husband were all busy with thier last OM practice before the big state competition this weekend, so I took advantage of the open time, grabbed my 40% off coupon and headed out.
I got a call from Karen at Handiquilter today and she says that my HQ 16 will be on the truck Thursday and will take about one week to ship. Just one weekend to get everything ready! Kurt and I looked at the sewing room/guest bedroom/study this weekend and figured out a game plan. Now I just need to do a bit or arranging and make space for everything. Then I will line up the tops and start getting them ready for the big day. Amy is getting her new system tomorrow -- so I'll have to see how she handles everything to find out what I should be doing.