Oodles and oodles to talk about

Wow, so much has happened in just a few days. Time flies when I'm having fun, tho. First, thanks so much for your kind comments on Sydney's dress. We all love it. Unfortunately, I let her read the post and this morning, she introduced the idea of wearing jeans. She thinks she looks too grown up in the dress and showed me pictures of what other girls are wearing. And, they are not wearing anything like the purple dress. Grrrrr. Okay, so that's fine. It's okay that I spent $70 on that outfit for her to decide not to wear it. The important thing is that she's comfortable in what she chooses to wear. And, if it comes to it, I'll make her clean house in the dress to get our money's worth out of it...I mean a lot of housecleaning to pay off the time and money we spent...something like painting the outside of the house maybe. Anyway, just shows how fickle she can be.

On to happier thoughts. I want to talk about my birthday haul. My Mom sent the first gift. She renewed our subscription to Nat'l Geographic. We love that magazine and Rob and Sydney will read every word in every issue. Me, I stick to the highlights, but they are glued to every copy for the first week after it arrives.

My friend Coloradolady (for me, the REAL Coloradolady) sent me this wonderful bunch of fabrics! Thanks, Suzanne! I opened the envelope and thought, how beautiful. Rob looked and found a deeper meaning (his hobby is looking for deeper meanings). The fabrics on the left are all about the passage of time. The center is based on an owl print, so I have attained the wisdom of an owl. And, the stack on the right is neutrals because time and wisdom have made me more neutral in my actions. Not sure if Suzanne meant all that, but hey, it kept Rob interested for several minutes.



Rob gave me this huge windchime. I shouldn't even show this picture because it's not clear, but the thing weighs at least 13 pounds and goes "Dong!" in the wind. It's like a buddhist monastery bell. The neighbors have one too, so when you stand between them, it's like hearing the dong in stereo.



I got a lot done over the weekend. You've seen one quick snap of the baby quilt that is waiting a binding. And, here is my February Linus quilt. I knocked out the FMQ in 2 1/2 hours. That is a record for me.



I'm getting pretty good at knocking out these random swirls and points and curves. I have a couple of tops that would benefit from this kind of loose, all over, meander quilting.



And, I finished that shirt I cut out Friday afternoon. This fabric was supposed to be my muslin. I paid $1 a yard for it. But, after I looked at it for a while, I decided I liked it, so saved it to use later. It looks much busier in this photo than it does in person. But, it's going to make a great addition to my "Hawaiian themed" shirts for this summer.


And, I put away my shirt pattern (on the right), with all it's alterations and success stories and pulled out Rob's patterns (on the left). It's time to make the man a shirt. He's picked out two fabrics, one a semi Hawaiian theme and one a vintage looking route 66 printed fabric...not a map, but stops along the highway and roadsigns. Really cute fabric...so cute that I'm afraid to cut into it. But, I know a lot more about making shirts than I did before, so I'm pretty confident that I don't need to make a muslin of his pattern. I just need to measure very well and compare him to the pattern pieces.



Pauline had suggested that I try a pattern from the Authentic Pattern Company that was based out of Dallas. They designed western wear and I finally got my hands on a pattern. That's the one you can barely see in the middle of Rob's pile. The left one is for Rob's Hawaiian shirts and the right one is so we can put a real collar on those shirts, with a collar stand, instead of the camp collar in that pattern.

And, finally, I did get started on some applique. I opened my kit and studied it and decided that it was too beautiful for me to use to learn machine applique, so I put my hex project back in it's box and started some applique for my finger work for a while. It's a 12 block kit and I'd like to think I'm ambitious enough to finish in 12 months, but hey, let's be realistic. I'll get bored with it in a month and it will go into the regular rotation of finger work projects that I pull out, work on a bit, and put down. It's just the way I am. And, it's good to accept who I am...at least it helps set reasonable expectations.

Take care and have a great Tuesday. Lane