A very big weekend

Thank you all so much for your kind comments over the weekend. I am both excited and intimidated. The new LQS owner has strong feelings about what she wants and it is what I want to offer in a class I teach, so we're agreed on that part. Now, I need a lesson plan and a textbook and to figure out when and if I can actually pull this off.

Okay, so teaching is something that I've wanted to do for a while and I asked the previous shop owners a couple times, but what I felt like I had to offer, they already had someone to teach. Now, I have a skill they want and this time, they asked me. All their quilters use long or mid arm machines and they want a quilter that uses a domestic. Hello, that's me!

She did remind me that they're in it to make money, so I need to keep that in mind as I write up the curriculum. And, I'll do my best, but they don't carry many of the supplies that I consider must haves for quilters and so, sending business their way is going to be a delicate two-way street, where they have to sell it for me to get people to buy it from them. That includes tools, thread and needles, which they keep in very, very limited supplies. Unfortunately, that's why JoAnn's gets so much of my business; they keep a better supply of tools and thread and needles. But, we'll work that part out, too.

And, I need to find a textbook. She and I think of different names when we think of quilting on a DSM. She doesn't carry books by the author I prefer. So, there I am again, wondering if I'll have to teach from a book by someone I don't know that well and who will it be?

On the home front, we had a very kid-centric week last week and while I didn't feel like that left much room to sew, I guess I got a lot more done than I thought. I pulled out and finished the Cheerful Cherries block from Simply Delicious. It had been put away so long, I had to pull out the book and read up again. Cherries are block 5 and I thought 45 applique pieces was just a bit too much for one applique block.



And, then I started block 6, Gorgeous Grapes and it has 70 pieces. Oh, brother. There are 40 or 45 grapes!! This is from a kit that a friend gifted me and I am enjoying the heck out of it. I'm learning to make it more portable as I get better at it and that will help. For a while, I didn't consider it a good port-a-project because of the overlay that helps me set the pieces, but I'm getting better working with that as I go and have learned the secret of not letting it get wrinkled.



And, I fixed the border problem on this year's cmas quilt. The dark green borders were about a half inch wider and that was throwing me off. I did not like it, so I cut some size off all 4 sides and added the tan border to it. Now, I'm ready to pin baste and start the quilting.



And, I got the borders on the little green quilt. Funny, while I was piecing a quilt that was made mostly from leaders/enders, I was also piecing more leader/enders for a future quilt. The stash uses system never stops giving.




All the fabrics are pressed and ready to cut for my next quilt. Handwork, quilting, piecing. I need all three going at one time to be happy and feel like I'm making headway because they all require different tools and space and mind. If I have all three going, I don't have to stop work just because I get brain dead on what shape to quilt next. I can piece for a while and think about it. And, if I need to go somewhere while I'm thinking, I can take some handwork. A busy boy has too much to do to hover over his 13 year old daughter.

Last Wednesday night, it was baking cupcakes with the kid and doing homework all evening. It would have been so much easier to bake for her, or to forego the homework for the team. But, I got her to do both. Thursday night, it was the last volleyball game and all the team and most of the parents went out for dinner after (it was our second dinner). Friday night, we had the school Homecoming dance and we chaperoned. And, then we stopped at Taco Bell and had a second dinner. (I finally got to take my boyfriend to a school dance. Now, imagine how horrified Sydney was when I kept telling her that the dance wasn't about her, it was about taking my boyfriend out.) Saturday, Sydney spent the afternoon and evening with friends and Rob and I worried because that's not normal for us...what were we to do with all that time without her. So, I made him take me on a date and we went out for a vast amount of fried food.

When it was time to pick Sydney up, she doesn't have the skills yet to handle disappointment and acted like a 9 year old, trying to get us to let her spend the night. At some point, a parent has to let their kid misbehave so they can experience the embarrasment of crying in front of someone else's Mom and learn that's not how grown ups act. My kid is learning that lesson older than most. Can't be helped. That's the life we have now. We taught her to be a person and now it's time to inflict her on the world. We can't protect her from growing up and part of that is learning how to be friends. So, we carefully select the parents to let her learn in front of. People we don't think will judge her too harshly and will be part of our village. People that understand what it's like to be Sydney and help us teach her. So, when we got out of the truck and smiled and laughed and entertained while being firm about our "no", CW, the other girl's Mom, seemed to understand and chatted with all three of us until the tear storm was passed and we were back to telling funny stories about Sydney's day out.

Growing up is hard to do.

Take care and have a great Monday.

Lane