Life is good!

Progress on the WIP list!! Even though there were about five instances of this on Simply Woven: I actually got the top all sewn together!  It's BIG, a generous twin size, and I just love the colors.  I didn't have enough fabric to replace the cut pieces (toddlers, scissors, and quilt tops are a bad combination) so I had to do patch jobs, but hopefully none of them are too noticeable! Basic Math is also done, and looks adorable.  I'm going to put it up in the Etsy shop as a modern baby quilt.  The Jester costumer is done!  Isadora got to wear it last week at the Creepy Museum crawl, and it looks pretty adorable.  Hopefully it will be warm enough tonight she won't have to put a jacket on over it.   It's hard to put a jacket over those sleeves! I also got started on a knit dress.  Of course, I managed to mess up cutting it out, so have to go get more fabric today.  It's color blocked, and I cut the wrong section ou...

Yesterday involved an emergency trip to the fabric store over lunch to purchase a seam ripper.  I broke one, and the other vanished, and I sewed four quilt squares together backwards.  So off to JoAnn's I went.  I got the squares unpicked, and put together correctly, and am making more progress on simply woven.  I'm getting really excited to see it sewn together, it's going to be so cheery! Of course, I had to start a new one while I was temporarily stymied on that one, so I cut and started "High Fashion", which should go together very quickly.  I also pulled out some stash fabric that coordinates; I'm going to try and make it larger than the original pattern.  I'm not a huge fan of quilts that aren't big enough to really cuddle under.   I also finally got a finish!  Just a night shirt for Isadora, but it was really needed.  She likes it, it's warm and comfy, and hopefully she'll actually wear something to bed now that it's cold again....

I know it's such a cliche, but time seems to be speeding by.  It's already been six weeks since Marc left, and although some of the days are long, the weeks seem short and the months shorter.  A good weekend again.  Saturday was a hang-around the house kind of day.  Isadora played outside with the neighbor boys for hours, so I didn't mind too much that she came in smelling like composting grass.  I did have to run her clothes through a heavy duty wash cycle, though!  Yesterday was a family dinner.  We haven't had one in a while, so it was nice to get everyone together.  Nothing too crazy food wise - just pasta.  Mom had a new sauce she really wanted to try.  I made a couple of pies, and we whipped up a Ceasar Salad. I was exhausted by the end, although the desire to sleep may have been a result of all that sangria... This is why I built that big house - to see them all around the table, and so the adults could sit in the dinin...

At the end of a long day of work, followed by a somewhat long evening with the kids.  There's nothing like busting your tail trying to make a healthy dinner, only to have them not eat a bite!  But skyped with my honey this evening, and he said all the right things.  Made my heart happy and my spirit soar.  I am a lucky woman.  And however tough my day might be and however little my kids like my cooking sometimes, life is still good. One of my favorite fall images from Digital Blasphemy.  

I finally made it back into the sewing room last night.  I am down to one last insert on the Simply Woven quilt!  The colors do make me happy, but I'll be glad when it's put together.  But I need to get going on the jester jacket for Isadora.  For one thing, Halloween is fast approaching, and for another, I REALLY need a finish!  Seems like forever since there's been something to call "done".  I still have two quilts waiting for binding, and three or four tops I need to find backings for. Gunner sprayed water all over my keyboard last night, so Isadora can't practice piano.  Matt said it should hopefully dry out, but we've been instructed to leave it unplugged for a week. Time to get back to work...

It was really a wonderful weekend.  I love it when I can say that!  Saturday we went into the Quad County Porkfest.  They had a pie-baking contest, and I came in second!  There weren't that many entries, so I didn't get too worked up, but I still won a really nice pie carrier.  I made a pecan pie, and it was pretty tasty. I think if I hadn't overcooked the top a bit (it was too dark) I might have won.  You may wonder why a pie-baking contest at a porkfest?  All the crusts had to be made with lard. Which does make the best pie crusts! It was a beautiful day to be outside, so we wandered around the booths, and I bought a couple of Christmas presents.  Mom then took Gunner, and Isadora and I headed to town.  We went out to lunch at Culver's, then grocery shopping, the fabric store ($1 patterns!) and a haircut.  It was supposed to be my haircut, but I decided she needed it a lot more than I did.  And it turned out beautifully.  B...

The church dinner was yesterday, and I'm exhausted.  I am not sure why, as looking back it doesn't seem like I did that much, but I was completely tuckered out last night, and even let everyone sleep in this morning.  I only wish all mornings could be like this one!  But alas, I must continue to drag all of us out of bed in the dark.  My quilt went for $350, which I was pleased with.  I had been hoping to get a better picture of it, but I was busy cleaning up in the kitchen, so I didn't have a chance, but that's okay!  It's off to a good home, and I'm already plotting about what to make for next year.  I'm considering this one from the Moda Bakeshop.  The traditional ones seem to go over better, and I can see a lot of people that would like that design.  It's a small-town farm community. I did get the jester costume cut out for Isadora.  I used polyester felt from JoAnn's, which has several advantages.  First of all, it was onl...

I'd love to say that fall is truly in swing, but frankly, it's still a bit warm for my tastes!  I think it's supposed to cool down this weekend.  It's starting to look a bit like fall here and there, and the fall fruits are in the stores, but I'm looking forward to making soups and stews and other great fall comfort foods! Collette came over on Monday, and cut out a shirt.  She hasn't done garment sewing in forever, so I helped out, and we had a good time.  I worked on getting another shirt finished, but I'm not sure it's going to be a winner.  It just looks too much like a maternity shirt for either of us to really want to wear.  It's adorable fabric, so I'm not sure how I'm going to save it.  I might get a little crazy and see if I can cut it down into a tunic for Isadora.  We'll see! I have nothing for the "recently completed" section of my WIP list.  Need to work on that!  But probably not tonight, tonight is Feed Bill n...