No sewing this weekend. Honestly, I didn’t even get a chance to walk in my sewing room. But sometimes life is like that. I through a minor fit about it Sunday night, but I think it was more “The weekend is over” than I didn’t quilt. I made good choices and got lots of stuff done.

Don took Eric back to Ferris Saturday morning early. Eric said-“Mom I’m going to miss your lists.” When it came to packing, the only contribution he’d let me make was a list of things to pack. He gives me a hard time, but my lists have saved his “hiney” a time or two.

Chelsey and I made a flying trip to Green Bay for a Homecoming Dress. Her high school homecoming is the second week of school. So, I figured we better check that “off the list”. Our destination was Appleton, but we stopped at one store in Green Bay for a restroom break, and I said—“Let’s just check it out”. We tried on 8 dresses, with the usual-“It’s ugly”, “it makes me look fat,” Finally, I was looking for a bigger size and found a dress—“Chelsey just try it on… no comments…try it on for me…” Viola—Enter stage left—“The Perfect dress.” From tears to happiness in a matter of twenty minutes.
I guess by her senior year I have her figured out and I don’t lose my cool. We went out to lunch and went to Hobby Lobby just to wish. Scrapbook paper was 50% off. Yeah, just like Chelsey says, “Mom, all of this paper you bought looks just like fabric…” I guess I’m pretty easy to read.
We made our purchases and headed home…
I've started collecting acorns for my sunday school class. A cheap craft--- drill holes in them and the kids string them with floral wire and we add a bible verse. The seasons are really starting to change...



I stayed up late and got the weekly house cleaning done. Sunday was church and grocery shopping. Don got back home and decided to paint a room in the basement. It’s not fair to have him do it alone, so He took the brush and I handled the roller… One more coat tonight and it’ll be complete. The room used to be the kids toy room. It’s kind of grown into a video game room… but Chelsey and I have delusions of adding an opening in the wall that connects the room to the scrapbook/sewing room and expanding our territory. Don looks at me out of the corner of one eye and says, “it ain’t gonna happen…” Oh well, a girl can dream…

Gratitudes:
Everyone’s safe travel this weekend
A job to fund the weekend
A good night’s rest

It’s Tuesday morning---I couldn’t get pictures to upload so I put off posting a day---Life is not real exciting right now, so I needed pictures to help. Not as much sewing going on over the weekend, as I would have liked, but then again, there never is. I got the blanket portion of the baby quilt done and the Panda Bear.

I figure if I do a bear a night this week, by Thursday, I’ll have it ready to stretch. I’m just going to outline quilt the bears and criss-cross the blanket portion with straight lines. With any luck this time next week, it will be complete.

Chelsey flooded the sewing/scrapbooking room with scrapbook pages that were drying, so I didn’t sew last night. It’s ok, she’s cataloging her summer and it’s fun seeing the finished product.

I worked on my bulletin boards for my Sunday school class for next quarter. After promotion Sunday, I’ll just have 13 on enrollment with only 6 regular attendees. Hopefully the number will grow, but it will be a nice break for a little while. Here’s one piece. It’s for the door and the caption will read---‘Did you bring your Heart AND your Bible to Sunday school??’
The last year I have mostly recycled old bulletin boards, but I’ve got new energy in it and Got all new pieces I’ve drawn to decorate the room… fun stuff.
I better head out to work….

Just a quick post and I’m going to get busy with the weekend. Everyone is still sleeping this morning. It’s 39 degrees and foggy heading for a high of 71. No complaints, but we could sure use the rain.
Just what I needed. Remember I told you I began the Primitive Garden Block of the month without seeing the finished quilt. I just loved block one and contemplated it for about 6 weeks and dove in. Lisa Bongean as a completed photo at her quilt shop of the project now. I’m so excited—I have 5 and ½ blocks completed. As soon as my baby quilt is done I’m ready to get back in it.
This is Eric’s last weekend home, so I hope he enjoys himself.
Gratitudes:
Cool Mornings
Quilters writing through the mail
A good night’s sleep

It’s Tuesday morning. Just a couple of lines and I’m hitting the road for work. Work went well yesterday. It was busy so you don’t have time to think about what you could be doing at home. Got home,I made a fresh pot of soup for lunches the rest of the week at work. I had picked a huge bowl of green beans, so I got them snapped and cooked for supper another night. I had a cucumber for lunch yesterday, so I was motivated to do better the rest of the week. No—it’s not diet food, I’m just cheap. I’ll treat myself to lunch out one day a week. If you do it on Monday, you have nothing to look forward to the rest of the week. Plus --- that’s quilt money being wasted on food. I had eleven teenagers for Papa Murphy’s Pizza (Coupons on great!).

I wanted to thank Libby and Devliegendekoe for the Nice Matters Award. When I started typing, I had no idea the friends I would meet.

I use to stress about working, having a family and wanting to have a little time to make a stitch or two. Who am I kidding, sometimes I still do....It was great to find that there are other wives and moms out there wanting the same thing. And there’s some kind of relief to know that there’s somebody else out there that has days and wonders, “Why can’t I do it all… because I want to…” The best part about a “Good Day” is that it’s 24 hours long. The Best part about a “bad” day is that it’s only 24 hours long and you get another shot at it tomorrow. Raising kids is hard--- no if's, and's, or but's. I always tell people with young ones, “There’s nothing sexy about raising babies, but hang in there --- you can do it…”

Here is my favorite summer photo—Eric, Chelsey and Ransom.
Every time I look at this photo I want to hug their Orthodontists---excuse the bragging rights--—but their Orthodontists did a great job and it was totally worth the year’s college tuition to give the kids great teeth… There are definitely highs and lows with all three. I think there has been more this summer than any summer before, but all three are keepers.

It’s Monday morning--- rolling out of bed is tough. Five days till the weekend. I had a great weekend; it shouldn’t be so rough getting going this morning. Not as much quilting as I had hoped, but then again there never is. At least this way I don’t get bored with it.

Don and I went to see “No Reservations”, a great show. I recommend it to everyone. We went biking riding with Eric and a date on Sunday afternoon and stopped for ice cream—Chocolate Almond fudge for me. We haven’t rode bicycles nearly enough this summer. Don finished the front steps, the major project of the summer. Maybe I’ll get pictures this we to share. I transplanted the Hostas. I hope they have time to take root before winter.

On the sewing front, Eric’s boss and wife had their baby, so I need to get this quilt complete. I’ve got the fabrics pull from my stash. I think all but one are Thimbleberries pieces. I really like the combination. I started the block strips. This is about all I completed. But I have hopes of working on it tonight.

Gratitudes:
1. Buying Groceries Sunday and never having to stress where the money is coming from. I never want to take that for Granted.

2. Kind of had the blues all weekend, and usually “tough” family took it easy on Mom.

3. Ransom always being eager to head to the garden.

I’m about to head to work, but want to type a quick post. I got Chelsey's flight schedule mixed up, so she flew out yesterday. I worked a couple of hours yesterday morning and we hit the road. We did the typical teenage pit stop—--the Mall.
After we got her to the airport and watched her go through the metal detectors I told Eric we need to stay in Green Bay until she took off, but there was no point in staying at the airport.

So the next stop was Ben Franklin's, which had big signs about going out of business. I was really disappointed, but went in and checked things out. Everything was 30% off, and so I did a little fabric maintenance….

Their yardage pieces were on sale, but I didn’t purchase any.

Her plane was delayed on the ground for maintenance issues, so I told Eric we needed to stay in Green Bay—He says—“Mom, Why?!? What difference is it going to make?” So we headed to a quilt shop….Yes, he read a book in the car, but I went window-shopping. Lots of pretty quilts, lots of wishing was done… Then we headed home.

A great day I think….

Here are zinnias from my garden.

Here is a photo of labels and fabric squares that came in the mail and just the right moment from Juliann…It’s amazing how 7 pieces of fabric, no bigger that an index card can cheer up in a split second ..….Maybe it’s not the fabric…. Maybe it’s the Quilter behind the fabric….

Gratitudes:
Chelsey’s safety in traveling
Don’s safety in a maintenance outage at work
Shrimp for supper tonight

It’s Sunday night--- I’m dreading Monday morning and work already, but I’m putting it in the back of my mind….Keep thinking about the good stuff. Teenagers are downstairs laughing as I type. It’s good having everything that matters under one roof. Eric made it home from Bible Camp this morning. Chelsey doesn’t leave for Detroit until Tuesday afternoon.

Friday night I completed-----time out….

Don just came inside and went downstairs. I heard what he said to each of those kids, “ I ought to make each of you take a walk, 10 minutes ago a teenage boy, drunk, came right down the road where your Mom, your Dog and I were walking. He spun out, totaled a car, hurt himself enough that ambulances are working on him and the State Police are standing there waiting to arrest him. Our neighbor was out cutting trees and he was almost hit. Timing is everything—Your Mom and I cut our walk short tonight… wonder what made us do it?”…. Monday morning is nothing compared to this….

Back to the good stuff. Friday night I completed the binding on the Missionary quilt. Remember it’s going to Liberia in Africa.
I think it kinda has that “Look”. It’s a real light batting and the binding is pieced together pieces of the red, blue, and green. There were errors in the instructions. The blocks were supposed to be 8 X 8, but the triangle strip only came of 6 ½ inches. There wasn’t time to make new triangles so I cut the strips and made smaller blocks.


I put four labels on it.

I named it ‘Fences and Pathways’. Fences can be really great things, they protect our garden vegetables, keep our kids in the backyard safe and keep our pups from harms way.
But fences around our hearts keep us from meeting really good people, trying new things and even letting go of the “bad stuff.” What kind of fences do you have????


Well anyway, it’s boxed up to head to Liberia tomorrow. Thanks for the “pep talks”. I think others had more faith in me than I had in myself…..

Game plan for the week---
Catch up on the 365 project
Work on the teddy bears quilt
Road trip to Green bay Tuesday
Get back to my BOMS

It’s catch up time. I can’t believe it’s August. I haven’t posted as much, but I’ve been keeping in touch. The garden is in full swing. Here are zinnias that will go on the kitchen table tonight.
I got my first batch of Snapped beans cooked last night. Chelsey’s gone to Cheerleading Camp and Eric’s at bible camp. So it was just Don and I--- not a bad thing either. I was hungry for my Mom’s home cooking, but she’s 1200 miles away. I cooked fresh corn, steaks and gravy, beans with new potatoes and cornbread. It was good, and fun to do, Don walked in from work with dinner on the table, but I couldn’t help but think Don kept looking at the dishes thinking it was too much work for one meal and two people. Oh well, leftovers tonight… so it balances out.

What have I been working on? A week ago an announcement was made that a church sponsored missionary couple that is in Liberia was having a box shipped to them economically($7 a cubic foot) on August 5th. As a quilter, the first thing I think of “A quilt has to be in the box!!!!) They have 3 kids under 6 years old. I taught the wife Sunday school twenty years ago. I think people should have quilts on lots of occasions, but with work and family, I seldom get the chance to follow through. But this time I said a prayer and decided it will all come together if it was meant to be. So I went home and glanced at my bulletin board of “quilt wishes”. You know that one--- It has quilt pictures, sample patterns in the mail, magazine clippings of things you’re gonna make “one day”. Well, I saw this piece---What turned out to be the pattern from Hell.
I pull fabrics from my stash like a mad woman and went to work on it.
My sewing machine is still broken, but I pulled out my old one Don gave me for a wedding gift. I plugged it in and again, “acted on faith” that it would work. I haven’t posted about it because, to be honest, I got scared I couldn’t follow through…But Sunday night I finished piecing it. I don’t have a picture of the completed work because I immediately had to get batting behind it and get it quilted. In the grand scheme of things it would have been great to get people from church to sign it, but there isn’t time--- maybe next time, but an idea from Leanne Beasley came to me and I’m going to do some writing on quilt labels and attach to the quilt. Some bible verses, some quilt wisdom (some words of wisdom of Finn)--- I’ll post more pictures as soon as the finishing touches are done. A confession, I brought the pattern to work to study--- I even cut up half square triangle units one morning at work when I was working by myself…. All I kept thinking was “Lord, this is for missionaries… my boss will KILL me!!!. It’s your job to take care of me. This quilt has to be made.” The pattern had measuring errors in it. It turned out to be a lot tougher than intended, and I’m not real sure it’s a real pretty quilt, but there’s a lot of heart in it. Don kept saying--- “They’re in Africa Mel--- it’s hot there….what do they need a quilt for????”

I had a $10.00 coupon at Keepsake quilting. I ordered this pattern and a spool of thread. It’s hopefully going to be for Eric’s Boss. They are expecting their 4th baby. I’ve drawn the pattern and added a 4th bear, a polar bear to the pattern. The photo doesn’t do it justice, I have seen this made up and it’s adorable and pretty easy.

The last photo is some great reading.
Lots of good ideas in both magazines. Fall colors--- where is the summer going?

One last thing--- a Chelsey moment. Yes—we’ve had a challenging summer. She headed off yesterday to Cheer Camp. “Mom, have you seen the movie, “Bring it On? I’m fixing to live that movie… it’s not going to be pretty!” We’ve been having weather in the upper 90’s. They’ll be working hard, lifting each other, no air conditioning, running, flipping and having to keep a smile the entire time. Can you imagine twenty something girls like Chelsey on one team?!?!?! (Pray for the leader!!) Well, I took the chance and having her eyes roll at me (It infuriates me) and said, “Chels, it’s going to be hot, tiring, and long. But you don’t have to be the bad guy. I guarantee if you sit back and watch, someone else will beat you to it… think about it.” Well, she didn’t roll her eyes. Maybe she listened. On the road she called from her cell. And She said---- like it was all her idea---“Mom, this is going to be the worst, it’s hot and it’s only 6 am… but I’m going to sit back and watch these girls, someone will throw a fit so I don’t have to….” Smart girl……

Gratitudes:
Quilters keeping in touch with me through email
Determination not to give up on a gift
A good week at work