Erin's Quilt Done

Before we left for our Easter weekend out of town, I finished the baby quilt I stared last week. I used a different kind of backing than usual. I think it was called "Minkee". It has a great, soft, knap, kinda like velour. When I bought it, I specifically asked how well it quilted and how it was to work with. I was told that it was fine, and maybe a little stretchy. Well, let me tell you, I won't buy it again. Fortunately I tried to do free hand quilting on a test piece. It would not move at all on my machine. I really had to pull to get it to do anything and I wasn't ready to go through all that. So I decided to put on my walking foot and just stitch in the ditch. That went very well. No puckers, no folds. But then I decided just to pull the back up over the front and stitch it down for a binding. Well, this stuff pulled and wouldn't lay straight and twisted. Uhggg! I guess I'll just stick with cotton from now on. :)

Guilty

Sorry I haven't posted anything for a while. We were out of town for the long Easter weekend and also have plans to be out of town this coming weekend. I've been working on a quilted tote for a couple of hours each night (well, maybe I only work on it 45 minutes a night, but sit there looking at it while watching TV the other 1.25 hours).

I have pictures coming of last weekend, no quilts, just family & friends. Hopefully I'll upload them tonight (if I can beat DD to the computer after dinner).

Out of Town for the Weekend

Just a note to let all my friends know I'm out of town for the weekend. Be back home on Monday.

Blueberry Crisp....YUM!

Every summer I buy 40 pounds of blueberries from Michigan and freeze them. Obviously, we love blueberries. This morning I got up and made two blueberry crisps. One for us and one for the man and wife (as a thank you) who are helping Katie and I with her Science Fair project.

Can you eat blueberry crisp for breakfast? With ice cream? Hmmm........

What a Ham!

DD got all dressed up last Saturday night to go to the YMCA for a 3 hour shut in for 3rd and 4th graders. They were supposed to have a DJ, so she got all dolled up and came down to model her outfit. She had a great time with her friends, but was rather disappointed that the DJ was cancelled.

Beatles Concert

Weds evening I went to a Beatles concert. No, the Fab Four were not there, but all of the 4th graders at my daughter's school put on a Spring Concert. They all had to wear white shirts and black bottoms. When the curtain came up, the stage was dark and slowly started to light up. As one, all of the kids pulled the sunglasses out of no where and started to sing "Here Comes the Sun". We loved it. DD is right in the front/middle next to the little boy. There's about 100 kids in the 4th grade class. The music teacher made all the little ties, they were just pieces of black fabric with a safety pin at the top. So cute.

The kids sang seven songs, including "Here Comes the Sun", "Let it Be", Hey Jude", Blackbird", "Ob-la-di", and you guessed it, "Yellow Submarine". Most of the background music was pre-recorded, but one of the 4th grade boys accompanied the choir to "Let it Be" on the piano. He's very talented and the music teacher said he'd been taking piano for 4 years.

The Beatles were done before I really started listening to music, so I've never really been a fan of theirs. But DD has been so gung-ho about the Beatles that I said I would add some of their songs to our iPod. I do have the album "1" already and it's loaded on, but several of the songs that she knows aren't on that album. So I went on iTunes and was flabbergasted to see that the other Beatles albums aren't available for downloading. Huh.... So I went on eBay and found one that had the songs we were looking for. Should be coming in the mail early next week.

What was pretty cool was that before the concert started and people were still coming in, I stood up at my seat to look for another parent. I was amazed that I recognized 90% of the parents from other events, etc. Maybe not by name, but usually by their kid's names and it felt pretty cool to think that we've all be together supporting our kids for the past 5 years (including kindergarten) and that we'll continue to see each other for another 8 years. DD and I moved to this town when she was just 2 and we didn't know anyone at that time. Of course now I know people from church and other moms from Girl Scouts, dance, and gymnastics, but I hadn't realized that the school is such a big community within the bigger community. Pretty cool, huh?

Next week the 4th graders start learning to play the recorder (what we called the song flute in my elementary school days). I can't wait. :)

Erin's Baby Quilt Top Done

I've been working on this baby quilt for the last couple of nights and this is what I've gotten done so far. I'm going to put a lavender border on it that matches the backing. I'll add the border before Sunday so I can lay it out for pin/basting at church after services.

I've just racked my brains trying to figure out where/how to hang my quilts so I can take good pictures of them to show you. I can't think of a single place in my house that has an entire wall that furniture isn't in front of. In past pictures, I've mostly just laid them out on the floor or on the bed, but I think that you can see so much more when they are hanging up (plus, there's not a lot of floor space and even then I'd have to vacuum up all the dog hair before I took any pictures). In the above picture, I have my DD holding it up. But she's not very big and even this baby blanket is bigger than her arms will reach. Oh well. Maybe its just another excuse for me to somehow get a sewing studio. Of course, that would mean adding on to the house...(vbg).

I'm already eying my next project. I bought a pattern and fabric for a really cool craft tote so I can carry around my quilting stuff. Fabric pictures to follow.