I made these coasters out of scraps I bought from Lotta Jansdotter. The backs are white scraps from my stash. The batting is from the quilt fiasco. Because the machine is set up and everything was on hand, it took me about 30 minutes to whip these up. I wrapped them up with a little ribbon and included a jar of tomatoes from our garden - a small gesture for a friend.
This weekend I got to everything on my list except the quilt binding and the hand sewing. Not bad. I made the binding today and it'll go on tomorrow. Hopefully, I will finish it on Wednesday.
We did go to the farmers market as a family. After I had bought two huge cinnamon rolls for the girls, I picked up some roma tomatoes, yellow squash, french red fingerling potatoes, pork chops, bison steaks and zinnias. Later in the morning, we embarked on a family adventure to Madison, Indiana. On the way there, we picked up some peaches and blueberries. Once there, we walked around town and shopped. It was a fantastic day. Fatty and I know how to shop well together - I blitz through antique stores and he lolly-gags. He's always calling after me, to show me the good stuff I missed. We came home with a lot of treasures. LOTS. And that isn't even the best part. The best part is........
wait.....
THE GIRLS CAN ANTIQUE FOR HOURS!
This, in and of itself, was worth the trip. These young ladies lasted all day through two large antique malls plus a few stores here and there. Fatty gave them each $5 at our last stop. They shopped and shopped, trying to find THE PERFECT THING. And in one of the last booths we entered, there were tons of vintage, handmade doll clothes in a basket for $1 to $2 an outfit. I helped them go through and decide which would fit the dolls they had at home and for a couple of bucks, they each took home a treasure.
The way I look at it, we all came home winners.
And, I get to thrift and antique a little more often.
Sweet.
I am so happy that it is Friday. This weekend I plan to:
- finish quilting Liz's gift and add the binding too.
- eat food from our garden.
- visit the farmers market.
- go for a run, maybe two.
- take a drive in the country.
- sew by hand.
- finish a book and then start another one.
- take a nap.
- enjoy my family.
What's on your agenda for the next few days?
The rains came. Crazy rains - 6 inches in one hour. There is flooding in different neighborhoods of our city. Lots of damage to homes and cars. We had some leaking, but it was pretty minor. I got it all cleaned up and then spent the rest of the day cleaning and puttering. I worked on the quilt and on my hand sewing project too. The girls organized the DVD cabinet and then watched a movie. We cooked dinner and Fatty came home from an overnight trip. I worked on some camera straps and stayed up too late watching bad reality TV.
Today I slept in. And feel like having another quiet day at home. The girls have other ideas in mind. Roller skating or bowling, they say. I'll probably give in. They start school two weeks from today and I really want to savor what's left of their summer break. There will be plenty of time for quiet days soon enough.
Happy Wednesday.
Today's plan was to turn this quilt top into a quilt. It's been sitting around for almost two months waiting for me to finish it up. Procrastinate much, Erin? Well, yeah, I do. But I have been getting better. Or so I thought.
This morning I pieced the back and taped it to the floor. I unfolded the batting and smoothed it out over the backing. I put the top down and gasped.
The batting is 1" too short.
One flipping inch.
And I could probably piece the batting, but I haven't done that before. Because this is a gift, I am not willing to experiment this time around. If the quilt were staying here, I might just cut some off the quilt top and call it a day. But I can't do that - it'll ruin the design and again, it's a gift.
So to the quilt shop we go because our most fantastic babysitter goes to college in a little over a week and her quilt needs to be finished. Good thing I didn't wait until the absolute last minute because then I'd really be screwed. Or pulling an all-nighter. And for goodness sakes, I am too old for that.
I've got lots of other little projects in progress. Back with some show and tell soon.
I asked my brother-in-law to pick a number between 1 and 123. He said 77 so the copy of Vintage Baby Knits by Kristen Rengren goes to....
Aprill, email me your address (hillroad at bellsouth dot net) and I will make sure the book is on its way to you shortly!
So, here's a quick glimpse of the studio....I'm still tidying a bit. And I'm officially out of storage room, so I am going to go through those fabric stacks and weed them out a bit more. I'm also wondering how to organize the scrap bags. Should I do them by color? Warms and cools? Or a total grab bag? Feel free to weigh in. I'm feeling indecisive.
