Another birthday? Maybe a vacation?

A couple of weeks ago I traveled to visit this one:

She is a bit of a planner and had my vacation planned out for me.

No itinerary but definitely a specific outline.

Crafting

Cooking

Shopping

Cooking

TV viewing

Cooking

More crafting

There was alot of loafing around squeezed into that outline...

5 pounds heavier, I came home having covered all of those... I want to say that was a success.

We started with this:

Banana Pudding Cupcakes... Success!!

 Then I made this:

My sister made the wool applique and I pieced the background.

It has another border but I didn't get a pic. You can see it here though: Pumpkin Butter

What else.. Ah, we made this one evening:

Garlic Pesto Chicken... Another Success!!

We watched ALOT of this:

While we did some of this:

To wrap up the few days off we had taken, we had one of these:

 

At a great tapas bar in Nashua, NH called Stella Blu

Definitely a wonderful time was had.

I've been home for only a week but I already miss the kids.

Can you believe that this little lady turns 25 today?

She will always look like this to me.

I count my blessings everyday and thank the lord for letting me be her mother.

Happy Birthday, Nyshma!

Birthday Celebrations and all that

A few weeks ago my little sister celebrated her birthday.

She was our parents last hurrah and the best thing to happen to our family.
So when she asked me to join her for a girls night out, I had to say yes.

We first went to this Mediterranean restaurant (Terra Mediterranean Grill).
I'm not into Mediterranean food but the chicken kabobs were so good, I'm looking forward to going again.

I wish you could have seen it before I was through with it.

You will need to take my word on this one.

Then we headed to this place where you get to be artistic and drink enough so you feel artistic too! A Piece of Work is a studio that gives you a standard paint brush and a design to follow. They allow you to bring your own wine and snacks so it becomes a social event.

The entourage. That is the birthday girl on the right in yellow.

This was the goal. Our sample, so to say.

I quickly realized that this is not a place a quilter should go. Most quilters (I include myself in this general group), work in definites, precise measurements, no deviation from the rules... Controlled chaos is acceptable but free form... what is that?

Jessica knew things would not go well for me when I started measuring my canvas. It was not a stress free night. I think I would do better with a more abstract design. LOL!

Not my best showing.

I wish I had a picture of my sister's piece. 

She knocked it out of the park!

It was a fun night though and I won't hesitate in doing it again. 

Thanks Jess for dragging me out of my cocoon every once in a while. 

You are my favorite little sister EV'R!!! 

Traveling with a project on your mind

I'm heading out to visit my daughter this weekend. Last time we got together we did a bit of sewing and with no concrete plans, I was expecting 5 days of vegging out watching old TV shows and just enjoying some quiet time.
With that in mind, I've been prepping my hand projects the last few weekends. Nothing big and elaborate just some needlework that I can tackle in the middle of some Battle Star Galactica.

Needless to say I was a bit surprised when Nyshma told me that she was planning on wrapping up some REAL sewing (adding a few borders so some tops), I was.. "But we were going to sit around and loaf" She says "I have a TV in the sewing room"... How is it that my daughter who is "new" to quilting has a sewing room and I don't? I need to ponder that one a bit.

Anyway, that had me scrambling... I had to dig through my To Be Made projects for something that was quick and required very little pieces.

I grabbed my Petit Four quilt top that is STILL waiting for borders.
I pulled a Fat Eighth bundle of Clermont Farms (by Minick and Simpson for Moda) for my big version of Lincoln (Pattern in Another bite of Schnibble by Carrie Nelson)
A Layer Cake of Salt Air for my version of Piece of Cake 3 (Pattern by Camile Roskelley)

Then I have the hand work I had already had prepped.
My applique block for my version of Jacqueline's Album Quilt (pattern by Lori Smith)
My little baskets for my version of Trick or Treat (pattern by Black Bird Designs)
And last my little embroidery hoop with a block from a Xmas Quilt designed by Gail Pan

I don't think I'm over packing. Do you?
What if I don't want to work on one thing? I'll have options! A Girl needs options!!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Hope your travels are always stress free and full of Options!

Giving things a Test Drive..

There has been a bit more TV viewing this week than usual with the Summer Olympics taking place and I have found myself desperate for something to do while watching, so I pulled out one of my long term projects and dusted off the cobwebs.

This is the first block in my, larger - more modern, version of Jacqueline’s Album Quilt. The original block is 9" but I have decided that is a bit to small for my clunky hands. I've decided to increase the size to 12" which was just a matter of enlarging the applique templates to 10 1/2".

As to my travel project I decided I needed to give it a test drive.

I wanted a one piece template of the basket instead of attaching the handle separately, so I traced the handle on the body template right off the bat. I wanted to make sure I would be comfortable with the corners and arcs.

It actually went smoothly, but I thought the handle could be pulled down closer to the body so I adjusted my plastic template to make the basket more stout.

I completed 4 little blocks in no time at all! Only 292 to go! LOL!