Weekend Recovery

I'm still trying to recover from the long holiday weekend we had here. Not that anything exciting happened--it was just busy.

Jo came home on Monday and we had a super nice visit with her.  She and I have quite different temperaments and sometimes we lock horns on issues. In fact--this really is not exaggerating--she pretty much stopped speaking to me (except for important things like "When are you going to get my  laundry done?" and "I'm going out and don't know when I'll be back.") in 6th grade and only began speaking to me again when she was in her early 20's. No, we did not get along while she was a teenager. Fortunately, she and her dad got along great. So now, when she comes home or calls on the phone, I just shake my head and wonder where that sassy teen came from and where she is now.  Not here with me any more, thank goodness!

This is Jo at her graduation last spring.  Don and I are very proud of her!

On Saturday and Sunday, Don and I were in the garden, getting things planted. I managed to get it all done except for some row crops like carrots and parsnips.  I'm so sore that I'm going to have Don do it when he returns from his golf trip.  Then the entire garden will be in and I can relax and just concentrate on pulling weeds.  Fun, fun, fun!

The rest of the time, I puttered in the sewing room.  I had volunteered to teach a mini class on making McKenna Ryan quilts so I had to get something prepped to demonstrate. I went through my MR patterns and found this one, "Watching Over You."  No, it's not about a stalker but about an Ojibwa tale of a bear whose 2 cubs couldn't swim all the way to the opposite shore of the lake and were turned into the two islands in the distance.  Mama bear keeps watch over her cubs.

I'd purchased the pattern several years ago when I found it in a sale bin somewhere, and put it in my pile of patterns and forgot about it. When I went through them again, I chose this one since it's a rather simple design--for a MR piece!--and I thought laying out the leaves on the tree would be a good demo of how to use the teflon sheet and tack down the leaves.  So, yesterday I spent tracing out the pieces and assembling the background piece.  Since this pattern calls for some of the tree to reach into the border, I had to get that assembled as well.  I have everything ready to go for Tuesday night's guild meeting except I need to cut out several of the leaves and get them ready to be applied.

Oh, I should say, MR is discontinuing many of her previous patterns--the one I'm working on included--since she's associated with one particular fabric company and no longer can use the fabrics she chose when she designed the old patterns.  If you like MR designs, now is a great opportunity to get some of her patterns at very reasonable prices.  I was able to find the two blocks I was missing to complete 2 other patterns I have--

Home Tweet Home

 and 

Gingerbread Lane

So now I have no more excuses to not get these two quilts finished.  The blocks I bought were nearly half price which I thought was good, and I looked at the embellishment kits for the Gingerbread Lane quilt (every block is adorned with crystals and beads and such) but even at sale price, it was too much for my cheap thrifty pocketbook.  I think this will look just fine without the added glitz.

But for now, I have to begin cutting up the additional fabric for the Bear Paw quilt and try to get the top complete in the next 2 to 3 days and then can begin the quilting.  Wish me luck!