It's not all that amazing what can be accomplished when one who typically has three little ones underfoot no longer has them underfoot and one can fully concentrate on quilting time :0) In addition to the three finishes I'll be posting here, I've also spent a full day (Friday) down in Rice Lake (city 30 miles away with all the "non-small-town" shopping places) doing errands for DH and myself; I then spent all afternoon Friday at a HUGE Antique place, enjoying my time, no hurrying, no whining, no place to be.......*sigh*.......twas quite nice! I didn't come home with anything, but enjoyed looking at all the handmade quilts all the same.
So Friday = no quilting.
But, back to Thursday:
One of my "teammates" for these classes that I'm taking brought me this cute little package of goodies on Thursday once she found out I enjoyed quilting. The little story behind the package: back in 1989 she had taken a class on English Paper Applique, and she purchased this kit at the completion of her class with intentions of making a 4x4 setting wall-hanging. (The invoice is in the picture!) Yeah, well, like many of us, she never got around to it and just came across it, so she figured she might as well donate it to me. When I unpacked it, it was one square short, so a 4x4 setting wasn't possible (only 15 blocks total could be made.) So, I laid out a 3x5 setting, but didn't like it :0( Then-----a-ha! Why not make two???? V-iola! I created a 3x3 (which I intend to keep) and a smaller 2x3 setting for my friend who gave me the package.
I have called it "Hearts of Karma." Rather fitting, don'cha think? It still have the binding to hand-sew on the 3x3 I'm keeping, but the 2x3 was finished up today (Sunday).Saturday morning rolled around and DH and I left the house at 8:00 am to go to New Auburn (town about 60 miles away) to pick up some pig food. The man selling the food had some good information, not just on pigs, and before we knew it, TWO HOURS has twiddled away while we just stood outside chattin'! The clock was almost chiming Noon time, so we decided to just head back home and not continue to Eau Claire (another town about 20 more miles away). We only planned to go to Eau Claire to hit the Sew Complete Quilt shop, but I was okay giving that up. About 10 miles down the road on our way back home, we hit the exit for Bloomer, drove down Main Street, and stopped at the Main Street Cafe. (Gosh, I feel like Amanda with all her fun village visits she's shared with us). Anyway, after a simple lunch of a grilled chicken sandwich, we (DH) decided to take the "back-roads" home. *chuckle* Have no fear, he did NOT get us lost......but....well, considering it was 1:00, and only should have taken 45 minutes to arrive back home, we didn't finally walk back in our house until 5:30. HA! We stopped at a few garage sales, a barn sale (where he bought an antique Stanley Planer something-er-other (which we later researched to be worth about $75 and he only paid $15)), we stopped at the local Agriculture Station where they have an "experiment" garden that we strolled through. Then, when we FINALLY thought we were heading back home (4:00), we swung into the Washburn County JR Fair to look through the animal exhibits. I saw so many of my students working diligently grooming their animals for the evening show!
Anyway, finally we arrived home! I was rather beat, even though I hadn't done much of anything all day, so I didn't feel like heading downstairs. Rather, I grabbed the Trip Around the Raggey World to finish up the clipping. Golly---that's a tedious process! But, at 8:00, I finished up and threw it into the washer right away. I completed the washing and drying today----this baby will be going up to the Farm to be used as a nice snuggler! Each block finished at 5", so is roughly 55"x65".Finally, I woke up today (Sunday), and set the goal to finally finish up Cathy's Aunt Sukey. HOWEVER, before I could do ANYTHING, I neeeeeeeded to get out and RUN! I haven't run since Monday, so there were NO excuses keeping my feet from the pavement today. I drew out a map for my DH (he was still sleeping), and set out to tackle 10 miles! I haven't actually gone out and checked my actual mileage today, but I'm estimating I ran 8-9 miles. Considering the hilly stretch I ran, I figured that was close enough to 10 miles in my book :0)
After a quick shower and a bagel, I set straight-away to working on Cathy's quilt. I still needed to finish whip-stitching the connector strips on the back (to connect the three quilted pieces together), which I finished around 11:30. I then needed to quilt the border strips yet, so after marking the quilt design, I was able to finish all the quilting work by 2:30. Finally, after trimming and sewing the binding strips together, I spent the rest of the afternoon sewing the binding on. 
My hand-sewing is getting better and faster, but I still am not a fan when I'm "getting tired" and starting to lose patience. I wanted this quilt to be done! And finally, it is!!!!Oh, I also forgot to mention that yesterday, while driving here-n-there-n-everywhere, I had taken the Baby quilt along and do some more hand-quilting. Now THAT hand-work, I don't mind :0)
So once again, a lengthy "catch up" post.
Family update: Cassie (via grandma) called and talked to me today for the FIRST TIME since she's been gone. Golly, she sounds so big! She's loving her time away (even though she DID admit to missing me); they were at my Sister's house this weekend, and on Tuesday they'll be going to my husband's parents (the other grandma), and on Wednesday they'll be going to Aunty Dawn's house (DH's sister). So----they'll stay busy again this week.
Sooooooo..........I don't have class until Tuesday this week. I hope to have some time to just tinker tomorrow downstairs. Now that Cathy's Aunt Sukey is done, I almost feel "empty." Gosh---is that really how I feel? No....not really empty....but......."enlightened"??? Oh, I don't know. I still hope to make two pillow shams with the remaining fabric, but I don't think I want to start that tomorrow. I still have some "antsy" feelings towards working and perhaps finishing the Oklahoma Backroads quilts, so I have a feeling THAT's what I'll work on!
Happy Quilting!
