Pictureless catch-up post

Good morning and Happy BEAUTIFUL Sunday morning to all of you.

It's been a bit quiet around the Amy's Passions blog the last few days; I've been intermixing some traveling with cleaning, but am now back home for a day before needing to travel out again.

Last Thursday, I needed to drive to my parent's house (135-ish miles away) so that I could "deliver" my girls. I have an AP-Statistics class scheduled this next week and will be staying at a hotel, so I needed to work out the summer-bargain with my mom and sister to watch the girls (just like they've done in summers passed.) The girls LOVE these weeks and I'm very thankful my mom and sister are willing and able to take them on for these workshop weeks I have scattered here-n-there. This summer, I ONLY have this one on the definite calendar; however, there is another that I may be guilted into come August. We'll see....

I digressed.

So, while waiting for the few loads of laundry on Thursday in order to pack the girls for their week outing, I found myself cleaning out/organizing my closet, Candace and Caitlyn's sock drawers, ...... By the time all the packing/cleaning/organizing was complete, my closet now has a visible floor, I can now see all of my sweatshirts and t-shirts (my staple summer shirt of choice) since they are neatly folded/stacked, the girls' sock drawers now only consist of socks and underpants that fit (and have no holes), and I had about 15 boxes/bags of donations stacked in the entry-way that Paul (thankfully) volunteered to deliver to the local "goodwill-like" store.

When Cassie came to peer into my closet and I showed her my stack of all of my race t-shirts, she said "wow, that's a lot." {{LOL}}. Yup. It was the biggest stack by far! And then, when Paul came to see the stack, he (of course) had to comment....."now, assume that each of those was a minimum of $10.00.......hmm......{{I don't like where you're going here Paul}}.....BUT, also, think of all the mileage racked up from that stack. {{That's a better thought!}}"

BUT, all packed up, we were on the road with a quick Library stop to renew some books and to check out a book-on-CD for me for the drive. Friday consisted of an all-day garage sale and shopping spree day. I stopped at Hancock fabrics and the local quilt shop to pick up some Browns and Blues for the QuiltvilleSwap (yahoo group) swap being planned to make Bonnie's Smith Mountain Morning quilt from her newest book. There's plenty of time in case you want to join! I have DEEPLY fallen in love with this quilt!!!! Just follow the link to join the group. We are swapping half-strips (5 browns/5 blues to a set) in sizes 4 1/4" (for those using Triangulations?), and 1 1/2". There is also another signup for the 2" (unfinished) blue/brown HSTs (2 to a set). Deadline is August (15th, I think?). Plenty of time since they are only strips!!!! No sewing to do for the swap, unless you're making the HSTs.

Again, I digressed.

I came away with four great men's shirts from one moving sale; each $0.50, and they match! LOL....my mom saw me placing the shirts next to each other as I made my way around the rack, and she commented...."quilt idea?" She's getting to know me better now :0) (HI MOM! She's been keeping up with my life by reading my blog lately) The colors were reds and whites. I plan to cut them up this week during my down-time in the hotel.

My visit to my parent's was short; After hugs-n-kissed to the girls {{and all the reminders of 'stranger-safety' (pushed by Paul after having a bad dream)}} I arrived back home yesterday afternoon and immediately (after unpacking) headed to the garden to do some weeding around the tomato plants. It's been SUCH a cold June; EVERYTHING is behind up here in Wisconsin; crops and gardens alike. BUT, the tomato plants are finally taking off; everything else we seed-planted is slowly coming out of the ground (beans, cucumbers, onions, peas, peppers, dill, basil, mint, pak choy, lettuce, potatoes, squash, watermelon, carrots, kolorabi (sp?), corn) and the purchased broccoli and cabbage plants are also doing real well!

Now that I've caught up on emails and blogs, I'm not sure exactly what I'll do today. I need to take time to organize a project or two to work on for the hotel-evening downtime; the garden needs more attention today, and then I also have to pack up for my week; verify driving directions and final alternate routes since I received an email that construction is heavy near the college right now.

Anyway....happy Sunday!

Friday Night Sew In

Now that it is TRUE Friday Night Sew In....
;0)

First, I APOLOGIZE, APOLOGIZE, APOLOGIZE for not having any pictures with this post...but I'm at my parent's house again........

DIAL UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLD BACK YOUR HORROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't have the patience to wait for the pics to upload; besides, my Mom just went to bed and I don't know where her card-reader is.

I spent the day with my girls, sister and Mom, garage saling for 6 hours! Lots of goodies and summer clothes for Cassie. Whew! Now she can actually have clothes that FIT her, rather than looking like she needs to be trying out for the next Daisey Duke role!

I also hit Hancock Fabrics and actually didn't buy out the store! I think I only came away with about 17-18 yards; I'll have to get back to you on that one Sunday Night :0)

So....now.....tonight....
At 7:00, I headed to my Mom's lower floor and started pluggin' away on the Quilts 4 Kids kits that arrived just before leaving the house yesterday afternoon. One kit was Doggy themed, one "Olivia," and the third is a bright, pink "peace" theme. I was able to put together BOTH the Doggy theme AND the Olivia quilt tops tonight before needing to call it quits because the girls needed to get to bed. {{they sleep on the pull-out couch that is on the lower level.}}

Having three girls, I KNOW the "Olivia" show, and I had the theme song playing in my head over-n-over-n-over again while piecing the top. It was kinda hard NOT to have it in my head because Olivia is printed all over the fabric.

It's SOOOOO fun to run the material through the machine; fun, new fabrics that I don't have to count towards (or against) my stash useage.

Okay...I'm off to see if anyone else has posted already tonight.

Family Reunion tomorrow and then heading back home sometime on Sunday evening. I probably won't post again until Sunday night....so....

HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE!

A SALE!!!!!! How will I EVER resist???

Oh crud!

When I finally came out of my slumbering stuppor from yesterday (YES! I actualy slept until 6:04 today!!!!!), I thumbed through the mail on the counter. My Hancock Fabrics flyer arrived.....

I don't have a Hancock store near me, but there is one in the town I grew up. I often make a lil' stop everytime I head "home" to the parent's house...


Well folks, guess where I'm heading Thursday afternoon to help set up for a weekend family reunion??????


Crapola! And I JUST got back into the BLACK with my stash reporting!!!!!!!! {but how can I REALLY resist all those sales???}

---

Off to the dentist shortly for a Cassie-cavity appointment. That poor girl has inherited my TERRIBLE luck with teeth. FOUR CAVITIES at the checkup last week! That was the worst I had as a child too. And it's NOT because we don't brush----I simply have BAD, THIN teeth that don't want to be healthy! **sigh** At least she doesn't seem to mind the dentist yet; must have something to do with the lil' gas they offer her. WISH I had that growing up!!!!!

Okay---and this weather!!!! It's suppppppposed to be sunny and nice today!!!! We (humans AND plants) need a break from the dreary overcast, rainy days; we've had a stretch of ELEVEN of them! Looking outside at the moment; GRAY! Not rainy, but no sun either. Tomorrow is going to bring more rain, so I really want the day to be nice today so I can be out in the garden. If not, the garden won't be touched again until returning Sunday from my parents. :0( It really needs a good tilling after our lovely watering from heaven over the past week.

And then of course, there is also grouting the tiles on my to-do list. But that may wait until tomorrow before heading out to Mom's.....

Catching up and "Treasures found"

WOW! It's been since Tuesday!
I headed to Mom's on Wednesday and didn't arrive until late. Then, had to get up EARLY Thursday to get to my math workshop 2 hours from mom's house. *sigh*.....I was disappointed in the workshop, but did learn a few things.

Not surprising, the day didn't improve until I stopped at a quilt shop near the convention. I hit a jackpot of scraps! I picked up 5 Gallon-size bags of scraps for $1.50 each (one was larger and was $3.00). Pictured here are all the scraps separated by darks and lights. I can using these on the Oklahoma Backroads for my dad.


Also, this piece was in one of the bags of scraps. My gosh! It's practially finished! The quilting motive is already chalked into it for me! I'm thinking of finishing this one with hand-quilting. It's small enough and I have so much better stitches by hand than by machine.



Once I arrived back at my mom's house, she informed me it was the "City-wide" garage sale weekend. Well...golly gee! I know I don't have to tell you what we did the next morning!!!

It is quite comical how "quilters" see garage sales. Take, for instance, this stack of men's plaids. Jackpot at one sale!!! Each shirt was $.50 - $1.00. My mom said "oh...did you find some shirts for Paul?" I simply said...."Nope! I found some great fabric for my next quilt!!!!"

Here are some other finds.....
Lovely purple/blue flower "Scrubs." $1.00. I'm SURE I'll find a nice project for this fabric. How cute!





Plus, I'm all about color-coordinating (as long as a project is NOT meant to be scrappy.) These are also purple (but difficult to tell from the photo.) And these are also HUGE! You can't really tell how HUGE they are, but I could easily put both of my legs in one of these. These were a bit more expensive, but worth the fabric. Easily a yard and a half here! $2.50




Amazing deal here!!!! TEN CENTS! Then again, WHO really would wear this?!?!? But, there is SO much fabric here! Easily over a yard!









These "Grandpa PJ's" were at one garage sale for $1.00 a set. (The white and red are each a set of a top and matching shorts.) The navy blue is a short-sleeve shirt, and the bottom red fabric is a pair of "relaxing" pants. The reds are actually burgandy, and I thought they would create a great Red, White and Blue something-er-other.




Well, off to the local Florist for some plum and pear trees. Maybe some potatoes, strawberries and rhubard bushes too.