Progress-Cathy's Aunt Sukey

Once again---early rising: 6:15 am. Both Candace and Caitlyn crawled into bed sometime in the night, so at 1:30am, I hooved it up to Caitlyn's bed---there just wasn't enough room for DH, those two, AND myself. So...Caitlyn's room doesn't have a clock---the birds were singing, sun was blaring, I figured it was past 7:00 for sure! Oh well.....

Coffee, bagel, yada-yada. But I got basting Cathy's Aunt Sukey right away this morning before the sun realllly started blaring through our windows. Once 8:30 rolls around, we don't have a chance getting away from the sun upstairs until about 2:30, so those are the hours I usually like heading downstairs to sew or "hide" in our back bedroom. Verrrrry cool in those places. These are our windows that face South-East---VERY nice in the winter months though (on sunny days!). The heat that comes through these windows with the sun is amazing.....


Anway.....once I had the quilt (top corner piece #1) basted, the girls were getting a bit ancy (as I was using the kitchen floor), so I had them take up the tape while I fixed up some cereal and bagels for them. Wow---we really are a bagel family---Cailtyn loves bagels with cream cheese, and Candace any myself enjoy a strawberry cream cheese on ours.

But finally, around 8:30, I was able to head downstairs to put my first quilting stitches in the sandwich! Yeah.......
after half an hour of simple stitching in the ditch, it was time to move to an "outline" about 1/4 inch in from the seams on the light gold/yellow pieces. However, a simple straight stitch seemed to boring-----playtime with the different stitches followed for about 15 minutes. I decided on stictch #146. BOY---was that PUTZY once I finally started stitching the blocks. I had one block completely done and needed to take a break---girls were getting a little bored and ancy. So.....hmmmmmmm, an "outing" was needed; more thread was needed; PERFECT OPPORTUNIY! I'll be killing two birds with one stone. So, at 10:45 we rolled out the door for a "drive" and ended up the the LQS with beginning quilt in hand. Of course, the lady (who helped me pick out the mauve and light gold/yellow fabric) wanted the show-n-tell session and she helped me pick out some yellow, green, and mauve threads I needed to complete the quilting. It was a short visit, ONLY thread was bought. We stopped of at good ol' McD's for some lunch, and headed home.

Once the girls were settled after eating lunch, I was back downstairs to finish up the other three blocks with stitch #146 before getting to the FUN part of the yellow fabric flowers. WOW--that went so much slicker than I expected---I am VERY PLEASED with how well the flowers turned out! I FMQ inside the "center-piece" blocks (black/flowered fabric).

And....my first oiling was requested! I told my FIL (father-in-law) about the "oil" light and he chuckled! (He's a driver education instructor) So of course he joked about having a machine that was smart enough to remind the driver that it was time for an oil change!

Just LOOK at that lint! It's amazing, really, at what can get built up within a week's time.

By 4:30, I wrapped up most of the marked quilting, then headed upstairs to mark the green sashing. I had completely forgot about those yesterday, so......
I was only able to get a few marked before needing to throw together some supper and get ready for Volleyball. DH and I play on a league every Wednedsay---what FUN! I coached vball for my first 7 years of teaching; referee'd in college; played in HS---love the sport! DH never really played, but has REALLY turned into a great player----tsch! How could he NOT???? He's 6'6" for crying out loud! All he has to do is stand with arms straight up and he's towering over the net! :0)

But.....FINALLY------they arrived!

Of ALLLLL the nights to come home with the pigs, he would HAVE to choose a VBall night!!! He was already running late, so we hustled WARP SPEED to get them settled before bolting off to Vball---we were only a few minutes late.

Champion and Eddie were a hoot to watch once they realized they had new "farm mates." They pranced about; flared their nostrils; winnied like little spoiled brats; and just down-right didn't know what to think of them.

Grandma and Grandpa came for a short visit tonight on their way to the "Farm" up north. So, they packed up Cassie and took her with since we'll be coming up on Friday anyway. The two little ones weren't too keen on not being able to go with G-MA/G-PA, but we tried to be "smarter psychologically" and told them they needed to be sure the new pigs get settled and told them they had the responsibility of naming them (and not Cassie) :0) *wink* It worked. Amazing sometimes!

Looking forward to a quieter house tomorrow---#2 and #3 should play nicely together and I should be able to get some more quality time in quilting. I should be wrapping up piece #1 and hopefully start on piece #2 tomorrow (same size and shape for bottom corner.)

Happy Quilting!