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!

My own personal Quilting Retreat day

As a thank you to my parents (mostly Mom) for helping out with the girls this week, I am making a quilt to go with their newly painted Guest Bedroom. Short version: in June when they were on their first "vacation" in YEARS, the weather was quite rainy, and their sub-pump decided to give out. It had rained on a Tuesday; they arrived home on Saturday, but hadn't needed to go downstairs until Sunday night----so.....by the time they finally realized the "problem?", the ENTIRE (finished) basement was ruined; carpet needed to be torn up, drywall needed to be replaced. This meant (and still means), a new basement (huge "living" area, 2 guest rooms, and one bathroom.)

I had seen the room last week when I picked Mom up before heading to my sister's house. So, I had some of my blues and grays on hand to "try them out" in the room. After perusing Quiltville.com for the perfect scrappy pattern, I (we) decided on Chunky Churndash, which I had already printed off sometime last year with hopes of making it someday.
Now---here's the extremely amazing part!...
With paint samples in hand, I headed out to Hancock Fabrics yesterday to find the perfect gray for the hour-glass blocks. Besides, Hancock was having a HUGE 50% off sale---perfect timing!
*shaking head, taking pulse, thermometer in mouth*
Nope....not sick! No temperature! Steady 60 beats per minute pulse....
so....HOW on earth could I have come home completely empty handed?!?!?! Seriously! I was on a mission, and the mission failed. I must have walked the aisles three times before throwing my hands up in the air. Not only did the perfect fabric elude me, I wasn't in the mood to find any "great deals" either! So, back in the car and off to Walmart to see if they had the perfect gray. NOPE! Then, off the the LQS (of my mom's town)--NOTHING EITHER! I simply am flabergasted! It seems that when I'm NOT looking for fabrics, it jumps into my hands and cart, but when I NEED the perfect fabric, it is simply no where to be found. That dang MURPHY!


However, I will not lose hope. I plan to head to my LQS tomorrow to see if I can find the perfect gray. Until then, I will make up the 61 "churndash" blocks that are needed for the quilt. I am childless AND husbandless today! I have been downstairs cutting and sewing since 9:00 and am taking a small lunch break at the moment; nothing fancy; just some spaghetti noodles with sauce. All the pieces have been stripped and cut for the churchdashes and should go together rather smoothly.

Hopefully your day is as enjoyable as mine is :0)

Happy Sunday

2:28 break
Needed to take a small break, so came up for a PB&J (peanut butter and jelly sandwich, for those of you non-mommies out there) :0). I'm also relaxing with a cup of tea; something I haven't had in a while. Not being an Englander, I rarely drink tea, but do like the lemon green tea varieties.

All 61 blocks are prepped, having sewn all the square segments into "rows" of the block. I now need to press the rows in order to piece the complete block together. Then, multiply that by 61.

My background noise of choice today started with Maid of Honor, then The Hulk, and I am almost finished with Aliens. Yeah, not quite the norm, relaxing background shows that I usually have playing, but I was getting tired of the same ol', same ol'. :0)

OH! AND! I almost forgot! I did have about a 10 minute break around 1:00 when I saw a MOUSE dart across the carpeted area downstairs. **Shudder** So, I grabbed my box of Freezer paper and stalked around for a bit (on my tiptoes!!) trying to fight the little bugger! Nice visual, huh????? Amidst my search, I did notice that one container of mouse/rat poisoning had been emptied! Gosh---how long has that (those?) little monster been mooching off of us??? I haven't seen any mice since winter ended. Ugh!

Volleyball Night...

I haven't blogged much about my Wednesday night Volleyball team.....but tonight, DH and I are still pumped up from our late playing time (9:00 start!). We've been playing since mid-January, every Wednesday night in a town 30 miles away; indoor league. Years ago, this league was a bit of a joke, but over the last 3-6 years, a good handful of "good" teams have signed up for playing. This year, there are three "top" teams, us being one of them. Last week was the first week of "tournaments," and we walked away with a challenging, yet solid victory over the 6th place team. Tonight brought on the big battle between 2nd and 3rd to guarantee a spot in the Final Showdown in two weeks. We are coming into tournaments in 3rd place, having only lost to the 2nd and 1st place teams. (Makes sense, huh?) :0)

Anyway....when we played the 2nd place team two weeks ago for the last game of "normal season" before tournaments, we kinda got killed! The first game was neck-n-neck: however 24-25, we lost. Then, the wind was out of our sails, and we fell apart! :0(

So, going into the match tonight, I already just had the mind-set that we were going to lose, so I just wanted us to go out and play the best match we could. I'm VERY competitive, and really try to work on my sportsmanship and attitude once the chips start falling against us. BUT, I still struggle and can sometimes be a "sulker" when we start to lose. Hence, I needed to just tell myself that we weren't going to win so I could just enjoy the match. Afterall, I DO follow the motto: "It's better to have played a good game and lost, than not to have played at all."

To get to the point-----We won! In two games, even! 25-23, 25-21. Go figure! We even played with a sub for one of our "manly-girls" :0) (We have a lady who plays like a man---kills; blocks; you name it!) Our sub is more of a defensive player and setter like I am, so we REALLLY had the mind-set of "play to have fun" tonight. We didn't expect a win.

It was FUN tonight! Not so for the other team, unfortunately. Sadly one of the male opponents started throwing in the towel early and "sulking" (hmmm.....that must be what I look like sometimes!!!). It's actually quite embarassing, and I was bummed because it really was fun playing GOOD, HARD volleyball!

Anyway---pictured is Misty May (Turner) who is probably a house-hold name in the USA. I actually watched her play college ball during one of my first years coaching. Little did I know then that she would go Beach, and be an Olympic Champ. Heck, little did I know that Beach VBall would be an Olympic sport!!!!!



On a quilting note: I basted up both sections of Chloe's Colors last night and finished up quilting one of the sections. I may be able to finish up the other section tomorrow evening ??? This weekend, I will be heading back down to Mom's house for Cassie's 2nd weekend of First Communion instruction. However, this time, it'll only be Cass and I; the other two are staying home with DH.
Plans this weekend: start cutting/sewing/writing instructions for the next quilting class I will teach. Deadline for the printing of brochures is April 1st, so I want to make sure I get my ducks in a row to have a sample top pictured in the printing. Ahhhhh!

YES, I know I have vowed not to start anything new, BUT.......... this is "different!" This will probably be a finish before any other of my WIP's see their finish!

Okay----I'm not ready for bed yet; 11:30 pm! So, I'm off to layout a training schedule for my racing events this year. OH!!! Yeah.....got outside running last night! We have had absolutely BEAUTIFUL weather this week!!!!! Anyway, running buddy (Julie) called me tonight and we talked about upcoming races we wanted to commit to. Between the weather and her call, I am pumped and excited to get back on track running!

Alright-----*breathe-breathe-breathe*--------

Night all!

It wasn't meant to be---UGH!

Sitting at mom's right now, watching the newest National Treasure movie, NOT QUILTING!

After school yesterday, I entered "warp mode" to get packed up and on the road by 5:30 to get to mom's by 8:30. All in ONE HOUR, I put Cassie on "Shadow-duty" (feed our dog) and then she and Caitlyn were on "outfit duty"; each of them picked out a Sunday-church outfit and two other play-at-grandmas outfits while I packed up clothes for Candace. I threw a load of whites into the washer and folded up a few items that were awaiting in the dryer. After that, I headed downstairs to pack up all supplies I needed for quilting; Stars-n-Stripes, walking foot, quilting foot, scissors, Chloe's Colors, stacks of fabric to piece a backing for CC, two different colors of thread for quilting CC (since I hadn't finalized it yet), the machine, rotary cutter and ruler and batting for CC. I also grabbed the back-up batteries and charger for the camera. I checked my pile many times before thinking "good-to-go." So, 10 minutes later, everything was packed in the car and we were literally bolting out the door. WHEW!

So, the first thing I realized that I forgot was the camera when I wanted to get a pic of the girls last night! Sure, I have the backup batteries and charger, but what good are they without a camera?!?! Okay....minor! No biggy.

Then this morning at 9:00, I headed downstairs to start quilting. I didn't even get the machine out of the case when it hit me-----OH NO! I FORGOT THE POWER CORD! Aghhhhhhhhhh!!! Seriouly Amy! Not more than 5 minutes later, DH called to see how things were going and if the drive down went smoothly. Naturally, I was still fuming at my stupidity of forgetting the power cord! And his chuckling DID NOT help! *NOW, I'm able to chuckle though* Anyway, so I brainstormed and thought maybe Hancock Fabrics might carry a power cord-----yeah, it was a long shot, but what was I to do in a panic'd state that I was in!?!??!?

But----I DID have a moment of brillance! I called my MIL, who THANKFULLY happened to be home this weekend, and she had NO PLANS of using her machine today. So---10 minutes later, I was at the in-laws picking up her Janome to use for the day. Wooo-hoooo! And another 20 minutes later, I was back at mom's sewing away. I worked on putting the final border squares on Chloe's Colors, and then started piecing the backing. By lunch time, I was up for a break, so mom and I took the girls over to the in-laws for the afternoon while we went to town to pick up a few things. Naturally, we needed to stop in Hancock Fabrics. And, like usual,-----BAD IDEA! :0) HUUUUUUUGE sale today! All Absolute Cottons were 40% off, many cottons were 60% off, some fabrics were on a 2.95-3.95 table........HEAVEN! I walked away with my share of goodies (amount undisclosed since DH might be reading this later on) :0) HI HUNNY! Nahhhh, I didn't go overboard, but sure enjoyed sifting through all the selections.

Anyway, back at mom's without the girls, I was able to layout the 10.5" squares that I was piecing for the backing to CC. By the time the in-laws showed up for dinner, I was ready to baste.

And then.......ummmmmmmmm............ looking around the basement............ double-checking the car..........looking in the bedrooms............NO BATTING!!!! Seriously! I KNOW it was on the pile to be packed into the car!!!! BUT, I when I really sat and thought about what I all carried to it, batting was never in my arms!! UGH! One of the girls most likley "played" with it while I was getting other things packed up, and it left the must-go-in-the-car pile. *SIGH!* SERIOUSLY! I just wasn't meant to get very far on quilting this weekend!!!

So, I'm done. I packed up MIL's machine and sent it back with her when she left tonight. And now...I'm out putzing on the net.

I hope to hit the road back home around noon tomorrow which will bring us in the driveway around 3:00. I really should work on my school work tonight so I don't have to tomorrow, but.......need I say that "i jes don't wanna!"

So....Happy Saturday. Hopefully your day has been more productive than mine :0)