Sunday

Mom and Dad came down to visit today. I took them to see Rachel's house, then we all went out to eat in the Old Market and walked around the Heartland Park & Lake. It was a nice day for it and we had a good visit too.

I came home and worked on a few more string-piecing blocks & the model for class. I also finished watching the last of Season 6 of the show "24". It was not as good as some of the first ones. It seems they just get more preposterous every year. More and more crazy things happen that make no sense, people who are near death one episode, will be recovered 2 episodes later, which since the show is real time means it is only 2 hours later. I think the writers of the show need to write all the episodes before they start shooting the first, instead of making it up week to week.

Anyway it was a nice weekend, all in all.

Mini quiche are not so hard to make!

I have some quilty friends who try to meet every month or 2. We haven't been doing very well, as we haven't met since February. In talking with one of them as she looked over my booty from vacation, which included a couple of new/old tea cups from my sister in Canada, she decided we should have a tea party on August 21 at her house. I offered to help with food (it was the least I could do since I didn't have to clean!), so decided I should make some mini quiche as well as some other goodies. I practiced today, and they were good. I used Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry, cut out circles & pressed them into mini muffin tins. Then I put an egg mixture in and baked. They were tasty, & I just hope they are as good on Thursday. I baked some plain shells too so that I can make little desserts out of them. They turned out cute as I used a scalloped cookie cutter, so after baking they look like little flowers. I will try to take some pix after I get them made.

I also went swimming today at Rachel's, her dogs were entertaining as usual. They are like a couple of kids. The older one knows when she has done something wrong and will go to the kennel. After she does it, of course.

Thursday is for finishing...

The first day of school went well. It is always fun to see them back in their new clothes, so excited. I got a lot done in the library too so that was a plus.

I worked on getting the binding on my nephew's flame/cars quilt tonight and finished it. I have it in the dryer now, so can call him tomorrow. It is a very simple "quilt" (I use the term lightly) but he will like it...all those cars and flames. What is it about boys and flames?

Wednesday is back to school day...

Yesterday I started something with some of my vacation fabrics and some geisha girls I had. It is just bits and pieces of asian fabrics with girls and the kimonos which is the main reason I wanted to make something ( I had to buy the geisha girls--they were the last on the bolt & were calling my name). I think it is going to be 3 separate pieces that can be hung together. I will probably do some quilting, then add beading to it, so it may never be finished ( like the Mermaid) as it is hard to know when to stop!

I love my job at school, but it is so nice to have the relaxed summer schedule, too, with only quilting classes to worry about. We had a beginning of the year gathering for all 1100 odd employees of the district. It was nicer that usual, we sat around banquet tables with coffee and rolls. The speeches weren't too long and our new superintendent is actually a motivational speaker. This is her second year, so guess she is not new yet, but she told us today that we saw improvements last year, but our work is not done, we have to try harder this year.....

Once I actually got to school I spent the day putting the library back in order and laminating for the teachers. Tomorrow is our first day of kids, so they will all arrive with new books, clothes and best of all NEW CRAYONS!!! I love the smell of new crayons, and still remember the thrill of it from when I was a kid. The library won't be open for a week or so, as I have to update and enter students and other not so exciting stuff, then I have to do a short orientation with each class. Then we get down to a regular schedule. I have 7 classes that I read to, the rest of the kids just come and go when they need books. It is a great way to do it, though sometimes it gets sort of busy. But I like that. It is never boring, that is for sure.

Ok, maybe Monday is a day of rest instead....

I started out the day helping a fellow Library Clerk at another school who is new with a few things at her school. Then I went with friend to a quilt shop to look at fabrics. I came home planning on quilting, but my daughter called and was swimming, so I went there instead. It was fun.

I had class last night with my ladies from the beginning.....of me teaching classes, that is. They are working on Sampler #8, Stitching for Hours, which is on this page. One of them brought her granddaughter and daughter who are visiting from Belgium. Her husband is in the service there. So we played with the baby too. What fun!!! She liked quilting, and I am sure will be a natural when she gets a little older.
It is actually Tuesday, so I had better get busy and do something....my last day before I go back to school.

Sunday is not a day of rest...

I worked yesterday, but it was just UFO Day so everyone brought stuff to finish. I extended the time to 4 hours, and there were 9 people signed up!!! that is the most ever, we almost didn't have room. One person ended up not coming. We missed her, but it worked out ok. The ladies had fun sewing and the 4 hours went by quickly. I am having another on Sat. Aug. 23, since I don't have any Sat. classes until Sept. We all need time to finish projects.

After work I went with Denise and her grandson, Marcus (5) to a quilt shop. He was looking at the cool kids' fabrics, so i said I would make him a pillowcase. (Innocent me thought that would give him something to shop for since fabric might not be that exciting to him.) Pretty soon he found too many he liked, so he asked me if I would make him a blanket too? Who can resist???? So I just got 2 fabrics he liked for that, and 2 different fabrics for the pillowcase. I made the case when we got back, so he could take it home, and quilted the fabric today. It is flames on one side and cars on the other. I used a scroll pattern for the quilting, as I thought that looked as close to flames as I could get. I cut out the binding, but then I had car fabric left so made him a bag to go with it. I just sort of made it up as I went along, so it has pockets and a drawstring to hold it shut. I will post a pic of it later. I still need to put the binding on the quilt, but it will have to wait a bit. That must be the easiest quilt I have ever made!

Tonight we are going to go to my daughter, Rachel's for a cookout and for her dad to help her put her new mower together.

TGIF, except it means 1 day closer to school starting!

I had another good day of quilting. The machine is working well. I really think that I wouldn't have the ups and downs quilting if I just quilted a little every day, or even several days a week. I could be wrong, but it went really well this week, and seemed to go better the more I did. It is so much fun to quilt when it goes smoothly, no thread breaking & other problems. It is just hard when I work at school and teach classes to get anything else done. I quilted a smallish (57 x 69") one today, and a tablerunner. The runner went really fast...they are fun to do. I quilted the Oak Leaves panto on the quilt...it was in browns and golds, so used dark gold thread and I think it looks nice. The runner I used the scrolls, as when they are going across the length, they look kinda like fireworks....or maybe it is just in my mind. Some things are...just in my mind....it can be a scary place.

I go back to school next Wednesday, which will be fun, but just more work!!!! It is nice to have the summers off from school & only work one job. The fun one!!! Though I have to say working in the library is fun too, get to look through all those books! Didn't get as many school library books read as I hoped, but have been caught up reading Stephen White's books about Alan Gregory. My sister Kathy got me started on him. They are really good. I need to go to the library and get some more as I have run out of all I had here. (Nancy sent some back with me too). I am reading Stalemate by Iris Johansen. It's good so far. I haven't read anything by her before, but looks like she has many books, so might have to if I like this one.