Sad to report, it has not been a productive weekend, at least where sewing is concerned. Friday evening after work, I had my hair cut, that turned out well, but I was looking forward to a nice relaxing evening w/the hub-meist. What I came home to however, were the Bicker Brothers in full battle mode. (the BB's of course, are mythical creatures who sometimes possess my otherwise, fairly peaceful boys, they have not reared their ugly heads for quite some time to my knowledge, but this night...oh yes, this night here they were HERE ) The source of contention was the (in the works) duck hunting trip being planned, with MANY phone calls and IM's between the cousin and a hunting buddy, however, the little brother was told that there wasn't room for him, thus creating strife and strong language, oh it's funny now, but the older brother was stressed out to the max and the LB was in his room sulking. Hub-meist was trying to reason with both sides and was getting nowhere, LB couldn't see the error of his ways and OB couldn't see how they could possibly take anything less than 7 dozen decoys, therefore making absolutely NO room for the LB. When all was said and done, both boys got to go, along with the cousin & buddy all of the silly young men sleeping in the blind that night. Why you ask? well they of course were waiting for the break of dawn to arrive, so they could kerhoom the unsuspecting quackers, lured in by no less than 6 dozen artfuly arranged decoys and some creative duck calling! Kinda crazy if you ask me, but who am I to quibble??
Before they could leave, however, an impromptu trip to the local Walmart became necessary, when room was found for a box of still unpurchased shotgun shells. Off we go and are wandering the aisles at 8:45 pm, when what should my battle weary eyes spy? Only the yummiest excuse for Christmas merchandising to begin the day after Halloween, in my opinion...it was Ghiradelli peppermint bark!!!
I grabbed a bag, but not before the OB jokingly demonstrated his rendition of me swiping every bag of the delicious splednor off the upper shelf and into the shopping cart and jetting off to the check out before Hub-meist could stop me!!! Funny boy...lucky he has any hair left!!
Saturday required a trip to my OB's/ SIL's house to visit their brood of 8 wiggly lab puppies...oh my goodness, they are SOOOOOO cute, it doesn't make me want one, but it did inspire me to do my part in socializing the 4 week old cuties, by cuddling, nuzzling, breathing in the heavenly scent of puppy breath and getting my face covered in puppy kisses!
So, today...Hub-meist had to dig a hole & re-do the sprinkler system's backflow preventer to placate the city inspector who is coming to take a gander tomorrow morning (lol...had to laugh that Hub-meist didn't believe that the city would tack on a $1,000 fine if it wasn't done on time....UNTIL, he opened the water bill, that is and then had to do some fancy talking to have it removed!!!) While he was busy with his project, I surmised that it might be a good time to work on my wonky cabins. I decided to add sashing between the blocks to make the quilt a bit larger, but it looked too plain. Now, I have been rolling around in my head a way to add some interest to the sashing and played around with that for a bit before settling on my original idea. Out came the leftover scraps and I set to work, amazingly finishing the first row in no time...the second row has not been so cooperative...I swear that I have ripped out the same block 5 times before the quilt police ordered me to, "step away from the quilt, Ma'am..." so, here I am blogging away, calm, cool and somewhat collected.
There was a bit of progress in the stitching arena this week, despite both kids and myself feeling puny for the last couple of days. I managed to get six of the nine GFG rounds ready for their last row of hexagons while listening to the tv or my iPod,. I'm just not sure if I like the green...what do you think? The pattern is from the July/August 2008 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, started late last summer so that I would have something portable to take with me on camping trips. The method is English paper piecing and I have to say, I really enjoy it! I'd like to try piecing an eight pointed star with this method also.
This is what the finished quilt is supposed to look like...I'm getting kind of excited at the progress that has been made...it's almost in the home-stretch, can't wait to see it all put together! I love the appliqued border...though I have some other flowers in mind...might have to improvise a bit, I think! Well, would you look at the time?! 11:32 and well past regulation bedtime...Mr InAwe is due home tomorrow evening from Academy, everyone cross your fingers and say a quick prayer that the pass is clear of snow and that the torrential rains have not caused any major flooding along the 250 mile route home...it's been a LONG week and I've missed him!!!
