Rainy Days are Quilting Days!

I'm glad we spent the last weekend up north instead of this weekend!  The weather today is very wet and chilly - perfect for staying indoors and quilting up a storm - or maybe doing some fun reading.  I was excited to win a $100.00 gift certificate from C&T publishing as part of the Christmas Caroling Row Along, and I just received my package:

I had a blast going through their online catalog trying to decide what to pick!  I started out by looking for Angela Walter's books - I have Free Motion Quilting and Shape by Shape Collection 2, but never got a copy of the first Shape by Shape book, so that was first on my list.  Then I was tempted to pick up Free Motion Meandering, but instead I got her Free Motion Quilting Workbook, thinking that would be nice to have to play with design ideas in the evenings when I'm not in my sewing room.

After that I checked out Bonnie Hunter books, can you believe that I don't own any?  I picked up Addicted to Scraps, because...scraps!  I have lots of those that need to used! 

After that I browsed around looking for something fun and inspiring and I found The Little Spark!  This one has been on my Amazon wish list for a while, so I was super excited to see it.  By this point, I just needed one more little thing to fill out my cart and found this interesting Trim-A-Tip tool so decided to give it a try.

My package just arrived on Thursday, so I am looking forward to going through my goodies this weekend and being inspired.  I don't purchase many books anymore because I've been quilting for so long that I have a very full library, so this is quite a treat for me!  I did notice that there are quite a few e-books available as well, so I will probably be purchasing some of those in the future - it's a great option and requires far less storage space, plus they are a bit less expensive.  Though I do have to say, I totally love print books and enjoy flipping through the pages as I relax in my chair - total bliss!

Here are a few pictures from last weekend, we had so much fun seeing our grand-kids and hanging out with their parents :)

Can you see Mount Hood in the distance?  Hard to capture it with a photo, but it was gorgeous!

You can see it peaking from behind the trees a bit here.  The day started out very cool and foggy, but once the sun came out it was perfect!  Layer by layer my outerwear came off until I just needed a light sweater in the warm sun!

One more shot of Mount Hood as we traveled north into Washington!  While we were there we had several lovely views of Mount Rainier, but I never got a picture of that one.  We enjoyed a sunny Sunday afternoon at a local pumpkin patch, but I guess I never took any picture there, either :(

Another foggy morning that turned into a beautiful day!  After dropping Emelia off at school on Monday we went out for breakfast, then spent an hour at Goodwill.  I found some good books for fall reading, a beautiful coral sweater, a new jigsaw puzzle and a pretty white tray for my sewing room.  I don't usually find that many goodies, I'm pretty picky when thrift shopping, so it was very fun to walk out with a nice pile of goodies.

Tuesday we got home mid-afternoon, and I got busy with laundry and planning out my week.  I got started on the next baby clothes quilt, this one is going to be stars:

I plan on having this ready for quilting next weekend so it can go out at the end of the month.  Lots of fun stripes in this one, it will be so cute!

I finished up this puzzle so I could start a new one - I find that I am sleeping a bit better by not being on my laptop or phone so much in the evenings.  Trying to stick to books and puzzles more, so am trying to find a better time in my day for writing patterns and blogging.

And Scamper had to go to the vet for shots and a check up.  He has a lot bare patches on his rear and belly.  We haven't found any fleas on him, but the vet says it's pretty classic flea allergy reaction.  So I am vacuuming and washing his blankets as well as ours.  Hopefully we can get this under control without having to give him a cortisone shot - seems like many people in this area are seeing this in their cats this fall.  We did have a very nice summer, I suppose the fleas like the warmer weather as well!  We are trying a new flea medication to see how that goes - we actually haven't had to use any for over a year, so hopefully this will be under control soon.

That's it for my week in a nut shell - it's good to be home with no travel plans in the near future.  I love visiting family, but truly feel there is no place like home.  I love my normal routine, and I have missed my fun sewing time as well as blogging regularly over the last couple of months and am happy to settle in for the rest of fall and enjoy doing my favorite things again.   I'll be working on the rest of the year's Quilter's Recipe blocks over the weekend and planning out some more fun projects for next year. 

Enjoy your weekend, too!

Sunday Reading:

Lately I've been doing more reading blogs than writing....bad me!  I guess you have to blame part of it on a super busy month - altering prom and wedding dresses has been a priority - and Quilt Market.  Oh, the fun of seeing all those blog posts about one of the big quilting events of the year, it just makes me obsessive with checking out all the beautiful pictures and posts about new fabric, patterns and notions.  I think it would be a lot of fun to attend a Quilt Market one of these days.  Maybe next time it is held in Portland...

I also like to read blog posts and news articles about trends in sewing and quilting.  This is one that I caught through my facebook feed and thought it was a really good read - The Rise of Mending.  I think this is a great trend and it is a value that I learned growing up.  I like the statement that sewing is empowering - I feel that so much whether I am creating something new like a quilt, altering a garment, or repairing something so it can be used longer.  It is very satisfying to me, and I enjoy passing that enjoyment on to others.

Mary Fons is another quilter/blogger I enjoy - I very much like her perspective as she blogs about her life and quilting.  She shared an awesome poem in this blog post about "The Song of the Shirt".  It is bit of a downer, but so real.  The power of words to move our emotions and make us feel deep emotions is amazing sometimes!  While in the aftermath of altering dozens of prom dresses plus a massive curtain project I can surely relate to the emotion in this piece.

I am also trying to read more books - I've had Les Miserables on my kindle for over a year now and have not been able to get past the beginning!  I recorded the movie on my DVR last week and after watching it 3 times this week have determined that I need to get through this book - what an amazing story.  I had the same problem with Tale of Two Cities, but it was totally worth working at, so I know this one will be as well.

And yes, there is finally quilting going on!  This is what I am working on today....(Yep, my UFO from March is finally getting fully finished!)  Sorry for the bad photo - camera battery is dead...