But First...

  I'm posting from the blogger app, so I have very limited options.  Sorry.  I'll try to find a chance to come back to add links and move the pictures around.

My husband has been away on a hunting trip for the last couple of weeks.  My first thought was that I would get SO much sewing done while he was away and I didn't have to stop sewing if I didn't want to when it was time to cook, or whatever.  

(Of course I still had to go to work and take care of the kittens, and do the laundry....)

 I had fabric I was dying to make into an early Fall dress using a pattern I got quite a while ago at some quilt shop or other.   But first...                                        

I had layered this table topper quilt back in the spring.  It's made with leftovers from the Star Light, Star Bright (Scrap Therapy) class I taught several years ago.  I had a bit of fun with the quilting.  The center is meant to sort of look like a poinsettia blossom.

And a sort of orange peel thing in the narrow border.  Very easy, and fun!

Then in the outer border, which is 8 inches wide, I did free form feathers.  I don't recommend doing it this way, but I don't hate how it came out.

Then I found a bag of bits leftover from a couple of projects.  I put them together because I thought they would look nice together.  Kathryn Schmidt (Rule Breaking Quilts) was sort of my inspiration for this.  She has done some blog posts about her "Anything Goes With UFOs" class. (Look here http://quirksltd.wordpress.com/classes/ )  Step one: put your bits and pieces on the design wall.  I ended up rejecting the stripy piece in the center.

This is how it ended up- after a couple of days of  staring and moving things around and cutting and fitting and tearing out and trying something different.  It's a nice size for a crib quilt, but I think it's a bit much for any baby.  It might end up as a tote bag.  Mostly I had fun doing this.  I didn't really need a new dress anyway.

Tomorrow I am taking a class with Wendy Butler Berns, who is the national teacher my guild sponsored this year.  So hopefully I'll have something fun to share after.

Do you have an old appliance in your basement?  I do.  It's a "perfectly good" freezer which is somewhere around 25 years old!  We keep jugs of water in it part of the year when it is more empty to prevent it from having to cool a lot of empty space.  But it is still very inefficient. It needs to be replaced, and disposed of properly of course!  Most retailers will do that for you when they deliver.

I am grateful for:

Bake sales at the college because they usually have brownies.

Accepting my own limitations.

Soup weather! (Broccoli cheddar to get things started!)

Cuddling with George in the mornings.

Wine O'Clock