What a week!

 I should have a big sing on my house that says "The Sewing House" because that is what I have been doing all week. My stride is back and I LOVE it! I was worried that I wouldn't get back in the sewing groove, but with the kiddos back at school I am back in my sewing room full time. It is great. I have been going to the gym and jogging away on the ARC trainer, then a bit of those gym machines and I trot back home. My shower time has been seriously reduced due to me being afraid of the scorpion family coming to visit, but I am slowly getting over that.

 Here is the Miscellany quilt all finished, quilted and bound. I do love it. It is so big, but it was really quite simple to assemble. It is based on the pattern from one of Kaffe Fasset's books, but the strips are all a bit more wide and I put put the quilt top together different. KF wanted me to assemble all the hexagons first, and then assemble hexagon to hexagon on the diagonal beginning with the top corner. Frankly I knew that would make me insane. Can you imagine trying to manuver this beast through your sewing machine when you get about 5 rows into it? With all the Y seams? No way Jose. I kept the hexagons as halves and assembled the quilt by rows. This did involve using the dining room floor as design wall, but that would have happened anyway. There are some points that aren't perfect, but if you are riding by it on a wild horse during a cattle stampede I am sure you won't notice (or however the saying goes). That is what Gwen Marston says. I love her...she has a new book coming out too. I have already ordered mine from her.

 So, let's talk quilting. This is quilted very simply. That is what Michelle wanted, so I did it. Frankly I love it. I did add some little spots of hand quilting, just to keep the eye moving along.

 Lots of lines, lots of silver thread. I did wish the Gammill longarm fairy would stop by my house and give me one. But since I am going to the gym again I took it! I took the burn. Frankly it was not as bad as it could have been, I do have a wonderful table and such a great sewing machine. But wow, a longarm would have been so nice. Someday I will have one. I will have a dream sewing boutique, little sewing stations set up for ladies to use, lovely bolts of fabric lining the walls, a gorgous Gammill longarm in the back...or maybe in the front?  A coffee bar in the mornings and a wine bar in the evenings. It will be so nice and friendly.

Speaking of which, I brought a stack of some of my favorite quilts to the new local quilt shop. I wanted to chat about teaching a couple classes. The beginning quilts she has hanging up are ghastly (in my humble opinion) No one will ever return to her shop to make more quilts. Anyway, she looked at all my quilts and said they were wonderful, but no way could I ever teach anyone how to make them. They would intimidate everyone. So, whatever. I left. With my quilts under my arm. How many ladies have I taught to quilt over the years? Quite a few. I wonder....am I such a crap teacher that I made quilting terrifying for you? Did you leave my house trembling? I hope I made it fun and approachable
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 This has been Stanley over the week. He is terribly bored with me. All I do is sew and listen to music. I wonder if he gets bored with Maroon 5 and Bach? I don't.

 Some of my sewing mess last night. I LOVE getting back to the bags. I have neglected them for too long.

 But, I think they will be pretty great when they are finished.

Last night I made Chili shrimp quesadillas. And they were AWESOME. I have really enjoyed the last issue of Everyday Food. I made Tandoori chicken the night before last and before that some really wonderful meat, potato and cranberry hand pies. I think I will keep pastry puff sheets in my freezer from now on, you can turn ANYTHING into a savory hand pie. I made extra, so my kids devoured them when they got home from school. I think Emma even took one for lunch.

OK, we have a crazy Saturday planned. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

xo,
Tia