If I had a hammer

I would pound my head with it!

ARGH!

We're getting 100% of our Algebra I done this summer if it kills us.

Right now it's only-

making my head hurt

making me strongly dislike Middleman's whiney ways

making me listen and watch Middleman do everything he can to squirm out of doing fractional exponents and scientific notation

not letting him go to the pool with his buddy Alexis

making him grimace in anger and frustration

knowing that yesterday he did as little as possible to get by

I need a Drumstick!

(pray for me 'cause the hammer sure is a lot less calories than a drumstick!)

Friday Finish!

Can I just start out by saying "Thank You!"

For sunshine.

Bluejays.

Flowers.

Thunder that shakes the house.

Rain.

Worms.

Air conditioning.

Children.

Books.

Birthday cake that stays moist a long time.

Love that lasts.

Amen.

As you can see, I've been working on the quilt top.  Vintage love with an obsession for bright, happy fabric from today.  This has been fun asking the quilt what color should come next and then letting the vintage goodies tell me which pattern I should use.  Pairing it with a fq from the stash I've bought over the last year.  Can you see the ones from Heather Bailey and Jennifer Paganelli?  Any others in there your might recognize?  Not that I'm a fabric snob.  But it so much fun to see the lovely and fun prints from so many years ago matching up so beautifully with fabrics from today!  I love the continuity of the craft and creativity.

Generations holding hands in a vibrant, exciting and delicious new way.

I am still woking on the memory quilt.  Cutting furiously and piecing carefully.  Denim is a hard material for my hands to work with and I have to stop often to rest them.  I'm such a wimp!  LOL

My Friday Finish is just three rows on deposit for the rest of the quilt.  Not sure where it's going or what it will be used for.  Thankful for thrifty men and women who didn't throw such vintage treasure into the trash when they were done with it.  Loving the new fabrics that come out and make me smile and my heart beat faster at how breathtaking and fun they are.

Head on over to Amy's for Friday Finish.  I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to this week!

psss

someon very special turns 15 tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Middleman!

You make me proud and I'm so blessed to be your mom.

Ditzy Doodle Forgot a Title Post

Thank you all so much for your kind words on the tablerunner.  I look at it every day and smile!

Last time we shared some time together, Jen asked me about the memory quilt I'm making for Marcia.  Jen, I followed these tutorials to help me:

http://quilting.about.com/od/ragquiltpatterns/ss/rag_quilt_basic.htm

http://www.quilting101.com/styles/rag-quilts.html

I'm thinking I will have to add some knit shirts in to make enough squares.  So, I'll let you know as I go along.  I've most of the flannel and cotton shirts cut into squares and the jeans have been cut up so the denim can be made into squares as well.

In between the memory quilt (I don't have a picture of the first one on this computer) and the Higgeldy Piggeldy quilt

I decided to test block the awesome tutorial Jen pointed out to me a couple of posts ago from the

Modify Tradition blog.

Here's the first one cut out sort of pieced together

I decided to take some of my vintage loveliness and pair it with a new polka dot print from who knows where.  The tutorial has you pressing your seams open but I've decided I don't like this for quilts as it "seems" to let them pull apart easier.  I press all my seams to one side so I can sort of "lock" them in with another seam as I sew.  I found my points lines up much better this way.

Here it is all put together, enjoying the flowers.  One very important thing I have learned is the precision of your cutting makes or breaks this block.

Another thing I learned is no matter how hard you try, how many seams you rip, and how many times you reposition the squares, if the points don't want to match--they won't!  It doesn't look so bad here, but I pieced this bad boy together three times and it's still off in matching a lot of seams.  (I still really like it though!)

It's so hard because every time I finish one, I think it's my new favorite combination.  Hubby love's favorites are the green, pink and yellow (in that order).  I like them all, but of course, the last one is my new favorite!

Thanks Jen, you're a sweetheart!  Stop by her blog, she's celebrating her blogiversary with a giftaway!

Ta for now and have a great afternoon!

Friday Finish's Instant Gratification

Okay, so I've been working on another memory quilt and the Higgeldy Piggeldy quilt this week.  No quilting, no binding whatsoever in ages.

Pulled out my pile of scraps and whipped up a new table runner

for the dining room table.  A nice, long, skinny one that hopefully won't get pushed into a wad or removed from the table because the laptops take up too much room.

Lined it with a very popular print and used the cutest little plaid for the binding.

And here it is with what is left of my almost 7ft tall blue/purple delphiniums (for Dorrie) that were demolished this week in a three day storm festiva!

Lots of love in this table quilt.  Vintage, designer, gifted scraps and some fabric from the 70's again!  What is it about scrappy quilts I love so much?  The stories behind the fabrics?  The way cool selection and variety to look at (almost like an I Spy quilt)?  Whatever it is, I'm hooked!

On the 4th of this month, Javi's class presented their mothers with roses at the graduation ceremony.  I brought mine home and put it in a cool, cobalt blue vase under the hood over the range top.

I'm not sure how or why-but the stem is sprouting new shoots--as if it's an outside rosebush growing new branches.  I'm watching it daily to see if a root system develops and where the new shoots will go.  How cool is that!

I'm spending part of my day (wedged inbetween everything else I have to do) checking out the other Friday Finishes at Amy's blog.  So grab a tall cuppa and head on over for some delicious, low cal eye candy!

Crap!

There are very few things in life that tempt me to curse--

I've been happily collecting fabric for my turn at the ISQB from scrap baskets at quilt stores all over Indiana (with some fq from hither and yon thrown in).

 

My month is August and I loved the ocean greens and blues and the wildness of it all in these scraps and fq.  All of these beautiful colors and patterns would be perfect for this block that

Christina from The Sometimes Crafter shared back in April. 

Here's where the "crap" comes in.  I can't open the PDF file of the tutorial.  There's this lovely white box with a question mark and "ok" for me to click on.

Sigh.  I hate being a techno nerd who knows nothing.  Sigh.

So anyway, what do you think?  Like the colors?  Dig the wildness?  Will this be an awesome block?

Curious minds (well, actually, just mine) want to know!

First summer snuggle this morning since I was truly coherent when Bean rolled into our bed this morning without me waking him up.  Off to VBS-Day 3.

I've been working on my "Higgeldy Piggeldy" quilt in between catching up and running all of Life's errands.

My newest favorite block.  That's vintage sheet quiltiness wrapped around cool blues.  The tan fabric on the left side is from fabric my mom gave me that she used to make my sister and I summer outfits in the 70's.  Yummy!

Some free piecing waiting to be cut into 6" x 6" squares.  I scored bigtime Monday!  KT and I went to a LQS for some therapy after a lunch at Qdoba's.  In her manyvan was a honkin' huge bag of scraps!  She had been gifted tons of fabric from a person her Treasure works with and shared with me.  Now, some of the scraps given to me were given to her first, but they found their way back to me and are now in the new quilt.  LOL!

See the srip on the very right bottom?  Mine to begin with and they moved home after staying at KT's for about a year.

Bought a Hunky Dory Jelly Roll.

Total splurge, but hey, it was my birthday.  Right?

You can barely see it sandwiched in the overflow stash basket.  Up front on the left is some perfectly scrumptious fabric that is making friends with

some fabric KT brought home for me from Paducah (she's almost been forgiven for leaving me here at home).  OMStars I could just eat these.  Oh!  The tastiness of it all!

For the family folk reading along, Middleman was asked to do extra duty at the pool this week (always a bonus to earn more) and Javi will be gainfully employed in August when school starts.  It's an on campus job that will work around his class schedule and give him some extra spending (or saving) money.

God is good!

Catching up on all my bloggy friends.  What are you up to today?

Sew & Tell Friday Finish

And I thought I got a lot done the week before!

LOL

Friday the 4th was Bean's last day of school til next year.  See him giving me the "two thumbs waaaay up" signal?

Later that night:

Middleman, J and Bean are waiting patiently for the ceremony to begin.

We are now the proud parents of a highschool graduate and college freshman!  We're so proud of you Javi!

On the stand is the picture of a beautiful young lady who would have graduated with Javi's class.  She died of a heart condition their freshman year.  Her mother was there to give a testimony and receive an honorary degree on behalf of her daughter.

One down, two to go.

Another great finish for the week!

Saturday, we partied!

Punch and cake at our house in the afternoon and a cookout with family and friends later that night at Mimi and Dad's house.  Thanks everyone for hosting or helping make this special occasion so memorable for all of us!

Whew!

Another finish!  Next party is Middleman's 15th birthday in a couple of weeks!

Sunday we drove round trip over seven hours to visit my grandpa who went into emergency surgery.  He's doing great and hopefully today the rest of his packing comes out.  (that sounds really gross!)  Love you Grandpa!

Wednesday and Thursday were awesome!  I'm so thankful to have been able to be there with Javi and help him navigate freshman orientation and picking out classes.  About 9:30 Wednesday night, he decided the major he thought he wanted, wasn't.  So, hubby-passing-on-the-family-business and I helped him think his options through and make a new choice--with a totally different direction for classes!

Being part of the Honors College at this university sounds like the experience of a lifetime.  I'm really looking forward to watching him go through classes and become what he dreams of becoming!

Huge thank you to mum in love who watched Bean and Middleman these two days.  Middleman had a youth activity Wednesday she got him to and Thursday my "California surfin' dude" went to work at the pool again.  I'm so proud of him!  He's learned to bake cookies, make pizza, shmooze the members and what to do in situations he's clueless on-ask for help from a manager!  LOL

This week also saw me getting a little further along into the 40's.  I don't mind as long as hubby is here living the good life with me.  My mom and I share a birthday, so that makes it even more special!  Happy Belated Birthday Mom!

Somewhere, in the craziness of it all, I managed to piece together my IMQG block for Janet.  Who graciously signed me up for the Indianapolis Modern Quilt Guild a couple of months ago and invited me to join the group's bee.

She asked us to make 12 1/2" brick blocks with some incredibly fun and fabulous fabrics!  A lot like free piecing, which is one of my favorite ways of relaxing and destressing.  I love the little bikini babe and friend!

Today? well we've slept in a little bit and Javi will head back over to campus to the Career Center and get registered in their system for (hopefully) an on campus job that will work around his class schedule.

Thanks for sharing in this wild adventure the last few weeks.  VBS starts Monday for Bean.  Three hours of time in the morning to catch up!  Summer Vacation starts today!

Head on over to Amy's for other fantastical and fabulously fiesty Friday Finishes!

Adios!

There's a light at the end of this tunnel...

 Summer Vacation 201o

Day 1:

Co-op picnic.  Where we preview and preregister for classes in the fall.

Day 2:

Parent-teacher conferences and confrontations.  About a week ago, after hearing Bean's almost daily rehash of the class bully's antics, I almost turned the car around and took him back to school to ask the headmaster to explain to Bean why he had to put up with this crap and why he (the headmaster) couldn't or wouldn't do anything to put a stop to it.  I didn't-thinking peacemaking-keeping hubby wouldn't like my mother's daughter's 'tude escaping.  Tomorrow just might end a little differently.

Bullying is one of the reasons we pulled Middleman from this school.  And haven't sent him back.  Although, I have to say, one of the girls in his class who had been vicious to him for three years came up to him at graduation Friday night and apologized.  That made a huge dent in my "bitterness, anger and grudge" holding department.  LOL  Mama Bear has a very long memory and loves her cubs very much.

Okay, enough vent on the viciousness of kids the lethargicness (is this even a word?) of adults.

Day 3:

All day college freshman orientation.

Day 4:

Repeat Day 3, only tired and cranky.

Day 5:

Complete and total collapse.

Although, I am outside in the cool afternoon breeze, under my umbrella, eating trail mix, drinking a Coke and looking at my squirrel free (for now, they know I'm here outside) gardens.

Life is good.

Hitting the "Pause" on my life's remote

What am I doing instead of depiling the stack of stuff on the dining room buffet?

What is the pile of laundry doing still sitting in the hallway?

Why aren't the dishes put away?

How's come there are still toys on the floor and groceries to be bought?

What do you mean you haven't been fed yet this morning kitty kat?

I'm stealing a few moments of peace and quiet before the storm.  Recharging my batteries for the day.  Storing up the sunshine of quiltey pictures on flickr.

Soaking up beautiful words from bloggy friends.

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

Listening to the clock tick-tock.  Tick-tock.

The refrigerator running.

Birds chirping outside.

Feeling my heartbeat slow and steady.

Paused.

For the moment.

Thank you all for how you have gifted me with laughter and sunshine.  Inspiration and hope.  Encouragement and a pat on the back.  This is a sheltering place, blogland.  It is the people, quilters, who make it such a lovely place to spend some quiet moments.

A happy place.