A Crazy Time of the Year and Some Finishes

I want to thank every one who left such sweet comments and emails regarding my last post about the Top 55 Blogs for 2011.  I can think of so many other blogs that are much more deserving, but I'll take those 15 minutes of fame - I was just tickled (or gobsmacked, really) and your comments just added the frosting on the cake.  Thank you so, so much!!!

As most of you are experiencing, it's a busy time of the year.  The kids are ending their school year and many are going through proms, graduations, parties and the like.  We've been going through that too (more on that in a moment), but I've actually managed to get some things done.  I can't figure out how, but why question, right?

I finally finished the sampler that I've now named Sarah Esh's Frogs.   I probably should have found a little frog pattern and stitched it sitting on the grass (although that frog would probably look like snake fodder if I did that)!  This little piece just about drove me to distraction.  I don't know why something so small throws me for a loop, but I can't seem to stitch a straight line with these things - frogs all over the place.  Perhaps I have a mindset that since it's small, I don't need to really turn the brain on.  Obviously, I better keep it switched on at all times.  Anyway, here is Sarah:

Sarah Esh 1926

Barrick Samplers

DMC threads and Mystery Fabric (lightly tea stained)

The linen color is better represented by the first picture.  The only change I made to Sarah were the eyes on Adam and Eve.  The chart called for a blue that made them look like some kind of aliens with glowing eyes, so I switched them to brown.  The blue just unnerved me for some reason.  Sarah, along with Elizabeth Clayton are currently visiting Framer Tom and I hope that I'll have them back next week.  

I have also managed, around all the mayhem and fun times lately, to finish up another real problem child.  The pesky Hatchet blocks for the Civil War Chronicles Quilt.  I can't tell you how many times, once again, I wanted to fling these blocks against the wall, run over them with my car, or sacrifice them to the bar-b-que gods!  Or yes, take a Hatchet to them.  I would keep telling myself that I couldn't sew anything else until they were done.  So I'd go down into the sewing cave, look at them and walk out.  Not the way to get anything accomplished.  But I had to get them done - because what appears in the mail - the last installment of the Farmer's Wife Quilt - Woo Hoo!!  Month 17 and 18 just waiting so that the quilt can finally be put together.  That spurred me along.

Farmer's Wife Goodies

So I'm happy to annouce that the Hatchet blocks are done!!  Not absolutely perfect by any means, but they're good enough for me.  After making 16 of these:

I now have four of these:

Civil War Chronicles

Month #2

(shot far enough way so that you hopefully don't see that my points don't all match up)

I can't tell you what a mind burp I had on these blocks which is too bad because I am now four months behind on this quilt.  But they were a royal pain.  Partially because I had to make approximately 138 Half Square Triangles.  And wouldn't you know, that of all 138, I think that only 5 were totally squared when I sewed them together.  So there was a lot of trimming going on.  I have now learned my lesson.  Instead of thinking that I'm invincible and can perfectly piece these little devils by the line method, I will resort to other methods.  Below is the line method:

Line Method - Draw a line from corner to corner, put two squares together right sides facing and stitch 1/4" on both sides of the line and then cut apart on the drawn line.  This just didn't work, so I will now use those tools that are out there on the market.  I was just too lazy to think of ripping off little pieces of paper, but that could have been mindless work in front of the TV, saved me a lot of time trimming all those buggers down and I would happily be working on something.  So in the future I will be using these:

There are a lot of HST's in the entire quilt, so these are going to become my best friends in short order.

I've also managed to start another new sampler, but I'll hold off on showing that this time around because it's just border and borders are boring.  

Now for a little family stuff (and you can exit out if you aren't into the family thing).  My son, as most of you know is a Senior in High School (or should I say was - he graduates tonight).  With the end of his high school years coming to a close, there are a lot of things that go on this time of the year.  One was the Prom.  Here's a picture of the whole group and I show this because I loved the girl's dresses - much fancier then when I went to the Prom:

The whole group (my son is second from the left and his date, Mackenzie, is in front of him).

And the two of them together!  I felt so sorry for them because the weather was absolutely horrible that night - driving rain and it was about 46 degrees, but they didn't let the weather get them down.  The limo came and they were off to a great evening.

Last night, Mackenzie (who is a Junior) came over, saw us outside and asked if she could surprise Nick and decorate his car for his graduation.  Here are a couple pics - not the best as it was getting dark:

Needless to say, Nick was a little taken back to see this all over his car.  LOL

Yesterday, also marked the day that my daughter graduated from middle school.  Time sure flies and it's a little bit hard for me to take it all in.  But here she is before her commencement:

It's hard for me to imagine her at this stage in her life.  I still think of her as sitting on the kitchen floor with a Tupperware bowl on her head.  Her favorite cupboard and the only one she could get into was the one that held the Tupperware!  Now she's off to high school (why does that make me shiver????).

So that's about it for me this time around.  As I mentioned, my son has his graduation commencement tonight, a Senior All Night Party and then next Saturday leaves for Spain.  It's hard for me to imagine him going off to a foreign country at this age.  A friend today emailed me to congratulate me on his graduating and said that she was sure that I would shed a few tears.  I probably will, but I think that I'll be blubbering like a baby when he leaves for Spain.  For some reason that makes the fact that he's growing up hit home all that much more.  I know that he will have a wonderful time and it will be wonderful experience for him.  And he has instructions to bring me back a pair of sewing scissors from Toledo!!!

Once again, thanks to all of you for your wonderful comments on my last post, and I hope that you have a wonderful weekend!