Heading Into the Weekend

Life is good. I rummaged through the FQ cubbies and came up with fabric to add a second Quilt for Kids to the Downy project.

That's my fabric on the left, Downy's on the right.

Now the big news......I DID OUR TAXES. Signed, sealed and delivered. Done, finished, over. Yippee! No more procrastinating. Whatever will I do? We've closed on the refi, the house is clean (except for washing a couple of floors), my Bernina Guide class for tomorrow was cancelled...O-M-G....I've got a totally free weekend on my hands, with absolutely no plans.

The hubs went out to play poker. My plan was an impromptu call to a couple neighbors to pop over for a glass (bottle) of wine, but the first one I called is in NC for a wedding, so that tanked. So here I sit, alone on a Friday night.

I've weighed my options.....

Drive up to Milestone and pick up a bottle of Pinot Noir and duck into Borders to see if they've got an Australian or New Zealand quilt magazine, then cozy up for an evening of reading. Tempting.

Drive over to Lakeforest Mall for Macy's shoe sale. Had my eye on some cute wedges and the Ed Hardy slip-on low tops (mine have seen better days). But it'll be dark soon and the mall in Gaithersburg is also known as 'Gangs-R-Us'. An errand best left for the daylight hours. Actually, an errand best left for a nicer mall where 90% of the stores aren't random gift shops with names like Dragon Cave, Dollar Ocean, Himalaya Gift Shop, selling paintings that make waterfall sounds, Buddhas... Or the random teen clothing stores (definitely not national chains) with their store names spray painted on plywood hung over their doors. Yes, our mall is in no danger of being classified as 'upscale'.

Waste the evening on the computer

Find a productive project to work on in the studio, which is sort of the direction I'm headed, except the fool dogs think it's open mic night at the Big Bark cafe and feel the need to bark their fool heads off at the wind, the neighbor kids on bikes, the random dog walker, any car that drives by.

I'm nursing a Coke Zero (poured when there was a chance I'd be hitting the road), but now that it's looking like I'm going to stay in all by my lonesome, I think I'll go swap that for something a bit more conducive to nursing a creative vibe. I'm thinking dirty vodka martini, 3 olives.

Ooops...Barkfest is going into it's 32nd encore...I'd best break out the BIG shaker (and my big angry yelling voice....not that they pay the slightest bit of attention to what I have to say).

Quilts for Kids

Tonight I finished my Downy Quilts for Kids quilt top. All I need to do is sandwich, quilt, wash and ship it back. This is a great program. They will send you the precut fabric for the quilt top, backing and clear instructions. All you have to do is stitch it up, provide the batting, quilt it, wash it, and pay the return shipping. They even send a label.

The fabric was colorful, a quick two-hours to knock out the top. If you'd like to donate a day and make a quilt, go to http://www.quiltsforkids.org/patterns/request/ to request a kit to make a quilt.

Before I started this I made 7 neonatal quilts for the Guild. Still need to quilt those, figure I'll just do all my machine quilting in one stretch. Get the piecing out of the way now. All that's left is a child-size quilt to bind and I'll get back on my own projects (and maybe the baby shower quilt (or maybe not).

It was a thousand degrees here today (okay, 94, but it certainly felt like a thousand degrees...thank goodness for the ceiling fan in the studio this evening). Of course, after the winter we've had, it can stay 94 degrees from now through September, I'm not complaining. It's just a little early for summer. I've still got a pair of brushed corduroy pants I bought at Coldwater Creek back in December that haven't been hemmed yet. (Okay, so I suppose I should just kiss that off)