Back to school...

I'm amazed at how quickly life moves on. It seems as if summer just began and here it is the beginning of a new school year. My kids seem happy with their new routines and classes this year. Andrew has started college and is enjoying being out of the house without the rules and regulations laid down by mom and dad. Ellen is a high school sophomore and loves school, her friends and life in general. Grace has started in junior high and is adjusting to the changes beautifully. The biggest change for her this year is that I'm working at her school in the afternoons as a teacher's aide. As if I didn't have enough to do! I find that I'm loving being back in the classroom (I was a teacher in my previous life before kids). I'm also glad I don't have the full time responsibility for the classroom as this leaves my mornings free for my longarm quilting, among other things!

Those other things have included painting doors, cleaning carpets and otherwise keeping the house in shape for showings. Is there anything worse than having to keep the house clean all the time so that people can look around and decide if they might want to live there? I love my house now that we've finished it (the last two jobs were gutting and remodeling the kitchen and replacing all the interior doors with six panel colonial doors), but the temptation of a house on the lake with my own studio in the detached garage instead of the living room is just overwhelming. So, we plan to move on and hope to do it quickly.

I have managed to fit in some quilting time also. I just finished quilting a cross stitch quilt for a customer. I had to quilt along all the blue lines that were printed onto the fabric...it was quite a challenge! I never could color on the lines. :o) It turned out pretty well...as you can see from the above picture.


The next quilt I finished was the cutest baby quilt...all yellow, blue and green with airplanes. I was able to get a little more creative with this one! Unfortunately, I can't seem to post another picture, so I'll have to put it in another post. Next up on the machine is a Christmas quilt which I am donating to our local education foundation to be part of a silent auction on September 24th. I guess I really should get that one done!

I also need to get back to work on my Katrina quilt...I decided to piece the back and it's taking longer than piecing the front did! Time to hit the sewing room...

Fondly,
Carolyn