What a week...

and it's only Wednesday! The sewing room project is...ummm...messy. The carpet, padding and tack strips are all up. My DH and I have an exciting evening planned for Friday when he returns from Alaska...we're going to Lowe's to purchase the flooring! Yes, it's our 22nd anniversary on Friday and that's what we'll be doing. :o) So you don't get the wrong idea, we do have reservations at Braddock's Tavern, on the upstairs porch, overlooking the knitting store, I mean, beautiful Main Street, for Saturday night to celebrate.

On Monday I found out that I need to have a hysterectomy. My surgery is scheduled for August 22nd, which means I won't be starting school this year until sometime in October. So, if any of you have any advice, suggestions, funny stories, etc...I'd love to hear from you! No horror stories please...I can imagine those well enough on my own. :o)

It's that time of year!

It's time to start building our float for the annual Canoe Carnival. Usually we start in May, but this year our float is of a simpler design and we haven't had to put in as much detail work. The elements of the float are being built at different houses, but this weekend we got together to get the canoes on the water and build the platform. Every year it is our tradition to do a "float around" where we all sit on the platform, bring a cooler of beer and float around the lake to make sure the platform will hold the weight of the float. Of course, at this point we know it will...it's just fun to do it! It's one of my favorite parts. So, tonight was the night and since someone stole my camera to take a picture of me, I figured I'd post it...it was a glorious night to be on the water and the picture isn't too bad...

Of course, I couldn't have considered going out on the lake unless I had finished reading the new Harry Potter book! I started reading at 8 last night, read until 11:30pm, got up and started reading at 8 this morning and finished by 11:30am. It was incredible! Now I need to read it again to find all the little details I missed!

What was I thinking?

I decided that the trim in my sewing room needed painting and the closet doors needed replacing. Took the doors to the curb, then decided that the disgusting old carpet would look much nicer in the trash. I cut the carpeting away from the places I needed to paint and yesterday got two coats of paint on the trim. The trim looks much crisper against the green walls than the dark wood did, but do I have a mess to clean up now!

I still have to remove the rest of the carpeting, padding and all of the staples and tack strips. We're going to be putting a vinyl floor in here that looks like wood. I did something similar in the old sewing room, now my daughter's bedroom, and you'd never know it wasn't a wood floor. We hope to spend Labor Day weekend installing the floor.

Can you tell no sewing is being done? I did finish another prayer shawl (pictures later) and I've cast on a very sweet cable knit scarf that I (hope) plan to have done by winter. Pictures of that once it's big enough to tell what it is!

I've had two people sign up for my Pay It Forward. Rebecca (RatedC), please contact me. Your email address is not in your response and your profile is not available to the public. Thanks!

My youngest is taking her first guitar lesson this afternoon. She's so excited!

Just listed...

I just listed a few things on eBay and thought I'd share one of the items with you, in case anyone is interested! I've had this bag for a few years and thought it would be great for carrying my Dear Jane and other quilting projects around. I think I've used it once...I just don't go to retreats or places where I bring my sewing along. And my DJ has stalled, I'm not sure if I'll ever finish it! So, if anyone is interested in the bag (It's a great bag, more like a briefcase.) You can find a description of it here...

Dear Jane Quilt Briefcase/Bag

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me! Thanks...

Pay It Forward

Over on Tami's blog, Getting Started, she has issued a Pay It Forward challenge. To celebrate my 200th post yesterday, (doesn't seem like much as I've been blogging almost 2 years!) I'm going to continue her challenge. The first 3 people who leave a comment for this post and agree to "Pay It Forward" on their blogs, will receive a small, handmade gift from me. I have no idea what it will be and it may take a little while to get to you, but I promise you'll get something by Labor Day! So, let's see who wants to play....

Christmas in July

This started out to be a table topper, but it seems to have grown into a lap quilt. But it's finished and that's all that matters!

It's been a busy week here, but we did manage to take an afternoon and go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was entertaining, exciting and some of the scenes were exactly as I had pictured them. Definitely a must see if you're a fan. Now I'm waiting for the last book to come out...I don't plan to move out of my chair until I've finished reading it!

I've a quiet afternoon ahead, I'm off to make some journal covers. I do have a question...do any of you have an etsy store? If so, have you been successful with it? It's something I'm thinking of doing, if I ever manage to create an inventory for it! Thanks for your help!

Orphan Train...

I decided to get this one done over the weekend, so here is my first orphan train quilt, completely finished! I quilted swirls all over the quilt, then I got lucky. I was going to sew together orphan strips from old bindings, but then found a binding strip left over from a quilt I made last year that was long enough to bind the entire quilt! I don't know why I made so much binding for that quilt, but I'm so glad I did!

I hope to have another finish in the next day or two...I quilted my Christmas rings table topper quilt and I'm working on the binding. This week is Vacation Bible School at our church, so I can't sew in the evenings. I guess that means I'll have to sew all day!

One Top Done...

And one more to go. Of course I didn't have enough of anything for a border, so I decided to do a piano key border and use up some orphan strips. You'd think there would be some room in my scrap strip boxes now, wouldn't you? Nope...didn't make a dent and they're still packed in there! This was fun to put together!