I've been home for a week...

I spent five weeks in Pittsburgh, PA with my daughter, son-in-law, and 7-year-old granddaughter. First of all, let me say that it's wonderful to be loved by this little family, and to be welcomed into their home for such an extended stay. (Don't you hear a lot of stories about families that don't get along so well between generations?)

The little family.

 Second, let me express gratitude to my husband and youngest son, who support me spending time with our extended family, despite leaving them on their own. (They miss me, but they get along fine without me!)

Sitting on the front porch, enjoying the summer rain,
complete with lightning and thunder, and a double rainbow!

Third, since we leave so far apart, I'm glad to have the opportunity to really have relationship with my granddaughter, more than just a visit.

Admiring the community garden,
which Bethany and Max helped to found.

Now I'm home, with a little time before school starts and I go back to work. I've been enjoying time to myself, and getting reacquainted with my sewing space. I started by making some asterisk blocks for Sue, in our Stars in Their Eyes sewing bee. As usual, I got carried away and made more than the two expected, because it was fun to play with prints for the background fabrics.

Red and aqua on gray.

I wanted to make a gift for my cousin, who is getting married this week. (I know, the invitation said no gifts, but I just can't show up empty-handed.) I'd purchased this tea towel to make into a medallion quilt, and thought it would make an attractive cushion. When I started working with it, Ralph really liked it, and I started thinking maybe it's a little too kitschy for my sophisticated cousin. When I added the zippered back, I accidentally turned it so the zipper cover faces up (a dust catcher-ugh!), and that decided it. This pillow is staying at home.

Tea towel becomes a quilted cushion.
I even made the piping.

See that zipper cover facing right?
It's parallel to the top edge of the pillow front.
Too bad I didn't check before stitching around the pillow three times!

So I decided to make a set of cloth napkins as a gift. I used Penny's tutorial at sewtakeahike and tweeked it a little to get the best cuts from my fabric and still come up with a 16" napkin. The center is linen, and the punctuation fabric is a nod to my cousin's love of writing. To me it's also symbolic of the reminder to pause, to listen, to appreciate when sharing a meal. I love the mitered corners, thanks to Penny's easy-to-follow directions.

Aren't they sophisticated?

I'd sure like something to share for Show & Tell at this month's quilt guild! Just before I left for Pittsburgh I took Debbie Maddy's class to make her Labyrinth Quilt. Simple construction, it would be easy to make just using her pattern, but taking the class was so worthwhile! Debbie was entertaining, and full of really effective tips for cutting, sewing, and arranging fabrics. Here's my quilt in progress, now I'm working on quilting it.

Oh yes, I'll be back with more photos from Pittsburgh! I just want to live in the moment, you know!

So, what do you think, are the napkins a good gift? Is it okay to bring a gift when the invitation says gifts aren't expected? Can I wear a black dress to the afternoon wedding in the city? 

And what about that pillow, made from a retro-style tea towel? 

Writing.

I hate writing. I love writing to you, though! Writing to you is just a slowed down version of a conversation, and I get to say everything I want while imagining your responses. (Your real responses, by the way, are always so much better than I imagine!) When I write to you, here on the blog, I've usually been cogitating, musing, formulating my thought for a while, and I look forward to getting it all put together.

I've started putting together Melissa's
zig zag quilt. It's looking pretty!

Why, then, are there such big gaps between blog posts? Because I have this weird, internal merit system that disallows writing to you until I've finished the obligation writing I'm supposed to do. That includes the essay I'm supposed to write for my job, to renew my teaching credential and to apply for a full-time teaching position. Full-time teaching, that I really don't want to do, except that I could finalize my credential, and it would be great to get benefits. Ambivalence...

I really don't like these red/white blocks around the snowman panel.
This is a quilt I'm making in a class; each new border is  introduced week-to-week.
 I have a better idea for these red blocks, but do I want to make all new blocks?

And now, I've volunteered to write a series of articles for my quilt guild newsletter, to introduce guild members to quilt blogs and Flickr groups. Trying to cut it into bite size pieces, but to include enough to make it interesting. First step, provide some links to a few blogs that might get readers hooked. Yes, I'm addicted, and I'm recruiting new addicts!

I started these stars last summer, They're all stitched by hand.
At first, it was an experiment to see what I could do with this fabric.
Now, I can't let it go until it's finished.
Even though I don't know what "finished" will end up being!

Ugh. Time to write that essay.

Here's Sadie, recovering from surgery to remove a tumor from her belly.
It was bigger than Ralph's fist, almost 20% of her body weight.
No, I didn't take a picture.