1. As August draws to a close, share what's been your favorite weekend of the entire summer?
That’s a toughie … I guess, if I have to choose one weekend (assuming I can even remember each and every weekend of the summer), it’d be the first weekend in August, when on Saturday T#1 finished 2nd overall at the summer swim regional championships and on Sunday we celebrated T#3’s birthday (with plenty of time spent with #2 and #4).
2. Labor Day is marked in the US of A on Monday, September 1st. What paying job have you held that you've loved the most? Liked the least?
My least favorite job was waitressing … I waitressed for 2 years as I was putting myself through university prior to my first marriage. In a bit of hyperbole, I always swore that I’d rather go on welfare than ever waitress again. I certainly do have a lot of respect for the wait staff when we dine out and encourage DH to be generous when we’ve had good service.
My most favorite job was the last job I held prior to my retirement. I was an accountant at the University, in the Administrative Accounting department. I enjoyed being an accountant, but most of all I enjoyed the atmosphere and camaraderie … making the decision to retire was a very difficult one (but not one that I’ve ever regretted).
3. Does the new school year start before or after Labor Day where you live? When do you think it should begin? There is much discussion now about older students having later start times to their school day...your thoughts?
It seems that every school district in these parts starts classes around mid-August. That just seems early to me. Back in the dark ages, when I was in school, we didn’t start until after Labor Day and ended the school year ‘round about the same time that the school year ends now. Do the kids now get more days off? What’s the deal?
I heard the news reports that a leading group of pediatricians believes that for teens, their school day ought to start later. I’m not sure that it’s going to accomplish what the doctors are hoping it will. There are still only 24 hours in a day, and between school, homework, extracurricular activities, social activities, family activities, there isn’t much time for sleep. If teens start the school day later, they’ll finish it later, and they’ll stay up later finishing up homework after all the other activities in their days.
4. What's something you've worked at recently that could be deemed a 'labor of love'?
Now THIS is an easy question for me! 
5.Which of the following work idioms can you most relate to right now...'A woman's work is never done.', 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.' 'Many hands make light work.'
I’m not sure that right now I can relate to any of the three. Although I’m going to draft DH to help me clean and prepare for our guests coming this weekend … so “many hands make light work” is probably most apropos.
6. Crab or lobster or thanks, but no thanks? Favorite way to have your choice prepared?
Oh yes indeed! And if I have to choose just one, I guess I’ll choose crab. I do love me some crab! I’ve had a hankering for some time for a soft shell crab sandwich, but I’ll take crab served just about any way … except crab legs.
7. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, 'Three rules of work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.' Which of the three do you consider to be the most important? Share one of your own 'rules of work'.
My rule is “a place for everything, and everything in its place.” Clutter and chaos make me crazy.
8. Insert your own random thought here.
T#1 had science experiments to do for school. The instructions for one experiment advised wearing protective eyewear. “Protective eyewear? Seriously? Is this experiment going to result in a nuclear explosion? His mama responded that he needed to follow the instructions, to which T#1 responded “I know … I’ve got it covered. You know … it’d be nice if they wanted me to see.”
On a semi-related note, I want to know who told him he could grow up?
I hope that whatever you have planned today includes a little something that brings you joy. Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Kathy
I’ve long wanted to make a bigger one, big enough to curl up in on a cold winter’s night. I found some Kansas Troubles fabric I love, but I got to thinking that #1 I used KT fabrics on my first one, so would the second really look that much different? (not that there would necessarily be anything wrong with that as I do love my KT fabrics – ha!) and #2 I’ve got so much fabric in my stash … why not use some of it up. I’m a big fan of the classic simplicity of two color quilts and have been wanting to make a red and white/neutral quilt (I’ve been making so many blue and white/neutral quilts) … and I have a lot of leftover Minick and Simpson Midwinter Reds. Ding ding ding! We have a winner! I cut 2.5” squares yesterday afternoon and am now making slow but steady progress on another quilt top … when I’ve got all my squares pieced, I’ll cut and piece the 2.5” strips.
Source: 
Here’s a block after I unsewed and resewed:
Squaring up after each strip helps ensure accurately sized blocks, but it won’t guarantee accurately pieced blocks. ha! Hopefully I’ll get these 8 blocks done this morning and can lay them out on my design floor to get an idea of the spiral effect. 
We then headed over to St. Louis to visit a shop that advertises that they have among the largest inventory of extra wide backing fabrics in the nation. Not hardly! What a disappointment. Since we were already in St. Louis, we took a detour to a third quilt shop where I signed up for a class … I’ve mentioned several times that selecting fabrics is very difficult for me. Part of my “problem” is that I prefer muted colors, especially the classics – blues, reds, neutrals. But I just don’t have an eye for choosing colors and patterns. I admire quilts made from colors that I would never think of using, so I’d like to be able to expand my color horizon. 
The class I’m taking won’t be using the color wheel or any technical tools … it’s designed to expand the eye to color and what we like and why. While there, I bought some thread for T#1’s quilt … a blue and a variegated blue. I’ve always been anxious to try variegated thread and thought that it might work well for this quilt. I used YLI hand quilting thread on the chevron quilt, but YLI doesn’t have any variegated hand quilting threads nor do they have a blue that (at least online … I can’t find a local source for their thread) looks like it would work well for his quilt. 
So I’m going to give Aurifil hand quilting thread a try. 
It wasn’t until I got home that I realized that I had failed to even think about looking at storage for the sewing room closet. By then I was gung ho on trying to finish up the chevron, so I put that off for another day. 
I don’t plan to use borders on mine … my strips will be 1.5” wide, and I want to maximize the spiral effect.
or this:
It will take me a little longer to get it bound as I have only large pieces of the binding fabric, no width-of-fabric yardage, so I will have to do some piecing to put together my binding strips. 
(photo courtesy of 
