Slow Stitching on a Not-So-Slow Sunday

It’s been a busy weekend … not-so-slow Friday, Saturday and Sunday!  Friday morning, after DH got home from having breakfast with our neighbor, we headed out for Homestead Hearth.  If you remember, it’s a 2-1/2 hour drive one way … I still wasn’t too keen about spending a good part of my day in the car (I’m still not quite recovered from all that time in the car last weekend), but I was anxious to go fabric shopping.  We were about 40 minutes down the road when our GPS indicated that we were going to have a 30+ minute delay.  DH and I both hate sitting in stop and go traffic, especially on the interstate (me probably even more than DH). He suggested that we find an alternate route, at least to get around the problem area. I checked the atlas and saw that there was nothing that would work, but he was adamant, so off the interstate we went. Turns out that there really was no alternate route, so we lost an additional half hour due to taking the “alternate route”, arriving at Homestead Hearth at 1:00 instead of 12:00. At least we had a pretty drive along the Missouri River, through the foothills of the Ozarks. And as if that weren’t bad enough, we encountered a construction delay on our way back home. At least it was in the St. Louis metropolitan area so we could easily come up with an alternate route. Even so, it probably added an additional 15 minutes to our time on the road. Fortunately, even in spite of all that time in the car, it was worth it when I found perfect fabrics for the projects I was shopping for! The fabric on the left is what I chose for the connector hexies for my Martha Washington’s Flower Garden (no, there weren’t enough of the missing-then-found hexies ); I wanted to go with red and thankfully found one that is subdued enough to not overshadow my MWFG blocks.  The top three fabrics in the center are for my Labor Day Stars project started in the workshop taught by Pat Speth at our retreat’s retreat last month … the top red is for the cornerstones and outer border, the dark brown is for the sashing and narrow inner border, and the tan is for the setting triangles.  The bottom red is for my stash, as are the fat quarters on the right. 

Saturday was the All-Star Swim Championships …  the top 6 swimmers in each event of the 6 area conferences in the southern half of Illinois qualified for this event.  T#1 and T#3 qualified; T#2 didn’t have her best summer swim-wise, in large part due to having to sit out the first 2 weeks of the season and then having to swim with a cast/splint the remainder of the season.  With just two swimmers, there was a little more down time between their events so I could actually do a little stitching.  I brought along my EPP bow ties, my current travel project.  This coming week, I’ll set up my Accuquilt GO and start cutting 2-1/2” squares for my connector hexies for my Martha Washington’s Flower Garden and can get back to work on it.  T#3 did well and finished 6th in the 8 and under boys, and T#1 finished 3rd in the 13-14 boys.  Here’s a picture of T#1 (on the left) with his best bud (who finished 2nd in the 11-12 boys). 

My stitching today will be of the slow variety, but most of my day will not be.  T#3’s birthday party is this afternoon … he’ll turn 8 on Monday.  I remember 8 years ago when the doctors gave very little hope that our little guy would pull through and that if he did, he’d struggle developmentally.  Praise God who just laughed at their warnings … he’s a handful, definitely 110% boy, and has given his Mama and Daddy more than a few gray hairs, but he has such a tender heart, is such a sweetheart and is sharp as a tack … I can’t even begin to imagine what our lives would have been like these last 8 years without him.    Once we get home after the party, my plan is to spend a couple of hours just taking it easy … and stitching some more EPP bow ties.

I hope that whatever you have planned for today includes a little something that brings you joy ... have a great day!
Kathy