a sewing "machine"

Well, my son went back to his dad's to finish off his summer just over a week ago, and my Honey's daughters were with us last week for their last week of summer.  We are back to our kid-free weeks and alternating weekends ... for the most part.  I'm letting my son settle back in with his dad and school for a few weekends, and then will have to take a short hiatus on my travel to see him while I recover from next month's hysterectomy.  But during the past week or so, I've been playing some catch-up in my sewing room, including nearly all day Sunday while my Honey took the girls back to their mom.  I finished three quilt tops (the two Hoopla baby quilts and a small wall-hanging for another friend's nursery) on Sunday and cut out all the pieces for a Kaleidoscope (Crossed Canoes variety) quilt for my dad.  I finished a fourth quilt top last night - the blocks were put together on Sunday but the borders went on last night.  Earlier last week I caught up on my Civil War Chronicles blocks of the month.  I've been sewing so much lately that my Honey joked that I'm "just a sewing machine!"  (Yes, he has the kind of sense of humor that makes you groan!)

I really need to get better at taking photos while sewing, but honestly, I usually keep the Droid far away from me to minimize distraction (generally in the form of Words with Friends, solitaire, or sudoku), and since my home laptop seems to have died, my regular camera is holding photos hostage rather than sharing them with the rest of the world.  I will try to do some of that tonight.

On Saturday, we took the kids to spend the day in quaint little Buchanan, Virginia (pronounced "Buck-hannon").  We had a Daily Deal for Blacklight Mini Golf there and decided to make a day of it, including lunch at the gorgeous Rhein River Inn with some DELICIOUS German food, and ice cream afterwards at Ransone's Drugstore with a real, old-fashioned jukebox spinning 45s (which of course the kids had never seen).  We stopped in a few great little shops too, including the Purgatory Emporium, where we found some incredible deals, and a wonderful used book store, Fireside Books.  While there, I found - and bought - a copy of a quilt book I'd never seen before, which discussed a technique I've never tried before.  It's called WedgeWorks by Cheryl Phillips, and while it's out of print, there are a few used copies on Amazon (hopefully they also include the wedge template as the cover indicates - mine did!).

There are some really neat blocks made with striped fabric in mind, so of course I had to stop in at JoAnn Fabrics yesterday to pick up a few yards of stripes so that I can play around with it this week.  It's been so long since I tried anything radically different - normally, I'd paper piece complicated blocks like this, so I'm interested in the challenge.

It feels good to get back into the groove.  Now I go to sleep at night thinking about what I'll try to get done the next day.

Oh, one quick PS - one of my favorite quilt shops, Burgundy Buttons, is having a huge sale.  Anytime I can get a Moda charm pack for around $5 or a Jelly Roll for around $20, I have to spend some money, whether I need them right now or not!  Go check them out!  I'll be back with photos soon!