Working for a living sucks

All things said and done, I'd rather have a "do-over" on the summer from hell than be back at work, but I guess it beats the hell out of being back to work AND having a bunch of crap rain down on me at the same time.  It's actually been quite pleasant to be back and work and to have that structure and to reconnect with all my work buddies.

Last weekend, though, we had a wonderful time on Saturday giving Jodi her Irish Chain Quilt (I'm not numbering it among my quilts because Kara honestly did most of the work.  We picked fabric together; Kara did nearly all the cutting; Kara did the piecing; we basted together; I machine quilted the diagonals and borders (I love the killer meander on the outer border and credit Kara with the recommendation to keep the swirls in the meandering quilting on the same scale as the swirls in the print -- bloody brilliant); and Kara did all the hand quilting in the squares as well as sewing down the binding strip on the reverse.

I think we did a bang-up job, if I say so myself.  You can judge for yourselves, though, at least as far as these pictures don't suck completely.

From Jodi's Quilt

From Jodi's Quilt

Stoopidly, I did not think to take pictures of our giving it to Jodi, but I would have loved to have those pictures.

Then, after we dropped off the quilt with Jodi, we jumped in the red van and drove to the Fabric Center in Morris, Illinois to get inspired by some lovely pastels for the embroidered quilt Kara is working on currently, and once again I fell in love with a collection of asian prints; and I think I have enough fat quarters to use them in Arcadia, the quilt I'm planning for two gifts this year.  I didn't have the yardage requirements with me for the borders, sashing, and background, but I have plenty of time to acquire it as I won't be starting any time in the near future.  No trip to the Fabric Center is complete without a stop by the Morris Bakery, just a few doors up the street.  The sugar cookies aren't quite up to Sweet Indulgence "Heroin" cookie standards, but we found out that the cinnamon rolls and quite lovely, and their cheese danish is utterly sublime!

After our stop in Morris, we headed off (as expected) to Trader Joe's (alas, no plantain chips were to be found -- they've been discontinued) and then to Ikea.  We had a great time at Ikea, once again, and found all sorts of trouble to get into; well, for Kara to get into.  We shopped till we dropped & didn't get to Portillo's until 7:15pm.  We pulled into Kara's driveway around 10:15pm and (wisely) elected to just leave all the stuff in the van, to be sorted out the next day.

This weekend, I'm hoping Kara will feel up to popping over Friday to help me layer & baste Zen, and then I'll be torn between machine quilting Zen or continuing to piece the Amish Steps quilts (the strips are done for both quilts; the strip sub-cutting is all done; and I have four rows pieced together for the first amish steps.  Life is good.