Guess what I've been up to. And, it's not laundry!

 Ethan Mantz, sushi lover extraordinaire...  Since Hunter and Bethany were busy having adventures, Ethan and I had a lunch date last weekend.  This boy LOVES him some sushi.

Yesterday, Sierra and I had a girls night.  We saw Spiderman, ate at Bella Melano, visited a comic book store, had dessert at The Cup and then finished off the night with Captain America on DVD.  Big fun but no pictures.

  Last Saturday, I visited the National Quilt Museum for the first time with my friends Cindy Hagen and Vicki Root.  What a great day!  We were amazed by all the talent and inspiration.  Then we shopped.  More big fun!  Bethany had been sending me pictures of her trip to Florida.  So, I sent her one of me in a quilt shop.  Which, I happen to enjoy more than the beach.

  

This is my latest in the Sew Tweet Block of the Month.  They're playing in a pie pan of buttons.  Those buttons were a wee bit time consuming.  On Wednesday, I took a class from Karen Kay Buckley.  She invented the perfect circles and we had a tutorial from her on how to use them.  I'd been using them, but not correctly.  Needless to say, the buttons on the first half of this quilt suck.  And the buttons on the second half will be considerably better.  Sigh.  What are you gonna do?

My Pinterest projects.  I'm not totally happy with the H but will continue to add interesting things as I come up with them.  I have a salmon colored floral skirt that I have had the worst time finding things to wear with.  So, I finally found a white blouse that wasn't a t-shirt but it was too much white with the crocheted necklace I'd made for it.  So, I found some fabric at Wal-mart and made this pompom necklace.  Total cost, under $2.

 Last week after Paducah, I finished my Civil War quilt!!!!  I'm so happy to be done with this project.  It was WAY too much for me.  Between the year of piecing the blocks and 6 months of piecing the sashing.  Definitely, time to move on.  Now to save the money to have this bad boy custom quilted.  Can you say small fortune?  Maybe even in time for the next quilt show...

So, naturally, I had to jump right into another big project this weekend.  I assembled my spool quilt and cut out the applique pieces last night while I was watching Captain America.  Then today I spent HOURS placing them on.  I was absolutely in love with it until I started stitching it all down.  My machine tends to not  do well on blanket stitch.  I used a neutral grey thread and I might be 1/3 of the way done.  Had to stop because I was getting really angry with my uneven stitches.  And my wrists are sore and my head is killing me.  And I'm crabby.  And Rich keeps nagging at me for not doing my housework.  Photography does not do this quilt justice!  If you participated in the strip exchange, you need to make this quilt!  The colors are really stunning!  Unless you ruin it with crappy blanket stitching.