When I was sewing Haven’s wrap dress, I was in love with it from the beginning, and by the time I was finished that feeling had only increased. It was such a fun dress to sew and it turned out so beautifully. Although I wondered if the reason that I was loving it so much was because I was using some much loved, and very expensive fabric. So I was curious when I made Gracen’s with far less expensive materials if I would love it as much, and if it would turn out as nicely. Happily, it did. The pattern really is that good, and I love her dress just as much. I even went so far as to make my own bias tape to bind the neckline and make the ties by using an extremely handy bias tape maker (seriously, I am in love with that tool and I cannot rave about it enough). It was the perfect finish on her dress. So in the end, this dress pattern is a clear favorite of mine as it just turns out a gorgeous dress, and is ever so easy to sew. Love that. Of course the best part is that both of my girls love their dresses. And Gracen had no problem dancing for me as I took her picture. Silly girl.

I finished sewing the dress at 5pm. And let me just add that the pattern was difficult, not fun, and one that I will never willingly sew with again. Ugh. Moving on…

 The performance started at 7:30pm so Haven and I got ready and headed out the door for the drive to Heidi’s house.

 My parents had dropped by to see the dresses Heidi and I had made for Livy and Haven.

All Annied up and ready to go.

 We left it a little too close to opening curtain, so we found the closest parking spot we could, and ran the 1 block to the theater. We made it with about 5 minutes to spare, found our seats and settled in. It was fantastic, the sets were great, the actors were well cast, and Miss Hannigan was the best. We loved it.

And because Heidi and I couldn’t resist, we bought each of the girls a little silver locket that we gave to them to open during intermission so they could have a locket just like Annie, thus completing their Annie outfits. Unfortunately, the whole locket thing was totally lost on both of the girls until we explained it to them So apparently the whole locket thing that Heidi and I were squealing over and so looking forward to turned out to be more fir us than for them. Oh well, they put their lockets on and loved it, so there you go. Three fun hours later, it was over and we headed out for the car.

We had parked in the parking lot of the old V-1 and there were several other cars there with ours, with nothing posted warning us of any violations to be incurred.  That we could see when we arrived in the dark anyways. Because as it turns out there was no parking allowed. Once we came within a few feet of the Suburban, there it was. A sign taped to the window from the towing service, and a boot on both the front and back wheel. Oops. The good news was that the guy that booted us was waiting for the call, and was there within 1 minute, no joke.

 But not before I had Heidi take this picture.

And this one. Do I look sad enough? I thought so.

So, with a $70 swipe of my credit card, a few jokes with the guy removing the boot, and much laughing between Heidi and I, we were on our way.

 (Heidi drove by the next day, and was finally able to see the very badly placed signs warning of no parking. Oh well, no hard feelings.)

We had a great night, the musical was wonderful, the girls had an awesome time, we had fun all around, and Heidi and I got be act like fools more than once. Which is the way it’s supposed to be right? Livy and Haven are too young to be too embarrassed by their nerdy moms for now at least. Not hard though since there was no Darth Vader around for any kissing. Maybe Daddy Warbucks?

I have barricaded myself in my sewing room, where I am listening to music and frantically sewing like mad. Nothing like extreme panic over a looming deadline to get you motivated. And my 17 year old son is sitting behind me on his laptop, headphones on, watching a video on YouTube, done by some guy at MIT on Mutivariable Calculus, explaining vectors. And he is soooo unhappy I typed this, let alone hit publish. Something about messing with his cool factor or something. Like his friends ever read my blog. Please. Love you Dylan. And I love your smart brain too.

On Wednesday, Haven and I are meeting up with Heidi and Livy, and together we are going to a see a production of the musical ‘Annie” live.

And, since I am insane, I am hoping to use this…

to make this…

into some semblance of this.

Starting right now. And I have to have it finished by Wednesday afternoon for Haven to wear that night. Wish me luck, I’m going to need it, and then some.

I bought the fabric to add borders to the quilt, and after laying it out to get an idea of how it would look, I love it (thanks Kerry!). But now I have a new problem. A quilting blog I frequent recently posted about a quilt she just finished, and she talked about how rough it was quilting it herself on her machine as the size of the quilt was much larger than she normally tackles. The quilt she was talking about is the same size as my quilt. And she has been doing this for years. I’m a newbie at free motion quilting having only done two doll sized and one crib quilt. Nothing so large as this current quilt. So now I’m worried. If I add the borders it will make the quilt even bigger, and I am already worried about handling it all with my machine when I try to free motion it with the size it is right now (71″x82″-inches). So I am considering these three options-

1-Forget the borders, just add the backing and batting and free motion quilt it myself as is, then add this black tone on tone print binding on the edges and call it good.

2-Trim the sides and top of the quilt enough so that when I add the borders it will come out the size it was before trimming, then back it, quilt it myself, then bind it with the same black tone on tone print as above.

3- Just go ahead and add the borders and not worry about how big the quilt ends up being afterward. Then take it to someone else and pay to have it quilted by machine (around $45-$90), and then bind it myself.

 I don’t know, I feel like I’m over thinking this whole thing, and I just need to stop fretting over it. It’s just a quilt. But here I am anyway. Any more suggestions?

Well, it looks like we’re getting a new fridge. The compressor AND the computer in our fridge have died, and the estimate we were given for repairs is $700. It’s not worth sinking that amount of money into (duh!) and we are better off buying a new one instead. Hooray for tax return time, so it will all work itself out. While I’m not exactly sure just what I’m looking for in a new fridge, I can tell you what I do know. I need the maximum cubic feet we can afford as I like to shop ahead and cram everyhting I can in there and there is also quite a few of us around here to feed. And no matter what, it will NOT, I repeat NOT be a white refrigerator. Anything but white. I think the dirt, jam, smudges, juice and fingerprints on my current fridge have melded into the finish and are now one with the fridge, never to be scrubbed off no matter how many magic erasers, bleach or scrubbers I use. Stupid clean prisitine white fridges mocking me.

I did go ahead and stitch the quilt top together yesterday. It’s 71″ wide and 82″ long. All imperfect seam matching aside (seam matching perfection is something I decided did not merit any stress on this particular project, so I just let things work out as they may), I love how it turned out.

So here is my dilemma. I am unsure as to whether or not I should add borders on the sides and top of the quilt and then back and bind it, or if I should just leave the top as-is and just back and bind that way. And if I do add borders, should I use plain white fabric? Solid Black? Or a print? A simple print or bold and busy?

And in case this helps give you some idea, here is the small crib quilt in I made using the same fabrics, and I added the border using a large polka dot print and bound the edges in black with tiny white polka dots. I know, that’s a lot of dots.

Tell me what you think, I want to hear it. Meanwhile, I’m going to be in my sewing room trying out all of these scenarios to see if I can make some headway.

…or maybe just sew-y. I think I’m going to try working on piecing the Quilt Along top together. Or maybe something else? Hmmm, I don’t know.

No, it couldn’t wait. I really had to jump up, right in the middle of my show to peel and cook 10 lbs. of potatoes. I had to. Once the idea was there, it was going to keep running through my head until I did it. At least it’s all for a good cause. Dinner tomorrow. My Mom made mashed potatoes tonight, and then I talked to Heidi about them a little later, so I can only assume that was what planted the idea in my head, forcing me to run like a crazy person into the kitchen and start peeling and boiling potatoes at 11′oclock at night. It’s really only because I know if I don’t do it right then, I will probably forget soon after, then kick myself all day tomorrow for not remembering to make them tonight. So being manic pays off sometimes. At least this time it did because the potatoes are cooking and they will be ready for tomorrows dinner. And since Church starts @ 1pm, I need to really be on the ball with dinner plans for our Sundays as I have little time for cooking much once we get home. Now if I can just remember to put the roast in the crock pot before I go to bed, I’m golden.

I am having a fit over the incredible quilt stuff going on over at ‘Oh Fransson!’. Her stuff is beyond insane, it’s killing me. The colors and fabrics she is using are not helping me either. Her yellows and grays are to die for. And her paintbox quilt? Oh the humanity, I love it! She is having a Paintbox Quilt Along to make one similar to this…

(photo from ‘Whip Up’)

I want to join in so badly right now, but since I am still not finished with my first ‘Quilt Along’ quilt, I probably need to finish that one before I jump into anything else. Maybe I will just have to start putting fabrics aside for these, so at least I know I am ready to start one of these awesome projects at a moments notice. And don’t even get me started on her other quilts. Seriously beautiful. Ugh, I’m going to have to stop fawning over her stuff, the drool is getting out of hand. Don’t believe me? Take a look at her blog, the quilt awesomeness doesn’t stop here.