Time for a break!

So here I am, sitting in front of my computer, taking a break from doing the Golden Retriever quilt (pictures below of work in progress), and I'm thinking to myself that I need a break. Not just today. I can only allow an hour before I have to go back into my lurkim and finish this quilt. No, I mean, a real break. Between the scrambling to get two huge quilts done for the quilt show, giving and taking quilting lessons, guild meetings, a new project (which I will share with you in a minute), trying to get everything together to do income taxes, packing for a visit with one son, then friends, then my sister, then the other son, and then last night Jett, our 6 year old male Chow/shepherd mix had his third seizure in the last 9 months -- well! I just need to go somewhere and "think about all that tomorrow!"



Here's a picture of the quilt on the frame this morning. Gorgeous fabrics from Benartex, and wonderful custom embroidery done by June Gibbs, a guild member who is helping to make this quilt and then donate it to the Golden Retriever benefit somewhere out in Washington state. Myrt Smith, another guild member, pieced the blocks. She's very precise and presses most of her seams open! Now THAT'S a quilter! I'm not nearly so precise in my ironing. Iron is still a four letter word to me, so it surprises me that I do so much of it without grumbling in order to make a quilt. Hmmmm. I guess it's just wanting it badly enough. But back in the 60's and 70's as a new wife, I was never so elated about anything as the advent of polyester -- wash and wear!



Here's a picture of the center block. There are also four other embroidered blocks depicting the various skills that the Golden Retrievers have to master in order to be champions for this organization. June had those four blocks custom made with the appropriate designations of the "classes" the dogs were being tested in.



This is a closeup of one of the pieced blocks. The hard thing about quilting when there are strongly contrasting fabrics is that no one thread color is perfect. I chose a parchment color, found in the backgrounds of the blocks, but I'm wondering if a light teal would have done as well? Unfortunately, although I searched my color cards and stores, no teal matched this fabric -- either too green or too blue, and that to me is worse than having a light thread. So we're stuck with parchment.

I'm making myself a brand new, fresh and spring-y sweatshirt jacket. Its a work-in-progress (WIP) and has just been sent to the washer to be wetted down thoroughly and then line dried. Then it gets pressed again, the bindings are put on the neck and down the front and bottom (cuffs are already done), and the zipper is put in. I love these jackets and can't wait to finish mine.



So, back to needing a break -- I am SOOOOOO looking forward to visiting my sister, Missy Molino. Some of you may know that she is the founding mother of Quilt Odyssey, a wonderful quilt symposium and show held in Hershey, PA every July ( www.quiltodyssey.com). Anyway, we are going to visit the AQS show in Lancaster, PA next Thursday - Saturday. AQS usually has its shows in Paducah. My friend, Mary Nielsen, also a dedicated quilter and longarmer, and I attended one when it was held in Nashville, TN, and it's a great show! So this will be my break. Although the cell phone will be on, I won't be cooking, cleaning, washing dishes or clothes, running errands, or cleaning up after seizing dogs or weary hubbies all dirty and dusty from REAL work (autobody repair). And any sewing I do won't have a deadline! Now if I can just find a frozen Margarita one evening, it'll be close to heaven....