My first summer read completed!

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book was really good. The Civil War was one part of American history that I never really cared for, even though I was a history teacher! But after reading this book it made me want to read more about the different battles and army officers. The book made these people come alive for me! The diction was not my favorite--the author's style was a little hard to follow at parts, but overall this book was very enjoyable to read.




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Hiking Little Si ( Happy National Trails Day!)

Today was a GORGEOUS day ( finally!!) and it was only fitting that we welcomed in good weather with a hike ( later on, I found out that today is National Trails Day--how appropriate!). I'm glad we chose to do Little Si instead of the real Si Mountain because I am definitely out of shape. I figured that out very quickly as I huffed and puffed my way up. But the view was worth it. :)

Mt. Si in the background







My Summer To Do List

If I recall I made a list similar to this last fall when we first moved to Redmond. I knew I was going to have some time on my hands so I tried to set some goals. I accomplished some...and with others I was not so successful. We'll just say those are still in progress.
I've been pretty busy the last few months subbing, but now that the school year is winding down, I have started thinking about what I will do with my renewed free time.

This is what I came up with:

~Rearrange our furniture!

~Plant a potted garden, including tomatoes and lettuce.

~Start organizing a real food storage system that we can rotate through.

~Actually organize things that just got shoved in closets when we moved in.

~Organize my miscellaneous sewing items (i.e. extra fabric, batting, buttons, etc).

Put these into little storage containers.

So this isn't a very fun list. It's more of what I feel needs to happen this summer. Our little apartment is in need of some organizing, so that is what I am going to do!

What to do next?

Well the weather hasn't gotten the memo that tis the season for warm weather and sunshine. We are still getting a lot of cloudy days and rain. Boo! :0( So I need a new project that I can work on to keep me happily occupied and not thinking about the gloomy weather. The thing is, I don't know if I can. I look at my quilt all rolled up nice and neat, tied with a little bow and think " I made that?? How?" I question whether or not I've got what it takes to do it again.

The first time you do something remarkable you can blame sheer luck, but if you manage to pull it off again, that is a whole other story. I've also been really busy with substituting all over Bellevue School District too. It's actually the ideal, coolest job, but it keeps me pretty busy and sometimes I just get plain tuckered out when I come home. But that's no excuse! I need to keep creating and learning and developing this new skill.

But the questions still remains...what next big project do I try and tackle?

A Little Side Project

So while I was taking a hiatus from my quilting I perused Moda Bake Shop and found this really cute hand purse. It had a zipper on it and I thought, " why not try something new and wild and sew something with a zipper on it!" So I did. It turned out pretty well. So here are some pictures to prove that just because I wasn't quilting, it doesn't mean I was happily sewing! By the way, I gave this to my friend Allison for her birthday and she showed me how it works perfectly as a diaper holder. :)

The Makings of My First Quilt! ( Finale!)

YAY!!! I finished my quilt this week! I tried putting pictures up sooner but blogger was down. :(

               

So here they are. I tried catching some of the details, even though there is not much to see. Can I just say that I am SO GLAD I didn't hand sew the binding. I quickly learned that I stink at hand sewing! So instead I tried a technique that Crystal told me about. I sewed in the seam on the front so it's slightly hidden and the stitching only shows up on the back. I don't mind if you can see the stitching on the back; I just wanted a quick, lazy way to sew it without it really showing up on the front as well.

Here is a closer view of how I did the binding.

Some more pics...

 



The Makings of My First Quilt! ( Part V)

I have completed the quilting part! I took out the stitches for the first column and redid that one and it looks much much better!

And I went ahead and stitched a border all the way around the columns

And I cut, sewed and ironed in half the part for the binding!

So now I am ready to complete my quilt with the binding!