Let Me 'Splain

I think my oldest girl has a bit of a crush on Ricky Ricardo. She's a HUGE "I Love Lucy" fan and we just crack up when they make fun of the way Ricky talks. And I love it when Lucy says, "Start 'splainin'."

So I'll start 'splainin'.

I'm a Mormon. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Happy Easter! I hope today is a wonderful day for you and your families. I'm spending the day home with my two youngest. My little man Henry has "polka dots" all over his body. Not sure what this rash is from, but he really can't be at church looking like that. I don't like to share germs. Still, we are reading the Easter story together and listening to sacred music.

What does that have to do with quilting?

Well, twice a year, we have the opportunity to hear from the leadership of our church during what we call General Conference. When I was a kid, it meant going to the church four times in one weekend to watch it via satellite broadcast. Worst weekend of my childhood. I didn't get how awesome it was until I was a teenager.

Now, with the blessings of the internet, I can watch the broadcasts from the comfort of my home. I can keep my kids busy with special coloring pages, and we play conference bingo and it's awesome. But now that I'm a mom, and always tired, I find that their soothing voices (no fire and brimstone style sermons here) are very soporific. Add in a comfy couch and I'm in trouble. I've fallen asleep a few too many times.

So I struck on a brilliant idea. I cut fabric at the kitchen counter, which offers me a view of the TV and keeps me awake. I can listen, take notes and get a very tedious, sometimes boring, process out of the way. Win-win!

So here's my stuff I'm going to cut for the weekend:

• Sashing for my Ready Set Snow quilt
• Sub-cut for my Sweet Divinity quilt
• Glamping FQ bundles - big hexies!
• Glamping FQ bundle - Touch of Whimsy pattern
• Hello Sunshine sub-cut and trimming
• Flirt Briar Rose quilt

I've got a few others in case these don't last through four 2-hour sessions.

And at the end of the weekend, I've been seriously spiritually edified, and I've got projects prepped to boot. Love the efficiency of it. I do have to make sure I'm not cutting anything that requires too much brain work. I really do want to focus on what is being said.

WIP: Hands 2 Help 2013

The Amazing Sarah has done it again. She's organized the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge for 2013 and I'm joining in on the fun/madness.

You can read all about the challenge here. In a nutshell, you make a quilt for charity. You send it in.  You feel good. You might win a prize. It's awesome.

As for me, I've got one almost done - a quilt top that has been languishing far too long and needs a better home than my top shelf.

I know I loved these fabrics when I bought them, and I still think they are pretty, but they are really not my style. And yes, I know it could use a good ironing. After I add the last two rows!

Just may go crazy on the scrappy trip-alongs, too. We'll see. Let's stick with the one for now and see what I pull out of my scrap bin for another.

How's about some friendly quilty peer pressure? You know you want to join!

Linking up, because these are worthwhile WIPs.

Silver Linings

Thank you, all who commented and boosted my spirits last week. Your kindness is much appreciated. I think, if we are really going to be friends in this adventure, we need to be honest. I promise I won't dump on you all that often, but I hope we can accept that none of us have a perfect life. It's okay to let others know! I noticed I lost a few followers last week. Just tellin' ya now that if you're only here for the always happy, never-have-any-problems because life is perfect blog, you're in the wrong place. We've got to keep it real my friends.

Okay, enough with the serious talk. But things are better.

On to sewing things.

My weekend was interrupted with a trip to Boise (6 hours each way - my baby girl does not like being in the car that long). We had a house to check out and I really really like it. Like, I'm picking out paint colors, have already claimed my sewing room, and am madly pinning home improvement projects I want to tackle this summer. Just waiting on the bank . . . .

But I got to do a bunch of my PKM scrappy trip blocks. Going to lay this one out and sew up the flimsy later this week. I'm about to turn into the flimsy queen over here, but I've got to get them done!

Here are my stacks o' blocks:

So, the official plans for this week are:

• Finish three flimsies - yep, three!
• Finish Simple Life Dottie blocks
• Make two bee blocks

 I'm gearing up for my semi-annual cutting marathon. More on that later! What are your plans for the week? Linking up with the Show and Tell Tuesday.

Oh, and as for the "I'm sorry" gifts (I don't think I like calling them "guilt" gifts), well, he did pretty well:

Three fat quarter bundles - another Glamping bundle (and I am all sorts of giddy about it!), Little Matroyshkas and Sunny Happy Skies. Some happy sewing days ahead!

Pity, Party of One

Now that I told y'all about the fabulous plans for my birthday, I suppose the expectation is to hear about all I got done during my quiet afternoon alone with my sewing machine and Dr. Pepper.

Well, it didn't happen. It sorta got forgotten and things got a little crazy and tense and disappointing. Suffice it to say, I spent the evening of my birthday eating a McDonald's cheeseburger in my car. By myself. My kids didn't know it was my birthday. My mom forgot too. At least, no phone call or Facebook message. My dad remembered. I know I should have just thrown a party for myself, but darn it, I'm tired of doing that. I read about women whose husbands go all out. I want one of those birthdays.

I'm not asking for your sympathy. I'm writing this as a therapeutic process. I think in the blogosphere we can be a little fake, or at least we don't shine a light on the difficult challenges we face. I can't do that this week.

Hi, my name is Jennie and I have a difficult marriage. No, that doesn't make me special or even unusual. This goes beyond my birthday, trust me. There are unresolved mental health issues we have to deal with.

So please never think that life is great over here. I struggle with a lot. Sewing is my happy place. I do it because playing around with fabric and colors and patterns makes me happy. It's not an escape, but it is something that's mine.

I did get some sewing done over the last few days. But it was my regularly interrupted sewing. You know the kind: mom-he-hit-me/Caroline-is-on-the-table/what's-for-dinner/Henry-spilled-milk-on-the-floor/the-toilet-is-clogged sort of sewing.

And now the guilt gifts are coming. I don't like the guilt gifts. And I think they are fabric ones, which will only serve to remind me of the miserable birthday I had.

Make-A-List Monday: The Birthday Edition (or why I don't like surprises)

Yep. It's my birthday today! And what a treat I get - I've got a mountain of laundry from our trip just calling my name!

Fortunately, I have this:

 And I also have an amazing husband, who last night told me about my birthday present. FYI, I hate surprises. As in surprise parties. My friends in 8th grade threw me a surprise birthday party and it was misery. At least, leading up to it was. They were constantly whispering and I swore they weren't my friends anymore by the time my birthday rolled around. Sure, it was funny, but I really wasn't a happy girl that day.

Surprise gifts are okay. Awesome. Making someone think they aren't getting anything is not okay. That's about how I was feeling yesterday afternoon. After going all out for my husband's birthday with a special breakfast, special dinner, homemade cake, gifts, gifts from the kids, the whole shebang, I was in a rather bitter mood.

In walks my husband, who tells me he'd like to take this afternoon and go to the science center with the kids for a few hours. I get to stay home and do whatever I want. And trust me, laundry is not what I'm going to be doing. Well, a little.

So here's to fabulous husbands and Dr. Pepper. I'm going to be finishing up my PKM scrappy trips during my free time.

As for this week's list:

• Finish PKM scrappy trip blocks
• Finish Dottie blocks
• Lay out and piece Gypsy Girl flimsy
• Lay out and piece London scrappy trips
• Lay out and finish blocks for Cowgirl SW Taffy

I think that's good. Hope I get more done, but I'm happy if I just get that list wiped clean.

Time for a break!

This is as far as I've gotten on my Pam Kitty Morning semi-scrappy trip quilt. And now it's time for a break. I'll prep the rest of the strips for it so it's ready and waiting for me when we get back, but I have to wave goodbye for 10 days or so.

Is it just me or is a family vacation not much of a vacation for the mom? I mean, I plan on having fun, and watching my kids have fun, but there's been so much to do to get us out the door. And with plans changing (we're staying almost a full day in Boise on our way back so my husband can participate in a shooting competition), it makes it hard to plan stuff for the other side of the vacation. Things the dads don't have to worry about, like getting home in time to get the laundry done and go to the store

Oh My Giddy Aunt!

Tell me I'm not the only one who wishes she was British, just so I could say stuff like this?

*crickets chirping*

Either way, this is what kept going through my head every time I looked at this Pam Kitty Morning awesomeness that I was playing with yesterday:

I mean, really, could it get any cuter?

You ought to know by now that I'm genetically, psychologically incapable of producing anything truly scrappy. Wires start fritzing out when I try to imagine a truly scrappy quilt made by me.

So I embrace my OCD heritage and make blocks that make me happy.

Someday, I might let loose. But that's a likely to happen as me running down the street nekkid. Strangers things have happened . . .

Make-A-List Monday: Birthday Interruptions

Not a whole lot got done this weekend, unless you count cake baking, chicken frying, present wrapping, biscuit making as not a lot. Phew, I'm tired! And to top it off, our landlord wants to show the house this afternoon, so now I get to do a big clean-up. I hope they get a renter soon, because I don't enjoy these visits with strangers wandering through my house, looking at my stuff. I know they are supposed to be just looking at the house, but they always seem to comment on our things/hobbies/whatnot.

Still, I got some sewing done before the birthday madness began. I finished all 42 scrappy trip blocks. Hip hip hooray!

Once I laid it all out, it didn't look big enough. I know, that sounds ridiculous. But my family isn't content with "lap quilts." They prefer ones that can completely envelop them. If my husband is going to use this quilt, it had better be bigger. So I'm thinking I need to make it 8X9, which means 30 more blocks. Thankfully, I've still got plenty of strips cut, so I'll keep going on that this week.

It's good fun, making these blocks. I'm going to gut my stash and make another. Like I've said before, I'd rather move flimsies than fabric. If you're still holding out on starting one of these, I won't give you the link to the tutorial. Or a link to a flickr group of others who don't have your fortitude. They sure do have some pretty quilts though. But don't go and be inspired.

We leave for spring break trip in a week, so I've got to get my stuff done before I have to get laundry and packing done.

Here's my list for this week:

• Sew 30 more scrappy London trip blocks
• Trim all HSTs blocks for Hello Sunshine quilt
• Cut strips for another trippy quilt

March is my birthday month too, and I got an early present last week.

*Glamping*

Could you just die? I'm totally in love. This is one that will sit and get stared out for a bit before I cut in to it.