caught up reading the ring

whew, I finally made it around the ring and left comments on nearly all the blogs...some very belated-sorry! but at least I feel like I know what everyone has been doing now! Yesterday was the celebration of our small charity quilt group-5 years old! Amelia made special decadent chocolate cupcakes (and I was stuck bringing home the uneaten ones, shucks!) and we had a fun time. I brought many small donated tops and worked on getting them larger - closer to what we aim for size wise (40 by 60). Two of the tops worked being stitched together. I gave two flannel strip blocks sets to another member as her challenge to add to for a top. We went through a lot of new donated fabric- tossing all the polyester fabric and see through fabric and seasonal fabric we can not use for another group to benefit from. It's amazing what folks will donate that they think is "quilty" fabric! I also did a simple flannel/pooh fabric receiving "blanket" for Alice from my stash. I just need to zigzag around the outside edges and see how it looks. It's not intended to be a quilt-just a light weight blankie for swaddling. So I finally cleared the sewing table and sewed! That felt great. I am hard at work in the backyard taking up brick pavers (a pathway and patio area) as the last thing to be done before the entire backyard is ripped apart. We have been having for the PNW a heat wave and I worked out in the sun on Saturday taking frequent inside cool a/c and water breaks. I am now working in the evenings as soon as the sun gets low enough. Martie is going to power wash the pavers and I think we are going to try re-using them in the new patio being poured.

Spending time with the new baby is the priority right now, however, I stayed away over the weekend as they need their private family bonding time too. It's a balance act-being a supportive mom and yet respect their learning curve time. We are headed over Tuesday to visit- bringing back the repaired pooh quilt and the new blankie. If I have time I may hunt for some smaller onesies...Alice seems to be swimming in a lot of the "newborn" stuff she was given.
My son said one of the reasons he likes the name they chose is Alice in Wonderland was one of his all time favorite Disney movies. So now I am on the look out for Alice in Wonderland fabric.
Not that I have tried looking- I will soon enough. I am going to try and dedicate the month of July to finishing the wedding quilt, finishing the binding/hanging sleeve on the wonky village and work on the charity quilts that I have put on the back burner. We will see how that works out.

Life is Good:
having Tuesday off
holding Alice
medication helping Zoe feel better
playing with fabric