I went to Houston, Thursday, February 26, stopping in Dallas to lunch with a friend. Itook my sewing machine, Jamie's NYB Quilt blocks and fabrics, supplies for a string spiderweb quilt and a couple of quilt tops I want to get quilted for community projects. I figured I'd have time to sew wile the boys were in school, and after they went to bed. Yeah, right! Ginger came with me so Gianni would have a playmate while the bigs boys were in school an his non-school days, and because she didn't want to be away from me for that long!
Friday was spent getting to know routines and where everything (schools, hospital, grocery store, library, church, and Hancock Fabrics) is located. Saturday Kristi was finishing up laundry and starting her packing, then we went to see "Marley and Me", to evening Mass, and out to dinner. Sunday was Kristi and Victor's cruise departure. We dropped them off at the ship in Galveston about 1:30, then headed back to Houston. We went to the library and I found that they had 2 copies of
Liberated Quiltmaking by Gwen Marston, and both were checked in (in other branches). I reserved a copy, and wemnt to see what was on the shelf at 746(quilting books). grabbed a few to take with me and then took the kids to the park.
Monday dawned bright and early. The boys were up by 6a.m.! Took Ski and Tony to school, went home, showered, cleaned up breakfast mess and it was time to take Gianni to pre-school (M-W-F from 9-1). After dropping him off Ginger and I went to the grocery store and then Hancocks. Found some cute PJ satin with cats on it that Ginger loved and bought a nightgown pattern to use it with. Then we went to the library for a more leisurely lookat the books. Home, lunch, clean-up and it was time to go get Gianni. Played on the playground for a while then home and I did my Walk Away the Pounds video while the kids played outside...and then it was time to walk and meet the boys coming home from school. Snacktime, play a while, time to fix dinner. Eat, clean-up, time to start baths and bedtime routine. Evryone settled in bed by 9:00 and I was too tired to think about working on the NYB!
Tuesday was pretty much the same, except no school for Gianni. Ginger's bike kept having the chain jump off the gear...no telling how many times I had to fix it last week! I decided to make Ginger a couple of headbands and found that if I was sewing Gianni wantd to be right by my side watching. That meant no way I cold work on the NYB with it being paper pieced and needing to be cutting/trimming all the time...I was afraid I'd have little fingers in my way! Wednesday was a reapeat of Monday, but I did manage to get Ginger's nightgown cut out. Thursday my reserved book came in at the library. A good read, but I'm glad I didn't have to buy it at $70-100 to be able to read it. All told I thing I checked out 15 or so quilting books during my stay and did read most of them, so even though I didn't sew as much as I had hoped I did learn a lot and get inspired for future projects. Friday I did laundry, sewed Ginger's nightgown and helped the boys clean their rooms, and told them I had every intention of spending lots of time Saturday sewing. After reading Liberated quiltmaking I wanted to try out a few things while the ideas were fresh, so I went to Hancocks Friday morning and bought 3 remnants and 7 FQ's to have something to work with. Saturday I sewed 10 Liberated star blocks.
I tried to get the kids settled down early Saturday, due to the time change and needing to be out of the house by 7:15 am to pick K&V up in Galveston at 8 o'clock. Thay just wouldn't settle down...they all were awake until well after 9:00. And quite grumpy when I woke them at 6:00 in the morning! We picked K & V up and headed to church for Mass and a breakfast. then back to the house. I made 2 more star blocks and sewed all my scraps together for future use, and started getting my things ready for heading home.
Monday I took my time but was packed and ready to leave by 10:15 or so. We made fairly good time and got to Dallas about 4:15 and missed the bulk of the rush hour traffic. Stopped in Gainesville for dinner and were home, totally exhausted by th elong hard week, by 8:30
My house is in total chaos. Denny has been working on the bathroom update, and construction mess is everywhere....and only 1 bathroom is working right now. I have been paintg the shelves for reinstallation. Floor will be grouted tonight...wait 16 hours before walking on it, 3 days before sealing. Mean while Mimi's boyfriend Eric is coming to visit over spring break, arriving lat tomorrow night/ early saturday. I need to be cleaning house, not blogging, but I have a horrendous sinus headache. And I'm still very tired. I hate time changes!!!!
r Sunshine.
for the Stashbusters not so Ugly, Sunshine sampler. 
