Design Wall Monday

Ok, ok. I know it's Tuesday. But, in my defense, I was out most of yesterday.

And I actually have something to show. Yippy! I got the "boxes" finished for the Bottled Rainbows quilt. Come to think about it, I think I'll rename my Boxed Rainbow. It seems to fit better. Now I have to cut the batting and start picking out scraps. I'm hoping to finish one or two squares per week. It's a quilt as you go design as well as machine applique neither of which I've never tried before. I don't know how much I'll like the process but I do like the colors all together.



I finally got a picture of the shirt I made for Z. I told you the print was kinda in your face. You can't really tell in the picture but it's got glitter all over it too.



Here's an example of the summer pants I make for the girls. It's just a simple elastic waist design with pockets. The girls both really like picking out the fabrics each year and wear them constantly so I know they like them.



These pants are one of Z.'s choices. Often when she chooses fabric, I really question her decisions, but most of the time they look pretty good on, so I've learned to hold my tongue and trust her choices. This fabric was one of those times, but it's really grown on me and I'm considering looking for more so that I can make a shirt out of it. This would definitely be stepping outside my comfort zone since almost every shirt I own is a solid color.

R. and H. have asked for pairs of their own and picked out flaming soccer ball fabric and camo lizards so I guess those are on the agenda for this week.

If you haven't already, check out the other design wall posts on Judy's blog.

Wah!

Warning! PMS-induced Pity party in session! Proceed at your own risk!

Normally, I love the month of June. The weather's nice, homeschooling is done, we have plenty of time for outings and heck, who doesn't like the month they were born in?

Not this year though!

This year June has definitely been a disappointment! We've had record breaking heat on and off for the first third of the month. The limited rainfall has my veggies growing veerrrry slowly this year. Every last one of us came down with some rhino virus that had us coughing and blowing noses for up to two weeks per person; resulting in a sinus infection and antibiotics for dh. After it seemed that all of the kids were better, over the course of the last week, three came down with stomach problems, which turns out to be a result of strep throat. We now have 4 out of seven people in this house on antibiotics and I'm really hoping the other two kids don't end up with strep. I'll take my chances without antibiotics if it hits me. Me and antibiotics don't mix well. This is so frustrating because we so rarely get sick around here but this has just dragged on almost all month, bouncing from one person to the next.

My birthday present this year was a membership to a fitness center so that we could all go swimming. It started on June 4 and the beginning of our home confinement/quarantine because of sick kids started June 5. Argh!

To top it off, I think I have a stress fracture of my foot from running on the treadmill a couple of days ago. I was fine while running but yesterday it started to hurt just walking around and still hurts today. That's about the only impact running has had on my anatomy. Since the end of March, I've covered over 140 miles on my treadmill at just over an hour per session and lost absolutely no weight! In fact, I weigh more now than I did when I started. How fair is that!?! (No, I don't run the whole time. I combine 4.2 mph walking with 5.0-6.0 mph 1-3 min. sprints.)

I had a friend (a trained but not practicing dr.) tell me to go get my thyroid checked because that can effect weight gain/loss but I haven't done it yet. I hate going to the dr. and haven't seen any dr. since my last 6 week postpartum check up more than three and a half years ago. The last primary care dr. I had left medicine to be a mom nearly 8 years ago and I only saw her once.

I, also, messed around with the layout/colors of my blog and hate how it turned out but can't get it back to the original so now I'm going to have to start over again to try and, at least, make it a little better.

So, yeah, I'm definitely ready to say good bye to June!


Thank you for letting me get that out of my system.

On the plus side,
-we have all our needs met,
-dh has a good job with good insurance,
-I really like our pediatricians,
-we have plenty of entertainment options to keep sick kids busy,
-I've gotten 4 pairs of pants finished for the girls with two others cut and waiting to be sewn,
-despite my complaining, no one here is seriously sick,
-we have antibiotics to treat the strep infections-a privilege that would have saved my grandfather a life time of heart problems after a two bouts of rheumatic fever
-we live in a time when we can learn so much, without ever leaving home

Thank you God for all the blessings, big and small.

Design Wall Monday

This has been a crazy week and I really hoped I'd have more to share but the only thing I got done quilt wise was cutting out lots and lots of 5" squares. It was a necessary task and gave me a good number of scraps to work with for the Bottled Rainbows quilt. (in the bag in the picture) My goal for this week is to get to actually piece at least a couple of blocks for the quilt.



I also have to get the girls' summer pants made which will take a fair bit of time but will also produce some usable scraps. I made a tunic for Z. this week using the pattern in the picture and a crazy pink and glitter flowered fabric she picked out. She's definitely a girl that likes sparkle. I promised to make her one more tunic and S. wants a tunic in a different style, which is fine by me since the yoke in this one just about kicked my fanny. I'm not much of a seamstress and I generally just learn things as I go so new patterns tend to be fairly time consuming.

Saturday was the quilt show. I didn't get any pics this years since I had R. and H. with me. Having two little boys at an event like that is certainly a challenge. Although I didn't couldn't manage a camera I did get some shopping in since I also celebrated my birthday this week. This is what I managed to pick up while shopping with my little guys.



Anyway, go check out the other design walls at Judy's blog.