Home On Break

Our DD2, Emma, has been home on break between semesters, and I have loved having her here. She has been so helpful, and cheerily so; I marvel at what a wonderful young lady she has become.

One of the big jobs she helped me with is tidying up in the sewing room. I have no pictures to show you, but surely all of you seamstresses and quilters have a fair idea of a messy sewing space! In addition to all the various sewing projects I had laying around, I did the Christmas wrapping in there, so all the paper and gift bags were cluttering things up. Emma sorted and folded fabric, lifted heavy tubs and ran the sweeper. Oh, how I love the space when it's tidy.

I also needed laundry done, so she did the heavy work of lifting baskets, sorting and running up and down steps. I folded. We got four loads done last night. What a great feeling.

She also did some cooking for me, and I do have a picture of that.

We found a recipe on Pinterest that we really like - One Pot Cheesy Sausage Pasta. It is fast and delicious. I think she might make this for the roomies back at her apartment. She said she'd probably not go with Polish sausage, but instead use chicken. She has always been a chicken lover. Besides this dinner, she also made some dishes for holiday partying, and learned some valuable kitchen knowledge (She didn't know the difference when a recipe lists 1T or 1t. Can you believe that? Where did I go wrong??)

Someone else has been awfully glad Emma was home. Gracie gets lots more cuddles and attention while Emma is here.

After we had the sewing room tidied up, I felt energetic about getting more projects going. So I used Emma's strong arms and back to pull fabrics for me. Those quilt-alongs that I have been pondering have just kept niggling at my brain, and so I decided to get fabric squared away for two more.

Tell It To The Stars required real effort, in that we had to find the last 3 fabrics in light, medium and dark color variations. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. There isn't going to be much contrast, is there?

Tone It Down is the quilt-along that is being featured in American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. There are 6 or 8 bloggers who are doing the quilt, and each one is, of course, putting her own spin on it. I've looked at everyone's blog examples and have decided that mine will be patriotic. I have pulled as many of my reds, whites, and blues as I could find. I am sure I will need to pull more - especially the whites, which are really creams and beiges, - but I think I will like the result.

Emma left for OU today around noon. She was scheduled to work this afternoon and evening, and classes begin Monday. We went to breakfast together, did some shopping, then her ride picked her up and off they went. Sad to see her go, but so grateful for the wonderful time we spent together while she was home.

Happy Quilting, Friends!