Monday Check-In

It's always good to get a quilt finished,

and even better to gift it away to its new owner.

And bonus:  that lovely feeling of accomplishment that pretty much

says you've earned the right to move on to making more quilts!

While most of the modern styles aren't my favorite, I do

really like this quilt.  I didn't get to see her actually open it

but my niece, who turned 16 last week, seems to be

really be happy with it, too.

On to outside of the sewing room...

My husband smoked up 3 Boston pork butts today for carnitas

(trays are beneath) so I fixed up these red jalapeños to

be "smoked" into chipotles.  The timing is perfect as we have

very little left from last year.  I grind them up

(pestle and mortar--I'm old school)

just before I toss some into chili and any

other mexican or southwest dishes I fix up.

Our older son (varsity) pictured by our local paper.

Football continues to go well for both of my boys.

This past week our older boy was inducted into the

National Honors Society.  I was a little sad to see he is the only

football player in it; football does take up an incredible amount

of time so it's understandable...and yet, I think it's almost

a double-honor that he is able successfully pull both off so well.

It wasn't exactly the hurricane that hit the east coast but we had

the strongest winds I ever remember feeling hit the house.

My husband had to take the day off just to clean up our

3 acres of "war zone".  Quite a few very large limbs and the

above tree that was completely uprooted were among the

worst of the damage outside.  Inside we now have some water

damage on our ceilings; our roof was completely replaced

just a few years ago so we're thinking--hoping--it was just

from such high winds.  We'll see when the roof gets inspected.

Looking to the week ahead:

e-patterns

I'm not sure how much time there will be for sewing this week

but I'm still hopeful I will finish the blocks of my current project

and can finally post a picture of it all laid out.   I've been so

focused on using my time wisely that I haven't taken the time yet.

I'm happily working on the very last 6 log cabin blocks and then

it will be ready to go together.

I'm moving into my third week of fighting illness.

The coughing, especially at night, has been so disruptive,

and now I have a sinus infection.  A friend told me that sometimes

when we're healing from something major, everything else can just get

really strained.  I'm not sure if that's what's going on but I'm pretty

done with it, and would be very happy to just get back to the

healthy me...one of these days.

A good night's rest would be a great first step.

And a vacation wouldn't hurt--at least that one is a definite!

I hope the week brings lots of time for sewing,

or whatever your joy is!