Time Out for Some Family Fun

The recently promised photos of the Ornamental Fiesta class will be forthcoming...I would have finished two in class had I not driven to Asheville without Bernie's power cord! DOH!! Hard to do the sewing part without that, huh? Oy. I was able to borrow someone's machine to do part of it, but I still need to satin stitch the edges, stitch down the metal, and do the embossing. I will say though, that it was a really fun class and I can't wait to show them off!! If you ever get a chance to take a class from Judy Perez, don't miss it...she is a great teacher :)

Meanwhile, this past Friday was my husband's birthday...and not just any ordinary one, it was the big 5-0! He was in Minnesota all week on a business trip and flew home on his actual birthday. I started to have the crowd at the baggage pick up area sing to him, but he's not one for calling attention to himself and I figured he might just jump on the conveyor belt and ride right out of the building. So, I refrained. :) We did, however, stop at Bibb's, one of his favorite BBQ restaurants, for dinner on the way home.

The real celebration came Saturday night. We hosted our "Grub Club" and extended the guest list with his parents, brother, sister, niece and two surprise guests - his college buddy and wife - whom we hadn't seen in about 11 years! He had no idea they were coming! He came home from our youngest's baseball game and there they were. It was great! It was a night of Italian feasting with homemade raviolis, pasta Alfredo with chicken and sausage, salad straight from my garden, fresh NC strawberries, and more. Good food, good friends, good conversation all night, and kids running all over the place!

Coach Jim prepares to blow out all those candles...

On Sunday we spent the day at the Winston-Salem Dash game...it was hot but fun, and they won! Go Dash!

Even the sky was showing love...see the heart? :)

It was a great birthday weekend!

Change of Scenery

This is where I spent last weekend And the views aren't even the best part of it....
The best part is that I was on a quilting retreat! Twice a year about 20 of us head to the beautiful NC mountains to Montreat and sew until we can't see straight. It is the MOST fun, and one of the times I put aside art quilting and go back to my roots of traditional piecing. I caught up on my Block of the Month blocks and worked on my Christmas quilt blocks...now there are 36 of them...each with 29 pieces. I also enjoyed catching up with everyone and seeing what they were working on, and of course as usual there were great things going on. Didn't sleep much...but that's not the point!

Monday I got to continue my traditional quilting at the 3rd grade Old Tyme Day at my children's elementary school. Complete with prairie dress and bonnet (what we do for our kids!) and several of my quilts - including one that is about 100 years old - I told the students about quilts in Colonial America and let them stitch on a whole cloth in a hoop stand. The cool thing is that the boys were as into it as the girls were and it was hard to get them to stop when it was time to move on to the next station! There were lots of fun hands on things for them to experience, like candle making, tin smithing, weaving, and there was even a horse so they could learn first hand about transportation back then.

Tuesday I jumped back to interior design and did a space plan for one of my corporate clients who is reallocating space on their second floor.

Wednesday I was up and out at the crack of dawn to teach fabric fusing to two art classes at one of our middle schools as part of an arts grant program. It was fun and I will be headed back there tomorrow to finish things up. I'm hoping to be able to take some pictures or their work to post. I will be working with 2-3 other middle and high schools as part of this grant.

Tomorrow evening is the opening reception for the invitational exhibit Reflections: Politics and Religion in Art where my piece "Temptation" is showing. This is at the Salem Fine Arts Center on the campus of Salem College...if you are local and want something fun to do come on by! It's free and open to the public.

Saturday is our turn to host our dinner group..."Grub Club" as it is called, which is made up of 6 families (12 adults and 14 children). We have been gathering monthly since all of our children were small...it's lots of fun and lots of good eating! This weekend it will be a traditional Thanksgiving feast. And by Sunday, well, by then I plan to rest! Right after I get up and teach Sunday School... :-)