I finished the Swoon!

So far we have bbq'd some awesome steak, eaten In-N-Out, gone on a nature walk, played with my Sister-in-law and her adorable son, walked the bay lands, saw pretty birds, went swimming and got super soaked, made cookies, and saw a neighbors horse.

We are traveling until next Monday so I apologize for it being so quiet around here.

We're listening to a CASSETTE TAPE of Lyle the Crocodile read by the author (who sounds EXACTLY like Andy from Twin Peaks) and reading along in the book right now. my parents live on 3 acres in northern California. Great for fresh air and nature and birds and eucalyptus trees and slowing down. I haven't even been on the computer yet!

But I am working on the quilt, so far so good. I can still feel my fingers.

Basted

And quilting has begun. Here's hoping I can still feel my fingers next month!

Swoon 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9!

Here they are.  I'm putting the sashing on now and then will assess the situation on the back.  I've got a queen flat sheet that will be perfect if it's big enough.  If it is, I'm going to sandwich this baby up tonight and start quilting it tomorrow!  Sorry, I didn't take a picture of the layout of them all together yet, and those are little rocks.  It was a bit blustery...

We had a happy father's day

We had a fun Father's Day yesterday and I wanted to show you all (hi mom!) some pictures of our weekend! 

We also celebrated Ben's birthday the Wednesday before so it was a full week!

Now, here's the thing.  Ben and I were both raised by single moms.  We're both still trying to figure out how everything works when you have two parents, but it seems to come naturally to him to be a good father and husband! 

Pardon the feet...I have weird toes...

We got him a grill for fathers day on Saturday and put it right to work! 

We showed the kids how to make s'mores and taught them how to play hide and seek after.  It was adorable because they really don't get it but had a great time anyway!  We spent the whole evening outside, it was wonderful!

 

Sunday was pretty good too.  Ben got to watch some soccer games and we barbequed chicken and had s'mores again!  Oh wow I'd forgotten how good it smells to fire up a charcoal grill...yum!
Made me want to go camping and barbeque everything I eat! 

I love being able to eat outside and stay outside until it gets dark. 

I have good memories of summers as a kid having dinners outside and playing until my knees had grass stains and my feet were covered in dirt.  Those were the best days.  I hope our kids have similar memories, because they were just as dirty!

 I'm really happy to have Ben around. 

It's sooo nice not to have to do all the parenting on my own (which only comes to mind because both our mothers did this whole thing alone.  I can't even imagine what a challenge that must have been.). 

Being able to run out of patience and know that he can fill in for me.  He reads to our children, teaches them to play soccer correctly, to make me laugh, and how to be a good person. 

He is the guy that will pull over to help someone having car trouble.  He helps people reach things on the high shelves in the grocery store.  He picks up trash.  He does the right thing, even if it's not his responsibility.  He has helped me to be a better person and helped me be ok with being me. 

I'm really not super comfortable expressing emotions so writing this is a little challenging...but I really love this guy!  He's my best friend and my biggest supporter.  One thing we've realized during this past year is that "home" really is each other.  It's a wonderful thing to have him in my life, and I'm really happy my children have him for a father!

Crisis averted!

They had it! And I decided to get enough to use for binding also. I think it'll look really nice.

Thank you guys for helping me get over my freak out. As my husband pointed out, it's not like I'd have everything else done by now anyway!

So here's something else, nobody I've talked to at my LQS (so far...I've only been 3 or 4 times) knows what English paper piecing is or what the Swoon quilt pattern is.

Oh well. They do have the entire collection of Nightshade so that's a win...

facepalm...

Major fail alert:

I am ONE 4" block short of being free to finish all the swoon blocks....

There is a quilt shop in town that carries lots of Moda so I'm going to be there bright and early Monday morning searching for the red scallop from Ruby by Bonnie and Camille (right?). If they don't have any I just might cry...and then order some as fast as I can.

My plan was to finish all the blocks and sash them by Sunday night so I could sandwich it all up Monday and get started on the quilting...

Not to worry!  It will be OK.