Not much going on

After my last post a couple of weeks ago I told myself that I was going to be much better about blogging, both posting and reading.  As you can tell at least the posting part hasn't happened, I have managed to do some reading each night.  My job is just wearing me out this year.  I don't even have time to sew.  I have been doing some reading.  I just finished the latest installment of the Someday Quilts Mystery series.  I really enjoy this series.  It is light, entertaining reading.  In this one, Nell is busy preparing for her grandmother's wedding, when Jesse's (Nell's boyfriend)

former partner is found murdered outside of his house.  If that wasn't enough, Nell's parents decide to come to the wedding. You will have to read it to find out if the wedding takes place and if by chance it is a double wedding!!

 

A different path

Finally, I am doing some sewing, it  has taken a while. DH is recovering from his back surgery, and my mom is finally starting to recover from her back surgery.  My foot is also starting to feel better.  Who knew that a broken toe could hurt so much!!!I definitely don't need to start new projects but  a  few weeks ago when I got the new American Patchwork and Quilting  magazine, I fell in love with one of the quilts in it, A Different Path.  I knew that I had more than enough  scraps to make this.  The one thing I really liked about this quilt is there is no curved seam it is applique.  Since I have been sitting and watching TV with DH I wanted a new hand sewing project and this seemed like the perfect one.

I went through  my scraps and cut light and dark squares. 

 I started appliqueing the dark quarter circles onto the light squares.  I am amazed at how quickly these blocks make up.  After just a couple of nights of working on this project I already have almost 50 blocks finished.   The down side is that you have to  have 256 of these squares.  That  will definitely take a while, but I can't wait to see how this finished quilt will look.

Halloween is coming!!

I can't believe that it is already the middle of September (almost).  That means that the holiday season will soon be upon us.  Once Halloween arrives it isn't long until Thanksgiving, then Christmas.  Check out the great give away over at 44th Street Fabric for some great Halloween fabrics.

"I have never seen this before"

Forgive me, but I just have to vent today. Do you ever have those days, weeks or months, when  nothing is going right?   That is where I am now.  A month ago I had to go back to school, not what I really wanted to do, plus the fact that I am teaching four specials.  The reason I became a media specialist is so that I wouldn't have to teach the same classes everyday.  Oh well!  Then my DH had back surgery, thankfully he is doing ok.  He ended up not having to have a spinal fusion, only a diskectomy.  Then my mom had to have back surgery.  She didn't like her first doctor so she found another one, this meant that it was longer time before she could have her surgery.  Thankfully she had surgery this week and came through it ok.  She is with my niece now,  and I will pick her up in a couple of weeks and take her home.  On top of this, I had foot surgery this summer and last week a second grade student at my school was having a temper tantrum and stepped on my foot.  I dealt with it for a week, and finally went back to the When I was at the doctor's office he kept looking at me and my xray saying he had never seen this  before, " a student stepped on your foot and broke your toe"  yep that is what is happened.   That is what my last few weeks have been like, hope yours has been better.

More Wool projects

Pumpkin wools

 Since I have all of this wool I am trying to find projects that I like using wool applique.  I love anything that Lisa Bongean does and I recently purchased her book, Autumn Gatherings.  There are several patterns in it that I would like to make, but I decided that the first one I would try is the Pumpkin Bed Pillow.  I went through all of my "pumpkin" pieces of wool and picked out 7 pieces for the different pumpkins, some greens and browns for the stems, leaves, and the vines. 

The pumpkins ironed down, ready for stitching.

Starting to stitch the pumpkins down.

This is a project that I just finished for Pat over at Silver Thimble.  It is a mantle scarf with snowflakes.  I really like the way it turned out.  The background is a dark blue houndstooth and all of the snowflakes are off white.  She will be offering a kit soon on her website.

Slowly back in the groove

 Wow, this has been a really busy week.  My DH had back surgery on Wednesday, everything went well.  He went into the surgery thinking that he would have to have a fusion, thankfully he didn't have to have a fusion.  Overall he is doing well.  I took three days off to help him out, and he really hasn't needed that much help which meant that I could get a few things done that I wanted to.  I did some wool dyeing.  Love the reds that I came up with.  I also had time to get  my etsy shop up and running, I only have a couple of items on it, but check it out, Pig in a Blanket Wools.

Also did some mustards, or golds.  Love the plaid one!!

I have also started working on a penny rug, this is my first penny rug.  I was inspired by seeing the one that Sarah was making last week at Thimbles and I thought I can do that.  I have plenty of little wool pieces and I really like doing this.  I think I might make some coasters like this later.  I really just like putting all of the wool together and seeing what color combinations I can come up with.  This is a Primitive Gatherings pattern, don't remember the name of it but you could find it on their website. 

Great New Reads

Now that school is back in session, I have to be honest, not a  lot is getting done at my house.  This year is really different for me, as a media specialist my job (until this year) consisted of running the media center and all that entails.  However, this year I am teaching 4 specials (classes) a day, ranging from kindergarten to 3 grade.  It is definitely an adjustment!!!  I am exhausted everyday when I get home, hopefully that will change soon as a I get adjusted to this schedule.  One thing I have been doing is some reading and I have discovered a new author that I really like, Emily March.  Her books are very similar to Robin Carr in a way, the first in the series is Angel's Rest.  These stories take place in the fictional town of Eternity Springs in Colorado with quite a cast of characters.  I  found this entirely by accident when scanning the shelves at the library a few weeks ago.  Luckily the first two of the series were available, the second title is Hummingbird Lake.  I enjoyed these two so much that I purchased the third one for my Nook.


Second in the series, Hummingbird Lake.
 

Another great book that I just finished is The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Café.  What made me pick this one up was this  "if you like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society you will like this one".  Since I liked that book I had to try this one out.  It is really one of those feel good books, the setting is small town Beacon, Maine.  The main character, Ellen travels there to deliver a letter from her recently deceased grandmother to  her first love.  You just know that this is not going to be a simple delivery when on the first page Ellen almost drowns and is rescued by the first love's grandson (although she doesn't know it at the time).  This is just the first of  many encounters Ellen has with Roy while looking for his grandfather and discovering what she really wants out of her life.  A very quick and feel good read.