Play Time

As I'm writing this, I'm almost too tired to stay awake, but I suspect there are a few of you who check in every morning and would probably wonder what happened to me if I didn't post something. I'll try to keep this post short though so I can crawl into bed. Too many late nights are finally catching up to me, I think!

I gave myself permission to "play" today. After all, all work and no play makes Kim a dull girl! (Not to mention the sore muscles and aching back.) Besides, this IS my vacation, right?! So no decorating and no cleaning happened here today. Not even any arts and crafts, unless you lump quilting into the arts and crafts category--which I guess it probably is. So, okay, yeah some arts and crafts took place.

This morning I made this little quilted gift bag. Kind of cute, huh? Now I just need to figure out what kind of gift to give myself that will fit in the bag. What? You think a gift bag ought to be given? Well, okay, you win. I actually DID make it for someone else, but maybe I need to make myself one or two someday. But not today.

Today I made this for myself:

This is the It's a Wrap pattern by Sandy Gervais/Pieces From The Heart made with the Holly Jolly fabric. No, don't look too closely at my points and sashing/cornerstone intersections. They're not horrible, but they aren't perfect either, and I know that at least ONE OF YOU--and you know who you are!--likes to check to see how I do on my points. (The back, however, is simply stunning--come on over and take a look if you don't believe me! Lovely pressed seams all over the place!) I do like to be fairly accurate, but I'm not going to have a cow if it's not perfect. I'm a student of the "back of the galloping horse" school of quilting--if something looks okay from the back of a galloping horse (theoretically speaking, you understand--I don't really get on a horse and test it) and I don't have the patience to fuss with it, then that's okay with me! This is actually a very forgiving pattern, though, since there aren't a lot of pieces to line up. I made mine a little smaller than the pattern with 16 presents instead of 25 because I have a specific place in mind to hang it and a limited amount of room.

I have another two days before I go back to work, and I'm planning to spend all the time I can in decorating and cleaning--play time is over! I would like to try to get this quilt pinned this weekend, though, so I can get it quilted next week and up on the wall before long.

Finally, I thought I'd share this with you. You know that pesky younger cat of mine, Spike? Well, I went into my bedroom this afternoon and closed the door so I could have a few uninterrupted minutes of time on the computer. Lately she's taken to trying to climb onto my lap while I'm on the computer and I was trying to avoid that. I guess she must have tried following me but had to settle for opening the door of the linen closet that's outside my bedroom and climbing up into there instead of my lap. Silly cat!

It's long past my bedtime, so I'm heading to bed. Hasta la vista, baby!