Hope you enjoyed a few extra days off. I did manage to squeeze in a little sewing. I finished the binding on # 5 and loved the back of the quilt.

    

     Just like the clean lines and minimal fuss of the design.

    

     I did start working on another one with my class fabrics and am about 60% done with the quilting. A sneak peek for you….

     Now that I see it on the screen, it looks kind of Christmas like which was definitely not my intent. Better get going on my day. Happy sewing, my friends.

     The turkey was a little late but delicious. The rest of the food was wonderful and it was also wonderful to have different families from different sides come together and enjoy each others company. It was even nicer to be able to enjoy a fire and watch a movie after 21 people left. ( I even had time to baste a quilt in the afternoon.)So, all in all, a great holiday. But I hadn’t taken one photo all day. I dismissed it last night as -“well you were the hostess. You didn’t have time.”

     But, a much less tired me this morning had to admit the truth. I didn’t want to see –through the lens of a camera– that for the first time in eighteen years-my girl wasn’t with me for a holiday. My eighteen year old Erin had gone to South Carolina to be on vacation with her dear boyfriend and his family. I knew far in advance that it was going to happen. She loves the Carolinas and and I knew that she would go if asked.  I wasn’t angry that she had gone. I wasn’t worried about her safety as they are a great family to be with. I thought I was prepared. But I was just plain sad that she had grown up. That big gaping hole that was left was just sad. After all, wasn’t it enough that I had been a big girl when she left for college? Wasn’t it enough that I am brave and don’t cry when she leaves to go back to college?

     Nope, I guess not. Motherhood just isn’t for wimps, that’s for sure. Sometimes you can never prepared for them to grow up.

     So what’s a girl to do? Go shopping with the one who’s still at home and enjoy every minute of fussy teenage girlhood that I have left. Please remind me of that soon! And give your little ones a hug before you go to bed. You are never prepared.

  Some oldies for you-my first improvisational quilts which hang proudly in my sewing studio. Hopefully next year I will be brave enough to take some pictures! Happy sewing my friends!