Passing for Normal

The past couple of days have been fairly busy.  Thursday, the carpet was laid.  Smitty told you all about that.  I left Thursday afternoon while they carpet installers were here and met up with fellow blogger Judy R.  We had coffee at Starbucks and I gave her the bobbin clips that I had previously used as my bobbin storage system.  Since they won't work with the new, larger bobbins that my new machine takes, I passed the clips along to Judy.  It was great fun getting to meet in person.  Judy came bearing gifts, which surprised me completely.  As she put it, her gifts had a chocolate theme:

Yum.  And may I just say that the pincushion will last longer than the chocolate bar did.  (Thanks again, Judy!)

Friday morning I had breakfast with Erik, which is always a delight.  It's such fun to hear news from my kids about what they're doing.  Erik and Mae were heading off to Eugene for the weekend to see the Oregon State Beavers play three baseball games.  These are some important playoffs, and since their bitter rival, the University of Oregon Ducks, was also in the mix, it was going to be nothing less than a grudge match.  (Go Beavs!)  I had a few errands to run on Friday, but I was pretty tired from the week.  I suppose I did a fair amount of work both packing up and cleaning up, but I think the most tiresome aspect of any kind of domestic re-do is having strangers in the house.  Fortunately, I could hide in the sewing room most of the time, but it isn't the same as having the house to myself.

All of that to say that I took most of the day off on Friday.  I was suffering with a muscle spasm right between my shoulder blades.  It's sort of a chronic problem, generally made worse by stress, and I haven't had to deal with it for quite some time.  So I ended up taking some strong muscle relaxants and sleeping most of the afternoon on Friday.  Under the circumstances, it was probably the best thing I could have done.  It is still bothering me today (Saturday), but not as much as it was on Friday.

This morning we got up and had breakfast with Matthew, who came up to help move some of the heavier items back to where they belonged.  Matthew, being without a car for the time being, then drove my car back to his house.  With Mike at home, I won't need a car until Tuesday, and so Matthew might as well have some wheels.  With Matthew's help, we have things put pretty much back to normal.  I took a break for a while to give my shoulder a rest, and then I managed to get everything unpacked and put back in its place.  Despite my whining about the mess and the stress, I'm absolutely thrilled with how things are looking.  I wish we had done it a long time ago.  On the other hand, these sorts of things always involve a good period of time getting psyched up.  Do you agree?

So this afternoon, I managed to get some more quilting done on the Divine Promises quilt.  All the blocks are quilted now, and I'm doing a Loopy Daisy Heart meander around the sashings and the borders.  I'm following along with Melissa Corry's video called Loopy Daisy Heart Leaf.  This is how it's looking.  It's easier to see from the back.

I have the quilt more than three quarters done, and so I'm hoping to finish the quilting tomorrow and also to get the binding sewn on by machine.  I can do the hand sewing next week.

So that's about all that's going on for now.  Next Friday, Mike and I will celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary.  We decided it would be a good time to make our return trip to The Palouse.  You can read about the trip we took there last fall after the harvest by clicking right here.  We've been dying to go back in the spring to see it all dressed in greens.  Just the other day, I found this image that really whetted our appetites for a return trip.

(image credit:  Kevin McNeal)

So we'll be heading out on Friday morning, and returning Monday evening.  Looking forward to that.  

Tuesday I'm heading down to Salem with my quilting buddy Pat to pay a visit to one of my favorite quilt shops, Greenbaum's Quilted Forest.  I need a few fabrics for my May NewFO project, and I get a birthday discount all during the month of May.  It seems like a perfect time to make the trip down. 

What's on your agenda for the weekend?