Summer Weekend (for real)

We're closing out one of those "now it's really summer" weekends--too much to do, in a way, but most of it was fun, and now we're very tired. Elliot had an early baseball game on Saturday, then the kids had their school picnic, and today Astrid had a completely exhausting birthday party to attend. (In the car on the way home, she requested that I not talk at all, because she was too sleepy to listen.)

Yesterday I finished a small quilt for one of Astrid's English teachers; she's having a baby in August (I think), and Astrid requested that I make a quilt for her. It includes one of my old dresses, from the days when I lived in straight jumpers with deep pockets. (Eventually I decided that, as comfortable as they were, they weren't all that flattering to my multiparous belly, so I've moved on to other, equally utilitarian fashion statements.)

Now that I'm done with Miss Kate's quilt, I'm working in earnest on another pieced quilt. I'm getting lots of inspiration from Davina Thomas's 200 Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match. Her fabric choices are too ice-creamy for me, and the blocks she makes aren't scrappy at all, but the book seems pretty exhaustive, and Astrid and I enjoy looking at it together, especially at bedtime.

I'm also continuing to work (mostly during baseball games) on embroidered flour sack towels, with designs from Floresita's vintage collection. At this weekend's game, I didn't have Astrid with me, so I could embroider to my heart's content, or until my fingers cramped up (this time around, it was the latter).