Domestic duties, and bargellos

Today I woke up when Jeremy left for work and started out bright and early by making what I am now dubbing Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Soup. I put all the ingredients in the slow-cooker and turned it on low. I then started laying out the strips from a jellyroll packet for a Bargello quilt. Basics of this quilt are to sew strips together then cut those sewn strips 90 degrees across the sewn so you have new strips of squares with each part of the original strips on them. The beautiful part of a bargello quilt is how you then line up the strips by rotating them so the one original strips are offset creating a pattern.

I know it's hard to imagine, just go google Bargello quilt images and see what comes up. I think they are part of what makes it a wonderful quilt is how just moving the pieces can make something turn into artwork. That's what I love about quilting, how it can be so artful.

So I am almost done sewing the first round of strips. Then comes the cutting. I will post a picture tomorrow of my progress.

I also did all the laundry in the apartment, that was fun! Clean clothes smells so good!

Sunday Birthday Sunday

Well today I set my alarm for 930 am to get up and get the dishes done and time to relax before I had to be at work for a little girl's birthday party at the Art Studio. I got 95 % of them done and even got to watch some repeats of America's Next Top Model before I left. The party was good, 12 little kids learning to draw and then getting hyped on cake then sending them home. It's an easy and fun way to make a day's worth of work. When I got home I found my husband had definitely been working on cleaning up! He moved all the controllers for video games into a drawer I had emptied, he had taken out the garbage, and condensed more boxes so we have more room in the living room. The rest of the night was spent watching tv, munch on the home-made salsa that Jer's dad sent in the mail for us, and relaxing.

I finished my Nine Patch Quilt top last night:


I also got my hair cut yesterday!
And colored...what do you think? I like it

I am trying to start working on my next quilting project, a bargello strip quilt. It's tough but I am excited to start it. I will post pictures once I have some. Well I am off to the table to try to organize my strips.

Missing Quilt ladies

So this weekend was the Wisconsin Quilt Retreat that I didn't get to make it to. My sister Tia was kind enough to pass around her cell phone for me to say hi to the regular ladies. I did have two days off so I pulled my machine out today and started working anyway. Made me feel like I was almost there, except the interruptions of a husband, life, and having to make food.

I am planning on going to the next retreat in November. Miss you ladies!

So I set myself up a work area:

Today I finished making my Nine - Patch blocks that I bought during the last quilt retreat...tomorrow I will square them up then start sewing them together:

The Underground City of Seattle

Today we did our first tourist-like thing with Jake and Elisa. We decided to go downtown Seattle and take the Underground City Tour. It's really a neat tour. You see Seattle was originally much lower in sea level when it first was built. It remained that way until June 6th, 1889. That is the date of the Great Seattle Fire. After the fire the town was rebuilt and then regraded to be higher and the remains underneath were left. This is the touring area. We toured three different parts of the underground city and learned many things about the pioneers of the city.

It was one of the best tours I have ever been on. Here are some pictures highlighting it:

Sky Lightings lighting the underground. They are purple from the Magnesium in the glass.

Jeremy was bad so we put him behind bars in the underground vault of an old bank.

bath tub in the underground, old and neat looking

parts of an old Otis Elevator left in the underground

We ended the day by stopping by the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for some caramel apples, but saved them until after we had our full dinner of Quizno's sandwiches and soups.