Cursed & April Goals

 I think I am cursed! Every vacation I have I always end up being sick. Of course this week is my spring break and we planned to meet my sister and her family in Salt Lake City to entertain my niece and nephew while their dad had his first week of chemo and radiation. I woke up Monday morning with the stomach flu, we made it 45 minutes from home on our way to SLC and we had to turn around and get me back to bed and a bathroom. Needless to say it was a major bummer! My teen did not get to see her cousins, drive for hours, or shop in a big city and I lost two days of my vacation to staying in bed. The good news is my brother-in-law's treatments are quick and he is not having any terrible side effects, so they have been able to do some fun family activities.

 I signed up for a new embroidery BOM and it arrived yesterday afternoon. It is called Journey of a Quilter and is through the Material Girls in South Jordan, Utah. (I was planning on visiting while on our trip that did not happen.) The first block's arrival has been my only vacation highlight so far! It came with these lovely embroidery floss colors, but I prefer to use perle cotton and was able to find most the colors in my perle cotton stash. The colors I did not have were ordered on-line and have already shipped. Got to love Internet shopping if you live in a rural area!!!

Aren't these fabrics happy? So happy in fact, I dragged my behind out of bed yesterday afternoon and put the block together. I don't think I messed it up which is amazing considered I had a decongestant in my system!

I actually followed the instructions and pieced it before doing the embroidery. I still need to trace the embroidery designs on, but I am so thrilled I splurged for this BOM project. I am going to back the whole block with Warm and Natural batting to provide stability and hide my ugly embroidery stitches from the front.

Here is the picture that forced me to sign up. All that Bonnie and Camille fabric and bright happy colors at least inspire spring, but we had bits of snow today and may get an inch tonight. Not feeling much like spring...

 Here is another embroidery BOM I have been working on. It is called Let It Snow. I have half of the embroideries completed and started piecing the blocks today.

 I had several laughs because my teenager was learning how to drive a stick shift in our driveway this afternoon. The windows from my sewing room have an awesome view of the driveway. We borrowed a friend's old Jeep truck for her lesson. My hubby managed to show her the basics, vacate the truck, and then she just drove it in circles on our big driveway. She managed to use a quarter of a tank of gas. She may not have been able to drive to SLC, but she drove lots of circles! She has also been looking at cars online and has realized many of her favorites like Mini Coopers and VW Beetles are sticks, so she is determined to conquer driving one.

My April goals are:

1. Complete my Goodnight Irene blocks for the quilt along

2. Finish up the Let It Snow embroideries and piece its top

3. Make a tote bag for a swap on Flickr

4. Piece my top for the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge 2014

 

I think four goals are enough for me this month!