Sleepover Number One

Putting the finishing touches on the blueberry pie

Miss J arrived for an overnight or sleepover. This was part one of goal number two on my August list. At nine, we are already at a time in her life where her schedule is full with activities. To have her for uninterrupted time is a treasure. She gets to plan the majority of our activities and menus. 

Adding ice water to the hummus

Dinner request Sunday evening was Papa's spaghetti. He makes a great sauce augmented from canned spaghetti sauce from the market and provides sausage as the meat. He pairs the sauce with lots of pasta. He has the kid palette down! Plus, there are leftovers which is real bonus when it comes to lunch the following day!

Finished hummus (photo Miss J)

I asked for design help. Miss J has a terrific eye for color and shape. She has a particular idea about how particular pieces interact and she has a wonderful sense of color. We made a plan for the following day which would begin with sourdough pancakes and bacon. We had planned to visit the sew day with my Mystery Maven group; even though we were packed and ready to go, we didn't.

Doodling more square in a square designs

My wallet had been stolen the previous day while I was teaching a course, The time it took to cancel a credit card, to order replacement health cards, to order a replacement driving license was about three hours. Then, I spent some time updating all the automatic pay accounts that were associated with the credit card. 

Miss J's doodle of square in a square

My husband, took the lead on the credit card. It was a Chase credit card. He had to go in person to request a new card and had he not had a power of attorney, he wouldn't have been able to replace my card because I had to be present to request a new card. Goodness. . .times and rules change!

Miss J's drawing of a larger size of her doodle

Replacing the key fob for the car was the most expensive. Again, my husband took on this replacement. He called the car dealership and made an appointment for the replacement. He was quoted an hour to wait for the programming; but, it took closer to two hours. While the wallet experience was painful, no one was injured. It will take about a month for the various replacement cards to arrive in my post office box. 

More square in a square doodles

While I'm sorry that I didn't get to introduce Miss J to my small group, my creative juices were shot. We decided a short walk with the dog and lunch would be our next steps. After lunch, she helped me with my square in a square challenge. Playing with more layouts was goal number six on my August list.

Drawing a larger size of a doodle

She looked at my doodles. She drew a couple doodles to add to my pile. I was stuck coming up with a design; but, seeing her take on the challenge had me augmenting a previous design. Actually, I drew in quilting lines. While I liked the "new" take on the design, the design wasn't the "one." She asked me questions about the challenge. I said I wanted to try a modern design. She didn't know what a modern design was, so we looked at examples on Pinterest.

Auditioning a red center

Miss J suggested I blow up a doodle that I thought had potential and to color it in. I did. As I worked, I felt like this design could be the one. When I finished, she gave me the affirmative. I thought that perhaps, the yellow was too strong. She suggested I switch the block to red. I liked that option. This is the design that I plan to make into a top. As of publishing this post, I'm undecided on the color of the center square. Playing with layouts for the challenge was goal number six on my August list. With Miss J's help, I exceeded that goal!

Miss j and her inchies

We had Papa burgers and tater tots for dinner. Earlier in the day, we made a fresh blueberry pie. This recipe has you place fresh berries in a baked pie shell. You cover the berries with a mixture of sugar, mashed berries, water and cornstarch that has boiled for a minute and cooled. Last, you place a few fresh berries on top of the mixture. The whole pie is refrigerated and is ready to eat in about three hours. It tasted great!

My inchies

We also made hummus so we had a "dip" for our vegetables. My hummus recipe makes a large batch so we split it so she could take some home!

Inchies I created this week

After dinner, we made our plan for the following day and I told a few bedtime stories. She likes to hear mama and auntie stories! The next morning, we made blueberry muffins and then played a bit with the inchie challenge that Rachel at Mindful Art Studio is doing for the next week. She supplies a prompt each day and you draw what comes to mind on a two inch square piece of watercolor paper.

 

House block layout with some "parts"

Rachel's prompts were frothy and woven. We made a second of those prompts. Then Miss J suggested that we each choose a prompt. She chose vibrate and I chose lace. After we drew, we added color with watercolor paints. Miss J was interested in continuing with the challenge. Each day I have forwarded the e-mail with the prompt to her mama. I have seen what she drew. I wish I had a photo as she interpreted each prompt in an interesting way. We both said that we will likely add some color to our examples. 

For a long time, I tried to draw a few minutes each day. For the last several years, I haven't. I've missed the play. Perhaps, I'll figure out how to add it back into my routine.

Auditioning fabrics for sashing/coping strips

After we drew, she helped me with layout options with my friend Martha's house blocks. The inspiration for using these blocks came from reading the book, "Strangers in the Night" by Pat Rushford. Pat is a member of our Thread Tales book club, the leader of the book choice this month and the author! I so enjoyed listening to Pat talk about how she developed the characters as well as telling the group about her writing journey. 

In the book, one of the characters is deciding to buy a property that used to be a town. The character is considering turning the site into an artist's colony. I thought of my friend Martha's blocks. When she turned 70, she asked our small group, WIPs (Works In Progress), to make her a house block. That was 2013! After she died, my friend, Pat, thought that she would make a quilt from the blocks; but, decided it was not a project she wanted to prioritize. She gave the blocks to me. Coming up with a design/layout was goal number seven on my August list.

Backing and binding fabrics
for Positively Grows

Finally, she helped me pick backing fabrics for the Positively Grows quilt which was goal number eight on my August list. I like the choices we made. Having Miss J say yay or nay to various options was great. It was also a quick process! I had a fabulous time and I hope she did too. All too soon our time together was over and she was off to soccer practice with her mom. I'm already looking forward to our next sleepover!!!

The fabrics shown in this post are either scraps or stash. I'm linking to Cynthia at Oh Scrap/Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework. Pour yourself a cuppa and see what other people are making out of their scraps!