Camp praise and a campy photo

Please tell me there is nothing at all wrong with having a hot fudge sundae in the middle of the day, because there was nothing that could stop me today from celebrating - IT'S CAMP WEEK! Camp Week! Glorious, fabulous, everyone-in-the-car-we're-off-to-camp week! Plus there was a can of whipped cream left over from when the kids were away for real.

And we had strawberry shortcake. Come on people. Heads out of the gutter.

Several weeks ago Mr. QH, in a clear effort to seem as if he was going to offer to provide child care if necessary but secretly hoping he could instead go fishing or lie in the new gravity chair reading a book this summer, casually asked what EPQD's summer plans entailed. When I rattled off the three things I most wanted to get done in the sewing room:

1. Project for Quilter's World

2. Rewrite/rework of Quite Contrary for self publication - and

3. Get underway with a custom job

as well as the three things I wanted to accomplish outside of the sewing room:

1. Figure out how to get a shopping cart on my blog

2. Petition possible sponsors for DaGMT 2013 - and

3. Read books while lying in the new gravity chair, which is conveniently built for one

I could almost see him crumble, much like a shortcake. Perhaps if I had made "Find new and creative uses for the leftover whipped cream" a goal, he would have been happier.

A hat for an elf, perhaps?

But lucky for him and for me, the girls are now of an age where they actually entertain themselves (read: fight in another room) in between camp weeks, playdates, vacations, etc, so I am able to accomplish a few things here and there without having to call in Captain Stubing for backup.

Just today I can check off "finish quilt top" from the list, having finished sewing the twin/lap sized version of my reworked "Quite Contrary", which I am hoping to have done in time to be in NEQDC's booth at Maine Quilts later this month. I'm trying to decide what to call it...."More Contrary"? "Even More Contrary"? "Mary Mary Quite Contrary"? "Mary Mary, Why You Buggin'"?

As you can see, it's a process.

You can also see I've changed up the middle a little and kept the borders, which were my favorite part anyway. Now to get it quilted and off to the printer before camp week comes to a door-slamming conclusion.

Another thing I would love to accomplish this summer, but don't dare tell Mr. QH quite yet, is to put together all of the log cabin blocks I got from my guild's latest swap, which was completed in June. All of us provided our own center squares, and then each month we got a new person's blocks to work on. Being the total PITA that I am when working on a group quilt, the only direction I gave was "have fun". I really didn't care what fabrics were used, although I may have suggested blues. The end product will be for my cottage and will likely be eaten by mice over the next 25 years, so really, why be picky?

These are the blocks I got back, 64 that all look like this one:

And this is the setting I have chosen. I think it is kind of cool. I promise to do something a little more fun with the borders, too.

And paging Mrs. Panny....I finally have yours done too! So here's a sneak peak for her and a photo for all of you of the very last blocks I got to work on in the swap:

So here's to a successful start to the summer, sewing-wise anyway.