I had good intentions of finishing stitching down my pond quilt pieces. Really I did. My sister got her kids enrolled in Kindercare so my babysitting duties were cancelled, and my kids don't start school until this coming week, but I just didn't get the pieces done. I put my frog on there but I was just not in a very "precise" state of mind for some reason and I didn't want to risk screwing up the whole piece due to my mood. I think he needs some more detail, but I'll also wait on this -- I think some thread painting will help. So I stepped away from the sewing machine and held off on working on it. Actually, I was in more of a messy kind of mood. And there's nothing messier than fabric dyeing!

My library has a copy of "Off-The-Shelf Fabric Painting" by Sue Beevers so I borrowed it and decided to make some fabric instead. I have an idea for something I want to create -- I'm gonna try to be all artsy -- and this fabric would be my base. I bought some Kona cotton and some clearance fabric and some cotton trims that were $1.00 per roll at Joann's the other day. I washed them so they were ready for dyeing and dyed away! I used gold, purple, and a bit of fuchsia. The pieces came out with a warm, dusty appearance and I liked it. The cotton fabric got painted on as well using Dye-Na-Flow and Shiva paintstiks. Here are some photos of the progress....

And then there was our little family field trip to Navy Pier and the Sears Tower this week. It was a beautiful day to go to both places. Dave and I used to go to Navy Pier when we were first dating so we have fond memories of the place and always have a nice time there. They have little shops and places to eat and amusement park rides, and boat rides and a children's museum....there's tons of stuff to do there. We settled for walking around, eating dinner, and riding the huge ferris wheel. It takes seven minutes to make one rotation on the thing. It's huge. It doesn't even stop for you to get on -- it's continuously moving -- very slowly -- and you have to hop on. There is also a lovely area called the Crystal Gardens full of plants and water fountains. Here are some photos from Navy Pier (and just so you know, Katelyn loves those glasses -- Dave and I really try not to laugh about them but boy, it's hard!)....

Next we went to the Sears Tower. I hadn't been there since high school but I remembered the ear-popping elevator ride. It's still the same. I was a bit worried about the little ones getting upset by it, but they did just fine. The view was spectacular. We got up there just before sunset and left after dark. You can see the baseball field where the White Sox play from up there and the lights were on so we knew they were playing. Well, as we were looking, we saw fireworks go off! Someone hit a homerun! It was really neat to look down on fireworks! We watched the boats out on the lake and all the traffic and some guy doing laps in his rooftop pool. It's a great view. Here are some photos from up above Chicago....

So now our play time is over and it's time for the kids to go back to school. Katelyn starts Monday and Brooke starts on Tuesday. Morgan so far is still scheduled for her kidney surgery on Tuesday so I will be taking her and Dave will be going to orientation day at Brooke's kindergarten. That should be -- interesting. Brooke's original orientation day was supposed be on Wednesday which was why I scheduled Morgan's surgery for Tuesday but things changed and now Dave will have to help Brooke off to school. I'll know more tomorrow about times for Morgan's surgery but her doctor said it's a minor procedure and she should be done and ready to go home within 3 - 4 hours.

So with the first day of school fast-approaching, Katelyn decided that she needed a tote bag to carry her books in to and from different classes. Off to buy more fabric! Katelyn picked all her fabrics and said she wanted a peace sign on the front of it. I found a free tote pattern online and this is what we came up with. It's a little big, but she says it's fine. We had a pattern for a smaller tote, but it would have been too small. This one has pockets in it and everything.

So tomorrow is the day that I magically turn into the bus driver. I will be driving and driving and driving. To and from school three times per day. So it will be back to the old routine and back to working on my grandmother's flower garden pieces while sitting in the parking lot. Actually, I need to get a bunch of pieces ready to work on while I'm at the hospital with Morgan on Tuesday.

And speaking of gardens, here is what is blooming in mine. Isn't it a great color? I bought a bag of gladiola bulbs on clearance for $2.00 this spring and wasn't really expecting much from them but they're proving me wrong! I've had a lavender one and am waiting on a red one to open! This is my first year trying gladiolas -- or is it gladioli? -- and I'm thrilled with them.

Have a great week everyone!