Been Busy

I know it's been a couple of weeks since I posted, but it's been a busy couple of weeks. For those of you wondering, I did finish the quilt last pictured (sewed the label on last night) and I'll post pictures of that this weekend. As for other things I've been up to...

I was in San Francisco for a week for a conference for work. Didn't really see a whole lot other than what I could see from several early-morning runs from the conference hotel, along the Embarcadero and to Fort Mason. I did go to two Giants games, so added another baseball park to the list of those visited (that's two this summer!). Amazingly, in what little time I did have to shop in the Union Square area, I happened to run into Britex Fabrics - four floors of fabric bliss (and located where I never would have expected to find a fabric store, amidst high-end retail icons like Prada, Burberry, Barney's, Sak's, etc. ). My roommate and I discovered it about 10 minutes prior to close, so there was no real time for dawdling. Clearly the focus is on fabric for decorating and clothing rather than quilting, but there were beautiful fabrics there and I'm sure I could have spent a bundle had I time and a bit of a plan. I still managed to buy one item in my quick visit: the Bendable Bright Light, which everyone seems to be raving about of late. Ann Fahl was selling them at her presentation and workshop with our guild in May but I thought I'd be smart and that Jo-Ann's or some such store would have them and I could get a better deal by using a coupon. Well, I've yet to see them at Jo-Ann's and figure that was the time, so I picked it up. I've not yet installed it on my machine because I really haven't had time for sewing, but I hope it'll give me some good light so that I can turn off my floor lamp and thus reduce some of the heat Ben complains about.

Last weekend, we packed up the car early on Saturday morning and drove half an hour to Jackson, WI, where we picked 36 pints of beautiful raspberries at Henke's, the most wonderful raspberry place I've ever been. Probably 6 acres of raspberries, and only raspberries. The bushes were loaded, the weather was gorgeous, and we heard and saw cranes and geese flying above us. How long does it take two people to pick 36 pints, you might ask? Well, about 3 hours. We used about 17 pints to make two double-batches of jam - 36 jars - and most of the rest went into the freezer. Of course I had to put raspberries on everything for a few days - waffles, yogurt, ice cream (vanilla with chocolate chips, yummy!), etc. I don't know how many we picked last year, but I was pretty much out of them and was thinking I might have to resort to desperate measures to get my raspberry fix.

Finally, I decided to take a class this fall at a local technical college, so on top of all of this, I had a bit of homework to do. Nothing terribly major, but finding the time had me just a bit stressed out. It should be better from here on out (knock on wood).

Quilting-related posts will come again soon.