5 weeks in Michigan

Josh has been traveling a lot, and has more trips coming up, so o decided to head home.

I came home to enough packages I thought it might be Christmas!!!!

One of those packages was this beautiful fabric, designed by Minick and Simpson who Lives in Michigan!!! And this fabric line is based on Michigan.

I babysat my sisters kids and we went out to pizza and it was amazing... and we had a great time, see the shirt the older one is wearing, I handed that down to her, and my uncle handed it down to me... 

I got to see one of my best friends announce her second pregnancy!

I got to meet one of the members of the online quilt group I'm in :)

My parents took me out to an early birthday dinner since we won't be together for my real birthday and they gave me this book I have been wanting :)

And I got these two books, my first books of grad school.

I was able to see the beach and have a great day with my sister and 6 of my nieces.

I may have also gotten a slight sun burn because I missed a spot with the sunscreen... oops.

I ran a 10 mile race while I was home, I was so happy to run it, I have heard about it most of my life. It was a tough race,  but good. It was fun to run past places I knew. And the medal HUGE

And later that day my cousin got married and it rained the whole afternoon and it was cold.

Saw some good friends

And my parents went on vacation and left me in charge of the house.

And being a good daughter I mowed the lawn and picked the berries...

I also dyed my hair for the first time ever!!!

And I spent a lot of time working on my fresh quilt, but I didn't finish it sadly, mostly quilted though... I tried to get it done so I could give it to my parents for their anniversary... maybe next year.

I met a friend and we picked apples and ate donuts!!! I love cider donuts!! 

And tried to catch this snake for my parents to no avail, I think it's hibernating in the garage for the winter!!! Eek!!! I even set rat traps! They said they didn't catch anything when they got home :(

Which was a learning experience, I had never set a mouse or a rat trap before, so thankfully my brother had been over earlier and set up one of the rat traps, so I could use it as an example.

Met up with more friends and hung out

And finally, 

Headed home

Days 540 and 541

I have been sewing up a storm trying to make good progress on my quilt before heading home. And Mr has been keeping me company. But mostly he has been napping on my quilt pieces...

Day 539

I finished the client quilt finally!!! And just in time to get on a plane home!

Days 534 - 536

I have been waking up to this furry face for a while now, but finally Josh will be coming home.

And I am finally getting my butt in gear and making the binding for my client quilt

Binding for a king sized quilt is super long!

Day 528

Mr has been following me around all day

And I sewed my first square together

Then it started to storm, and Mr needed a place to hide, I made him a quilt fort!

Day 527

A beautiful sunset!

And I laid out my first square of the quilt I'm working on

Day 513

We spent most of the day I'm the sewing room.

Day 512

I started sewing my HSTs today

Days 506 - 509

Not much has been going on here

Mr has been napping

I cut all of my background color.

And Josh and I tried out a brewery, it had some decent food and a great atmosphere

Days 504 & 505

After a day of chores, I got to cutting my squares for my next project

Days 501 & 502

I got a little quilting in before we went to our first child's birthday party

There were lots and lots of treats

An adorable birthday girl

A piñata , of course!

More treats

There was also a fully catered and they also had a bouncy house,

It was a fun day with friends.

Day 499

I woke up in the middle of the night to this

Isn't he so adorable? Sharing my pillow,

But later that day I found him breaking into the cupboard by the door

He then went inside And the door latched and he couldn't get himself back out, good thing I was home.

My friend brought me something from China, to replace the braclet I broke... It's different than the one I got when I was in China, but I like it.

And I was so inspired that I got back to quilting my client quilt!

Day 498

I free motion quilted again! It's so easy! And I tried out a new method so I didn't have to do binding.

And I need to get these quilts by tomorrow, because my friend is coming over! But the power went out!

So I got a chance to read.

And the power came back on! 

And I finished the doll quilts! My machine was having a bit of trouble with tension in the end, but they turned out ok!

Day 497

Now that the race is over it's time to get ready for vacation! 

Time to break in my new hiking boots! And so far I love them!

I also sewed some 9-patches for the doll quilts for my friends new daughters.

Day 493

So one of my friends is back from China after adopting two little girls, and I wanted to make them doll quilts. So I better get back on that!

And Mr attempted the tree again.