Friday Night in Zoobie-ville

Some days are hopscotch kind of days. Some days are waiting to get nailed at dodge ball kind of days. –Unknown

*tap* *tap* *tap* Hello? Is this thing on? *tap* *tap*

It's been a slow month for blogging. There just never seems to be enough time to fit everything in. My sewing time is not what it used to be. Work just gets in the way too much . And I feel like I'm moving in slow motion all the time. Since I don't have much time for sewing, I don't have much to blog about on that subject. But it's not that I don't have anything to blog about. I write blog posts in my head all the time while I'm drying my hair in the morning or cleaning raw chicken for dinner. I scribble down notes on the backs of envelopes and in the thirty-seven notebooks that I rotate in and out of being lost and hope that is enough to jog the prose out of my memory when I actually do get to the blog. It's kind of a catch-22, though, because if I blog, then I don't get to sew, which means I have less to blog about. In the few precious hours I have between the time the kids go to bed {which is often interrupted by them getting back out of bed for a drink or something to eat or to tell me they can't sleep or to use the bathroom — when will they grow out of that? They never seem to think I mean it when I tell them good night and that I don't want to see them again until the morning} and the choice is blogging, folding laundry and sewing, I most often choose sewing. Although folded socks and undies is also a priority.

And for all those blog posts I've written in my head over the past few weeks, tonight's post is about nothing in particular. It's Friday night in Zoobie-ville. If you're not from around these parts, BYU students are sometimes referred to as Zoo-bies. Provo and its surrounding areas are known as Zoobie-ville. I left work pretty late tonight; later than usual. I usually drive home through one of the neighborhoods in the heart of Zoobie-ville. Traffic is minimal and there is only one stop sign along my route, until I get to the highway that leads home. But tonight I needed to go to the bank and the only open branch was two blocks from campus, so I took the main road through town, University Avenue, to get there. I was surprised by the traffic. There were lots of cars out and in those cars were couples; people out with their best guy or best girl. It brought a smile to my face, because I loved Friday nights when I was in college. It was so fun, after a week of work and classes, to go out with the girls for bowling or to a football or basketball game, or to go on a date with my best guy.

Right now, my best guy is sleeping. He'll get up for work in a few minutes and then I'll go to bed. It's not date night for me.

But I do want to show you something that I've been keeping a secret for what seems like years. You might remember that I belong to a really great quilting group. We met on-line and most of us live scattered across the US. Our pattern designer extraordinaire, Cat, lives in Australia. She had her second baby at the end of June, and because we're quilters, we made her a quilt. When Cat had her first baby, we did a chicken themed quilt because she loves chickens. This time we decided to do a quilt based on the Snugglepot and Cuddlepie series of books by May Gibbs.

The quilt is finished and finally made its way to Cat and her sweet little guy {who is now 4 months old} in Australia, so I can finally let you see my block. I've been dying to show you since April.

When we make a quilt we all throw ideas out and then we sign up for the block or blocks we want to do. I love to do needle-turn appliqué, so I thought it would be fun to do the little Gumnut Babies, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. I have never seen the books, so I used an image I found on-line for my pattern. Everything is needle-turn with a bit of embroidery for the details. I did a satin stitch for the pupils and the white reflection on the eyes and also for the mouths. I used backstitch for the noses, eyelashes and around the chins for definition.

I'm going to wait on showing you the whole quilt {and the amazing quilting job Angie, our quilter extraordinaire, did on it} because we haven't posted it on our Twi-Quilters blog yet, so stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, I'm going to spend the few minutes that are left of my Friday night sewing.

Or I may just go to bed early.