Driven to distraction...

There's been a lot going on lately -- between drywalling and aruging with insurance adjustors and scheduling repairs and chasing down AWOL contractors, lots of freelance work and a whole bunch of other little take-care-of-this-NOW things, I haven't been quilting. At all. I've been sewing here and there, trying to rid my house of all the scarf samples draped over the furniture (and, in fact, am up to my ears in pillows and cat beds), but it's just not the same.

You know what I mean -- there's just something so satisfying about the whole process of picking fabrics and letting pattern ideas swim around in your head until one of them rises to the surface, and then slicing and piecing and arranging until it becomes a reality. I'm itching to get all this other stuff done and spend some quality time with my sewing machine -- but I'll have to wait just a little while longer, because there's one distraction I don't mind putting it off for:

My Monkey Girl, who's back in the country for Spring Break with her parents. We met up at the beach house for a cold, damp and drizzly visit, and she and I got to enjoy our one sunny afternoon playing among the mounds and trenches sculpted by Lake Michigan's winter winds.

Man, I miss this kid! I miss her bear hugs, her chatter, her sense of humor. She's getting taller and smarter and funnier half an ocean away. But they'll be back for two months this summer, and she already has a plan for our visit.

She apparently dragged her mother into a quilt shop in Gatlinburg, Tennessee to look at fabric (I know! I couldn't be more proud!). She picked out a bundle of gorgeous batik fat quarters for me, and a kit with an easy pattern and more Sock Monkey fabric (as if two quilts from the same line weren't enough, I made her this one in 2007 for Christmas and this one the year after that -- "but this has different colors!") for us to make together. She kind of lost steam the last time we tried quilting, but two years makes a lot of difference, and she's pretty stoked that she got to pick everything out herself and will have a chance to show off her sewing skills.

So my agenda for July and August is set, it seems. Who am I to argue?

On the way back to Chicago, I stopped at my little hidden gem of a shop and found some green batiks to go with the new ones. I'd like to make a throw to match last year's pillows and the new(ish) sofa, and I think these will work just fine.

Archie seems to like them, too.

I have a couple more things that HAVE to get done, but then I get to dig in. The ideas are already swirling around in my head, and I can't wait to get started!