"I'll get to it this summer." "That's a great summer project." "We have the whole summer to do that!" Please tell me I'm not the only person who says these things. Every year the myth of summer vacation calls to me, convincing me that two short months are long enough to accomplish all the leftovers from the ten months before...not to mention taking trips, cleaning my house from top to bottom, and getting everything ready for another year of home schooling in August. As I sit here looking at my sewing to-do list, my house & school to-do list, and my calendar for the month of July, I can't make the numbers work unless I cut back to about five hours of sleep each night, an idea which -- trust me -- is not going to be good for anybody in this house. A few things have to go by the wayside, and I've decided that since there are so few of us sewing along, one of those things will have to be the Graph Paper Quilt Along. I hope you all will understand. I couldn't bring the sew along to a close without showing you Small Project #3, the incredibly talented Chase's amazing Mini I-Pad Pouch. While I don't have any such electronic devices in my life, I wasn't about to let that stop me. I love this little pouch to pieces. If you want to make one of your own, you'll find all the instructions right here. My pouch is lined in a cheerful retro style fabric by Denyse Schmidt, and I used a musical print by Tim Holtz from his latest round of Eclectic Elements for the outer flap. I quilted the piece with a lovely peach colored thread by Aurifil. For me, the hardest part was deciding which patchwork panel to relegate to the back of the pouch. Can't we just have two fronts? So as I near the halfway point of our summer vacation, I'm officially waving the white flag of surrender. I'm willing to admit it: I can't do everything. I figure I might as well make peace with it now, reset my expectations, and stay off the hamster wheel. After all, what am I going to remember a year from now...crossing every item off my to-do lists or taking time to actually enjoy my life? Something tells me the second option is the way to go.
