dining alfresco, more pesto, beginning to quilt for Clinton

So….I was awake at 3 AM on Friday (8/14) morning and finally got up at 3:45.  That gave me time to do the blog post with all of my shopping, and to start writing the Clinton School Story.  

As you know, I’ve been on a mission this year to make single bed quilts for Sterling School.  Paula helped me to set a goal of 10 quilts for them this year….I have already turned in 8, have another top done ready to be quilted, and am sure I will come home from retreat with at least one more single bed top, so I am all set on that front for this year.  

The Volunteer club just finished a drive for school supplies for our local elementary schools.  During the course of that drive, an SCCL resident Debbie (who is also a 4^th grade teacher at another school) asked if her school could be the recipient of school supplies as well.  I explained that many years ago, our Volunteer club decided to give larger amounts of items/money to fewer places to really try to have an impact.  She said she understood that, but we talked about other things that might be done to help.  She explained the needs in her school and I put on my thinking cap.  

Now you know I always have idiot knitting projects going…idiot knitting being defined as something I can do without looking at it, so I can still carry on a conversation…or something where I can knit a few stitches and put it down, then pick it up and easily get back to where I’m supposed to be in the pattern that is in my head.  So, I called the teacher back and asked if she would be interested in donations of hats/mittens/scarves to the school….she was THRILLED!!!  So, in addition to my own knitting, I sent out a call to the Stitch and Chat group and many are ON BOARD with doing things for the school..YAYAY!!  

When I went to Thursday quilting after talking to this teacher, I asked Loree to give me her take on Clinton School in Lancaster.  Loree immediately started shaking her head, stating “if it is not the poorest school in South Carolina, it is definitely close to the bottom”.  Then she told me about a friend/teacher in our local Indian Land Elementary School who went to Clinton to do some special programs.  This teacher was appalled at the poverty she saw there.  She came and raided our quilting cupboard to grab all of our polar fleece kits (you know those ones that give you 2 coordinating pieces of fleece that you can fringe and tie together to make a no-sew blanket?)  She didn’t even bother to make the blankets, just handed out a piece of fleece to all of the students and told them to fold it in 1/2 to take their short naps in the afternoon.  She said if you could have seen the kid’s faces when she told them the blankets were theirs to take home…you just wouldn’t have believed it.  So, now I have learned more about the school from Loree…coupled with a stack of small quilts…all done…sitting in my guest bedroom downstairs.  

I call Debbie and ask if she would be interested in these quilts…and she is THRILLED!!!   If you know me…that’s all I needed to hear to kick into high gear to start turning out smaller blankets for Clinton School.  So…now that’s clear as mud…right?  At least you might understand a bit better when I am referring to Sterling School quilts vs Clinton School quilts…I hope that explains the smaller quilts you’ve been seeing in the blog…I am on a MISSION!!!!  I’m going to be aiming for quilts that are 50 inches by 60 inches…that way I can back them with polar fleece.

So, from 4 AM – 6 AM, I was mostly on the computer doing blog stuff and running my emails, but at 6 I headed back to sewing borders on the 3rd small embroidered quilt.  I hope to get all 3 quilted at once…maybe over this weekend.

Michael was up just after 7 and proceeded to take the dog for a long walk, then made us a smurfy mushroom, spinach, swiss cheese omelet which we consumed on the deck, while reading the paper:

 After that I finally got back to processing the basil I picked on Tuesday!!!  I now have 7 more lovely small packages of pesto to go into the freezer:

I finally got back to the studio around 11 AM.  I spent the afternoon quilting the first of the Clinton School quilts and was done in time for dinner.   

note black border...

 

Then Michael and I got cleaned up and headed up to the Lake House for a surprise birthday party for one of his golfing buddies, Don K.  We had some cake and hobnobbed with the birthday boy and his wife, then headed on home as everyone else was there to play euchre.  Michael wanted to watch a bit of TV, so I headed downstairs to begin quilting the second quilt, since I loaded up all 3 at once.  

note red border

 I went upstairs at 9 PM to veg and watch TV before bed.