Is it too cliche to say this weekend went by too quickly?

Saturday and Sunday afternoons we played with acid for a while. Oxalic acid, to be specific, otherwise known as wood bleach. Still working on getting our test kitchen cabinet to look the way we want it to. I’d show pictures, but they’re pretty boring.

While went to see a movie with his dad, I cleaned up my office (the drawers open and close now! how original!).

That's right, I now have two whole panels of curtain made. Traveling at the speed of light, I tell ya.

(For reference, I’ve been living with the windows like this since the middle of August. Window, actually, since I only finished one panel out of four needed for the two windows.)

After the bleaching on Sunday, we took a trip to Ikea and bought some lamps. And part of a Christmas present.

This other picture I have for you requires some explaining. When I was seven years old, we moved to a new house. I don’t remember if it was just before the move, or sometime shortly after that, but made me a purple patchwork quilt for my bed. (There were also patchwork pillows, which I still have, and a large purple bolster, which is no more.) My new bedroom was purple, and ‘s was pink. What can I say, we were girly girls.

This quilt has been everywhere with me, or so it seems. has patched it several times, but the last time she did it, she said I would have to do it from then on. This was many years ago, long before I knew anything about quilting. My idea of patching the worn/torn spots was to hand-sew on (very visibly, might I add) some patches. It wasn’t good.

There are so many ripped spots on the quilt right now that I’m almost afraid to use it. Almost. Instead, I cuddle up with it on the couch many nights, and it just gets more worn. Last night I pulled out my large stack of charm squares, hoping that had used 5″ squares to make the quilt. As luck would have it, she did. I laid the quilt out on the floor and got to work picking out squares to patch on. I ran out several times, and had to keep going back to my pile and expanding the color scheme. What was once a mostly purple (with a few blues and pinks) quilt is now, well, this:

It you look closely, you might see some of the original quilt in there. Most of the bright colors, however, are new. I pinned them all to where I wanted them, which also marks all the spots with rips, tears, or pieces of fabric so thin I could see right through them. This could take a while.

Can’t deny it has been well loved. I’m trying not to think about how much work it will be to do the actual patching. There are quite a few spots where I’ll be able to patch several squares together and then just sew them onto the quilt, so that should help. I’m also trying not to think about the back of the quilt, which is no longer purple. It’s kind of grey. And also very threadbare. No rips or holes it it yet, though.

I plan on spending a bit of time this week working on my final exam. If I turn it in early, I don’t have to go to the last day of class, and I’m all about that. It’s just a 750 word essay. I am also going to figure out a new floorplan for my office, since we’re going to install a cutting table so I don’t have to crawl around on the floor or bend over the dining room table (both of which make my back etc hurt and make me feel very old). However, since my cutting mat is 36″ x 72″, that’s a lot of table, and a lot of floorspace. We’ve got some good ideas, though, and I think you’ll really like it. (OK, had some good ideas, and did all the research, and I just agreed with his plans.) Speaking of , he took the week off work to build a new arcade machine. Wishing him lots of success, and for all his extremities to remain attached to his body.