After much frustration, mechanical problems and sleep deprivation...I finished Victoria's quilt just in time to mail it in time for her son's birthday party this weekend.  I'm mailing it priority first thing in the morning so hopefully it gets there on time.  And I hope it's everything she wanted it to be!  Aside from some issues with my quilting machine, I had a really good time working on this quilt - there were numerous challenging blocks where I had to come up with some pretty creative solutions.  I've already posted quite a few pics but here's the last few.

Here's a closeup of the meandering or stipple quilting:

So I finally got Danielle's double sided tshirt quilt off the quilting machine - it turned out to be VERY difficult.  My machine was having a hard time with the knitted fabrics on both sides.

My mom came into town this past weekend to help me with wedding stuff, yay!  We were going to do some quilting too but since my machine was nonoperational we stuck to wedding stuff.  We went down to Vero Beach and had lunch at the place where the wedding will be.  The food was delicious as usual and the view is spectacular.

On the way back from VBHS we went to the florist and finalized some details and paid another deposit.  Jill, our florist, had set out some examples of what the centerpieces and other flowers will look like to make sure that I am happy with what she did and that she understood what I wanted.  Everything looked great!  Now if only it were free...LOL.

My quilting machine and I are fighting again, grrr!!  Kayla came over last week to work on embroidering a onesie for her niece (I think I might have already mentioned that) and I was quilting Danielle's double sided tshirt quilt.  I was so happy because it was going along smoothly but then about 75 - 80% of the way through, the thread caught on something inside the machine and knotted.  It took me a while to figure out exactly how it was caught (i didn't want to just cut the thread because then a small piece could get stuck in the race and cause more problems).  Eventually I got the stuck thread out but it still wasn't quilting right.  

I have spent the last week messing with the machine trying to get it to work right - replacing the thread, replacing the needle, readjusting the tension, making sure the table and posts are level, cleaning, oiling, etc.  And it's still giving me fits!  The worst part is that aside from Danielle's quilts, I have to get Victoria's quilt done in time for her son's bday on 9/1 so I HAVE to get her quilt done this weekend (which I haven't even been able to work on since I can't get Danielle's finished).  I did get a tiny bit of progress done tonight (over three grueling hours) and hopefully I will get it finished with the quilting and off the machine tomorrow night.  Then I'll have to do some more adjusting and hope everything is fixed and working properly in time to start Victoria's quilt.  So annoying!  I think after these two projects I'm going to have take it in to a service center or go to a dealer for help or something - this is the second or third time i've had problems like this.

Run
A couple weeks ago, I saw on my gym’s website that they were going to do a 4 week fitness bootcamp that was 5 days a week, 60-90mins per day with a trainer for $200.  I had seen it several times and decided I should just sign up and do it – maybe it would kick my lazy butt back into fitness mode.  I went to the gym on Friday 8/3 and signed up for the 4:30pm class that was supposed to start on Monday 8/6.  I was really excited because I would only have to leave for work at 5:45am instead of leaving at 4:45am to work out and I would get home around 6:45 (only 30-45mins later than usual).  

Saturday

For Ryan’s 31st birthday this year, I bought us tickets to go to Epcot.  They have a really neat aquaponics system and Ryan has wanted to go there for several years.  They also offer a guided tour of the entire greenhouse (for an extra fee of course).  Ryan’s mom Mary, also offered to come with us so the three of us all headed to Orlando first thing Saturday morning. 

On the way there, Ryan mentioned that he would really like to stop by a boat dealer to check out a specific boat he had seen online.  We decided to make a pit stop at Dealer’s Choice Marine so he could see one of the Chapparal boats.  This is the boat we looked at:

Admittedly, I have not yet finished Danielle's quilt or Emma's quilt but I needed to get the layout done for Victoria.  So I took a quick break from the craziness the other day and did a layout for her son's birthday quilt.

It seems like every day I am getting busier and busier and I don't see any signs of it slowing down, yikes!  This weekend, I was supposed to get a ton of quilting done but it didn't work out quite like I hoped.  Ryan was supposed to take the dog to the vet to get a vaccine so that we could drop her off at the boarding place on Friday morning but as usual, he didn't do what he said.  We take Willow to Banfield at Petsmart and their website said they open at 8am.  I had a 10am haircut so I was hoping to make it back in time but when I got to Banfield, they said that while they open at 8am, it's only for drop offs - the nurses and doctor don't get there until 9am. So I drove back towards the house.  I stopped at JoAnn's hoping to get some fabric I needed but they didn't open until 9am either.  So I stopped by Toys R Us to get a birthday present for our nephew but they didn't open until 10am.  I finally gave up and went home to eat some breakfast.  About half an hour after I got home, the vet called to say Willow was ready for pickup so I headed back over there.  I picked her up and drove her to Pet Paradise for boarding.