Part II...

Nothing to be done, but to move on…I started prepping for the party…by Wednesday I had the garage tables all covered, skirted and set up and DS2 had all the decorations and streamers up. Oh, and being a ‘visual’ person I had all the chafing dishes out with sticky notes everywhere showing where each item would be (OK, I say ‘visual’, you say ‘anal’…just remember, I now knew I had to get as ready as possible as the quilt was still waiting). I bought all the food I could early and then Thursday I cut and pinned as many pieces for the quilt as I could.

Sis arrived Friday at lunchtime and we got started on our “Quilting Bee”. Thank God for her as we always have a fun time and can get each other laughing in the midst of a crisis (OK, not life and death, but I’ve set the bar people…a quilt is expected!). I sewed, she unpinned and kept me sane (translation = make sure none of the T-shirt were upside down...whe was amazed at all the math involved and how I figured this out without a pattern...math is not my subject). By Friday night we had all the T-shirts and white canvas together. We even took a break to prep some of the food and watch the Weather Channel…Oh yeah, Mr. Murphy (Murphy's Law) was messing with me again….(or you can skip this part and just know I’m doubly cursed and I’m a huge klutz)

- We’d of course been watching the weather all week and it went from bad to worse… ‘60% chance of pm thunderstorms’.

- DH was trying to make more room in the fridge for all the food, so he poured me an enormous glass of red wine to finish off the bottle. I took it in to work on the quilt (on the Dining Room table) while he and Sis went to rent a movie. I was sewing along when the doorbell rang and startled me, so I quickly got up to get the door….as I was leaving I caught a pin on my clothing and the quilt followed me…at the edge of the table…yep, the red wine! It fell and hit the seat of a wooden chair from the kitchen Sis had been using and broke. My poor neighbor at the front door (he was bringing me tables for the party) must have thought I was nuts as I answered the door in hysterical laughter (what else can you do but laugh). Luckily, the only fabric that got wine on it was a bit of the black framing and backing, so no harm done when I washed it off, but there was wine all over the Dining Room and up the walls.

- Sis laughed until she couldn’t breathe when she got back and heard the story and scolded me for putting the wine on the table with the quilt ‘What were you thinking?’…at that point I had no brain left ‘I wasn’t!’ We called it a night.

- Saturday morning broke and it was the day of the party. I awoke at 4am with a migraine (stress and lack of sleep are a deadly combination). I couldn’t even move until about 6am and by then DH was up and helped me out…I was able to choke down a piece of bread and took my medicine (can’t take it on an empty stomach). Then I was violently vomiting, well, make that heaving hard with nothing coming up (one of my least favorite side effects of the LB, but it kept the medicine down so it was a positive). I went back up to lie in a dark room. Two hours later I was able to move again, but barely.

- The weather forecast had gotten even worse as they added ‘Gale force winds and damaging hail possible.’ to the thunderstorm forecast. We watched as the red Doppler was headed straight for us. We watched the 'local on the 8's' so many times we were soon reciting it with them...everyone now...'60% chance of pm thunderstorms with GALE FORCE WINDS AND DAMAGING HAIL POSSIBLE!'

- We got whatever setup and food prepped that we could and then went to frame and back the quilt. That’s when I stepped on a piece of wine glass I’d missed the night before and cut my big toe. There were blood droplets all over the carpet and we couldn’t get the bleeding to stop. I finally stuck my foot up on the table to raise it as I was still sewing… ‘Quite the picture of determination! There’s blood, sweat and tears in this quilt!’ Sis said (I’m sending her a nice restaurant gift certificate as I would have thrown it away long ago without her).

- I got the framing done, batting in, and the back on. The opening on the back was only pinned together and the actual quilting stitching wasn’t done, but no one knew the difference. I was just so relieved when we hung it on the garage wall.

- Our families started arriving around 1pm with the pouring rain and winds. At 5pm (party started at 6pm) we had a break in the rain and I decided to chance it and made the decision to set up outside (against the judgement of others in my family who thought I was doomed for a big storm...hey, I'm the eternal optimist remember...and I was figuring we could always ask people to grab a chair to bring in if it rained). Our families were great help in that last hour and we got all the food set up on heat or ice in the garage and everything else done outside..

The party was great. We had neighbors, family and lots of DS1’s friends. I had balloons, decorations, the DVD going in the garage where the quilt was also hung. The buffet was huge (too much food as usual, please come over for leftovers or we’ll be eating it for a month). DS1 has a sweet tooth and so besides my two tables of food we had a third table with the cake, a chocolate fountain with lots of things to dip and an ice cream sundae/cone bar. Outside we had lots of balloons and covered tables/chairs on our big drive and on the patio. We setup volleyball, baggo sets, and the football toss (that new string/rungs game). DS1’s one request was for a cotton candy machine so we had one of those too.

It was all worth it when I saw DS1 watching the DVD with a group of his friends and caught him later in the evening reading all the messages his friends had been writing for him on the quilt. We were all amazed at what a hit the cotton candy machine was…he manned it many times during the night and the kids would line up for their cone of ‘candy floss’ (my 6 year old godson had 8)…DS1 was covered in sugar by the time he was done. As night fell we lit the tiki torches, candles everywhere even floating on the pone and the fire pit for s'mores. We only had a few sprinkles all night that lasted a few minutes each time, but not even bad enough to move inside, so the weather (and Murphy) was finally smiling on us and I got really lucky…it wasn’t even windy…it was the perfect evening. I didn't have time to take a single pic, but I made sure others were doing this for me, so hopefully I can post a few soon.

My party outfit...

I’m exhausted, but DH and I got almost everything back to normal yesterday. I have survived and am victorious! Well, everything but the stupid weight…yep, still not in Onederland…I’ve been up and down the same two or three pounds for weeks now (201.5 today...grrr). Third fill tomorrow!!!!