And it's Friday

* The cookbook I have an extra copy of is the Farm Journal Country Cookbook, the expanded edition from 1972. The one I have to give away lacks its dust jacket and has a few water stains (like any cookbook that's been used) but it's otherwise in good shape and certainly is usable as a cookbook. It has lots of good recipes and has a couple of "unusual" chapters, including one on pickling and preserving and another on cooking game and fish. If anyone wants it, it'll go to the first person e-mailing me their address. Nearly every Farm Journal recipe I've made has been good - I haven't made many out of this cookbook but I can generally vouch for their recipes.

* The idea of a fabric swap is a good one. I should go through and "weed" my collection....maybe this summer would be a good time for that. I would either swap for different fabric, or for yarn, or maybe even for other things....For example, I have some "classic Winnie the Pooh" fat quarters I bought YEARS ago (long before my niece was even planned) with the vague thought of making a baby quilt some day if my brother and sister in law had a kid. As it turned out, I decided that the brighter-colored, more modern quilt I made would suit their style better, so that's what they got. But I still have the Pooh fat quarters, not even washed, still all bundled up, and I'm not terribly likely to use them, unless it would be for Project Linus, and I seem to have vanishingly little time to think about doing that....

(And no, I don't think I'll be getting another niece or nephew; I think they decided on "one and done" for their family)

* I decided yesterday afternoon I just needed some time OFF. I left my to-be-graded exams and the review sheet and textbook for the exam I need to write in my office so I wouldn't be tempted to work on them. Instead, I worked on the red-and-aqua quilt some (I'm on the last row of the quilt now; will probably finish the top this weekend).

I also did a bunch of ironing/sorting/rearranging fabric I had acquired and washed and just never really put away. I found all my Ric Rac Rabbit fat quarters and realized that some super-cute pieces of Japanese fabric from Superbuzzy match them in color scheme and style....so I've got another potential quilt top there. In a lot of cases I have all the fabric, even down to the sashing, lined up, and the pattern with the fabric.(I tend to store patterns with the fabric I want to make them with, so I won't forget what pattern it was). In some cases I have a stack of fat quarters that go together but no real plan.

So I decided that instead of venturing out this weekend, I'm going to stay home and work on quilt tops, and do some work in the garden (it's supposed to rain this afternoon but I need to grade this afternoon). And I'm going to try to finish at least three more tops before I make another big quilt store jaunt. (I'm working through one of the sets of fabric I bought on my last trip. I have another set of fabric from that same trip plus some - like the Ric Rac Rabbits - from earlier trips).

I may also put a backing together and drop one of my quilts off for quilting, I don't know.