This is July?

Greetings from Massachusetts! That would be cold, wet, damp, chilly, rainy Massachusetts. Someone check their calendar - this is July, right? It might be in the low 60s out there right now, misty/drizzly, and due to begin pouring sometime late tonight. Apparently the rain will continue most of tomorrow. Thankfully, it's supposed to clear up and be a beautiful weekend.

We had a great flight up, and at 5 and 6 1/2, the boys love to fly and can carry their own backpacks and booster seats. They looked so grown up, sitting on their own on one side of the aisle, reading their books. We got to my mom's and they immediately began climbing the huge pine tree in the front yard, which is perfectly arranged for climbing. (Pix will be posted eventually.) Matthew has decided he's got 4 "rooms" in the tree, and Jeremy has two "rooms" and a science lab. They've also adopted a neighborhood cat, whom they've named Stinky. I figured it would be a mangy looking critter, but I saw it this afternoon and it's a big tom (at least 18 pounds), black and grey, sleek, and well cared for. Guess the name is just more evidence of testosterone poisoning.

Mom and I will get everything packed up for our trip to the Cape tomorrow, make a list of groceries we'll need to get down there, and visit with a few relatives that will be dropping by. We'll be leaving shortly after noon on Saturday. I'll get to visit with a college friend and a grad school friend during the week, as well as various other relatives who'll be popping down here and there. I'm looking forward to relaxing - and hopefully some warmer weather!

Capes, Cards, and Band-aids

The boys and I are off to the Cape for a few weeks today. I haven't been to Cape Cod in at least 20 years, and my memories of it are largely those of a child. So it will be interesting to see the changes there. The boys are excited to see their cousins and get to spend lots of time with them. I don't have a beach-themed quilt (yet), but the trip just might inspire one!

I was inspired by a greeting card to make this quilt, which I call Ode to Joy. I received the card nearly 15 years ago and had always kept it on my bulletin board because I found it to be bright and cheerful. And I decided it needed to be bigger so I could enjoy it from across the room. So I used the card as a template and created a pattern. The pieces were fused in place, then heavily machine embroidered to complete the top. The quilting added additional thread work and dimension to the piece. And I took a technique from my good friend Michelle and finished the edge with a few layers of zigzag stitching, then couched on a bright and fuzzy fiber to top it all off.


As we head off on vacation, I have to wonder if my boys have managed to sneak emergency band-aids into their backpacks. What, you've never heard of one? I'll leave you today with this layout of one of their recent adventures, in which Jeremy starred.


The journaling reads: Once upon a time, two brothers were riding their scooters down the sidewalk to the front door of their house. Their mother told them to try to fall in the grass, and not on the sidewalk, because it would hurt less. But the younger brother fell on the sidewalk. He got all scraped up above his knee, and it bled and hurt a lot. The older brother, concerned, asked him if he needed a band-aid. The younger brother said “yes” through his tears. Then the older brother asked him where he stored his emergency band-aid. (The mother had never heard of such a thing!) The younger brother let him know it was under his pillow, and the older brother ran right off and got it for him. The mother got his scrape cleaned up and put on the emergency band-aid, gave him a hug, and helped him back up to the house. And that is the story of The Emergency Band-aid.

Toothless... and Proud of It!

Matthew lost his first upper tooth last week. It was a bit wiggly, but he decided to take action and work it out instead of waiting for it to fall out. He's pretty much had an ear-splitting grin since then, and loves to show off his new gap.


He woke up the next morning and discovered... nothing... under his pillow! According to him, the tooth fairy came but couldn't find his tooth because it had fallen out of his bed and onto the floor. We made sure the next night to have the tooth easy to find under his pillow, and sure enough, the tooth fairy was able to find it and leave him his reward. He is quite proud of his crisp new $1 bill.

Celebrated the Fourth

This year, I finally made a Fourth of July quilt. I used the Pinwheel Baby Quilt pattern provided in the Moda Bake Shop. I had some patriotic fabrics in a charm pack for the pinwheels and prairie points, a navy-on-cream print of the Pledge of Allegiance (which I've had forever!) as the background fabric, and flying eagle fabric for the outer border.


I didn't quite have it done by the 4th - the top was done, but it wasn't batted, basted or quilted. I had pretty much resigned myself to get it finished for next year. But my 6 1/2 year old son decided otherwise - he wanted it ready to take to the town's Fourth of July party that evening. Normally, I like to "quilt it to death". But since I only had a few hours, I ended up doing continuous curves for the pinwheels, and a medium-sized meander in the outer border. I sewed the binding on by machine, instead of finishing it by hand as I generally prefer. It came out great, and was taken to the party and used.

Am I really going to do this?

Seriously, am I really going to have a blog that I update regularly (or not so regularly)? I've been thinking about it for a while. I'm not sure that I'm really interesting enough to have a blog that other folks will want to read. But I know it will be a good place for the boys' grandparents to keep up with our daily adventures (and mis-adventures). And it will be fun for me to be able to share my latest creations, whether they be of the scrapbook, digital, or quilt variety. And to share any items of interest that I happen across. So maybe, just maybe, this will work out.

And away we go...