small hands

My little dude turned 8 this weekend. Instead of a big party, he wanted a play date with his two best friends. They came over on Saturday for a five hour play date, complete with lunch, cupcakes, and presents [Lego, Naruto cards, etc.]. He didn't want Happy Birthday sung to him, so I just lit the candles, said happy birthday, gave him the Wonder Twins handshake, and he blew them out.

I love a low maintenance birthday party.

Later in the kitchen I told him how much I enjoyed being his mom, how wonderful our 8years together have been. He has taught me a lot about love, because he is so loving and because he is my heart's blood. He challenges me a lot, especially my patience, and I worry about what the world will try to do to him, but every day of mothering him has been joyful.

Sunday my mom called and said that she had located [waited in line for two hours on a rainy Sunday morning] a Wii [two actually--one for my stepfather for his 62nd birthday] and did he want it. Um...yes. So she brought it over. I set it up after visiting over tea with my mother and didn't hear much from my little guy the rest of the afternoon.

I appreciate gadgets [they're not my thing, but hey] but I resent a tiny bit how much tech support eats up my free time.

I finished the bento box quilt last week:



and decided not to make a matching second one. First, I don't believe in the whole twin matchy-matchy thing. Second, I wanted to try something different for the second one, with the same fabrics.

Because it was raining and blowing so much yesterday, I was inspired to sit down and go through my quilt scraps. One source of inspiration is Quiltville's Quips and Snips. I am just a sucker for a scrap quilt, which dovetails with my philosophy that a massive stash is a triumph of capitalism over the awareness of one's mortality. I pulled out fabric from scrap boxes and gallon sized ziploc bags and created quite a stack of fabric.

During the Oscars, which I didn't really watch [having seen none of the nominated movies except for the Bourne Ultimatum] *gasp* I ironed the fabric and cut it into 1-1/2 inch strips.

I love this quilt, though love is a too one-dimensional word for how I feel.

1. The person who took the picture seems to think that it was made one 1-inch share at a time. It may have been the case, though today, in the age of rotary cutters, wholly unnecessary.

2. I love the vacation home feel of the picture.

3. I love the variety of colors of the fabric, though I'm a sucker for a blue and white quilt.



4. I've always wanted to make a Double Irish chain quilt, since the 1980s, when I first started liking quilts.

I brought the strips to work in two gallon-sized ziploc bags, so I could gaze at the fabric strips and think about how I want to use them. Definitely another Honeycomb Quilt, a Double Irish chain, maybe a Single Irish chain, and a Nine Patch. I'm excited, the icing on the cake being using what I have.

This morning the kids returned to school. In the car, we were talking about something and I quoted Severus Snape from the movie the Order of the Phoenix. He is reading Harry's mind and sees a memory of Harry hugging Sirius and interrupts the memory by saying "I may vomit." The kids laughed and did their own impersonation of Alan Rickman saying the line. We were a happy little tribe.

My children have the week off from school for "Ski Week." Ski Week can bite me. I have tons of work and I'm not hitting the slopes now or anytime in the near future.

The weekend was good. I always enjoy a three day weekend because I can slow down and enjoy my house. As I cleaned and cleaned, I reminded myself that the universe is naturally inclined toward entropy [chaos]. Plus, gravity pulls things onto the floor. That means I have to keep working, at all times, against the universal pull of both forces.

I made progress on the baby quilt, getting going most enthusiastically this morning, when I couldn't do much before getting into the shower and getting ready for work. Its dimensions are 42" x 48".

Yesterday was my stepfather's birthday. My mother made a feast of jerk chicken, barbecued ribs, rice and peas, potato salad, greens with golden beets, peach crisp. We got to taste this and discuss its taste. Disgusting was the consensus.

I took my own advice and did yoga before going to the family get together. It helped me stay serene; it's funny how family can affect you.

Afterward, we returned home and I set up a wireless router so that my daughter could activate her Apple laptop. It was a little hectic and I needed to kick my bickering children out of the room while I navigated the router setup. When they returned, my son was very, very beset with jealousy about the laptop and we had to cuddle and argue and cajole for a long time before he settled down. *Sigh*

quilterlee: My daughter and I share her machine, a Kenmore Model Number 385.19233. Here is the information.

Finished with the piecing. I like the way it turned out.

The weather is terrific this weekend, so I've been in the yard cleaning up, pruning, raking, sweeping. Complete bliss.

I have to set up a wireless router and my daughter's laptop today, plant two rose bushes, laundry, yoga and Sunday dinner. And pinning and quilting.

Getting Started

This scan is from Successful Scrap Quilts by Judy Turner. I didn't think a quilt with such dark fabrics would be appropriate for a baby quilt, so I decided to replace it with beige fabrics.

I happened to stop by JoAnn Fabrics when there was a sale on calicos, which is always groovy.



I'm combining Japanese fabric with some Amy Butler.

I'm watching Season 4 of The Wire on DVD, which is so good [the writing, the acting, the beautiful actors], and getting a good start.



Television on DVD is the way to go. I had heard about The Wire on NPR, but I had found the first season very boring. I decided to give it another look and I'm very impressed.