Thursday, February 26, 2009

Maybe we need more blocks . . .

Our toy box fell apart yesterday. This is what happens when boys climb in and out of it non-stop for three years. It has served its duty as a car, a motorcycle, a boat, and occasionally, a toy box.This of course, meant that Andrew needed to dismantle the toy box and integrate it into his latest castle.
Seriously, Andrew now uses up every block in the house and is searching for things to finish up his vision with. The other day he had all the toy bins emptied out to use to build walls for his fortress. Oh well, soon it will be spring, and we can pull out all the scrap lumber in the sand box and start gathering sticks.

Threads Together Quilting Bee - February



Here are my blocks for month one of the Threads Together Bee. I was sent four fabrics, and instructions to make 12.5 inch blocks with straight lines (ie no wonkiness) and fussy cutting.

I made a cutting error when I was cutting the fabric for the star block -- thus the two blue points. I had been trying to conserve fabric, so I thought I would cut one five inch strip, then cut down the 4 1/2 inch square out of the top and cut six 2.5 inch squares out of the bottom half of the same strip. But then I went off and broke up a fight between Andrew and Aaron. And when I came back, I thought I was cutting the other set of pieces needed for the block (four 4.5 by 2.5 rectangles) and so I cut the wrong size of strip and didn't have enough fabric left for all the squares. I am so daft some days. But I like the improvised results in the end. I do prefer the first block to the second, partially just becuase I'm not a big fan of pink.

The funny thing about these blocks is that I've borrowed the entire Season Two of Project Runway from my friend, and so as I was making these blocks, my overactive imagination was kicking into play. I was imagining the judges tearing me apart, and me getting eliminated from the quilting bee. Silly, I know. In the end, I was pretty happy with how they worked out, and I hope Jennycakes likes them.

Done with Bloglines

So, for the last six months or so, I have been following all my blogs via Bloglines. In case you are not familliar with it, Bloglines basically follows your blogs for you. You subscribe to a blog on it and when you log in, it highlights all the blogs that have new posts. When you check them, you just see the post, not the header or the sidebar information. For a while I thought this was really cool, becuase I didn't have to click through a bunch of sites with no new posts to find out who had written something new.

But as time goes by and I sub to new blogs, I've discovered a few things. First, without all the extra visual imput, I can't keep which blog I'm reading straight. And I can't remember which new blog is about what topic. This is all part of being a visual-spatial person, I think. I remember people by associating their names with their faces and how they move. I remember blogs not by their name but by their visual presentation.

Second, I comment less. You have to click through to the blog to comment, then click through to a comment form . . . and I just can't be bothered some days. So less comments.

Third, I miss visiting all the actual blog sites. I love seeing new things in the sidebars to click in to, or new headers.

So thats it. No more bloglines for me.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Sunday Stash -- I Spy Edition


A lot of these are 6 or 10 inch squares bought in paks from various online fabric stores. But quite a few are fat quarters or half yards to fussy cut. About 2/3 of this is now cut into squares for my son's quilt. I keep having all these ideas of ways to make it fancy, but I really think that is just me complicating things -- a simple one patch quilt is going to be just fine.

Child Labour -- the good kind

So, I got tired of stopping every 5 min. to break up fights while I was trying to make supper. My alternative plan: enlist the troops in cooking activities. This is sometimes easier said than done with a 4 and 2 year old. But yesterday, I put the lads on carrot duty.



It took about 45 min. to peel these carrots, and I cleaned up peelings for 10 min after that. But I also had time to make apple crisp between fishing Aaron out of the sink and encouraging Andrew, and we listened to music instead of screaming.

The day before, I let them knead their own loaves of bread, too. Aaron's got confiscated due to excessive eating, but Andrew's worked out just fine. He was so excited to cut into it for breakfast the next morning. (forgot to take a post-baking photo, sorry)

Friday, February 20, 2009

Not quite so little any more

This is my two year old. Yes, in January Aaron turned two. There was so much else happening that I didn't even get a chance to blog about it! And look how big he is getting. Notice the new, slim sillouette he is sporting? That is the I'm-in-underwear-now look. Yes. Last week, Aaron decided that he was done with diapers. Every time I would put one on him, he would pull off his pants and diaper. So I put him in underwear. And a week later, he is almost always dry.

And the haircut? We were loving Aaron's long, shaggy look. It was especially cute on dry days when the static would make it fly around his head, and he would look a little like a blonde, devilish dandilion. Until one day when Andrew was at playschool. We came home and Aaron said, "My hair static-y. Get scissors. Cut my hair." So we did.

And that was the end of my little baby. Suddenly, he's a boy.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

So, in between the two sister Peas and Carrots quilts, I have been doing a bunch of little projects to just get a breather. First, I made these coasters for my friend Sharon. These were actually for Christmas, but because she had family over at Christmas and then I went on holidays before they had a free moments, I just gave them to her a few weeks ago.
These were a fun way to use scraps. I cut a big piece of muslin -- about 11 inches by 37 inches, and then pieced these scraps on top. That way I could use little strips and about an 1/8th of an inch seam allowance. If you have the leftovers from cutting metre or half metres, you can just use all strips and it goes really fast. When I didn't have a full 37", I ironed over the edges of the pieces and just stitched them right next to each other, then zig-zagged over the top.

The I cut the big piece into 8 - 4 1/2 by 10 1/2 " strips and followed the instructions in Last Minute Patchwork and Qulting. These were really fun and satisfying.

Next up, a doll quilt for Aaron. He always tries to steal Andrew's, so I thought he might like one of his own. I used my own scraps plus a scrap pack from Starlit Nest (thats where all the dogs and fish came from). I just did improvisational log cabins. This is about 15 x 20.

This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I love having my coffee from a bodum -- it comes out all fresh and frothy and delicious. Unfortunately, if you don't pour and drink it five seconds after its done percolating, it is also cold.

I had seen these awesome coffee pot warmers over at jcasa . Hers are made out of vintage fabric scraps, and have two or three buttons and some elastic loops to keep them on the coffee pot. I really wanted to make myself one like that, but I was getting frustrated becuase I didn't really have the time to do something so fiddly for a while, and my coffee was still cold. For a while I resorted to using my electric coffee maker, but it just wasn't the same.

Then, I saw some cute little egg cozies made out of felted sweaters (can't find them now, sorry) and that led to my aha! moment:

This was much faster. The blue is that felted sweater I've been making a thousand different things from, and the button and ric-rac are from swaps. All I did was cut the felt to fit my coffee pot and fold over a bit and snip a button hole in it. Then I stitched on the button and ric rac, and zig-zagged over the button hole. Unfortuantely, I thought that when I was clipping the corner on the right I was straightening the fabric, but I was actually making it crooked. Now that missing 5 mm is going to bother me every time I look at it. Oh well.

The best thing about my coffee pot's new sweater is that it is thick wool and keeps the coffee hot. The first cup is always piping hot now, and the second cup stays warm for 40 min or so. I am in coffee heaven.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Stash Sunday

As I mentioned, I was rifling through my stash to try to find a yellow or green that would co-ordinate with my Peas and Carrots quilt. And here's what I found:

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Sister quilt top finished!

Well, this one was a bit of an adventure. As I mentioned before, due to a cutting goof up, I ended up with less choice in the border fabric for this one. Also, I don't know what I was thinking when I chose these fabrics for the border. There was a blue and green stripe, and a blue pez that would have looked fantastic with this quilt. But I bought this quilt when I was still really learning about how quilting "worked", if you know what I mean. Like, I knew how it worked, but I didn't yet understand how the borders and blocks interacted in the quilt as a totality. I think I'm getting a bit better at this -- we'll see when I get on to my next few quilts, won't we?

Anyway, this was my first try at finding a set up for the border. You might want to find some sunglasses before you scroll any further.


So, I decided that was a bit too bright and competed with the blocks too much, while not actually containing all the colour in the stars. So I ditched the idea of using a yellow or blue, and went back to the pile of scraps I had left from the quilt. Among it, I found this green daisy fabric. I had no used it originally because there was only 6 1/4 inches left and I needed 6 1/2 inch squares. But when I realized that my border on the first quilt did not fit quite exactly with the blocks anyway after all my squaring of blocks, I decided to use it anyway. Then I found this panel I had bought with the fabric, plus a few of my own 1/4 yrds, with the plan to make myself a little quilt with the same fabric. So I came up with this, which I like much better:

I wanted this quilt to be a bit softer and calmer than Marie's quilt, as Beatrice is slightly less dramatic and more cerebral in nature. And I think is succeeds nicely.

Now to quilt.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Just popping in

to say "hi". Andrew is going through the "and a half" meltdown phase he goes through every year (it being February doesn't really help either), Aaron has decided he doesn't wear diapers during the day anymore (leading to a lot of remembering to putting him on the potty every hour, washing of wet pants and generally chasing a naked toddler around the house), and I have suddenly been consumed with quilt finishing fever.

I have had the other 20 of these blocks burning a hole in the bottom of a drawer in my sewing room while I finished all my Christmas / birthday / post Christmas sewing. Now that I am done, I have started on a mad tare to finish the quilt. Once I get to the point where I am piecing big blocks together, I just get obsessive until the quilt is done. Like as in bring -a -sleeve- of- graham- crackers- and- a- sippy- cup- for- each- child- and- take- no- excuses- to- go- upstairs obsessive.

Hopefully by tomorrow night I should have a photo of the finished top for you. I wanted to have it done already, but due to some daft mis-cutting early on in this project, I don't have enough of one of the fabrics I was going to use for the border, so I've had to rummage through my stash and improvise madly.

I am feeling like the pressure is on (from no one but myself) because I was SO happy with Marie's quilt, I don't see how I can possibly make another one that is quite as awesome as it was. Take deep breath. Say short prayer to the quilting gods. Commence sewing.

Off I go.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Stash Sunday



While I was in Thunder Bay, at my Dad's funeral, I made a last-minute-on-the-way-to-the-airport stop at this fabric store of which I know of. It carries Kaffe Fasset's stripes and shot cottons. SO I snuck in a picked these up.

When I was folding them after I washed them (yep, I'm an obsessive prewasher since the monkey quilt disaster ), when I realized that they remind me of Thunder Bay for another reason.

Ready for a little Canadian history? If not, just look at the lovely fabric and click on through.
My home town, Thunder Bay, is one of the northern most bays in Lake Superior. Lake Superior is the most inland of the great lakes, which join together and feed into the St. Laurence River, which then feeds into the Atlantic Ocean. In the 1700's, when Canada was first settled, its major export was fur, and the major method of transport was canoe. All along the canoe routes there were Forts, where Native American and European trappers would drop off their furs.These forts were set up by trading companies and contained all the basic amenities that might be needed by trappers or voyageurs (the guys that paddled the canoes up and down the rivers and lakes) - doctors, smiths, bars - as well as some representatives of the trading company that set up the fort. Thunder Bay was originally founded at this time, as Fort William, by the North West Trading Company (if I remember correctly). It was at the head of the great lakes, and on the shores of a river that led into a series of smaller rivers and lakes that led into the rest of what is now Northern Ontario and Manitoba.

Still with me? Fast forward to the present day. About 30 or 35 years ago, Thunder Bay was still on a major trade route. Grain from the prairies would come into town by train and go out on big Ocean going Container Ships. But there was an argument between the rail union and the wheat board and wheat started going West out to Vancouver instead. In the midst of this they found / excavated the ruins of Fort William, then reconstructed it a few miles further up the river, and made it into a tourist stop, complete with summer job seeking university students in full costume baking bread, smithing metal, building canoes, and paddling up and down the river.

Okay, back to the connection to the fabric shown above. Those woven stripes totally remind me of all the bright, striped shirts and sashes worn by the French voyageurs at Old Fort William. It brought me back to field trips in elementary school where we would dress like voyageurs and cart water and paddle canoes and learn paddle dances and cook bannock around campfires and learn to find ten kinds of edible root in the forest. The soft, homespun quality of the fabric and the lively yet earthy colours triggered my very tactile memory. And that, friends, is how my mind works.

Anyway, I do love these fabrics. Don't know if I"ll use all the stripes together or as two colourways. Hmm. . . .

Friday, February 06, 2009

Ladybug finally made it across the Atlantic Ocean



In the midst of all the excitement of Christmas, I don't think I showed you all the quilt I made for the fun and funny Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey . You may remember that the theme was "Out of the Box"-- ie, not square. So I made this silly ladybug. I meant for her to be small, but she ended up growing to close to 12 inches, which is pretty massive.

Even so, she must have stowed away on a ship and then crawled from the coast to Katy's house, because it took her over two months to arrive. Ah well, thats what happens when Canada Post has your town listed as "All Other Places".

Threads Together Virtual Quilting Bee

For those of you not well versed in the world on online quilting communities, a virtual quilting bee is a clever, fun adventure started by a few ladies on Flikr. Essentially, what happens is that each person picks out some fabric, and thinks of a kind of quilt they would like to make. Then each member takes a turn sending fabric to all the other quilters, and a month (or so) later, they get 8 or 12 or 16 blocks back to piece into a quilt. Each quilter gets to play with 8 or 12 other people's fabric, and in return gets all the blocks made for their own quilt. Cool, eh?

I first caught wind of this when Betty of bettyninja and Jacquie of Tall Grass Prairie Studio , two of my favorite quilt bloggers, joined Common Threads quilting bee , and I thought it was a pretty cool idea.

Well, when Betty mentioned on her blog that she was looking for another virtual quilting bee to join (I think she's in four or five now), I asked if she could let me know if she found one. Fortunately, she did, and she used her quilting cred to get me a spot in it! So I am excited to let you all know that I am now part of the Threads Together Virtual Quilting Bee! The first pack of fabric should be arriving soon (depending on how grumpy the border guards are feeling and whether the weather is good). I'll keep you posted on my progress, and you can also check out our Flikr group for the virtual quilting bee .

A few of Crafty turtle's favorite things



Now that I have heard that it was received, I can show you what I made for the Favorite Things Swap. Crafty turtle's favorite things included the colour orange, her cat, and cute little creatures. SO, I found a few of my favorite cute novelty fat quarters that I've been secreting away for some time and cut into them, using my scraps to make the little courthouse square borders. This was such a fun quilt to pick fabric for and make. I may have to make a lap sized one with all kinds of things peeking out. I seem to have this thing for creatures peeking out of quilts, don't I?

Oh, the funny things they say and do . . .

First, a classic quote from Andrew:

"Aaron, you have to learn to share. Now, give me all the playdoh." (ah, older brothers)

Things are pretty funny around here these days. Aaron has quite an imagination, and is really verbal, so the boys are starting to play some pretty complex games together. Until Aaron gets bored and trashes them, that is.

For example, the other day, Andrew decided that Rupert the plastic night needed a birthday party. He, and several of his plastic and soft friends built a campfire (of blocks), and made hot dogs (also blocks). Aaron got some "watermelon" (a curved block), and they all ate lunch. Then there had to be party games, so Andrew and Aaron played ring around the rosy about 10 times. Then they had to have a treat, so I gave the boys some gummis I had in the house. Andrew was very particular -- the gummis had to be shared with all the knights and animals before you could take a bite. He was outraged that Aaron only gave Jonathan (the other knight) ONE bite before he gobbled his whole gummi up.

Aaron also likes to try to get in on action figure play. The only thing is, he is too little to make up a story for his guys, so playing action figures with him goes something like this:

Aaron: your guy, mommy. your guy. (I take the proffered guy and hold it up. Aaron takes his Buzz Light Year and begins talking in this funny growly voice) Hello.
Me: Hello Buzz Light Year.
Aaron: Look, my helmet!
Me: yes, that's a very nice helmet you have, Buzz Light Year.
Aaron: Look at my boots!
Me: Yes, you have very nice green boots, Buzz Light Year.
Aaron: Look, I wings!
Me: Oh, are those wings on your back? Fantastic.
(Pause)
Aaron: Look, my helmet!
Wash, rinse, repeat.

The other thing we are newly into around here is GAMES. We have played endless rounds of Hide and Seek in the last few weeks, and we have tried to play Duck, Duck, Goose, but our understanding of who should run and where they should end up is still rather tenative. Still, they love picking who will be the goose.

Andrew is presently hooked on fairy tales and old testament bible stories. I can't decide whether this is a good thing or not. He loves the stories from Judges, followed by first and second Samuel and first and second Kings -- that's right, all the chariot battles and gory killings and fire from heaven and lighting fields on fire by tying torches to foxes, and angelic visitations and evil kings. Ah well, as long as he knows the good guy wins in the end, that is what matters. After all, it is no worse than listening to the 5 o'clock news, is it?

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Winners! Winners!

Wasn't that a blast? What fun to visit all those blogs. Thanks, Katy, for setting this up. It was super fun.

All right. I went and visited the Random Number Generator, and it gave me numbers 20 and 38. So . . . Sylvie and Jill, you are my winners! Congratulations! Expect an email from me later today.

Thanks for all the comments. That is the most visitors I've ever had on my blog. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to visit again.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Giveaway -- now with photos!



Good morning / afternoon / good evening and good night! Well, I have got my camera back, and so please excuse the ridiculously extensive descriptions now. Feel free to leave comments and wins some cute fabric, everyone.

Sorry, International Fabric Addicts, but it is still Tuesday night here and my husband seems to have scampered off with my camera, or my toddler has hidden it somewhere, so I don't have any photos of my giveaway fabric. I shall endevour to describe it to you, and you may leave a comment if you think you might like it. Otherwise, come back tomorrow at about 7 am CST (like, just before you go to bed) and I should have photos posted. Due to these technical difficulties, I will leave this open until Thursday morning my time.

I am giving away two bundles of fabric. Let me know if you are just entering for one, or for either.

Bundle one:


Three fat quarters of cute, retro kids and toys from the Look and Learn collection by American Jane. One is a border print with rulers and cute kids playing on a green background. The second is green with retro toys (wagons, blocks, cute dolls, etc) and red and yellow flowers. The third is blue with cute kids playing with retro toys.

Bundle two:


Twelve fat quarters, yep, three whole yards (bought online from the US as part of a fat quaters club) of Christmas Toile from Moda. These range from navy blue down to a light blue toile-y colour.

Eight of them depict scenes of santa riding in sledges, decorated Christmas trees and winter scenes, angels, etc. Four are more blender-y -- swirls or dots with shadowy angels. I am sure you can picture them perfectly.

All right, you can leave your comments here, if you like. Hopefully my camera will show up in the morning. Off to try to win all your free fabric (seriously, are we really destashing here or just having fun fooling ourselves?)

Monday, February 02, 2009

De-Stashing Fun

On Wed, I will be part of a fun stash giveaway. Quilters and other fabric lovers are all getting together to destash some of their fabric on their blogs. Tune in, and go to I'm a Ginger Monkey's blog (the button should lead you there, I think) for more details.

A few of my favorite things

The Dec. theme for the 6 - 12" Mini Quilt Swap was "Favorite Things". Everyone listed five of their favorite things, and their partner made a quilt including at least one of those favorite things.


I my case, the wonderfully creative craftyturtle managed to fit four of my things in: tea, whimsy, colour and children's literature.

How great is all this whimsical, Seussical goodness? There was nothing for it but to hang this one above my kitchen table, inviting me to have "tea" all day long.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Eulogy for my Father

Last Friday, I got a phone call from my Mom that threw me into a strange, dreamlike state. She informed me that my Dad had been taken to the hospital with pneumonia and had quickly passed away. The next few days became a flurry of phone calls with siblings, flight bookings and preparations for travel. Sunday afternoon we drove into Saskatoon. Monday morning I got on a plane, and by Monday evening, I was attending the memorial viewing (just photos, no body) for my Father. Tuesday morning was the funeral, Tuesday afternoon and evening were taken up with visiting and cleaning out parts of the house for Mom, and by Wed. night I was back at home again.

When I landed in Saskatoon, it felt like I had just had a strange dream, like I could just go home to my own little world again as if nothing had happened. Except that there would be no phone calls from my Dad asking about the latest happenings in the Anglican church, or wondering what we were planning to do next (in my family, there is always a next). There would be no reiterating of articles written about the evils of Atheists or the Liberal party of Canada or the Emergent Church. There would be no more tasting of my Dad's latest concoctions -- salsa, tomato drinks laced with habernero peppers, lemonade made with stevia, raspberry jam with so much sugar it crystalizes on the knife, and popcorn with the latest salt and / or butter substitution. No more pancakes and Spanish Bar cake and pumpkin seeds. No more websites and conferences and promotional campaigns and dvds and cds promoting expository preaching and reformed evangelical teaching. No more new gadgets or cool technology. No more crazy stories about my dad's latest adventures. Life would be a little bit flatter and plainer without my Dad here to add his particular brand of incessant curiosity and creativity to the mix.

My father started out as an electrician, working in a mine in Sudbury. While he was working full time he led summer camps, kids club meetings and bible studies as well as doing further studies. Just before I was born he moved to Thunder Bay to teach college. A few years later, he was asked to pastor a church. Instead of giving up his job, he did both. Every week when I was growing up he would work at the college for 40 hrs, run several Bible studies, write and teach his own sunday school curriculum, preach twice on Sunday, and often run conferences and television and radio shows on the side. For a few years, he worked at Hemlo Gold Mines in the summer, becuase he felt like his electrical skills were getting rusty. The day I was married he had a major heart episode, and a few months later heart surgery. That was 15 years ago. It slowed him down, but nothing stopped him. He preached his last sermon Jan. 1, 2009.

My Dad was an innovator. He didn't ask "Has anyone else done this before?", but "Why hasn't anyone done this yet?". When he first discovered public television, he started a tv show at our local cable company. When he found a printing press for sale, he bought it and printed his articles, church bulletins, and whatever else he could think of on it. When computers came out, he got a Rainbow100 to see what they could do. When digital video editing technology started up, he got a hold of a system, learned how to operate it, and did a second cable tv show. His college was one of the first to use interactive computer software (guess who designed it?) for promotional purposes at career fairs. His church had a website in 1995. One of his friends was saying that he used to get tired just talking to him on the phone, he was so full of ideas and plans and dreams.

My Dad hated pretention. He didn't want a viewing at his funeral, because he hated it when people said things like "Oh, he looks so good"(considering he's dead?) and he didn't want a bunch of flowers (so he could prove how many friends he had?). If he asked you how you were, he didn't want to hear "Fine.", he wanted to know how you were. If he didn't want to know how you were, he didn't ask. He was a self-taught theologian, and he and his fellow officially uneducated Renaissance men would call themselves "the Nurses" when they went to conferences and were surrounded by Dr's of Philosophy. He had no time for sentimentality or niceties.

He had great love for his friends and family, his dogs and cats, his food and his books, but little patience anything he considered to be foolishness. He could be bitingly satirical and caustic to those he thought were foolish, hypocritical or cowardly. Those who "got" him and gained his respect, gained a devoted friend. He had no time for the rest, unless he felt the need to set them straight.

Dad was fascinated by everything. He would describe a bug he had found in the garden, or a new idea he had heard about, or an ancient battle that turned on a brilliant general, or a newly discovered science fiction authour, with equal enthusiasm. He had this amazing, biting sense of humour, and a personality and laugh that would fill all the space around him. He lived with an intensity, passion and energy that left most people breathless in his wake.

One of the amazing things about his funeral was hearing about and understanding this heritage. He had five children and so far, 17 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. He planted his determination, love of life, creativity and anti-establishment leanings, in all of us. Our lives are, in some ways, variations on this theme.

This summer, he said that he had done everything he could in life. In other words, everything that he thought he could do, he did. He said he wished that instead, he had done everything he should have done. I think he meant that he wished he had stretched himself less and focused more on his family and his own personal faith and growth. If he had focused all of his tremendous energy on a few areas, instead of spreading himself into everything that took his fancy, he could have done those few things with greater wisdom and incredible success. That was his parting wisdom after 71 years of living and 15 years, while sick with heart problems, of reflecting back on his past.

I just hope I can remember this when my head is spinning in a million different directions. I hope I can take the best of his example, and leave the rest behind. I hope I can learn to do what I should do, not what I could do, in my life.

Bye, Dad. It was a fun ride. See you later, when we will have left behind the childish things of this life, and be able to shine forth as God intended us to be. Hope I can make you proud until then.

Super Stash Sunday



How much do I love these fabrics? So much that I had to order them immediately, even though I was on holidays when they came out. My favorite is the orange octopus / seahorse one, although I almost equally love the purple / yellow octopus one above. I have great plans for these . . . if only I could settle on one set of great plans, it would be all good. I have some thoughts of English Paper Piecing stars with mermaids and fish spiralling out of them. Or then again of undulating pieced waves of fish and sea creatures . . . haven't made up my mind quite yet.

Arg, arg, arg!

So, I finally get around to posting something, and Blogger erases my post! And it had so many links in it that I don't have time to redo it right now.

Sorry for the week of no posts. Its been a bit crazy around here, between birthday parties and lost keys and urgent, surprise flights home to Thunder Bay. More about all that later. In the meantime, just look at the happy fabric this post is sandwiched between and smile.