What I did on the rest of my Vacation.

I spent the rest of my vacation in Winnipeg. A lot happened, and it was kind of stressful. My mom had lung surgery, my car was broken into, my sons caused all kinds of mischief, I visited lots of people and places, and my parents'50th wedding anniversary party was held on the proper day, but in Winnipeg instead of in Thunder Bay. We did get to stay at my brother's really nice house for half of the time (the after our car window got smashed part of the vacation), and we enjoyed the company of many friends and relations and the boys liked the zoo and their cousins (especially their trampolines and action figures and other big kid toys). Then we came home. Somehow I got lost on highway 16. I know, its really hard to get lost on a highway that just cuts straight across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but you would be amazed at where I am capable of getting lost. Anyway, we found our way back again, and it only added about an hour to our trip.

If you want to see some photos there's some on Flikr. Just click on the Flikr side bar thing to see them. I could regale you with the full scale dramatic Jill version of all that happened, but I would be posting about my vacation well into Sept, and I'd rather go and make a snack bag for Andrew for playschool.

Complicate! Complicate!

I have this problem. I can never make or do anything the simple way. I can always think of a more "interesting"and often much more complicated way to do everything. I usually come up with this just because I hate doing something the same way other people are doing it, even if that way works fine and is easy and, well, uncomplicated. Why is this? Is it my innate desire to make everything chaotic and dramatic? Is it my pride, assuming I can come up with a better way to do everything than anyone else can? Why is it, exactly, that I have such a problem doing things the plain, simple, every day way?

Don't answer that. It was rhetorical.

New bike

New bike
Originally uploaded by davenjilly

Andrew will be 4 on Saturday, and so we got him a bicycle. He has been so anxious and squirrely the last few days, and Dave was so excited about it himself, that we gave it to him early.

Andrew is not the most co-ordinated kid, and he never did master pedalling his big wheels motorcycle. So I was so proud to watch him slowly making his way down the street. I had to come into the house because I was getting all teary eyed. My tiny baby is riding a bicycle. And going to playschool next week. He is finally finding his wings.

It was cute because he spent all day warming up to the fact that it was his bike and he got to keep it. Dave said that for about two hours they would go outside, open the garage, get on the helmet, knee pads and elbow pads, get on the bike, ride down the block and walk the bike back. Then they would take everything into the garage, take it off and go in the house. No sooner would they get in than they had to do it all again.

Finally in the afternoon he rode it the three blocks to the park with me and Aaron. He was getting pretty good at that point and he was pretty pleased with himself. At the end of the day, after we put it away he asked, "Do I get to keep it?"

Quilt progress - Sept 3

Quilt progress - Sept 3
Originally uploaded by davenjilly

Four finished, 36 to go. I was hoping to get to go to the quilter's guild meeting this Thurs and so I had pulled out the fabric to make 6 of these babies in the 4 hours they were meeting. Unfortunately, Dave has an important meeting on Sat (thanks, Richard) and so he can't watch the boys.
So I started in on the blocks and discovered that I really like doing them two at a time. It means I wind up with two almost identical blocks (except the four light squares in the corners) but since I"m making two quilts that doesn't really matter. Actually, no one that was not as pattern obsessed as I am would notice which blocks were identical in a quilt with 20 scrappy blocks anyway.
Also, I have more of a sense of accomplishment than I would cutting, ironing and trimming three hundred and some half-triangle squares all at one time. I love it when I can see progress!

Have I showed you this yet?

In a typical bout of over confidence, I decided to make a picnic quilt the week that Dave was gone on his motorcycle read and ride retreat. The quilt we had been using as our park / picnic quilt last year had become Andrew's bed quilt this year, so we had been operating without a good place to sit on our many summer visits to the park. This wasn't crucial this year, since we didn't have a tiny baby to deal with, but I do like to have somewhere bright and happy to sit while the boys rush around, or a place for them to sit and have a snack when they need a break. Also its nice to have something to lay overtop of your tarp at the folk music festival, or to wrap the boys in while they're sleeping, or to play on at the campsite. So I really did want to have a quilt before we went on holidays, but no brilliant, quick ideas had presented themselves.

I was following sew mama sew 's summer sewing month, however, and they just happened to feature a fantastic tutorial for a picnic quilt with rock pockets ( designed by Erin at house on hill road ). The original is made all with half yard cuts. The day I saw it, I knew I wanted to make it, and that I could easily make it in a few evenings. Not only that, but I had some Amy Butler half yards laying around that I didn't particularly like (am I allowed to say that? Is it sacrilidge? Am I now going to be shunned by crafty bloggers across the world wide web?). I loved the pattern on them, which was why I bought them online as a lot on ebay, but when I received them I wasn't thrilled with the colour. Too kaky brown for me. I was hoping they would be more green. Same for almost all the other fabrics in this quilt -- I love the patterns, but hate the colour. I found that I had almost enough fabric, but I was short one half yard. Then I remembered that I had bought this fabric (which I totally love) on a whim at a quilt shop close out:
I thought it had enough blue in it to match, and would make me happy about the rest of the quilt. Also, if we were somewhere and the boys were bored, they could always daydream about who the people were and what they were doing.

So in two very late nights I threw the quilt together. I was really happy that I am now at the point in my quilting skills where I can throw something like this together and not make a disaster of it. All that was left to do was to topstitch and tie it. For some unknown reason I thought it would be logical to do this while the boys were awake (this is what happens when I have no one around to give me a reality check every once in a while -- anything seems possible. I have no clue of my own limitations). Just a tip for anyone else: never try to tape a quilt flat and tie it with a big, sharp needle while you have an awake 18 month old in the house. What could be more fun than a) tearing pieces of green tape off the capet, b) getting chased around by mom and c) trying to steal that fascinating sharp metal thing your mom keeps playing with? After an aggrivating hour of chasing the boys around, then finally sending them outside to "play"(ie leave mom alone for 5 minutes) I finally finished it. It was super useful on our trip. We did wrap the boys up in it, use it at our campsite, sit on it at the folk festival, picnic at the park on it with our friends and, incidentally, keep our laptop stashed in it in the back of the station wagon.

The back is a vintage sheet I picked up last summer at Value Village. It has a few frays, which I may go back and patch eventually, but for now I'm just as happy leaving them be.
And as I suspected might happen, the quilt is growing on me. I still wouldn't use these colours in my house as decor colours, but I do like the way it looks in the sunshine. I love the blues and bright greens, and I love having something fun and happy to sit on while we're at the park.

A Few Aquisitions

I didn't buy all these while I was gone. Some of them I bought online before I left. And a few of them were from my swap (see below). But I did aquire all of this lovely fabric in the last while. My fingers are itching just looking at it.

You Know What I Really Missed While I was Away?

My morning cup of tea.



Followed by my morning cup of perfect coffee. A coffee maker is just not the same.

Score!

I got this hand made wood fridge and stove at a yard sale yesterday. They need some paint, but other than that they are perfect. Hand made by some grandparent or parent somewhere. They are solid plywood, and really cool. The oven has a drawer below it for storage, and working knobs and a little rack inside. The fridge has veggie drawers and an icebox with two little ice cube trays in it. Its pretty fantastic. Now I just have to make some felt food to go in it.

Week in Regina

Our first week of vacation was a week in Regina, Saskatchewan. It is the capital city, and its about 100 years old. I don't have any touristy photos, because we've been there before, and we're kind of allergic to most tourist attractions. So I have no photos of the lovely mature trees along the road or the provincial parliment buildings, but I do have lots of photos of the parks. We went to lots of parks.

The highlight was the end of the week when we went to the folk festival. It takes place in Victoria park, which is nice and small. There were four stages during the day (which were free) and tons of variety on the mainstage at night. We saw everything from fusion / world music to Winnipeg folk/rock band the Weakerthans to Canadian soul singer Jully Black. It was a great weekend. I was especially excited to see Final Fantasy (AKA Owen Pallett) -- he composes these violin pieces where he loops himself singing tenor and playing keyboard as well as playing beautiful etherial violin. He was a bit quirky as a performer, even though he's a very talented musician. I would imagine he's a bit like Glenn Gould, though -- better to hear recorded than live. He kept making little side comments about things that weren't working while he was performing, which sort of ruined it. But later in the week, when he was just being Owen Pallett instead of Final Fantasy he was quite an interesting guy -- sort of like someone I would have hung out with in highschool, I think. I also really enjoyed Great Lake Swimmers. They have a really great sound. The boys really liked Old Man Luedecke (who is a year younger than me -- 31) and his banjo playing. I thought it was kind of ironic becuase he kept playing this song making fun of the company that created Round Up, not really realizing (or perhaps not really caring) that he was in the centre of Round up ready Canola land. He was really interesting, too. Again, the sort of person Dave and I usually end up hanging out with.

Strangely that was one of my epiphanies during this week. I realized that I've always tended to hang out with the odd, interesting people wherever I've been. The people who think a bit too much to be practical or see the world in a bit of a unique, creative way. There's nothing wrong with this, it just makes it a bit hard for me to find friends in a place that hails practicality and level headedness more than introspection and creativity.

We also got together with the Snooks, who used to work a few hours away. This was a great visit -- I hadn't really got to know them before this. We had some really great conversations and I really enjoyed our day with them.

Our biggest adventure was the rain storm. It seems we can't get through a Regina Folk Festival without a rain storm. The storm came on Sunday afternoon. It was the kind of storm where you could feel the pressure drop in your sinuses as it started to roll into Regina. If we had been out of town (its super flat in Regina) we would have seen the clouds blowing in. As it was, we could watch them slowly looming over the festival grounds. We packed everything up in the wagon and high tailed it out of there to our car just as the rain poured down. I seriously haven't seen rain like this since last year's folk festival. Before that, probably not since I left the West Coast. It poured. We took the boys to Chapters and out for supper to Wendys, then went back to our tent with every intention of putting the boys to sleep. There was one problem, however:

See that shadow all around the bottom of our tent? That would be the small lake our tent was swimmming in. Although it hadn't taken in much water, I was a bit nervous about putting the pressure of all our bodies in it -- I was worried that would cause the water to start to seep through. So we thought maybe we could afford one more hotel stay, and drove down the road to a seedy hotel on the edge of town. But after looking at the place, Dave decided against it and started driving across town. As we drove, hoping to put the boys to sleep or figure out what to do, we drove past the festival grounds. And do you know what we heard? Music. We rolled down our window and discovered that the festival was on. The musicians were playing! So in short order we made a plan: Dave ran out and set up our little two man tent we had bought for the boys to sleep in during the night at the folk festival. We rushed the boys and a few blankets into the festival grounds under a tarp and the boys and I snuck into the tent and listened to music. Dave went back to our tent, borrowed a shovel and dug a little drainage ditch (the woman at the desk at the campsite gave him a trowel instead of a shovel, so it was a very LITTLE ditch) to divert water away from our tent, and changed into dry clothes. Then he came back to the festival grounds, by which time the boys were asleep in the tent and we listened to the rest of the music! It was really magical. The park was dark and wet and half-empty. But people were there -- sitting in their chairs holding umberellas, walking around wearing garbage bags, wrapping tarps around their chairs to make little tents and basically doing what they could to stick around and listen to the music. And of course, the musicians loved this and so they played their hearts out. It was a great show. We only caught the last two acts -- Abigain Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet, who played fusion string quartet / asian inspired music, and Michael Franti and Spearhead who played Regae. It was a great time, and we were so glad we were creative and optimistic and found a happy solution instead of giving in to the circumstances that surrounded us. I was just thinking that this is the way I want to live my whole life -- overcoming the circumstances I find myself in rather than giving in to them in defeat.


After that Dave had to spend most of the next day moving out tent and drying out our stuff so that we didn't appear at our friends' house in Regina and take their house over by hanging up sleeping bags and tents everywhere. While Dave was doing that, the boys and I were doing this:

July fabric and chocolate swap

July fabric and chocolate swap
Originally uploaded by davenjilly

This was my swap package from Lil in Luxembourg. I had so much fun getting to know her through this swap, and she sent such a wonderful package. The batiks are so pretty, and the candle is sitting next to the little quilt (see below) making my dining room smell nice. We've been using the soap for bath time for the boys and its nice and mild on their skin. The buttons are going into my button collection that will go into the playmat quilt I'm going to make.

Maybe I just need to keep participating in swaps until my whole house is decorated . . .

July mini quilt from VanniBC

July mini quilt from VanniBC
Originally uploaded by davenjilly

This was the lovely little quilt I received from VanniBC for the mini quilt swap. I have it sitting on my little shelf in the dining room right now cheering up my wall. Its the brightest thing in the space . . . probably a sign I need to decorate, eh?

Anyway, thanks, Vanni!

Speechless.

I seem to be having trouble summing up the last month in a few posts. So much happened both externally and internally during the last month that I'm not sure where to start. The beginning? The end? The middle? I was going to make a start on it last night, but I found myself so exausted by just catching up on house work and chasing the boys that I fell asleep with Aaron. It is really hard for me to get back into the routine of domestic work. I really don't enjoy it, and it takes a lot of discipline and concentration for me to get back into housekeeping mode. Plus I'm just so overwhelmed by the things I would like to do to make out house happier and more livable this winter. I just can't seem to fathom another winter with these empty walls, and cluttered, unorganized rooms. But where to start? How to start? And how to find the time amidst youth group and playgroup and the boys and just life in general? Ug. I don't know. Eventually I'll have an answer. In the mean time, here's a great shot I found of me when I was 16 outside the Canadian War Museum:

And this one is classic teenage Jill. This is the doghouse Lisa and I painted for my mom's new puppy. The little black guy on the left is called a Tibetan Monk. I used to draw them eveywhere. On the side of the doghouse there's one dancing in a pool of blood, and also a frog with bloodshot eyes . . . I don't remember what else we painted on it. I don't think the dog ever used it. My parents waited until I moved away to repaint it, though. Now that's love for you.

Lonliness

One of the best things for me about going on vacation is seeing friends. It reminds me that I have friends, and that some people somewhere like me a lot, and would love to hang out with me regularly. One of the worst things about coming back is the absence of that mutual affection. I long to have someone live here that I can just call up and meet at the park, or spontaneously invite over for an impromptu dinner. My little coffee mugs make me long for Lisa with her Finnish sensibilities about tiny cups of coffee. My big yellow mug reminds me of Kris and her West Coast sensiblities about giant mugs of tea. I open my drawer and see my jioza maker and long for the old days as the "White Girl"who doesn't know what she's doing while making jioza with Nonie and Rita. The bag of fair trade coffee in my cupboard reminds me of thoughtful, reflective Kym who considers the implications of every purchase, every word so carefully. The apples littering my lawn remind me of many Christmases and Easters happily ended with Jill's famous apple pie (the secret was really just the wonderful old baking apple trees on my rental house property -- shh, don't tell anyone, they think I"m magic). I'm longing for those days of friends, parties, coffees, teas, movies, vino, and just the practicalities of living with and around others you love dearly.

Above is Kym, Jeff and Sam. We usually stay with them, but things are a bit crazy around their place these days, so we didn't. But we sorely missed our morning coffees and outings to the park and late night chats once the lads are asleep because of it.

Hello all!

Well, its been an eventful month! From my week at home with the boys when I decided that the most important thing I needed to do was make a new quilt, to listening to an asian string quartet fusion group in the pouring rain during the folk music festival to getting my window smashed to visiting my mom after lung surgery to family reunions (always precarious in my family) to getting lost on the way back (you know its late when you accidentally turn off of the incredibly straight highway 16 -- yes, it was my fault) . . . its been eventful to say the least.

So I have stories to tell, photos to show you, and resolutions to share. But for now, I just have fabric to fold (ahem -- did I mention I managed to procure some fabric on my trip?) and then off to bed! Goodnight. Missed you.

swap quilt july 2008 (triangles)

swap quilt july 2008 (triangles)
Originally uploaded by Vanni BC

I know, I know, I'm supposed to be offline! But I just wanted to show you what I decided to do with this quiltie. I sent my swap partner the triangle by itself plus the tree, in case she could find a use for it somehow. I think it turned out pretty cute, and the blue binding suits the block better than the green I had on the outside of it when it was in the bigger mini quilt.

I think the real issue was just that this block was a diva -- it wanted all the love to itself. Also, it was having no part of that no name brand non-designer green fabric I had on it.

Also, the corners of the binding look lovely . .. on the back.

Hi, You've Reached Life and Times of Jill

I won't be in for the next while, but I should be back in September. Feel free to look aroud and leave me a comment -- I'll get them in my email.

Talk to you in September. Jill

A Time to Reflect

I'm really feeling like I need some time and space to think about life these days. I feel like life as a mother can really easily just pass you by. Your entire day flashes by, filled with mopping up spills and changing dirty clothes and keeping everyone fed and safe and relatively happy. There is so much action sometimes that it is hard to think. But yet because there are so few things to do aside from these tasks (and answering "why" and "how" questions over and over again and saying, "Outside. yes. we are outside now.") . . . see, like right now when my son woke up and had to go pee and get a drink and a snuggle before he could go back to sleep . . . that it is hard to keep your thoughts and emotions in order and in control. Its really easy to fall into self pity or envy or laziness or over eating becuase its so boring and repetitive.

With summer vacation approaching and the year coming to an "end", it seems like I'm looking back on a difficult year. I don't think I've had time to process everything that has happened. And although I feel like in some ways I've made huge strides forward -- I've lost weight, kept my house tidier and organized a lot of things -- I feel like in other ways I'm really dissatisfied. My inner life has been really dry lately. I've focused a lot on creating, which is good, but I haven't been into the depths for a while. My spirit is dry and my emotions are tired and I haven't been stopping to take the time and quiet I need to renew them.

I would like to say that I don't know where that time is going, but the fact is that I do know where its going. I spend it surfing from blog to blog and Flikr group to Flikr group, trying to find enough images and stories to fill me up. Instead of going into my basement and working on my own creations, or writing in my journal, or praying or meditating or excersising or actually emailing a friend, I saturate myself in images. I lose myself here, in cyberspace.

I know this, but I'm trying to decide what it means. Should I give up blogging, which keeps me in touch with many of my friends across the country and helps me keep track of what has happened in my life in the last 3 years? Should I stop posting on Flikr, where I'm being inspired and having fun doing swaps? Should I limit my time on Crafster, Facebook, Mothering Dot Commune? Pick one or two sites to putter on? Not putter at all? Focus my interests? Diversify my interests? Stop being interested?

I don't know. I do know I'm saturated with images. I remember when I went camping for the weekend, thinking that I had so many images in my head that I couldn't think of what I wanted to make anymore. I was losing my creative drive and vision because I was being absorbed into everyone else's projects and ideas. I could no longer see my own thoughts and ideas in my own head.

I try to do everything I do mindfully; I like to have a purpose and intent behind my actions so as to keep myself in check. I'm the sort of person who naturally leans toward chaos and disorder, so I need to work hard to keep my emotions and thoughts in order all the time. I feel like I'm losing my focus.

I guess what this means is that I'm taking a break. No blogging on vacation. Only the barest minimum of email checking and swap-related Flikr posting and Sept. Mamas posting. Otherwise, I think I'm going offline for a month. I need some time to see my own pictures and hear my own voice again, and the voices of my children and husband and the friends I will enounter along our trip.

I plan to come back to this blog in September, hopefully with some changes made both in me and my vision for my time online. Possibly with a new angle on my blog, or a different blog, or no blog at all. Hope you'll have a great month and tune in then to see what's happened.

Love to all. Jill.

Luxembourg: Who Knew.

So, as well as dabbling in the Mini Quilt Swap, I also joined a fabric and chocolate swap (who wouldn't?) that seemed like a lot of fun. My first swap partner was from Luxembourg, a place I had never heard of. I assumed it was a province of Germany, becuase it sounds kind of Germanish, but never the less sent my package to the address I was given with just Luxembourg on the bottom.

Imagine my surprise when my lovely swap partner, Lil, informed me that it was an actual independent dutchy! Of course I was fascinated and I had to go and check it out. It is a lovely little country (size-wise. as far as culture and history they kick Canada's butt). According to Wikki it is prosperous, beautiful, historically interesting, and a founding memeber in the UN, Nato, and all kinds of other important things. The best description, though, is the one from the Catholic encyclopedia the New Advent. An excerpt I am rather partial to runs as follows:

. . . it is situated at an elevation of about 1000 feet above the sea level, is mountainous and possesses a temperate healthy climate. The arable lands, including almost half the country, yield abundant crops of grain, and splendid pastures feed numerous herds of cattle and horses. The vine produces annually more than 1,300,000 gallons of wine and the fruit harvest is no less generous

It also has some cool, fairy tale like castles, towns and stoneworks , as you can see if you click on the photos there. Sure beats any archetecture you can find around here (rural decay, anyone? we've got plenty!).

So, all in all, my journey to discover Luxembourg was most pleasurable. Descriptions online were found easily, and the photos were no less generous to my opinion of the country.

I think I'm going to look everything up in the Catholic encyclopedia from now on.

I think I should start writing like that. "The fabric I discovered in this store was most generous, with the friendly staff abundantly at my disposal."

ETA: Lil just gave me a link to her virtual blog tour of the capital. Find it here:
http://whatidobesidework.blogspot.com/2008/04/this-will-be-long-post-lol.html

It's contagious . . .

I'm not usually one to be doing what everyone else is doing, but these English Paper pieced quilt blocks are really quite a fun pick up and put down hand sewing project. They finish up fairly quickly, so its also satisfying.

I'm not showing you the front because it may be featured in a mini-quilt sometime in the near future (if I can ever figure out what to do about my triangle one . . .).

Busy Week!

On Thursday, we went out to visit this older, childless couple in our church. They are farmers and he collects old John Deer tractors. He loves to give tractor rides, and the boys were treated to a ride on this tractor with Dad. We all got to drive in a vintage grain truck as well, which was fun. I think Dad enjoyed the tractor more than the boys, however.

Then yesterday our friends the Tucks came through on their way home to Fort McMurray. I've known Arden since grade 11. He played trumpet in the band and I played percussion, and he started coming to our ISCF group, then later the youth group Dave and I ran as teens. Dave was in his wedding party when he married Judith, who I get along with like a house on fire, and his older son, Nate is Dave's godson. It was a short visit - only one night - but very intense and enjoyable. One day we will live closer again and the boys can play. The boys had a blast. Nate and Andrew are very similar, tempermentally, so they played together really well. After the Tucks took us out for dinner, they boys had a huge wrestling / couch jumping / climb on daddy time in our living room. It was great. Even John, at 6 mos, was loving it.

Here are the boys sharing a bowl of cherries before supper.


Of course, we also have Art Camp from Mon. - Thurs. next week, so I've been testing out a few of the projects. I should have tried tie dying, too, but that will have to be tomorrow's project, I guess. Dave says he thinks the monster making project might be a bit much for Sasktachewan, but I hope lots of 10 yr old boys take it and have fun learning how to sew with me!

Some things never cease to surprise me . . .

like the brilliant yellow of canola flowers. Seriously, is that a real colour?

Quilt Giveaway

Amazing Dana from Old Red Barn Soap Co. is giving stuff away again. She has made and is giving away this amazing quilt . Go and enter. If you're really ambitious, make a video about why you want the quilt and get 50 entries. If I didn't have art camp next week you know what I would have been doing. At the very least check out the hilarious Bob the Builder video someone entered. Classic stuff.

Fabric goodness folded after prewashing

How can you not love this photo? My husband tells me that I respond to colour how most people respond to drugs . . . do you think drugs would be cheaper?

Anyway, the bottom raspberry and orange and brown ones are mostly the Chloes Imagination that I was obsessing about ealier, which arrived last week. Also some Zazu thrown in (by he same designer) and some pindots -- my stash lacks blender fabrics. The top ones are for the quilt Im going to make with the fabric you can see here: http://lifeandtimesofjill.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-afraid-ive-been-bad.html. Sorry not to be more saavy, but it appears my keyboard is still on the french setting and I can't seem to find the html brackets anywhere . .. ah well. the bright yellow and turquoise in the middle are just becuase I loved them. Ill make something happy for me out of them one day. Until then Ill just keep them where they can smile at me while I sew.

Here, there and everywhere

Just a side note: Aaron has turned on the French language feature on my keyboard by randomly pushing buttons while I wasnt looking, so I dont have an apostrophe right now, just this: è. Also, no slash (é) or question mark (É). Please excuse my poor punctuation until I figure out how to fix it.

We went on a little jaunt into Saskatoon this Sunday and Monday. We drove in Sun. night, and camped overnight so we could both get a little city culture into us and get our art camp shopping done (ie--go to Michaels) in our allotted time period and with everyone still sane at the end. Aside from neither of us packing the air mattress, this worked out great.

It was funny, because I was walking down Broadway (the main funky strip in town) and wearing my typical clothes -- jeans, a hand made poet-y blouse, my big green cordoroy bag and a scaf in my hair to keep the mess looking civilized -- and no one was staring at me. In fact, I was on the tame end of the fashoin statement scale. Sitting in a coffee shop by myself -- also normal. No one felt the need to come over and say hi and ask when the person I was meeting was getting there. In fact, no one said hi at all, except a guy who was trying to get his Saxaphone back from a pawn shop and wanted to know if I would kindly spare a nickel. I read the newspaper and wandered around and no one cared. No one will say to me any time this week, È(oh, no quotes either -- what do french people do when they punctuate their sentences on this computerÉ) So, Jill, saw you were having coffee by yourself. Was that a good article you were reading in the newspaperÉ. Not only that, but the coffee shop was open past 6 pm.

It made me realize that I am not the wrong person. I am just in the wrong place. It is a releif to be reminded of this once in a while.

Anyway, we had a good breakfast at a 50s diner (Dave and I are big diner breakfast eaters) and talked about the glowing optimism of that era, and looked for sandals for me and went to the quilt shop (of course -- and yes I did pick up a few odds and ends (ahem)) and to Michaels and Canadian Tire and the motorcycle shop and McNally Robinson (a bookstore chain) and McDonalds and Tim Hortons . . . quick, quick! cram in as many things we cant get at home into 20 hrs as you possibly can . . .

Then yesterday I went to the fair in Nipawin with the Hetkes and their three kids. It was really fun. This year Andrew went on someting other than the kiddie train. He actually tried every ride he could go on and would have gone on more if we hadnt arrived late and run out of time. He was super funny becuase he had the most serious, analytical face almost the whole time. We were on the roller coaster and while the other kids are screaming and waving their arms he was sitting perfectly still. About the 5th time around the thing really got going and whipped us around a little bit faster and Andrew exclaimed OH I like this! That was it. I was so impressed with his independence. He even went on things all by himself when we couldnt find a little friend to go with us and he was pretty calm about it. Aaron desperately wanted to go on the rides, but you had to be over 2 for everything except the bouncy carosel (I bought him a ticket to go in this once with Andrew and they had fun). He just kept whistfully saying Ride. Ride. Ride. After supper he got a little out of hand and I actually lost him for about a minute, which was pretty scary. It ended up that he was following the bees around the edge of the ride, since he couldnt go on the ride.


Today we just hung out in Nipawin and let the kids play while I visited. It was perfect - the kids played happily and I got to check out my new book that I got in Saskatoon -- the Creative Family (more on that once I finish it) and have a good visit with Sharon.

Still a busy week ahead -- Art camp shopping and project - trying to do, and guests Friday and SAturday, and then next week we (I) run a 4 day craft-based day camp. Since I pick most of the activities we re doing a lot of fabric-based stuff this year -- tie dying, softie making, batiking, print making. We have more volunteers this year, so Im hoping to still be breathing at the end, unlike last year.

Testing, testing . . .

So, I was trying to make this lovely, cool little mini-quilt for my second month in the mini-quilt swap over at Flikr. My swap partner is from B.C., and the theme for the month was triangles, so I decided to try doing a wonky triangle. After a test run of the triangle, I made another, fantastic triangle in some of my favorite dots that I had been saving for something wonderful. Then I decided it was a little a-frame cabin and I made this cute little scene, all in triangles, to go around it. As I mentioned last week, in my rant, I went out and got some fusible web to stick it all down.

Well, either the ladies were right that I am stupid and incompetent, or they sold me old fusible, or my new iron is too hot, becuase it didn't work. I ended up with applique pieces (including my awesome triangle) that had fusible web on one side, and would not stick to my background.

This is the point where the situation gets truly Jillish. . . . So do I decide to change my idea? Or ask someone who might know what to do what to do? No. I decide to bravely plow on. I button-hole stitch around the applique pieces, sandwich the baby up and start quilting. I had decided that this would be a perfect project to try using thick embroidery floss on, since I want to do that on my play mat that I will make sometime before the boys are in highschool. So I started to quilt it . . . and the edges of the applique start to fray, and pull away from the background. So I undo half the quilting, re-zig-zag the offending side of the triangle, and do some looser, further apart quilting. Again, another section starts pulling away. And as I go, each piece I try to quilt starts fraying and coming off the background fabric.


So I stop, and post it on Flikr, and get some suggestions. But unsure of which one to try, I decide to try . . . all of them. First, I try appliquilting around one triangle on my machine. It looks kind of stupid, but the thing is stuck on there. But when I try to do that on my big, wonky triangle, my machine rebells and starts skipping stitches again. I change the needle. The new needle won't stay threaded. So in a panic (I have another 15 days to complete this thing, but for some reason I decided I had to so it right that moment) . . .I decide to hand quilt a second triangle to see if that will work. It doesn't really. I'm not happy with it. So I take a section of the big triangle and try some hand sewn blanket stitch on it. Didn't like the look of that . . .


So now I have three different, weird bits of stitching all over my quilt. None of which are working for me or doing the quilt any favors. So I decide to just cut the quilt apart. I saved the tree, which I really think is cute, and which isn't fraying yet, for some future adventure. And this is what I have left:


I can't decide wether to just bind it and send it off to my swap partner (it is 8 inches) or make another, square quilt with some sort of triangular piecing that I know something about. Ug. Why don't I ever just stop and think?

How old do I have to be

to be taken seriously? Really.

When I was in my 20's and I was a highschool substitute, I used to often get mistaken for a student by condescending secretaries. I would go to ask where the photocopier was and be told, "You need permission from your teacher to use the photocopier, dear". Even when people knew I was on staff, some would often pass off my comments or ideas with a vague smile and blank look as if to say "You are not old enough for me to listen to you, and your idea does not fit into my pre-packaged paradigym. Therefore, I am going to pretend that you did not speak".

Now that I'm in my 30's, I find the same thing often happens. I'm hanging out with the local moms (who are my age, I might add) and I'll say something relating to attachment parenting or cloth diapers or how no, actually, we didn't "all"go through the getting-stupidly-drunk-and-sleeping-around stage, and so we don't need to assume its inevitable that our children will, and I get the same thing. Same blank look. Same "its only Jill, just pretend she didn't speak and go on with the conversation" attitude.

Today I had the same thing happen for the umpteenth time at the quilting store. I went in to buy some embroidery floss and some fusible web to iron-on fuse some stuff on my latest mini quilt. I don't know where it is in the store becuase I've never done applique before. So I ask the woman, and she sells me this Heat and Bond stuff. I specifically said, "I want the stuff you just have to iron on.". I get home and realize its the stuff you have to sew around, too. Did she not hear me? Of course she did. Its probably just twenty cents more per metre and she thought "Oh, its only Jill. She's not a SERIOUS quilter, so she'll be fine with this stuff". When really, I have some of that stuff that they sold me LAST time I was trying to do applique (anoter customer in the store corrected the lady who was helping me and said, "That's not what she's looking for" to which the lady in the store said, "Well, its only for a kids project so it doens't really matter"). And I couldn't get it to work. On my coasters I used regular fusible interfacing and just zig-zagged them in place, and the jeans I tried to patch with this stuff, the patches fell off in the wash even after I blanket stitched it in place. They are constantly trying to sell me broadcloth instead of quilting solids and flanelette instead of flanel. In one of the local city's fabriclands, I had a woman tell me that I DID NOT want the large bag of stuffing. "Oh, you don't want THAT, dear" (subtext: becuase you're just a silly little girl who couldn't possibly do enough sewing to use up that whole bag of stuffing).

Dear. That's the sticker for me. Its always "dear". Like I"m their granddaughter and they're trying to teach me how to use a sewing machine for the first time. Like I can't sew a straight line and they're going to have to look over my shoulder to make sure I do it correctly. Like my sewing and quilting can't really matter because I"m not 500 years old and don't use calicos or polyester in my sewing, and after all, its only for my kids, or for some tiny mini quilt. That doesn't really matter, does it?

I feel like storming down there and exploding at the woman. Especially since Aaron threw a mug at my head while I was taking a rest on the carpet and I'm slightly concussed right now. But all that will do is make sure I get even worse service at the only sewing / quilting store within an hour's drive of my house. So instead I"ll just go in there and smile and find the stuff I want myself and make her cut it for me and leave as if this is normal and of course she misunderstood me, ha ha. Ug. Small towns drive me crazy sometimes.

Completed block - peas and carrots quilt

Completed block - peas and carrots quilt
Originally uploaded by davenjilly

Looky, looky! One block completely sewn and finished. I'm so excited becuase I cut the squares big, so I could trim them down to size and get accurate blocks, and it worked! Its a bit tedious trimming all 12 triangle square blocks, but it yeilds such a lovely result that its worth it in the long run. I figure if I do them in pairs, and I don't get distracted by too many other things, I might actually get all the blocks sewn by the end of July. (No promises, though, Sharon). I do need to get these quilts and Andrew's quilt done before cold sets in in the fall, so I'm happy to feel like I"m finally making progress.

I love it when I start getting to this stage -- its so gratifying and exciting to be able to see something beautiful appearing out of all the cutting and chain piecing I've been doing so far.

Wonky Triangle

First attempt. I'm not really loving the balance of colour in this one (its kind of screaming at me to cut it apart or add another orange strip and somehow balance out the yellow, actually), but its just scraps from Jeremy's quilt . I am loving the idea of this. Along with my mini quilt I can see a whole quilt of just big blocks of these in blues and turqoises and whites. Hmmm . . .

Toddler Logic

If this box contains cookies . . .

And THIS box contains crackers . . .

The SURELY this box ought to contain pancakes.

Aaron can not figure out why I won't pull some pancakes out of the box for him whenever he's in the mood. Yesterday after his nap he practically had a tantrum (which is pretty rare for him) becuase I wouldn't get him a pancake out of the box. This morning, again, he jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen calling, "Pamanakaks! Peminakats! Paddadaks!" Fortunately big brother wanted Shreddies, which distracted him long enough to sneak a bowl of cereal in front of him and move the pancake box (leftover from the youth retreat -- I don't "do"boxed mixes for anything) to the back of the cupboard.
Speaking of toddlers, we had our first stitches this week. Four. Right on the head. Andrew tackled him headlong into the corner of a wall, while they were both running at break neck speed. So much for my theory that if I taught them to tackle gently around the waist all would be well . . .
Apparently Aaron has my skin, becuase when we went to get them removed today one had almost entriely grown over. (I gave up on my bellybutton ring after my body repeatedly tried to eat it).

Whew!

The Lappy is fixed and I didn't have to reboot the hard drive and lose all my data. I just had to put in the disk I made with all the system info on it and boot from that disk instead of the hard drive. It asked me if it could fix my computer for me, so I let it. And it worked! Yay for technology that's smarter than me!

It made me realize that I need to print some of my photos. I don't have any hard copy prints of anything since right before Aaron was born. So that would be since Dec. 2006. I shall add it to my list of things to do.

To do:
make three twin sized quilts
organize two years worth of digital photos
keep Aaron from killing himself
entertain the children
keep the house from falling into total chaos
plan and execute craft-based vacation bible school
prepare for and execute summer vacation
find someone to look after cat for 3 weeks (always an onerous task)
world domination
Do you think that should keep me busy for the summer? I think so

My June Mini Quilt

You might remember my sneak peek of the mini quilt in progress right here . Well, my swap partner received it a few days ago, so now I can show you all.

This quilt is about 9" big. The worm is made of wool felt and he can pop out of his little hole on a piece of elastic. The flowers are made by sandwiching a circle of batting in between the two fabric circles and wrapping embroidery floss around to make "petals", and using buttons for the centre to tidy up the mess. Both techniques were from Quilt Sensations .
I had so much fun making this quilt. As soon as I signed up for the mini-quilt swap this idea popped into my head, and it actually turned out exactly how I wanted it, which rarely happens for me. It was also super fun sending it away to someone in another country, and I'm enjoying the excitement of knowing I have mail coming any day now.
This is the back. I put a bird on so he could hunt for the worm. I know, I'm silly.

The July theme is triangles, and I have a bit of a wonky idea (wonky is actually a semi-real Modern quilting term). I just have to have a chance to get into the basement and try it out.

July Recipie Swap: Beef Kebabs

This is for the recepie swap here . There's a button I'll try to work out soon.
Photos to appear next time I make this.
Ingredients:
1 large round steak (more if you like lots of meat)
1 lemon
3 cloves garlic
olive oil
salt
1 large ziploc bag
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 onion
1 container cherry tomatos (about 24)
12 mushrooms
1 zucchini
12 wood skewers
baking sheet, cake pan or other flat container

The night before or the morning of the meal, chop round steak into 2 inch pieces and place into ziploc bag. Cut lemon in half and squeeze juice into bag. Chop garlic coarsely and drop in bag. Add olive oil to cover and sprinkle in some salt (add other spices if you like). Place in refrigerator until ready to use.

Soak wood skewers. Chop peppers, onion and zucchini into 2 inch pieces. String veggies and meat, alternating, on kebab sticks. Place in shallow dish as you finish them. Pour remaining marinade from ziploc bag over kebabs (its ok, you're going to cook them) and let sit for 10 min.

Heat BBQ to 350ish. Place kebabs on the top rack and roast for 45 min. or until everything is tender and not charred. Enjoy.

After you've done it once or twice, switch around the meat and veggies to suit your own taste. Have fun. I love making this for company, becuase I can have the meat and veggies all prepared the night before and then just assemble and cook them.

Status: July 3

What I've Been Doing: Trying to rescue my photos before my Lappy has a total meltdown, going to the wading pool, trying out my new workout videos, ambling around with small boys outside, mucking around on Flikr, cleaning sand and watermelon off of everything.
What I've Been Reading: Quilting magazines, a little PG Wodehouse, the book of Proverbs, the final statement from GAFCON , craft blogs, Spoiling Childhood
What I've Been Making: half triangle squares, a new skirt, mini quilts, oatmeal bread, lots of messes with the boys, a big hat, a spaceboy and some paper hexagons.
What I've Been Thinking About: starting a parenting blog, the demise of North American culture and society, becoming vegetarian, Morgentaller being awarded the order of Canada, how to keep life sane during the summer.
What's Making Me Angry: the word "mine", the demise of my Lappy.
What's Making Me Happy: little boys running, dancing, playing and exploring, dirty bathwater at the end of a long day, a light at the end of a very long tunnel (hopefully its not another train this time), the immanent approach of summer vacation, folk festivals, and visitors stopping in on their way cross-country.
What I've Been Planning: way too many quilts, lovely care packages for friends, swaps packages for lovely strangers, my vacation, Art Camp (again), the shape of our next year. And sleep. Sleep is good.

The Lappy is down again. I will probably spend a few days getting her up and running again, so no more detailed posts for a while. Sorry. If you want to see my finished mini-quilt, click the button in my sidebar and find the one with the worm and the flowers. Must clean this disastrous mess that passes for our house.

Sewing Whirlwind

Yes, thats right. I have been a sewing whirlwind lately. With no other commitments coming my way for a few weeks yet, and no social life to speak of, I have been sewing up a storm. Aside from the hat, I also finished chain piecing all the half-triangle squares for this quilt . All 480 of them have been stitched together. I finished, then I oiled and cleaned my sewing machine to congratulate it for a job well done.

Now the question is how to go about the next stage of making this quilt. I still need to cut apart, iron and then trim to size (I made them a little big becuase I"m not a terribly accurate sewer) all the blocks. I was thinking of ways to do this all at once and keep them all organized and un-wrinkled so that I could put them together into the blocks for the quilts. Then I realized that with an 18 month old and only about 18" of unreachable open space in my little sewing corner, that was not going to happen. And it would be really boring to iron and cut all those squares at once. I was thinking this would be the best way to go about it so that I could see all the fabric combinations when I was putting the blocks together.

But I've decided that I'm just going to pull 16 squares in the right colour combinations out of their ziploc bags, cut, iron, trim and sew two blocks together at a time. After all, the fabric is all from the same collection. The blocks all have the same basic colour scheme. It will be okay. I think this will be more satisfying, since I will actually be seeing blocks take shape, instead of just seeing endless little piles of miserable squares stacking up and being scattered all over the sewing / playroom by Aaron.

Unfortunately I don't have anything to show you with this post -- right now the quilt consists of a bunch of squares in ziploc bags. I promise I'll post a photo when I have a few blocks together.

Boys Update

We took one of the ideas from the Fun For Nothin' group already. On Saturday we painted the concrete with a mixture of 1/4 c corn startch, 1/4 c water plus food colouring. It was a big hit, and I have already had requests from Andrew to do it again. Its funny, becuase whenever I look at photos of other kids doing these kinds of things they are always carefully holding their paintbrush and artfully drawing these amazing pictures on the street.
And then I do it with my children and we end up with blotches and drips all over the driveway everywhere from the back gate to the front step, plus two children and one adult covered in food colouring. We all went to church red and blue today.

The boys are both at pretty cute ages right now. Andrew seems to have come through his latest bout of being terrible, and adjusted to sleeping in his own bed. It ends up the issue was that HE got moved out of the bed and AARON did not. I explained that when Aaron was big like him, he would come and sleep in the boys room too. This explanation not only led to complete satisfaction on the moving rooms issue, but has led to the whole "I'm a big boy" stage that everyone talks about 3 yr olds going through. So my big boy is now occasionally dressing himself and putting on his own shoes, and very excited about helping his brother with boots, shoes, food, and whatever else I can think of to get him to help. I know most children his age are completely dressing themselves, but Andrew has a really high (low?) frustration threshold. If he can't get it right immediately he just starts screaming, and then he is so overcome with emotions that he can no longer function and about five minutes of panic, screaming, wailing, and finally doing something about it ensues. I have learned to just accept the wails as background noise and let him do it himself unless he is really having a bad day.

Andrew's imagination and language are still amazing, in my humble opinion. His latest thing is dinosoars. We watched a National Geographic video from the library about this paleontologist (Andrew remembers his names, but do you think I can?) who digs up a whole new variety of pseropod in the Sahara dessert. So everything is now about digging for bones, preparing for expeditions in jeeps and chasing little Aaron dinosoar around the house. He used the word "crucial" in proper context the other day, and yesterday when I suggested he might try to play peacefully with Aaron he said "that might be a bit of a challenge, mom." What three year old talks like that? It is pretty fun hearing the beginnings of narrative driven stories and individual characters developing in his pretend play, though.

Aaron has also levelled out a little bit. He is still wildly active -- climbing, trying to jump and, most recently, dancing up a storm every time he hears music. But he is starting to get more motor abilities and so he's quite happy about that. He has started putting on any pants he finds around the house, wether his or Andrew's, and he can get his own rubber boots on, too now. He is starting to use a few two word phrases -- "on shoes" and "mine shovel" most notably, and he's now picking up and responding to everything. If I am talking to Andrew about eating his carrots Aaron will pick up his carrot and point to it. When we mention that we're going out soon Aaron appears ready to go with his hat and one rubber boot on (usually still in a diaper and maybe a t-shirt). Its pretty funny. Unfortunately he's also in that really-hard-to-get-anything-done-with stage. Lots of banging, swinging, throwing and generally exploring and abusing anything that comes to hand. This includes dishes (one glass and one plate were casualties this week alone), brooms, large sticks, heavy rocks . .. he's a bit of a safety hazard. He also loves to walk himself and stoop to examine every single leaf, twig and grain of sand on the sidewalk wherever we go. So I'm learning that a walk to the park may, in fact, be a 40 min. walk and 10 min. stay at the park.

Summer is a good time for the boys. We are all a lot less stressed when we can get out and explore nature, soak in the sunshine and run in the open spaces. Here's hoping its a good, long, happy summer.

Big Sky Hat

This is my latest sewing project:

It is the first non-quilt or softie thing I've sewn in a long time. Its been all bags, quilts and toys for almost two years now, and I was quite happy with how much my sewing skills have improved. I think I've learned when its ok to take shortcuts and when its best to just follow the instructions. With this hat, I decided that since I've never made a hat before I should just follow the instructions. The pattern is by crafting goddess Amy Butler , as is the fabric. Its a really clear, easy to follow pattern and went together quickly. If I'd been able to work on it all at once it would have taken me about 3 or 4 hrs.

This hat really is at least as big as it looks in the photo. When I put it on I feel a little bit like one of the wizards at the XXXXX branch of Unseen University (Terry Pratchett's Australian Wizards -- they have big brims instead of tall points on their hats due to the heat) becuase the brim is so broad. In order to get it to stay stiff, you have to use 3 layers of canvas in between the quilting cotton. I was supposed to get 10 oz canvas, but thats not available locally, so I used 12 oz instead, which makes for a pretty sturdy hat. In fact, Andrew and I weighed it and it weighs a full pound. Hopefully this should prevent it from blowing off in the prairie winds.

I am going to be loving this hat, especially on long hot days at the park this summer. I like the colour. It is subdued enough to go with anything in my rather ecclectic and colourful wardrobe and to be suitable in many situations. Initially I was thinking of making it out of a brighter fabric, but then I decided that around here, just wearing such a big hat would create enough talk about town, never mind wearing a big, colourful hat.

Fun for Nothin'

You might have noticed the new little thingy in my sidebar. This is an awesome Flikr set full of fun, cheap as free stuff to do with your kids. It was only started this week and there are already some fantastic ideas there. We are definitely painting the sidewalk tomorrow.

Another fabric post (with liks to a giveaway)

Ironically enough, one of the fabric stores I was just checking out was this lovely litte shop . Then, I was reading one of my favorite quilting blogs and discovered that the shop had just opened and the owner was having a little give away . How much do I love the crafty blogoshpere? Such a fun place.

You might be wondering where I've been . . .

Chloe's Imagination - kinda melon bees
Originally uploaded by campfollowerbagslady

Well, I've been obsessing over this fabric that just came out. Seriously, I"m becoming hopeless. I think I am going crazy because I want to use this ridiculously amazing fabric, plus some of Heather Ross' new line that's coming out that I think will co-ordinate with it, to hand piece a big star blanket made of three inch paper pieced diamonds. Or maybe not.

In any case, I have been trying to find the colours I want (all oranges, browns, yellows and raspberry pinks) at a reasonable price in an amount that I want -- like, not a full metre of each fabric. When I stumbled upon the most amazing discovery -- etsy fabric stores!

I am super happy about this! You don't know how many times I've really just wanted fat quarters, but ended up buying half yard or yard cuts of fabrics because thát's the smallest I could find online. But if you want a quilt with a decent amount of variety in it, that ends up being a lot of money.

On etsy, however, it is all smaller stores with personal people at the other end. Almost all of them have little messages that say something to the effect of "I have a whole bolt, so if you prefer fat quarters, or want a custom cut of this or that, just let me know". So its like walking into a real life fabric store with a real person and bolt of fabric on the other side. How exciting is that? (especially since the local quilt shop ladies won't even cut me fat quarters. They get all grumpy and huffy when I ask).

Okay, enough enthusing. You really should check out this fabric, though. It is very weird and Jillish fabric. I want to buy all of it in every colourway, but I'm restraining myself. Really.

Still here

Yep, we're all alive over here.

Aaron is finally over the flu. But then there was cleaning up to do from the camping trip I took the youth group on (during which Aaron had the worst throwing-up-everywere stage of the flu, of course), and Dave decided to assemble our new wardrobes (dubbed the Rubbermaid Uglies) which caused us to rearrange all the furniture in three or four rooms of our house and re-organize all our clothes and storage items, and I had to plan and execute the end-of-year youth group baseball game and a car wash the next day and then, well, I've had to recover and I'm still catching up on laundry. Oh yes, and of course since I've night weaned Aaron my period chose to come back this weekend, too. Gone for two years and it chooses a weekend when I am totally burnt out to return. Typical. If I hadn't almost lost all my baby weight I would be tempted to just get pregnant again to get rid of it.

I finally got around to some sewing today. Triangle squares for the two twin bed quilts again. I made a goofy error becuase Aaron pulled a bunch of my ziploc bags out and spread them all over the floor, but its all good now. I'm half done chain piecing the triangle squares. Then once I figure out a sane way to keep the proper sets of them together, I'll start cutting them apart and ironing them. For now I"m just happy to look at my two little bags of neatly matched and sewn squares. I think I shall do some more now.

When I feel like my head is above water I shall post some pics of our slightly more organized (but still very barren) house. One day I will actually decorate. Really.

Tiniest Pincushion Ever

Okay, maybe not ever, but it really is small. I wanted something I could take with me with a few pins for hand sewing. It had to be something small enough that it could be stashed away when Aaron came to investigate my sewing stuff. Its the beginning of my little travel sewing kit I'm assembling.

The fabric is from the Bees Knees collection. I got a pack of fat 16ths of the whole collection, and they sure are fun to play with. Initially I was planning to make a quilt of the whole lot of them, but if I keep using them up in dribs and drabs like this, I won't have a chance. Then again, I have 3 quilts on the go and about 5 more in my head and all ready to go, so I don't think I really have to worry too much.

I am finding that I tend to hoarde fabric. I was trying to make things without using my favorite fabrics up, just in case I had a fantastic idea sometime in the future and that was the perfect piece of fabric. But then I realized that I bought the fabric to make into things, not to look at. So I think my new fabric philosophy is that if it makes me happy, and I didn't buy it for a specific purpose (like for a certain quilt project, for instance) then I should use it whenever I can, even if I have a metre and I use it all up in dribs and drabs all over the place. It is my hobby, after all. The point is to have fun making things that I love. Right?

Crop Circles - Embroidered Mini Art Quilt

Crop Circles - Embroidered Mini Art Quilt
Originally uploaded by BooDilly's

isn't this a super cute mini quilt? I totally love the colours and all the movement the hand embriodery gives it. You should check out her other work at thesillyboodilly.blogspot.com. Aweome stuff. I adore whimsy.

On an unrelated note, its Aaron's week to be sick, so i might be a little scarce for a while.

Oh, to be a big boy.

Aaron is obsessed with underwear. He loves putting it on. While I am folding laundry he will try to put on two or three pairs on top of each other. I was thinking this was a sign that he was interested in potty learning, so I let him run around hin underwear from around 6 to 9 am. Unforunately he just likes the underwear, not the potty. He loves sitting on the potty and being sung to and read to, but he's figured out that this happens wether he actually goes pee or not. And the afterwords he can run away naked and pee in his brother's room, which is a great joke and creates a big mess, lots of commotion, and gets a huge reaction from his brother.

Bees

On Friday morning Andrew was grumpy. I didn't know yet that he had the flu, I thought he was just over tired from the night before, and by 8:30 or 9 in the morning I was losing patience with his whining and complaining. He is the sort of kid who must communicate his every emotion to us all. If he is happy, we must all be happy. If he is out of sort (which is more usually the case) he will work hard to make everyone else in the household grumpy too. Usually when this happens I find myself berating him for being grumpy, which makes him even grumpier and sets us on a downward spiral thoughout the day. Instead, I've decided to try to teach him ways to get out of his grump so we can all go on with our day.

First I sent him and Aaron outside. Usually this is effective because they find something to do besides pester and scream at each other and they both play happily for twenty minutes or so while I drink my morning coffee or get everything ready for the day in peace. This didn't work. In a desperate attempt to distract him from the fact that Aaron was shovelling dirt on to the deck ("Aaron, stop it! The dirt doesn't go there! Mommy, stop Aaron! What is he doing? Aaron, not ont he deck!" -- at which point Andrew runs up onto the deck and starts wrestling the shovel away from Aaron who has been happily ignoring him. Then Aaron starts crying and screaming because his shovel has been taken away for no good reason that he can see. They both desend upon me, clinging to either end of the shovel, wailing and shreiking at the injustice of the situation.)

Anyway, in an attempt to distract Andrew, I noticed that there was a bee among the apple blossoms. Bees are in his "B" children's encyclopedia, so I said, "Hey, look, a bee!" We all went over to the apple tree, shovel forgotten, in search of bees.

I thought perhaps we would find a bee. Maybe if we were lucky there would be two bees. But as we descended under the canopy of the apple tree, we were enveloped in the scent of white blossoms and the sound of humming bees. They were all over the tree, their little bottom legs weight down with globs of pollen as they rushed to gather as much as they could before the wind or rain took the flowers away. At first I was a little nervous, holding Aaron close and keeping a hand on Andrew's head. But the bees paid us no mind. To them we were simply background noise in their day's work. They buzzed around our head, in and out of blossoms, without even noticing our presence. I got close enough to see every detail of their little bodies. It was magical.


Then, of course, I ran off, got the camera, and came back to take pictures, while Andrew shrieked, "Mommy, stop playing with the camera. Put me in the tree. Take me out of the tree. Get me some juice. Don't get stung, mommy! Put down the camera!" and Aaron stood with a little smile on his face (he's so into smiling for the camera right now) and said "cheesa" a few times before wandering away in search of shovels.