Quilty Stuff

I am still gathering pictures of really big things.  Here is a picture of Ian with the biggest bag of licorice - crazy. 

Sideways, but a fence with flowers

I had really nice weekend at MAQ (two weeks ago).  The first day was spent landscape painting fabric.  After it dried, we used thread to embellish the quilt.  I really enjoyed this class, enough that I may look into a watercolor painting class.  I really don't need another hobby though.  The second day I took a fabric weaving class.  We put double sided fusible on two different fabrics, cut them in strips and wove them back together.  I liked this very much, it gave the fabric a totally different look.  I think I am going to make placemats this way.  The third day I took a class on freezer paper applique.  The teacher was interesting, organized and helpful.  I would take classes from her again.  It was the best MAQ I have had. 

My June quilt shows that it was a happy month, only marred by my black eye.  July is the woven quilt from MAQ, two gerber daisy woven into one. 

January - year of the rabbit and football.
February - bare trees and snow.
March - Ellen's birthday squirrel.
April - Ian's birthday squirrel.
May - two squirrels teasing Minnow

I have to get working on Ned's birthday squirrel.

Head Banging

At the end of the school year one of my little three's was banging herself on the forehead.  She was trying to get rid of a dream she'd had the night before.  That is how I have felt for the last few weeks.  I have been re-reading the Ice and Fire series and just finished "A Dance with Dragons".  It is banging around in my head and will be there for awhile.  I have been a long-time fan, not one of the newbies hopped up on the HBO series.  Who knows how long we will wait for the next book.

I had a great weekend quilting at MAQ.  I took three classes that I really enjoyed and learned quite a bit as well.  The classes were relaxed and none had me frustrated.  I learned to landscape paint on fabric, freezer paper applique and weave fabric together to make new fabric.  I was anti-social in the evenings, so I could read my book.

I did walk up to the Shrine, stepping over snakes along the way.  A woman said to me, "why would they have snakes here?"  I guess St. Patrick never visited Gettysburg.    People go up there to drink the healing waters, but I didn't want to risk giardhia(sp?).  I am sure you are all saying, "have a little faith."   Why did/do artists so often portray Mary as holding a tiny little man for Jesus instead of a baby Jesus?  It reminds me of Ellen aged three telling me that Jesus was a tiny little man.  I finally figured out she thought this because the pre-school father would carry a tiny little Jesus statue.    Ellen also told me Mary's father's name was Bob - the mysteries of religion!  "Talledaga Nights" anyone?

Eww and Eww

Yesterday, Hoover and Juno had vet appts for booster vaccines.  Ian volunteered to go with me and at the last moment Ned hopped in the car.  I told him not to come, because the boys always get silly.  They swore up and down that it wouldn't happen this time.  There I am in a tiny exam room with a yowling cat, a drooling/peeing/stressed out dog, and two boys carrying on maniacally.  Of course it took forever.  It got so bad that I opened the door and shoved Ian out into the waiting room.  I wondered why I didn't just go sit out there and leave everyone else in the room.  The vet decided to scale the cat's teeth.  The tech has the cat pinned, the vet is scraping away and both boys are so close Ned says, "eww, that smells bad."  So gross.

We were gone all day yesterday so I didn't check the pool skimmers as usual.  If I had, maybe I could have averted such a disaster, but am not sure.  This morning in the skimmers I found about thirty dead baby frogs.  It was quite sad and also disgusting - EWW!  I had planned to go in the pool to float and read.  I don't really feel like it now. 

I bought a handy little gadget at the vet.  It looks like the side of the hammer that is split down the middle, but it is a tiny size.  It is a tick extractor.  You slide the tick into the prongs and pull.  Ticks are bad this year,  Hoover had two by his eye on Tuesday. 

Fun and Games

I love to play games.  The kids love to play games.  They never want to play games when I want to.  I have been forcing them to play with me, that mean mom thing again.  Yesterday, we played many games of "Set".  This is a really hard game for me, the kids don't find it so difficult.  I just cannot find the matches, the kids will walk up and find a match in seconds.  I always lose at "Uno" also, they save all the +4's for me.  No matter haw many times I play, I cannot do well at "Angry Birds" and the kids find this hysterical.  I did do well at the pool game "try and flip Mom off the raft"-no way can they dislodge my girth.  It is fortunate we all have our strengths. 

The Raft

I have been reading non-stop.  I set up a mini-library of books we own that are on the kid's summer reading lists.  I have been re-reading and reading-anew many young adult books.  Jerry Spinelli has really wowed me.  I just finished "Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbitt and had forgotten how bittersweet the book is.  I can tell you that my perspective is quite different now than when I read it before.  I am anxiously awaiting the next George R.R. Martin book - July 12th.  It took him five years to get this book out, it better be worth the wait! 

Ned is reading the "Henry and Mudge" books, a favorite or all my kids.

Ian just read "Holes" and is carrying the book around in his head.  He has now started "Peak", we had to look up pictures of dead bodies on Mt. Everest.  Boys are kind of grisly.  Nothing like viewing skeletons in snowsuits for an hour.

Ellen is reading "A Series of Unfortunate Event" series, she is on the fourth.  She also swerved off course to read the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books again.  That has been one nice thing about my kids learning to read, I don't have to read them painful-to-me books.  "Captain Underpants" really tried my patience - although Sloopy Farkelfricken is the stuff legends are made of.

Sorry to say this is still a no-quilt zone.  I am hoping my annual Mid-Appalachian Quilt Symposium will get me motivated again. 

Last weekend we went to a Bowie Baysox game.  It was Star Wars night, nothing like middle-aged people pretending to light saber duel in front of thousands.  It made you cringe a little, but was very entertaining.  They shot off fireworks and the kids got to run the bases.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  There is always one bugaboo, Ian caught the ball a player was throwing to Ned.

Happy 4th!!