Swimming Lessons

How it started:

How it’s going:

Photos by Jaclyn

Hooray for Donovan, who, after a week, still doesn’t really want to move away from the safety of the stairs, but is now willing to put his head all the way under water and dog-paddle with the instructor’s help. (Instructor is doing this with all the kids.)

Standing on the sidelines, cheering for Donovan.

And Jac… not willing to do anything the first week but sit on the stairs and say “no”. We didn’t even try getting her in the water today. Disappointing but not unexpected.

We have 2 lessons left for Donovan. I got him a Lego set, that he really really wants, and the deal is if he floats on his back around the class area (with the teacher’s help, like the rest of the class is doing), he really really gets it. Crossing fingers…Added: He did it!! So proud of himself and immediately asked when he was getting his Legos. 😂 Legos - the great motivator!

Pretty Puppies

It took me longer to figure out what design I wanted for this puppy panel

than it took me to make the entire quilt. 

The panel has been hanging around the stash for a long time - I don’t remember when or where I bought it. 

The backing fabric is a remnant from Quilt Ventura, which closed its doors 9? 10? years ago. In fact, everything in this project, except the ABC’s, is from my stash. 

My design wall is crooked, not the quilt. Honest!

Earlier this week, I thought about clearing out the older fabric from the bins upstairs and donating it somewhere… but then I find exactly what I need for yet another project. Looks like the stash is safe once again …

Cactus Camp & Mud Baths

 Day 2 of art camp was another big hit. 

Jac and Donovan were thrilled with their cacti. 

Pretty cool, huh? So glad we found Art Trek - and they offer adult classes!

In the afternoon, J & D decided to make a mud bath for our resident lizards.

A little digging,

a bit of water

and voilá- 

our own personal lizard spa.

I’m sure the lizards were duly impressed. (As was Pop when he saw the mess “enhancements” afterward…)

Lily Kitty

We said goodbye to Lily on Thursday. 

She had stopped eating over the weekend and grown steadily weaker. The vet said the culprit was probably liver disease. 

I’m going to miss her so much. 

For the past 14 years, she’s been my buddy, 

Even in the (dry) bathtub…

following me from room to room, always wanting to be close to me. 

If I was sewing, she was beside the machine. 

 

Cutting fabric? She was on the table, usually with her tail twitching around the rotary cutter.

Ironing? 

Trimming a pattern? 

She was on it! Literally.

The only thing she liked better than sleeping on my lap 

was sleeping on a quilt on my lap. 

Lily came to live with us in December 2009, when Gary and his then girlfriend brought her to the house, “just until she (the girlfriend) gets a new apartment. Next week. Two weeks max. Honest, Mom!”  

As soon as they left, Marie and I brought the little grey, 7-toed, bundle of fluff downstairs and she never went back.

Lily was not fond of loud noises, little kids and most people. 

Lily liked hanging out with Cyrus

She ran from hubby, even after he started treating her to bites of tuna. 

When she was younger, she terrorized the older cats, jumping out of hiding to ‘attack’ them,

and she enjoyed chasing yarn balls and would bring them back so I’d throw them again.

She loved sleeping as close as she could get to my craft room heater 

and had her own heating pad in our bedroom, covered with fleece blankets, to keep her old lady bones comfy. 

Lil Pill mellowed a bit this last year 

and would occasionally tolerate the grandkids petting her, which Jac and Donovan, especially, loved.

I know letting her go was the right thing to do 

but d*mn it, I’m going to really miss my sweet girl. 

Longarmer Bound

Whoo! Three quilts headed to my longarmer pal in the morning. 

 For me - backing fabric on the right

Between summer vacation - aka grandma camp - and the learning curve for the new sewing machine, quilting has slowed to a crawl. Hoping to ramp it up again… soon?? Maybe?

Cheyenne picked the colors for both the top and backing - this is one BOLD quilt. In my head, I’m calling it LavaLand. 

This one is for a friend. I was stuck picking the backing fabric so I asked Rachel for her opinion. Now I can blame credit her for the choice. 😜

Art Camp

Today was Jac’s and Donovan’s first day at a pay-by-the-day art camp that Mary found. 

Donovan said “no thank you” to having his picture taken.

Both of them are fairly shy and don’t care for new situations, so if they were going alone this might not have worked, 

 Donovan‘s King Blue Sea

but together they usually have a good time.

And they did!

Jac says, “axolotls are my favorite IN THE WHOLE WORLD!”

 Jaclyn’s Queen Marshmallow 

I’m pretty impressed with their art, plus on the way home they invented a world for Queen Marshmallow and King Blue Sea and played at it most of the afternoon. 

 Jac added seeds to the green stalks to make tentacles

They also had some free time after their project was done, so Jac taught Donovan to play Sorry! (the board game) and he loved it. Now they have something else they can argue about play together this summer. Bonus!

Bind-arama

One done,

two through,

three free, 

four no more.

These four have been done for awhile except for the binding. Once I got going, it only took 2 days to finish them. Only 2 left to go…  

* I tried a serpentine stitch, rather than stitch-in-the-ditch, on the top quilt and I like it! Definitely going to use that method again.