Buddy Loses a Tooth

Its been loose since Mother's Day and today it was barely hanging on. Its funny his mother can start IV's on the tiniest babies and yet felt squeemish about snatching this out.

Time in South Georgia

I have been in South Ga all week visiting my Dad. We went to the back of the pond to see if we could see an alligator with the boys. I saw something hit the water twice and since neither of the boys cast their lures....I did. This guy weighed a little under three pounds. Daddy gets the most excited when their is a bass on the other end of a line. See Miss Teen, we have our life jackets on! My grandaddy had this pond made back when I was about Marshall's age...and it has brought years of enjoyment for our entire family. I look forward to many more fishing trips. Just for the record, my largest fish out of this pond weighed about 8.5 pounds....... I really don't have that much skill, the pond is just full of nice bass. Buddy enjoyed picking the blooms off the lilly pads and evaluating all the different lures. He did reel in one fish the previous morning.

Happy Father's Day

Thanks for a lot of things Dad:

You fixed my teeth

Paid for college

Gave me a spiratual and moral compass

But most of all thanks for building memories with us....

Bedtime Snacks

Summer Vacations

Tickle Fights (we knew when the glasses came off...it was ON!)

Dirty Fun

This was AFTER we washed off in the creek. The ski club was up on our annual bike and hike weekend and got caught in a downpour. We had just left Abington on our return trip to Damascus on the Virginia Creeper trail. After you get soaked and get used to the mud spraying in your face from your front tire...you just have fun. Tree is modeling the back side for us.... Go Postal rode the last 8 miles alone as he went to get the car. We stayed at the Abington winery and stood on pads of paper towels while tasting their wines. They were good sports, and we bought crackers/cheese and a bottle of wine and waited for Go Postal to arrive with the car.

Levering Orchard

The boys, sis and I went Cherry picking today...I think all the recent rain had hurt the fruit as a lot of it was splitting, but we were able to get about half a bucket or sweet cherries and enough of the tart cherries to take to Grandaddy's next week and make a cobbler. This is a beautiful part of Va and we hope to go back when its apple time! We got burgers and Cook Out milkshakes on the way home then headed to Tanglewood for a swim. The water is still a little cold for Aunt Nane!

New Toy

Go Postal's sister did a little research before getting me a birthday present this year. She consulted with her MIL who is also a quilter and look what they came up with. I can't wait to use this on retreats. I hate having to unthread my machine (at least partially) to fill a bobbin in the middle of a project. Now this little guy will do it for me. I am thinking I can leave it by the cutting table and we can all use it! Now if they can just engineer a machine that feeds its bobbin from a giant spool of thread......we would rarely have to stop. But I am guessing that it must be hard or the folks at Bernina would have already come up with that to add to their new $9K 830.

Up Hanging Rock

Go Postal won't usually get this close to the edge. He doesn't like heights or snakes. I freak over mice.

Saturday was beautiful and not very humid so there were tons of folks making this hike. Salem Stitcher and another Mike from the ski club (who snapped this picture) joined us. It was clear enough that we could see the Winston skyline off in the distance.

Bad Cat

I have fixed Zorro a basket with a quilt inside just for his naps. But no, he insists on sleeping on my works in progress. The top quilt may just be the best one I have ever made.....what can I say, he has good taste.

Go Postal's Barn Inspiration now has a Quilt Block

The top photo is the one I took with Go Postal almost four years ago...we saw this barn up near Todd where we often ride bikes and he liked the style, especially the tall window over the door. His barn has grown a little bigger than this one and will have sheds on the sides but still have this feel. As we were googling about the other NC Quilt barns we came across this second photo. Looks like they have added a Star of Bethlehem block (and unfortunately covered the window). We designed a Log Cabin block for his new barn that will sit centered above the garage doors and below the window.

Looks like about half the blocks are painted directly on the old barns and the other half are like this one...painted on a plywood foundation and hung like a picture. I think he likes this second option better (and it will be easier to paint).