You are SEVEN. My brandnewbaby. The One. The First One. I cannot believe how quickly time flies between forceps and first grade. You have always been the sassy one. The BackTalker. The opinionated one who doesn't go quietly. When you moved into your Big Boy Bed you threw The Tantrum That Lasted Three Months. We're still talking about it.
Today you are bright, curious, more respectful of yourself and others. You are constantly thinking, asking addition questions and history details, and creating new ways to play. You take chess lessons (even though you are already an expert according to yourself). You love your soccer team and particularly excel in the goalie position.
You are the bravest food-tryer I've ever met. When the school cafeteria serves every kids' favorites, you choose salad. The big salad that the teachers get. You crack us up! Your favorite restaurant is Benihana and you eat it All.
You love bossing your little brother around at anything you play. The Wii, Club Penguin, Playmobil, Nerf wars, etc. You set up elaborate battalions of soldiers to recreate scenarios from your knowledge of World War II and the Civil War. When other kids are playing Bakugan, you are asking for books about wars, ancient Egypt, and the next Magic Treehouse.
You astonish us with your courage to try new things and your joy at learning. Your vocabulary has always been huge but you still pronounce animal like "aminal" and hamburger like "hang-a-ber". Sometimes I forget you are still so young. Sometimes you seem like my partner in crime.
You are always negotiating, trying to explain, or "helping" your siblings understand better. You will make a great diplomat. You will make a great anything!
You never balk at having to wear the patch on your eye. You haven't complained about your glasses since the day we got them two years ago.
Without you, our family would be an awful shade of gray and so, way, too much quiet. Thank God for you! I thank my lucky stars every day I look at you. You are a miracle and add joy to my life in ways you won't know until you become a parent. I wish you all the joy and fulfilment that life can offer you. I wish you peace and exploration. I wish you all the learning your heart desires. I love you!
Today you are bright, curious, more respectful of yourself and others. You are constantly thinking, asking addition questions and history details, and creating new ways to play. You take chess lessons (even though you are already an expert according to yourself). You love your soccer team and particularly excel in the goalie position.
You are the bravest food-tryer I've ever met. When the school cafeteria serves every kids' favorites, you choose salad. The big salad that the teachers get. You crack us up! Your favorite restaurant is Benihana and you eat it All.
You love bossing your little brother around at anything you play. The Wii, Club Penguin, Playmobil, Nerf wars, etc. You set up elaborate battalions of soldiers to recreate scenarios from your knowledge of World War II and the Civil War. When other kids are playing Bakugan, you are asking for books about wars, ancient Egypt, and the next Magic Treehouse.
You astonish us with your courage to try new things and your joy at learning. Your vocabulary has always been huge but you still pronounce animal like "aminal" and hamburger like "hang-a-ber". Sometimes I forget you are still so young. Sometimes you seem like my partner in crime.
You are always negotiating, trying to explain, or "helping" your siblings understand better. You will make a great diplomat. You will make a great anything!
You never balk at having to wear the patch on your eye. You haven't complained about your glasses since the day we got them two years ago.
Without you, our family would be an awful shade of gray and so, way, too much quiet. Thank God for you! I thank my lucky stars every day I look at you. You are a miracle and add joy to my life in ways you won't know until you become a parent. I wish you all the joy and fulfilment that life can offer you. I wish you peace and exploration. I wish you all the learning your heart desires. I love you!
Anyone see anything wrong? One is going "clockwise" and the other is going "counter clockwise". I am desperate for any tips to keep these straight and heading in the same direction while constructing my blocks! I am using the half-square triangle method where you put two 5" squares right-sides together, sew 1/4 inch on either side of a diagonal line and then cut apart. 
The big yellow bus just came and took my baby away. Jamie's fifth birthday isn't for three more weeks so he's one of the rare kids who starts elementary school as a four-year-old. He was so nervous and quiet this morning. I have never been more thankful that he has an older brother to show him the ropes and hold his hand.
I'd like to give a cyberThanks to 
I wonder if I really get the free batting they mentioned. I love the Warm Company! I've never won anything in all the quilting blog giveaways I've entered so I feel like I've finally hit the jackpot. Thanks for letting me brag tonight! 
I know this is the most overused expression in parenting but that it because it is so true: THEY GROW UP SO FAST. This is my precious newborn baby. The girl I dreamed of for 33 years. How can it possibly be that she is two already? I cannot shop in the "baby" section of stores anymore. There is a big girl bed in her room now waiting for the crib to become a thing of the past in our house. It was only yesterday that my mom helped me pick out that crib for my 6.5 yr old when he was a new baby. Passing out of the "baby" stage of mothering is bittersweet.
Yes, this was really just a placemat at Target!
Sorry the pics are always less than great, but if I took better pictures this would be a blog about photography instead of quilting and sewing!
I added an additional pair of FQ's to her recommended 6 for a total of 14 different of fabrics. While getting all of the perfectly organized cards in a stack I had a fear that my two year old "helper" would get her "helpful" hands on them and rearrange the pairs and all of the cuts. So off to Target we went to get a box with a latching top to keep projects like this together and away from helpful hands. Not three hours after placing the perfectly organized stack into its new box did my child rip into it somehow and chuck all of the cuts from the top three cards onto the ground in a pile. ARGH. 
Here is a close-up of the quilting and the red pindot lining fabric:
Biggest lesson learned: Pay close attention to measurements of lining vs. measurements of bag... I ended up with about four yards (or so it seems) of extra fabric in the liner. It's all baggy and wrinkley but goodness, it's mine! Unfortunately what was meant to be a beach bag has turned very quickly into a diaper bag-looking thing. Oh well. I think I'll hang it from a knob in my sewing room to add color. Afterall, it is a historic part of my quilt-making as it is both my first bag and my first attempts at free-motion quilting.
So there we are. Well, only 3 more days of school for my big boy kindergartner. In the meantime his siblings are loving their summer fun without him:
On a quilting note, I have been working on sashing more blocks for the nine patch quilt. BORING. Does anyone else lose interest in quilting when the weather gets nice?
So I am thrilled to have company during this process to help me move it along. I especially need some guidance when it comes time to choose the quilting pattern. I'm not sure if I want to go with the straight gridded pattern the original quilt has. You can see that quilt 
I know, right? How fabulous is this in terms of adding texture to a quilt block or anything for that matter. I found the honeycomb smocked quilt block by following one of my favorite quilt bloggers: 
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