EGADS… he shaves and he’s in high school, officially! I’m about to get dizzy time is whizzing by so fast (somebody PLEASE slow down this merry go round! It’s goin’ too fast!). Yes, my first-born son is now an 8th grade graduate, and has the certificate to prove it! Mom came with us (tho it was a bit noisy for her), and we collected Eli for a couple hours away from his last day of 4th grade so he could attend. Even tho the photo above is a bit out of focus, I love it, and it is becoming one of my favorite pictures of him… he loves to look cool, play guitar, and that hair that is just like mine was……and he’s always on the move!

The kids sat in alphabetical order, so Joshua is in the back row…just to the right of center, in the white shirt and dark tie:

And a wide angle of the graduates and about half of the audience:

They had a WONDERFUL photo montage of the 8th grade year, which is why the large screen. My compliments to the photographers!

Here’s Joshua on the way out of the gym…. I’m SO bummed… I got great photos of a couple of his friends receiving diplomas, but not one of Joshua! The camera decided to be balky with the long zoom and lighting….sigh……and again, tho it is blurry, it perfectly conveys the sense of the moment:

Here’s Joshua and Paul outside, after the ceremony:

Joshua has been lusting after this guitar (first spotted it on the internet) and then, voila!, it appeared at the local music store, Northern Kingdom. He’d ask to stop just to go in and play the guitars, and it was always his favorite. Mom wanted to give him a gift, and we did too, especially since he had finally (for the first time!) really worked hard to improve his grades these past two months. He did outstandingly well once he decided he wanted to do so! So, mom and we split the cost of this awesome new guitar:

and with his friends…they went into town for lunch on their own after the ceremony ended at 11:

Hunh? you say?

Well, it started last fall when fellow Frayed Edge Kate Cutko wanted to make floor cloths to sell at a holiday craft bazaar. Rhea Daiute at Alewives Fabrics in Damariscotta Mills had some on display last year at Maine Quilts (the annual show of the Pine Tree Quilt Guild) and sold out on her kits! And On Board Fabrics in Edgecomb, where Kate used to work, carries the canvas in varying widths. So, on our Frayed Edges field trip to the Botanical Gardens (see here1, here2, here3 and here4 for those posts).

Unlike me, Kate actually got things done. Here is a picture of one cloth she began and another (the green) Painted canvas underneath ready for the fabric–wouldn’t that mango one be glorious as a kitchen runner?

Kathy made several as Christmas gifts (why the heck don’t I have PHOTOS of their finished ones???????)… while surfing around for links to Alewives and my blogposts, I discovered Rhea has a blog, and she even blogged about a floorcloth workshop, here. Well, I figured the last thing we need in our house (with, at the time, two boys, two dogs one of whom was 150+ pounds and hairy, and four cats) was one more thing to get dirty on the floor……BUT, I was wishing for some wipe-down placemats as the boys are still kinda sloppy.

So…… floorcloth becomes 8 placemats! I used the leftover paint from painting my fabric shelves (remember these?) as the base color, then picked a selection of my favorite Caribbean-ish batiks for my squares. Oh…by the way, I had to ask Kate to help me remember, but you paint the canvas first, THEN glue (if you do it the other way, we learned the hard way, the edges ripple).

Then there were some little leftover bits of canvas…can’t let those go to waste… Bingo! Coasters for the drippy, sweaty iced-tea glasses of summer:

So far, after having used THREE coats of polyurethane (semi-gloss) on them, the wiping up is working! The hard part was keeping (and failing) the floating cat hairs out of the stuff as it dried, so a few random bits of Thumper, Tyger, Hannah and Zeus appear to have become part of the mats…. Anyway, I figure wiping mats (but not submerging them) to clean can’t be much more wear and tear than a floorcloth! And some day, I may actually make a floorcloth! Rhea and Alewives Fabrics will apparently be selling more kits at Maine Quilts, so stop by the booth early..they’re sure to sell out again!  They also have this cool Non-skid stuff to paint on the backs so you don’t break your neck with the cloth skittering across the floor… check it out!

Well that was a whirlwind! How did we get to the 27th so quickly? I know… kids, end of year and all that good stuff. Well, I’m here, just swamped. I’ve finally been working on some REALLY tedious stuff for my book (figuring out what I want the photos to look like, setting them up, taking a snapshot for guidance to AQS when they do their photo-shoot, re-naming and re-sizing all the blasted photos, etc…. who knew you had to do all that stuff too when writing a book? I sure didn’t…. erg. ….). So that means my “free” time has been spent on the book. Plus it was the end of the year, so herewith some family photos! Next post I’ll share my new placemats (yes, it involves cloth and paint), and then Joshua’s graduation pix!

On the Thursday before school let out (a week ago I think it was), Eli’s fourth grade class had a “Poet’s Corner” for lunch and parents were invited. Each child had made an album with mod-podged/ gel-mediumed torn art papers on a base paper, and their spring term’s poems were printed (kids got to choose the font etc. as well as write the poems).

Eli’s writing was amazing…he and a couple of the other kids really excelled. One poem was so good I promptly asked his permission to use it on one of my Journal quilts for this year! WOOT! My very first journal quilt was based on Joshua’s artwork, so this is now Eli’s turn… I’ll share the poem when I make it and IF the journal gets in to Houston, will share pics in November….. first gotta make it though! Anyway, the picture above is Eli reading. And here is the other of the two poems he read aloud… I totally LOVE it!

Mouse 2 (because it’s the second Mouse poem–please ignore the dots, couldn’t figure out formatting or the accent over the “e” on flambe)

• Mouse in crumbs
• Happy as thee
• Being flourished by food day and night
• Mouse you better run for the cat has come
• not to play but to have mouse flambe
• You escape with your life Mouse in crumbs
• Happy as thee can be.

Then that evening was the 8th grade formal dance. Joshua went with friends Vinnie and Kyle, who came by to collect him (Vinnie’s mom drove them, and I picked him up at 10….). First, Joshua before the other guys arrived:

Then, I LOVE this one with the little brother in the background!

How can I have a kid old enough to shave?

Say what you ask? PLA batting? It is being sold as an EcoCraft Eco-Friendly batting (made by the folks who created Mountain Mist…here) . More on that in a sec…

Last summer when Joshua was hurt, Sue Franck (whom I have met only over the internet) organized a thing for folks to send Joshua blocks, which I would make into a quilt. Well, at long, long, LOOOONNNGGGGG last, I have assembled the tops. Yes, two. We had over 70, since some folks sent extras, or an extra for Eli, who also had to pay a price (and was awesome about it). I asked Joshua if he wanted borders, or sashing, to whatever, and he said (bless his sweet soul) that he just wanted as many of the blocks as possible. That meant a quilt 6×8 blocks, which is 72 by 96 inches! Eli’s quilt is a generous 5 x 5 blocks or 60 inches square (he still hasn’t decided what he wants for a backing! it’s on the design wall in the background). We used every single block!

My heartfelt thanks and hugs to Sue and every sweet soul who sent a block…we have them from all over the US, Australia, Singapore, England, Scotland, Canada… totally amazing. I will confess to feeling a whole lot of love and just a little choked up from time to time as I have quilted…..

One very generous soul from the QuiltArt list sent a Queen sized batt instead of a block! WOW! It was this batting that was new on the market as of last summer, and we were both curious. I am so grateful for her generosity, and I don’t want anyone to think that my comments about the batt in any way reflect on the fact that I SO appreciate her kindness.

Anyway, the packaging says it is made from corn fibers and—this should have been my first clue—is a batting similar to your favorite polyester batt. Hmmmm……

Here is what it looked like unrolled for basting. Yuck.

It was thinner and had a bit softer drape than those awful 1970s poly batts we hated and don’t miss, but it is… I must sadly say… just as awful. Where it was folded to fit into the bag and then unrolled, it stretched and creased, and they never came out…see that distortion across the middle of the table?  It still feels kinda lumpy under the quilt. It puffs and looks awful. The edges are wavy, not straight. My hands snag on it. It has thin spots. Yuck. Did I say yuck?

We selected a Polartec 200 for the backing. I have made other quilts with a thin cotton batting (Dream Cotton) and they have been wonderful, quilted up nicely, etc. Well…… using the poly batt on top of the polartec was not a good decision. I kept hoping that as I quilted it would get better. The back does look good however…. the quilting isn’t done so I’ll show it when I’m done. My machine had finally had it and decided it needed a tune-up, tho, so I am at a temporary standstill.

Here’s a picture of how I baste in sections on my worktable:

I did want to share this info tho and say DO NOT BUY THIS BATTING unless you liked the look, feel, and handling of the 1970s polyester batts. I have two Mariner’s compasses blocks someone sent which I will make into pillows (one for each son), and I was going to use the leftovers. I can’t do it…. I just can’t. Sigh. The compass blocks are gorgeous, and deserve an nice cotton batt, and they shall get it!

Only a bit more to quilt on Joshua’s…. Unless I decide it is so hideously puffy that it needs a lot more quilting, which is entirely likely……at least I made a smart decision to do really simple walking-foot quilting, not my usual freemotion. That is helping a lot with the bulk…not only is the quilt large, but with the thick polartec and the PLA batt……..anyway, I may not get it done in time for graduation from 8th grade on Friday, but Joshua understands the machine is away for a tune-up….it just about ground to a slow halt, so I immediately stopped sewing. I think it is just well overdue for a lube job. I hope that’s it….

Late update:  nope… machine in the intensive care ward all week….  hopefully soon it will come home…

So what does a 14 year old boy/young man do on a rainy Sunday? Why troll the basement for the record player and the decommissioned “stereo” (purchased in about 1988).

The usual place is at the laptop, but with music (stand, guitar, etc) nearby. We also have this cool store in town, Wild Rufus, that cells CDs (new and used) and (!!!!) old records! So number one son has taken to buying albums, yes…black, vinyl 33 1/3 rpms records… which were displayed on the wall. I’m glad I snapped this picture because two hours later the were down…..

Joshua had also recently scored a nearly virgin Led Zeppelin IV (or is it II) album…the one with stairway to heaven! The cover is a bit rubbed with age, but otherwise in perfect condition except for a name written on the back in ballpoint…no scratches, no tears, nada… and the album inside looks nearly unplayed!

So, with a little help in hooking up components from the resident dinosaur (aka Mom)…. we have (drum roll……)

The speakers are a bit worse for the wear…dented, fabric cat-scratched, etc., but they worked…. and so did (!!!!) the turntable. So we listened to AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin (not that we had much choice… ahem! he is a teen…. he might live to adulthood….) on vinyl!

Whoodathunk it…. in the iPod age, we’re back to 33 1/3!

Speaking of which…. does anyone know what technology I might need to get some old records and tapes transferred to digital… I don’t care if they are copied to CD first or go straight to the computer…. I have some ancient folkie stuff that is no longer available anywhere and would love to have it on the ‘puter and iPod….