2013 - The Year of the Christmas Quilt #1 - YOU CAN KEEP YOUR HAT ON

This is the quilt that started it all. I purchased the fabric in Dallas, Texas while I was there with daughter Becky, who lives there and daughter, Jamie, who was pregnant with my first grandchild. We were all together to help Becky pick out her wedding dress for the May 2011 big event. I had volunteered to make some baby items for Jamie and so we were looking at fabric as well as other scrapbooking stuff. I don't remember if it was before or after Christmas but this adorable Santa fabric caught my eye. The Santas had different hat bands and one of them was leopard animal print. So in December 2012, I start working on this quilt, thinking it is for Wyatt, and somewhere along the way, I decide to made a Christmas quilt for every member of my birth family in the year 2013. A little background. George, my loving spouse, had just received a book contract with Stanford University Press to translate a work of Frederick Nietzsche from German to English and had been granted a sabbatical for school year 2012-13 to work on the project. I reasoned that he would be very busy and I would need a project to keep me out of his hair. Thus the quilt project was born. Originally, I was going to do 12 quilts but somewhere along the line, it blossomed into 15. The three extra were added for Dean, my great nephew, Mark and Pam, my daughters' father and his wife and one for me. My plan for action was to make all of the tops first and then come back to do the pinning, quilting and dedications. This plan worked out beautifully but led to some interesting decisions along the way. For instance, I was almost out of matching fabric for this quilt by the time it was time to quilt so I had to get creative with the back by piecing together all the remaining fabric and adding a solid red to make the back big enough. I think it worked! While making the quilts, sometimes I had an idea who it would be for and other times I had no clue. All along, I thought this quilt would be for Wyatt but as it turns out, Jamie did not remember that I was buying the fabric for my first grandchild's Christmas quilt so it did not resonate with her. Everyone was allowed to pick their own quilt and Jamie and Jeff chose another for Wyatt (more on that later) so home with me came YOU CAN KEEP YOUR HAT ON. Why does it have such a provocative name you may ask? Well, the traditional quilt pattern name is Working Girl. I do not know why but that title combined with the hatbands sparked the song "You Can Keep Your Hat On" by Joe Cocker and it just stuck. I tried to give each of the quilts distinctive names, just like works of art. Does this mean I am finally comfortable with the description of "artist" for myself and what I do? Quite possibly. The plan was that the project would be totally secret until the holiday season 2013. Originally, I was going to ship them all to the recipient (I would have chosen which quilt I thought was best for them) on December 1, 2013 so that they would all have them for the holiday season. Once we knew we would be going to the Chicago suburbs to be with most of the family for Thanksgiving, the plans changed. Taking them then would save me lots of shipping charges and I would be guarenteed they arrived in the right hands. One other big change occurred about September. All year long, two family members were constantly asking me what I was working on, what quilt project was in progress. They were my mother Ramona and my youngest daughter, Becky. It is important to note that Becky made her first quilt during this time (and has since made several more) so we were talking alot. I even visited her in June to help put that quilt together and still kept the secret. My mother and my oldest daughter's family visited in August and the quilts were tucked out of sight. So when Ramona asked, I just changed the subject or told her I could not tell her. It was a bit harder with Becky. Finally in September, while working on a particular tricking part of one quilt, I told her all about it. Earned me a "you are awesome, Mom" and a partner in the enterprise. When I told Becky part of the plan was to use up the huge stash of Christmas material I had, and that I still had a great deal left, she suggested we make matching quilt bags for each quilt. I told her I would be lucky to get the quilts done so she immediately volunteered to make them. What.a.girl! As you can see, each bag says the name of the project on the top line "2013 - The Year of the Christmas Quilt" and the name of the quilt on the second line, in this case, "You Can Keep Your Hat On." Becky came to Pennsylvania one weekend and we created 7 of the 15 bags. She finished the last eight lickedy split at home in Plano, Texas. What a sweetheart. She also became my partner in deciding how we would distribute the quilts. It was determined that each would pick their own in this order: Becky first as she was my partner and accomplice, Jamie and Jeff second, Wyatt third, and then the rest of the Long family in order of oldest to youngest: Mom and Dad Long, Bev and Bob Mitchum, Denise and Marty Hauser, Rob and Laura Mitchum, Angie and Zach Sharp, Dean Mitchum and then last but not least, Mark and Pam Allmendinger. The remaining five quilts would be sent to the four California families and one went home with me. The last requirement of the project was that each family would send me a digital photo of themselves with the quilt. To that end, here we are with "You Can Keep Your Hat On," with, of course, our hats on! And then without.... Last but not least, in keep with my tradition to keep the quilt's story with the quilt, I put dedications on the quilts along with my signature. As the dedications were made before the recipient was known, it read "To my family with love." After the quilt was chosen, Becky, Pam and I sewed on the pre-made ownership tags. Here is the dedication square for "You Can Keep Your Hat On." I have yet to make my own name tag! Maybe it will get done this month, but then again, maybe not. I am currently on Quilt Hiatus! Merry Christmas!

A toast for my Father's 80th birthday

A TOAST ON THE OCCASION OF MY FATHER’S 80TH BIRTHDAY –FEBRUARY 5, 2013 Who said: “Boys are like buses, there will be another one by in 10 minutes.” MY DAD. Who said: “God is not mocked.” MY DAD. (and neither was Dad). Who said: “You reap what you sow” (which I thought he meant “sew” and so I became a quilter) MY DAD. Who sang the soundtrack from “Student Prince” around the house? MY DAD. Who waxed his car every Memorial Day listening to the Indy 500 while I sat in the back seat reading my book? MY DAD. Who said, “I think you are a little young to get married, Virginia” but gave me a lovely wedding anyway. MY DAD (and he was right but no regrets here; that marriage gave me my two lovely daughters). Who had a copy of “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask” in a drawer in the kitchen by the phone? Believe it or not, MY DAD. In response to my sisters’ and my broken romances, who said: “There’s plenty of fish in the sea.” Yep, MY DAD. Who beat the preacher regularly at ping-pong? MY CHAMPIONSHIP DAD. Who tried and succeeded in convincing us that hot dogs were really tube steaks? MY DAD. Nice economizing trick, Dad, but we now know better. No fooling us any more, we will have the prime rib, thank you very much. When my sister Bev got her first car, a mint green Rambler, who constantly intoned, “Check the oil.” DAD. And Bev, I want to take this opportunity to tell you how impressed I was with your knowledge of that car, a STANDARD transmission and you knew how to pop the clutch, whatever that means. Who is the best looking guy in a fishing boat? MY DAD, of course. We always thought he looked like Perry Como. Who was forgiving when I sideswiped a car going down 7th Street hill to Wilson’s gas station (and didn’t realize it til the insurance agent called?) Who took me with him, all excited, to Wilson’s Filling Station because there was a 26 cent gas war on? He made it seem like such a special occasion! Who was understanding when Mom backed the car into the back porch or when one of us backed the car out of the garage with the passenger door open? DAD, of course. Who said “Ask your mother.” More than once. Many times. Countless times. You guessed it, MY DAD. Who put me up on water skis, instructed my sister to make sure I was upright and then gunned the boat without checking that I was still above water? DAD Who taught me to bait a hook, catch a fish, and take that fish off the hook? MY DAD. A skill set, I might add, that really surprised and impressed my husband, George. Who roasted hot dogs and marshmallows late at night on a fork over the gas burner on the stove? And if you were a lucky girl, you woke up and heard him coming home from second shift and he would share his late night culinary skills with you. DAD. I would wager almost every daughter at every age idolizes her dad. I have been no exception. My father was the hardest working man I ever knew. He taught my sisters and me to work hard by his example. He worked long hours for his employers (the 1967 spring flood when he hardly ever came home for weeks), kept a well maintained home and a meticulous lawn that my sisters and I were privileged to share the chores of trimming the edges and sweeping the sidewalk and driveway. Every. Damn. Week. His cars were usually in excellent shape as well, with the exception of the “3M Special,” his work car he claimed was held together with duct tape. I think it was the color of duct tape as well, wasn’t it? Kind of a dull gray? My dad also gave time to his church, helping to build it, serving as a deacon, then an elder, and keeping a careful eye on its finances. He regularly gave blood. When people ask me today why I give blood, I tell them it is because my father did. My father loves his country. He flew the flag everyday (so did his father) and now, so do I. I know for a fact that we have different ideas about how our country should be governed and who should lead it but I do not doubt we love it equally. He knows I am one of those damn liberals ruining this country but he loves me anyway! My father loved his parents. The first time (and possibly the only time), I ever saw him break down and cry was at his mother’s funeral. I was 16. It was very disturbing to see the rock that was my father sobbing. I have always felt safe with my dad. As a child, I remember trips to see our grandparents in St. Louis or in the Missouri Ozarks. Dad would get home after working second shift, pile us all in the car and start the long drive south, staying up all night while we slept in our makeshift beds in the back of the station wagon. You’d get a seat belt/car seat ticket for that now, Dad. When we made the change from station wagon to sedan, I remember staying awake with him as he made the long drive and he would call me his “driving buddy.” I had the seat right behind him in the back. I have childhood memories of crossing dark parking lots holding his hand as we made pit stops in the middle of the night. NOT TOO MANY, mind you. He was “a get in the car and get going” kinda guy. As the sun came up, we would stop in Bowling Green (is that right?) and have breakfast at a truck stop. His heroes were Arnold Palmer and the St. Louis Cardinals. He once told me the two things he misses most are golf and driving. My father has known a great deal of disappointment and sorrow in his life but I hope he would also say he has known fulfillment , joy and love. I have no doubt that many times he despaired but it is important to recognize that he also prevailed. As the writer of Ecclesiastes states: “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.” [Ecclesiastes 9:11] Without talking about it directly, my father taught me that life does not promise you ease and success and sometimes it even denies you your heart’s desire but one does not give up and die. You carry on. If my father was British, he would have a stiff upper lip. My father does not talk a great deal about the past. I wish I knew his life story better, what he was like as a child, a teenager, a young married man. Maybe that is something he will choose to do in the time still left. I do know he has always let his actions speak for his beliefs and I know that he loves me. In closing, I want to share with you the truest thing my father ever told me about his life and it has been the primary tenet of my existence: “I was there when you were conceived; I was there when you were born and I’m still here.” Thank you, Daddy-o, for always being there. I love you with all of my heart. Happy 80th birthday.

A Toast to my Mother (on the occasion of her 80th birthday, November 11, 2012)

On the occasion of my mother’s 80th birthday, I spent some time thinking about all the things my mother taught me and wanted to share a few of them with you tonight. I have entitled this little reverie: A Toast to my Mother (or how to clean a house well with some regularity) Daily tasks: Before school: 1. Make your bed as soon as you get out of it. 2. Shake rugs vigorously every morning. 3. Bring in the milk (remember Baker’s Dairy home delivery?). 4. Take Muffie out to pee.

After dinner: 1. Bev washes and Ginnie dries the dinner dishes OR Ginnie washes and Bev dries. We fought about this constantly. Denise….Denise just looks cute. Cleaning tasks on a Weekly basis: 1. Clean your bedroom closet floor and top shelf. 2. Clean and straighten your dresser drawers. 3. Scrub the oven racks OR scrub the inside of the refrigerator (take turns with your sister Bev on these tasks). 4. Do the ironing: Dad’s hankies, pillow cases, dish towel. Dish towels? On a Quarterly basis: 1. Take the four white vinyl and chrome kitchen chairs down to the basement and scrub them with Comet (or when Mom is not looking, put them in the shower, get them wet and have done with it). 2. Give Muffie a bath (ditto on the shower routine) Fortunately for us, there was only one annual household task bit it was a whopper: Tear the entire house apart and clean everything (even the walls – we were already attacking the mopboards with some regularity). As you can imagine, this was quite a lot of work for a kid and I haven’t even listed the yard work DAD had us doing so, being an inventive child, I came up with my own coping strategies and I call these: HINTS FOR VARIOUS TASKS AND GENERAL HOUSEHOLD ORDER 1. While scrubbing the floor (on your hands and knees, of course), pretending you are Cinderella, that is to say, a REAL princess, can help you get through the task. DO NOT DEIGN to speak when spoken to while performing this job, an action that will lead your mother to utter the constant lament, “talking to you is like talking to a brick wall.” (No, mother dear, it is like talking to a princess.) 2. While putting away the folded laundry, fool your baby sister into helping you by pretending your house is a hotel and she must accept delivery of the clean laundry at every room door and put it away. WORKED EVERY TIME. 3. Be constantly prepared to act cool, calm and collected when discovering changes in the organization of household items, such a dishes. When in the process of washing, drying and putting away plates, bowls and glassware, DO NOT exclaim: “Jeez! You changed everything around again!” to which your mother will reply: “the dishes have been in the same place for years now.” UNTRUE. All kidding aside, I must confess it was WONDERFUL to grow up in such a clean and well ordered house. Here then is the list of things, I actually DID learn from my mother: 1. Homework before TV. 2. Going outside “blows the stink” off of me. 3. Yes, I have eaten this before and I loved it so much, I asked for seconds. 4. If you see a mess, clean it up. Don’t wait for someone else to do it. 5. Household budgets are helpful and necessary tools and yes, we are having chipped beef on toast for dinner tonight because tomorrow is grocery day (read: payday). 6. It is a good idea not to get pregnant whiles still a teen-ager because it costs lots of money to have a baby. 7. Skin cancer is a myth. Sunbathing using baby oil and iodine is actually good for your skin. 8. Bed slats will fall out with a loud crashing noise when too much vigorous activity occurs on the bed. 9. It is very important to be there for your children. 10. In order to save time and energy, refer to your children in the plural – the girls! 11. No dancing on the living room carpet. 12. No sitting on the “nice furniture” if you are wearing jeans. 13. Curlers in your hair and fuzzy bathrobes are REQUIRED attire for Christmas morning pictures. 14. No wearing jeans to school. 15. Attendance at church and Sunday school is required every week. 16. No switching coats with your best friend on the playground at recess. 17. Clean your plate – there are starving children in China and India. 18. No lounging around in your bedroom – that’s what the basement is for. 19. The church family with the most kids will bring the smallest contribution to the potluck. 20. Get up, get it done, and quit complaining about it. The reason humans repeat the same old cliques is because within each lies great truths so I am going to use one now: I did not truly appreciate my mother until I had children of my own.

Without a great many words, my mother taught me hard work, patience, discipline, and order out of chaos. She showed me that having a successful marriage and raising children, while running a home, all at the same time, took management and organizational skills a Fortune 500 CEO would admire. You know, when you are a kid, things happen in your life over which you have no control. As you all know, Marian Louise Taylor Long did not give birth to me and my sister Bev. We were part and parcel of a marriage deal she signed on for with the man she met and fell in love with in the late 1950’s. As my dad was fond of saying, it was, “love me, love my dog,” or pups in this case. And Dad, I take some exception to the dog reference but we will save that for YOUR 80th birthday party.

So here is Marian, 26 years young, married and an instant mother of two. I can only imagine the huge breath she took before beginning that first day of married life after the honeymoon trip was over, face with the task of raising two daughters, loving a man who had been very hurt in the past, and creating a home. I imagine she put us right to work… cleaning. But seriously, I credit my mother with bringing order into what must have been a potentially disordered family, giving us routine and stability, the core values of church attendance, good grades and cleanliness, GREAT basketball skills (the woman can whoop your ass at HORSE), and quiet courage and determination. She and my father also gave me the best (and blondest) baby sister a girl could ever ask for, although we were understandably jealous and yes, we did try to kill her once or twice, but I will save those stories for Denise’s 80th birthday dinner.

My mother. I suspect she is a Republican but I can forgive her for that. I suspect she knows I love her. I don’t think she knows how much. This I absolutely know is true: I am a good mother because she was a good mother. Mom, as I watch my daughter Jamie raising my grandson, Wyatt, I acknowledge that Jamie is a good mother because of you being my mother. And my daughter Becky is a great teacher to 10 year olds for the same reason.

I am all grown up now. There are still things in my world that I cannot control but I can control this. I can tell you, Mom, how much I appreciate you coming into my life at a very young age (both of us), making the disorderly orderly, creating a home that was a safe (and clean!) haven to grow up in, loving me even though I wasn’t your own, making me your own. Helping to make me the person I am today, a Democrat! So, on behalf of my entire side of the “famn damily:” Jamie, Jeff and Wyatt in California, Becky and Todd in Texas, all who wish they could have been here tonight, and my husband George and I, please join me in raising a glass to my mother: Happy 80th birthday, Mom, with love and appreciation for all you have done to make us strong and productive, out there making a positive impact on the world. You kept us busy, you taught us well, but I guarantee, none of us are keeping our houses as clean as you do!

Road to California detoured to the Road to Plano, Texas

Well, the Road to California is all quilted - it took 65 hours in all - and the edges are bound. The "special feature" to be unveiled after the quilt is given, is also finished and ready to be put on. This was all accomplished by March 8th so with two weeks left before the California trip and delivery date of the quilt, I took off for five days to visit Becky in Texas. My hands really needed the rest so it was a good time to get away for awhile but we haven't been idle in Texas, oh no!

Last December, George and I gave both of our daughters sewing machines. Now that they had homes of their own, and talents to boot, it was time they learned to use a sewing machine. So Becky and I planned a trip for me during her spring break. We had blocks all cross-stitched ready for a Thanksgiving quilt and we wanted to make the quilt top. Additionally, Becky, who is a champion cross stitcher, had some projects of her own she wanted to get done on the machine. I arrived on Friday night and after a nice Mexican dinner, we discussed the plans for the projects.

Saturday morning, we started with a travel bag and a handbag made from Becky's husbands ACU's - Todd is in the Texas National Guard. What fun to recycle the uniforms and make something meaningful. Next came quilted Christmas stockings that Becky had cross stitched the fronts of. That was enough for one day and we headed to bed at a reasonable hours.

Sunday, day two, we started on the Thanksgiving quilt top and two days later, it was done. We always draw a plan first but somewhere along the way, we threw the plan out the door and go with our guts. We made a trip to a fabric store (one of four trips this week) and purchased fabric for the pieced borders which I will finish later. We decided that was about as far as we could go on this project (after two late nights) and moved on to the next one.

Tuesday, Day four, we made a key chain and two luggage tags from ACU's again and did some teaching/learning on the sewing machine, which by the way, Becky has mastered very quickly. I taught her how to monogram and applique as well. In between all these projects, we have had time to watch some movies, visit some three month old twins, and eat great food.

Now it is time to go home. The visit has been memorable, the company wonderful. I love spending time with my daughters each and this month, I am so lucky to see Becky twice - she will be going to California for Wyatt's first birthday in just eight days as well!

I also had the opportunity to take some digital photos of other quilts I have made, which now belong to Becky. I will be posting them when I get time. They are a genuine timeline of how my quilting has progressed over the last 30 years.

Talk to you soon!

We say goodbye to a new friend

Tomorrow we say goodbye to a new friend, Claudia Glasshauser from Chemnitz, Germany who has been here with us in Greensburg for seven weeks doing an education internship at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. We had a great time showing her Southwestern Pennsylvania. She was also able to visit Niagara Falls and Washington DC while she was here. Next she joins her boyfriend in Miami for two weeks on the beach!

Have fun, Claudia and thank you for being our guest and friend this summer. Vinnie and Buster will miss you and we will too! We will keep in touch.

Wyatt's first trip to Pennsylvania

After Becky's wedding on May 7th, we trotted on home to Pennsylvania with a trio of family in tow. Wyatt, his mama (my daughter) Jamie, and my mama, Ramona came back to Pennsylvania for a bit of a visit. We traveled like the British royals. You know, not putting the entire family on the same plane, so Ramona and I flew home Southwest and Jamie, George and Wyatt came home American. There is a long story why and I will tell it another time.

Of course I wanted to show off my family wherever I could find people who were sitting still and willing to be exposed to my Uber-Gramma-ness. After everyone had a day to get back on track from all the travel, Jamie and Gramma Mona brought Wyatt into the Museum Shop where I was at work.


I must admit my co-workers were much more pleased with the whole show and tell than Wyatt was. We wrapped it up pretty quickly and then all went to lunch.




This last picture is officially the first four generation picture with Wyatt on my side of the family.



The visit to PA was much too short and Jamie and Wyatt had quite an adventure getting back to California! George and I are already making plans to be out in sunny CA to see the new family again in August!

My baby is wed!

On a beautiful (and warm 95 degree) day in May, my baby girl, Rebecca Allison Allmendinger married her long time sweetie, Todd Newcomer. Family and friends gathered from all over the country to share the special day with them. The wedding was at the Dallas/Fort Worth Lakes Hilton, next to a beautiful lake (and gratefully, for the most part, in the shade).



The reception was at the Fort Worth Zoo where Becky and Todd had invited four zoo animal: a Alsatian Hound, a opossum, a baby alligator and a penguin to join us. About 150 guests had a great time. I wore a purple dress and balled like a baby. I am happy to report that my toast was not only well received by the guest (lots of laughs, which was my intention. Would have been really bad if I intended the toast to be serious!) but made my lovely daughter laugh and cry and almost lose it! The clincher was reminding Todd I did not make him take a driving test!



The wedding week was such fun. I left Pennsylvania on the evening of April 28 to attend a Museum Store Association conference in Rosemont, Illinois, not too far from my folks and my sisters' homes, which made it very nice to stay with my family and drive to the conference each day (thank you, Nese, for the room and board and use of your car!) While at the conference, I represented the museum at a Members' Market and made a video. If I can figure out how, I will attach the video to this post.

Right after the conference, I headed down to Dallas for the last week of wedding preparations. I stayed with Becky and Todd at their lovely new house for several night. Each day, they had a task for me to accomplish! On Tuesday I made cookies for the open house/rehearsal dinner scheduled for Friday. On Wednesday, we (Becky's dad, Mark and step-mom, Pam and I) planted gardens around the trees in the front of their yard and readied the outside for guests and ran various errands with Beck: dropping goodie bags off at the hotels, picking up baby equipment for Jamie, Jeff and baby Wyatt who arrived the next day. On Thursday, I cleaned bathrooms and the kitchen and the guests started to arrive. We had a big communal dinner at a Mexican restaurant that night and my parents and sister met Wyatt for the first time and George arrived for the wedding weekend after finishing up his semester grades.



Friday the official activities started. The rehearsal went very well and the Texas bar-be-que afterwards was so much fun. On the wedding day, Saturday, May 7th, we started the day with a pedicure and then arrived at the bridal suite to be "prettied up." The weather was fine and the couple was beautiful I will post more pictures as I get them. What a wonderful day which I will remember always.

Becky and Todd, I am so very happy for you both and we love you with all our hearts. Boo, you are so precious to me. I hope you will always be this happy and know that you are very loved!

Reconnecting via quilting or "Hello again, cousin!"

I received a very nice phone call last month from my cousin, Vicky Taylor Sierra who now lives in Oklahoma. I knew she was a quilter as we had talked about quilts in the past but over the last few weeks, we have been talking more and I helped her plan a wall hanging for her son, Tim, featuring the Iowa Hawkeyes. I found a quilt pattern called "hovering hawks" which seemed appropriate.

Talking to Vicky reminded me again of my Gramma Taylor and her quilting and I wonder what Gramma would make of her two granddaughters who are now quilters! If you are watching, Gramma, I hope you are pleased.

At the same time this reconnection with family is occurring, my family is growing and I am now a gramma too! I wonder what the years ahead will hold and will I also have a quilting grandchild? May wonders never cease!

Time for a Girl Scout cookie and then some quilting on Jamie and Jeff's quilt.

Life is good!

My Mother's Day tradition

One of my Mother's Day tradition has always been to plant the flowers I have both purchased and that my daughters have given me as Mom's Day gifts. Since 2000, we have not spent Mother's Day together, the girls and I, as we all now live very far apart physically (but not in our hearts) - Jamie in California, Becky in Texas and me in Pennsylvania. In 2003, George and I added a son, Atilla Yucel, our AFS son from Germany and this Mother's Day, he is even farther away in Istanbul finishing his college thesis. So, no family dinner on Mother's Day this year but plenty of love going back and forth over the miles and around the globe.

Not one to readily break with tradition, however, I did go get some plants and flowers for the gardens and the front porch this morning. It is a cold, windy day here in PA with temps in the 50's after several days in the 80's. George is at graduation and while I am not out gardening right now, I am thinking flowers as I write this. My neighbor, Verna went with me this morning to three flower procuring locations, Lowe's, Home Depot, and our local Agway. It did not take us long to fill up my blue CR-V!






I also bought hanging baskets for the front porch but it is so windy, I do not want to put them up yet. More pictures to follow of them.

The last pictures I want to share with you are the reasons I am a mom. I cannot imagine my life without you guys. Thank you for conferring parenthood on me. It's been a real adventure and I love you guys with all my heart!






PS. The lovely orchid is from my first husband and friend, Mark Allmendinger and his wife and my friend, Pam for Mother's Day. Parenting was a team effort with us all and I appreciate them so much. Thanks, guys!

My husband as someone's Lord and Master!

Today was the Spring Student Fair at Saint Vincent College where my sweetie is philosophy professor and his students were absolutely delighted to see him participating as bonny King Henry the 8th, in all his royal splendor. Here are some pictures!







Also pictured are our friends Mary Beth Spore as Queen Catherine Parr, Henry's 6th and last wife, Susan Sommers as Mary Tudor, King Henry's sister, Alexander Sommers as Prince Edward VI, Henry's heir, Fr. Wulstan Clough as the Pardoner, and Chris Catalfamo as a lady of the court. I do not know the names of the musician and the rogue posing with the Prince. What fun!






Okay, enough fooling around. Now to some serious quilting!