What She Shovels

The highlight of my day.

It’s been a while since I’ve been in front of a class teaching, as I’ve had tutoring students for the past long while. It’s a different beast being up front, but the power that comes from wielding the whiteboard markers is intoxicating. Or maybe that’s the markers…

that require wine, chocolate, an awesome community, and frozen dinners. “They” say kids grow up too fast and you miss this stuff. I will never miss today. I will never miss seeing the side of my kids that makes me wonder, deep down where I’m afraid to go, if they’ll grow up to be Good [...]

I started this quilt over 2 years ago and it’s been languishing on my sewing table while I thought about how I wanted to finish it. Now I’m almost done with it!

“I’m teaching Bob how to build Legos!” I’m pretty sure the cat is cursing her lack of opposable thumbs.

After another 6 hours of practice, I have improved my free motion skills a bit more, and tried trapunto. The cat appreciates my efforts.

It’s hardly visible, but there’s a tiny burr on the needle plate that only became apparent when trying to do something other than straight stitch. Much troubleshooting and frustration preceded this discovery, but I managed to catch up and learn a few things in my free motion quilting class today. More tomorrow!

I was having a near perfect day. Great coffee, a few errands, a couple of chores, lunch with a friend, finished the prework for a quilt class I’m taking this weekend, kids both had outstanding days at school, they cleaned the bathroom when we got home, we had a snack, watched part of a movie, [...]

Tweety has been begging me to buzz her head like her dad and brother, and I couldn’t think of any reason other than “you’re a girl” to turn her down. The thought of saying that to her made my stomach hurt, and I dodged the issue whenever it came up. Recently she has discovered the [...]