As of 6:30 pm, about 3 weeks and 2 hours after he left the house, Joshua came HOME! We are all elated to say the least….here’s the sequence:

Life is good. Joshua is HOME! Blessings be, with thanks to all the angels, human and otherwise, that helped bring him home. 

Sometime today, Monday, we will find out how the skin grafts did…. if well, then Joshua should be able to come home this week (and sooner is better!). In the meantime, it is a waiting game…keeping his foot elevated (so as not to float the skin grafts off…literally! eeek!). But blocks have been arriving by the half dozen…another six or so arrived in Saturday’s mail, which Paul brought with him to the hospital on Sunday. So, I added the new ones to the ones already up there, and laid them all out on the bench where Paul and I take turns sleeping.

The first photo is of the 15 blocks we had in the morning (when the light in the room was better). You can see a bit of the lap quilt from our sofa peeking out at the ends…that room desperately needed color and we needed a blankie!

This second photo shows more blocks but the photo isn’t as good….

Yes, I’m dancing on the tables! The first of two articles on bindings, titled On the Edge, is in the new August / September issue of Quilting Arts Magazine, and the second one will be out in the October/November issue. Here’s the cover:

My article is on p. 32…and I’ll share more after the magazine hits newsstands on August 7th. I’ve already shared one technique that ended on the editorial floor (I KNEW I sent more than they could fit in the available real estate –grin!), and later on another for using facings. In the meantime, I invite you to join me in a major happy dance!

Hi all! Well, it has been another week of some activity, more healing, and more waiting. Early in the week, Joshua was able to get up and about, walking 30 feet to the nurse’s desk (from his room) and back. Of course, that wiped him out for hours, but he did it! Then he graduated to a few steps with crutches, too!!!!

He also asked me to bring his guitar; I told him once he got out of bed for the first time, I would, so I did. Here he is enjoying making music again. He was THRILLED when the guys form Northern Kingdom Music in Rockport (next town, where Joshua bought his guitar and takes lessons) actually came to visit him and brought him an awesome big hardback book about electric guitars! We are truly blessed to be in this giving, friendly community!

Then Joshua has skin graft surgery on Weds. to close the fasciotomies. I will NOT share pictures of that… if any of you went to the fasciotomy link on Wikipedia, well, his skin graft bandages look WAY worse. BUT, it means he is one step closer to leaving. BUT, he must stay in bed, with leg elevated for five full days (otherwise the graft can “float” off and not take, and we have to do it all over again. Once those five days are over, then he starts up with rehab all over again. FINALLY, when he can get to the bathroom on his own and get around, will he at long last be able to come home. We are all really looking forward to that! But, during the Weds. surgery, they removed the staples from his thigh (which just had a “regular”, not compound, fracture) which is healing quite well and seems to give him little trouble, and the also took the one staple for the scrape on his head (isn’t he lucky they didn’t have to shave a patch of his head with all that hair!

Will let you all know when he’s home. THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL who have sent blocks! Here is a picture of the art piece Rosemary Claus-Gray sent (a kid with a broken leg, in traction, complete with real screw and pin in shin!), photos of the pets,which have now been joined by many of the blocks. I’m taking up some Pigma pens today to write each maker’s name on their block, then will take pics!

The Frayed Edges Show at the Camden Public Library (Maine) is up and open for public viewing! And, thanks to sending out press releases, we have coverage in print and online from The Village Soup (Knox County edition) and The Camden Herald, which has a picture, too! The show is in the Jean Picker Room, on the lower level. If you enter from Atlantic street, pass the check-out desk and bear left past the “new books” and card catalog computers to the room. Here’s the view as you walk into the Picker Room, which holds a new show of various art media every month; the director for these programs popped in as we were hanging, and said again that his favorites are the quilt shows…yeah!

On Thursday morning, which was sunny, warm and sticky, Kate Cutko brought up her pieces and Hannah’s from the Bowdoinham area. Deborah has shipped hers from Dallas, and Kathy–who lives in China Village–had dropped hers off at my house earlier in the week since she had to work that day. Thank heavens Kate was there, as I was all butterfingers from so many nights and days at the hospital…I think she hung two pieces for every one I managed to get up! AND, we got all but one piece displayed! Then we trotted over to Rockport Blueprint, because she realized we ought to have a guest book, and bought one!

The day began with a wondrous gathering…the first time we were able to assemble our “grid” pieces! This was an idea I had to have each of us provide a photo, then all five of us interpret the photo in something small…the pieces are all 7 inches tall. The verticals are 5″ wide by 7″ tall, the horizontals are 10″ wide by 7″ tall (size was dicated by the space available between the chair rail and maximum upper viewing level!). They are arranged so that each artist has a row for their work, and each column is five variations of one photo. Then Kathy made a great poster (and labels for all our pieces) with the five original photos from which we drew our inspiration. Here’s Kate setting them out:

As you walk into the Picker room, you can see the grid on the center of the left wall:

This shot is from the grid, around the corner to the far wall (with all our junk on the table…the room looks better when we’re not in the middle of setting up…grin!), with my Koi quilt:

Then, turn the corner to the right wall, which has a collage of various works by four of us, Deborah’s “Anthony Avenue” piece anchoring that wall, two cool pieces (Kate’s nest on top, Deborah’s Encrusted Cairn on the bottom), Kathy’s pink flowers/trees/wonderfulness, then Hannah’s two pieces, and my Flying Toast about Gramma’s kitchen.

Here’s the corner next to the doors, with Flying Toast again and a small piece which I forgot to tell Kathy about (actually forgot I had it!) called Essence of Summer Rose, a mixed media…quilt on painted canvas.

Just to the left of the doors is a large display case with our group round-robin books, some of Deborah’s small pieces (we’re going to work on the display of those!), will add some of Kate’s Adoption Day cards (her website is here), and a few more items. Our binder with information about the show, a picture of all of us,the Winter 2006 Quilting Arts article about us, and artists’ statements is on to, along with the guest book and our cards. Above the case is Kathy’s birches and my Autumn on the Village Green.

MANY of these pieces are for sale…if you are interested in any of them, just drop me a line and I’ll get back to you! Because Joshua is still in the hospital, it may take a couple of days, but I promise I’ll return e-mails as soon as I can.  More about Joshua soon.

We hope you’ll be able to come visit, and if you do please leave us a note in the guestbook on the display case.  AND if you’d like to be on our mailing list, or on my newsletter, please leave an e-mail address!