Let’s just say I’m considerably more comfortable now than I was 9 years ago at this hour. Give or take 2 hours thanks to time zone changes and daylight savings, Eli joined the breathing 9 years ago. As usual, the party did not fall on his exact birthday, which is today, but yesterday. So we had BOYS….LOUD boys! Thank heavens there were only five of them…even our 13 year old was pleading for mercy! Here, the opening of gifts:

Followed by sugar, in the form of a yin and yang design (Eli’s idea after Joshua ate a bunch of the vanilla frosting and there wasn’t enough…turned out well, eh?):

Then they all went outside into the melting slushy snow and ice and cold water and got thoroughly wet in a snowball fight:

THEN, Eli’s “real” birthday began a day early. For YEARS he has wanted a pug. So, we told him we had ordered something, but it wasn’t ready and wouldn’t be for two more weeks, but that we could go see his gift. Here it is–currently a 6 week old male tan pug puppy:

And here is the first hug:

And here is the best of many, MANY photos taken on Sunday afternoon:

We don’t have a name yet, so suggestions are welcome, but Eli gets the final say-so! We are looking forward to the little beastie’s arrival home in two weeks. By then he might be about the size of Yeti’s back foot! When fully grown, he may be as large as Yeti’s head. Maybe. GRIN!

And then there was his “real” birthday today…after Ishinriyu karate practice (during which he gave himself a real doozie of a bruise, hence the elevated foot). First, gifts:

Then another cake! (to be followed by cupcakes tomorrow at school…enough with the baking and frosting!) Eli is grinning because he took THREE tries to blow them all out…what’s he gonna do when he is 50 (like his Mama will be this year) or 60 (ditto for Papa!)……

To say this weekend has been hectic but happy is an understatement! Friday afternoon was wrestling and guitar lessons for Joshua, and shopping for Eli’s party on Sunday and other assorted errands for me.

Saturday began with the monthly Coastal Quilters meeting. It was quiet and friendly, with Mary Pennoyer sharing her way of making 9-patches and checkerboard blocks and borders…great for scrappy quilts. Louisa Enright (on the right in the photo) shared this awesome quilt–a wedding gift!–which she designed in EQ5. Louisa is also a watercolorist, and you can see that she has learned about value (lights and darks), color progression and such. She shared her process from idea and basic colors from the bride and groom, to initial sketches and swatches, to finished (89 x 110 inches!) top! I’d like to end up on Louisa’s gift list!

A week or two ago (time flies, so I have no idea when it really was…) I made this shirt from flannel purchased at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro (I’ve been leaving a fair bit of my teaching paychecks there!); it is yellow with white bunnies (with pink ears of course!), and I used a slightly darker yellow with little orange dots for the collar and hem trim (think binding, but not quite) on sleeves and main hem. I used the Nepali Blouse pattern from Folkwear; from my notes it appears I last made this top in 1986! It looks as though the sizing has changed. My pattern is sizes S-M-L, and they now sell it as XS to XL. The armscye (the opening for the sleeve) is cut very high, with a gusset, which means it is not suitable as a jacket because there isn’t enough room underneath for anything more than a cotton turtleneck or tank, but it also means you have lots of freedom of movement. I TOTALLY love the Folkwear patterns…

I left before the end of the meeting to head north to Joshua’s last regular-season wrestling meet at the Belfast, Maine, middle school There were two defaults (no one in his weight on the opposing teams). He lost the one match with an opponent, alas he made a mistake and just about ended up pinning himself to the mat (!!!!), but overall he is still something like 9-3. The team will head to Regionals on Saturday (with a 5:45 a.m. bus departure…UGH! That means one of us has to get up and get him there…the meet begins at 8, which also means we’ll need to be on the road by 7:30…ugh!). If he does well, we hope he’ll be able to go to States the following week. Here he is before he lost:

And finally, today, Sunday, we had Eli’s Birthday party. Imagine, six crazed 8 and 9 year old boys. Here is a preview, but since Eli doesn’t officially turn 9 until tomorrow, I’ll save more photos for tomorrow. And I must say, even though I’m STILL carrying extra pounds I put on during that pregnancy, I’m MUCH happier and more comfortable today than I was nine years ago!

First: THANK YOU to Katherine McNeese for purchasing A Sense of Place: The Tree (see previous posts) on the first day of the FiberArts for A Cause Reverse Auction at the premium Gold Donor level. I am so totally blown away! Thanks to her generosity in purchasing my quilt and one by Scott Murkin, the FFAC has raised nearly $3000 for cancer research already. I just hoped my quilt would sell, let alone on the first day! WOW. Thanks to Virginia for giving us all this opportunity, and to Katherine for her generosity in including my quilt in her collection.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled blogging!

In this excerpt from Aimone’s “Design!” book, he discusses Visual Elements:

“Think of visual elements as the raw materials you use in design. As you select and position them in a design space, they join with others to form a group or community of elements that relate to one another. These relationships create your finished design. Visual elements fall roughly into five categories: line, mark, shape or form, and color.” )p. 32

and

“A line is the recorded movement of a dot on its journey from one point to another.” p. 33

More on line in the next post from this book……

Just a friendly reminder: the Fiberart For A Cause, fundraising for the American Cancer Society, is back
in action with the 2007 Invitational Reverse Auction and begins tomorrow, Friday, March 9th! The quilt below (shown hanging on a black drape) is my contribution to the cause.

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACS/ReverseAuction2007.html

Featuring fiber art donated by Jane Davila, Jamie Fingal, Mary Beth Frezon,
Lynn Krawczyk, Heidi Miracle-McMahill, Carol Moore, Scott Murkin,
Cynthia St. Charles, Sarah Ann Smith and Elin Waterston, the Reverse Auction
runs March 12-16. The quilt above is my donation to the cause. Surf in to the link above to see all the fabulous pieces!

Artwork begins at a fixed price and is reduced by a fixed percentage each
day. Wait too long and the artwork you want will be gone. 100% of the
proceeds are donated to the American Cancer Society.

Wow…that was fast! The class at Mystic Maine Quilts in Gardiner in late April is full! So we have added another Machine quilting class tentatively scheduled for Sunday, June 10. If the students are able to meet on a weekday, however, we will switch that to a mid-week day.

Wrestling update: Joshua “won” one match tonight by default (no one on the opposing team in his weight class) and “lost” one, on points. However, this was an awesome feat: His opponent, Brandon Rich from the Hope-Appleton-Lincolnville team is the State champion in his weight class last year, and took second place in the all-New Englands (SIX states!) last April! The fact that Joshua was able to avoid being pinned is really something. I think if Joshua had had to wrestle Brandon last year he would have been pinned before he realized the buzzer had finished sounding.

Weather update: It warmed up today, to two digits…we hit a high of 18! Tonight, a low of about 2, and tomorrow back to single digit highs and below zero night temps. Then, 48 hours later, we’re supposed to be highs in the 40s and lows in the 20s for the next week. Crazy! At least the ice rink on our driveway should finally melt….