Closer yet, but not quite done.
At least 40 cities have imposed curfews and National Guard members have been activated in 15 states and Washington, DC.
Greensboro, NC. Charlotte NC. All so very close to home. How can we stop this?
Washington, DC is about a 6 hour drive from me – give or take depending on traffic, and it is just SO SCARY.
Rioters lit a fire in the basement of St John’s Church – right across from the White House. It’s a beautiful historic church. One thing I have never thought productive was the destruction of places of worship.
I try to make sense of it all – my mind can’t wrap around it.
What will they be saying about this 20 years from now. Will we be in a better place? Or a worse one?
And so I sat down to sew.
And I welcomed my son Jeff when he came to mow the lawn at the inn yesterday afternoon.
You’ve been sitting too long mom, it’s time to stretch!
How about some “Downward Dog?!”
You are still sewing!
Can’t we play some Frisbee??
The first half is together.
Second half in progress.
The hardest part for me with this quilt has been the “pinning to match centers” tedium. Center of red square to center of Scooby square. If they don’t line up from one side of the block to the other the whole thing looks off.
Fold. Crease. Match. Pin. Fold. Crease. Match. Pin.
But Jeff loves it – he actually said I was nuts for going to this extreme. I told him the fabrics are from all over the US and Canada, it’s a joint effort.
Ashlyn is blown away. And I hope this opens some doors between us.
When it comes time for a wedding (should they decide on one) I do NOT want to be perceived as the pushy mother-in-law type. I would love to get to know her as friends.
Those of you who ARE mother-in-laws know what I mean. Her life, her way. Their family, their way. And I’m here with open arms wishing them the best.
Late yesterday afternoon we took a long mountain drive with windows down – just so Zoey could stick her head out the window and see and smell all the things.
The open windows with my hair tucked up in a ball cap was also good for clearing my mind and my senses as well.
There was drive-up ice cream enjoyed as turned around to make our way home to the cabin.
Frisbee happened. Lots of Frisbee. And ball! Oh, how she loves the ball.
Click to Play:
Dinner. Hot tub soak. Some TV watching (Still working our way through all of CSI, the Las Vegas version.) and bed.
This morning I awoke to abundant birdsong (Wow! You guys are loud!) and sunlight filtering through the blinds.
It may be a glorious June 1st morning here in my corner of the Blue Ridge – but elsewhere? How is it to be waking up in Minneapolis? Or DC?
I have no answers. Other than to continue to keep my eyes open to see and witness. My mind open to try to understand, really understand. My heart open to feel for those who are hurting.
June. The realization just hit that June is our anniversary month here on the blog. I started writing here in June of 2005. 15 years. FIFTEEN YEARS of writing here. Unbelievable. Inconceivable. And it all happened one post at a time.
And there is no one to stop me from continuing to put pedal to the metal and keep sewing today because – what else can I really do from here?
June 1st. First of the month. All of those once-a-month things. Mundane things – routine things.
Flea & Tick meds time.
And time to flush the septic tank packets to keep them happy.
And time to flush the septic tank packets to keep them happy.
And figure out what’s for dinner.
And get Casden’s quilt together and figure out what to do for backing.
Make my once-a-day call to my dad to check in on him and see how he is doing.
Get the mail order out.
Plot a new design.
Get excited about pulling colors and fabrics.
Count the days until we can reopen Quiltville Inn.
And long for things to be “normal” again – only better.
Quiltville Quote of the Day -
Vintage strippy quilt found in North Carolina.
Every day we are presented with opportunities to become better people.
Just embrace one of them today.
washington dc is 40 min drive southeast from me and seems a world away...feels like the 60s all over again....awful, simply awful
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your anniversary of the blog posts. As one who has gone back and read it from beginning. You have a lot of great quilt information there. A great resource. Thank you for sharing your experience and time with us. 🎉
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed your blog since about 2007, your positivity (is that a word?) is contagious and your joy of live. Your thoughtful incites help me with mine. We all just keep hanging in there hoping for better days. My heart is breaking for so many. I am praying for better days ahead. :)
ReplyDeleteHappy "blog" anniversary! My heart breaks for what is happening around our country. Why can't we all just love each other. Happy quilting, Bonnie.
ReplyDeleteJM
I live in Nebraska. We have had rioting here also. Can you tell me how this helps. My mind just doesn't understand how people think destroying their own cities helps their cause. Just baffled is all I can say. Prayers to our country and citizens, good and bad.
ReplyDeleteWe enjoyed a beautiful evening last night here in Indiana. Planted our garden. I am slowly getting my pots filled with flowers. I too have hope that the unrest will teach us all valuable lessons to love each other. It makes me so sad that so many are being hurt. I am looking inside myself to see how I as a person can help a hurting world. Happy blog anniversary. I love how you share your feelings and world with us. You are and inspiration! Hugs 🤗
ReplyDeleteI went through the 60s riots again with the riots that began in LA after Rodney King and many skirmishes since. What I see is that we are not really changing things. We helped with quotas for education and employment but that didn't change attitudes and there was no trickle down theory. Instead we watched as drugs and lifestyle choices destroyed communities and we don't know how to fix it. The problems are a two headed snake of disrespect and people side up as if there is only one way. We have to rescue those who want rescue from the throes of poverty and despair. We have to teach love, kindness and responsibility to both sides of the equation and this old lady has no idea how. Words hurt, actions have consequences and each of of us needs to find our way and quit making excuses for our selves or others. In that true reasons are not excuses and that is the fine line we are balanced on.
ReplyDeleteLove the fantastic quilt. Hope it brings you joy and wraps the new family in the love you put into it!
I had 2 sons just like you, and I'm happy and proud to say I have the sweetest DILs in the world. They truly are among my best friends. I wish that feeling for you and Ashlyn!
ReplyDeleteI had 2 sons just like you, and I'm happy and proud to say I have the sweetest DILs in the world. They truly are among my best friends. I wish that feeling for you and Ashlyn!
ReplyDeleteHappy Blogaversary! I have always loved your blog but lately it has been a place of peace in the mornings. Thanks! Living in Minnesota has become even more challenging and have come to the point that putting one foot in front of the other (more to the point, pedal) is the most normal thing I can do. Praying for better and more peaceful times from my heart to yours!
ReplyDeleteThese are scary times for sure, it's hard to make sense of it all but your right there isn't much we can do about it other than empathize with those who are hurting and being hurt. Sounds like you have a great day planeed out, nice way to start the first day of the month with a list and a good plan. Wow 15 years that's awesome, I think I've been following you for 14 of them and I'm so thankful you share your lifes journey with us!
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing like shining a bad light on a cause when the looters and rioters are destructive!! Absolutely NO REASON to destroy an individual's livelihood, a neighborhood's place of worship or local market, a favorite hometown restaurant. Absolutely NO EXCUSE to attack the police because of a few bad cops and this is NOT honoring the life of George Floyd. I am beyond angry over this asinine stupidity of all the idiots out there 'protesting the death of George Floyd'. No excuse at all to loot, riot, burn and attack. Disgusting.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations and happy Blogversary to you, I really enjoy your blog and seeing the things you do and watching all the fun you have with the animals and of course your quilts.
ReplyDeleteJust love how Casdens quilt is coming together, it looks awesome.
Prayers for everyone effected by these dreadful events.
Keep safe
Love and quilty hugs
Anne xxx
The quilters of the world have shown how contrast makes beautiful quilts, what an important statement we make. {{}}
ReplyDeleteI also have 2 sons and I'm very happy to say that we LOVE both wives. And we have become close to their wives' families. My husband and I moved away from our families when we married at 22. (Seems so young these days, doesn't it?) We're now very much enjoying being part of extended families. Hope you find the same.
ReplyDeleteLove the layout of that little boy quilt. The red in the sashing is perfect. I got lucky with "good men" as sons-in-law, and I hope they feel the same way about me. I've tried hard NOT to meddle or criticize.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on 15 years!!! What an accomplishment. I happy for you on your successful career. Isn't the saying that if you do what you love you will never work a day in your life???
ReplyDeleteFirst of the month: check your boobies, ladies!
ReplyDeleteLOL - I read it first as bobbins and thought does she only use 1 bobbin/month?
DeleteHappy Blogiversary to you!
ReplyDeleteBoise had 2 peaceful protests Sunday. I'm so very proud. Speak out, speak up, be kind.
May June bring you many blessings Bonnie as you continue to focus on what you CAN not what you can't.
My daughter married an Australian. Paul's mum and I get together every time I visit which is at least once a year. She also has a mother in law club and we go out to dinner with all the other inlaws of her children. It is a really nice idea. Paul also has a step mother who we also see and go out to dinner with. It is all very friendly. I get along with Paul very well. It can be done.
ReplyDeleteHAPPY BLOGIVERSARY!!! I agree with your sentiments about the rioting. What is truly abominable to me, in addition to the wanton destruction, is that people are being paid to riot. I don't advocate violence but a nice hosing with water might break them up sooner. If you notice when police or National Guard do arrive to break things up the hooded/masked ones are the first to leave. If you're afraid of showing your face you're not really protesting, you're a terrorist. It's shameful what was done to St. John's. Forgive me for the rant. I'm at my wit's end to try to wrap my brain around what has transpired in 2020. Blessings to you and yours, Bonnie. (ps...my mom was a twin and one of the dearest cousins in a Bonnie Sue...I named my middle daughter Bonnie Lee. I've never met a Bonnie who wasn't a sweetheart!)
ReplyDeleteYou have a good heart! Enjoy you every day. Marilyn Marks
ReplyDeleteThank you Bonnie for always being the voice of reason and compassion. You have the words that many of us have in our hearts, but often cannot express. Bless you for seeing all the wonder in this world, seeing so many things with sweetness.
ReplyDeleteCamden will Love his new quilt. It is perfect!
"Normal" is only a setting on the dryer.
ReplyDelete16 years ago my 6'3" son (51 now) met and started dating the cutest 4"10" girl who had a preteen son. These two are still together, not married but happy and thriving. They take care of each other wonderfully. I call her my daughter-in-law and she calls me Mom. I have learned that its best to allow our adult children to choose their own paths to happiness and thankfully mine have chosen well.
ReplyDeleteOkay....will begin again as I was just booted off the internet. Happens often where I live.
ReplyDeleteHave people not learned anything. Being of a certain advancing age group, I am seeing history repeating itself again. So sad to see these things playing out again. My heart hurts for everyone.
Bonnie, I have some pieces of fabric to send your way but have not been able to get to the post office. Can you still use it? Of course you can, if not for this current quilt, there will be a future project that it can find a home in.
Have a great day. Am loving the layout of Casden's quilt!
Like you, my emotions yesterday were heavy. Like your 'hubster', my sweetie also took me for a ride and some ice cream. Small things do really help out.
ReplyDeleteLove Casden's quilt! Zoey looks so happy with her ball...wherever did you find it? I have some pups that would love a ball like that!! Terrifying times we are living in right now, that's for sure. Be glad you are a living rural!
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the faster we go forward the further back we get. I lived in Asheville for quite sometime and all this seems so close. Prayers for everyone.
ReplyDeleteI've been married twice. My first MIL barely acknowledged the wedding (even though she was there), let alone accepted me as her DIL. My second MIL is a second mom to me. We are not "friends" in the normal sense of the word, but then neither was I that way with my own mother when she was alive. Mom treats her three daughters-in-law as if we were her daughters. And that's a special feeling. It's heartening to read that you are doing what you can to keep doors open between you an Ashlyn.
ReplyDeleteThe world is not ours to fix. We can only influence the space immediately around us. If we do all we can in our own space we can begin the fix one person at a time. Bonnie shares her space here with us and helps us all to be better people. This small space is seen world wide!!! Yup, once small space at a time. ♥
ReplyDeleteI gained a son when my daughter got married. And his family as my family. I live 10 miles from Minnesota, and have family in Minneapolis. No wonder you sound familiar! I have been enjoying your blog for six months now, ever since my joy of quilting was reborn when I finally finished my "Blue Ridge Beauty." Most Midwesterners of our generation always have the work ethic you and I do. Most Midwesterners do not riot and incite chaos. Most Midwesterners always sound like Midwesterners!
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's nice to listen to quilt cam's while sewing. I went back and started watching from the beginning when I was new here and it's really kind of neat.
DeleteCongrats on your 15th anniversary blogging. I look forward each day to seeing your post, appreciating the realness of it, the great quilt sharing, and that you share your pets with us (albeit virtually). Casden's quilt is turning out great. We enjoyed our first outing this year - driving to the forest for a picnic. It was crowded, so we found a quiet spot by the river, rolled down the windows, and listened to all the beautiful sounds of nature. So relaxing and renewing. Counting my blessings each and every day.
ReplyDeleteLast night we had protests with vandalism downtown and my husband is in hospital near the downtown area. Their visiting hours in the MICU now end at 5 pm; they used to let people stay til 10 pm. While I wish they had not cancelled the late visiting hours so I could spend more time with him, I was ashamed of myself that I was glad to be going back to the 'burbs before dark. I'm a chicken, I guess, but I was around in the 60's, and well remember how things like this can escalate.
ReplyDeleteThere was unrest in my city Saturday night. Sunday morning hundreds of people turned up with brooms & shovels and cleaned up the city. We can't let the bad overshadow the good. Media spends more time on negative activity to boost sales/ratings. Focus on the positives too.
ReplyDeleteThere simply is no sense to be made of the current situation. Rioting never solves anything. If anything it turns people away from what the protesters want to achieve. I live in the boonies of Nebraska and it's a good place to be right now. People here have better sense than to destroy their own communities and businesses they need. Let Omaha & Lincoln have all the craziness. Like you, I just keep on sewing & quilting. One long standing UFO quilted & bound. Two tops ready for backings & quilting. Another top ready to be set together. Hoping our quilting group can meet in the library this month. Village Board had been kind of sticky about letting anything get back to some semblance of normal. My feeling is that we have to start letting go of the fear a little at a time. The longer shutting everything down goes on the harder it will be to make the transition to going out again. And this is coming from someone who has at least four strikes against her healthwise. Carry on, Bonnie! I look forward to reading posts about happy quilters having a good time at Quiltville Inn.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your blog over all that time. Thanks for all the quilting advice, patterns, inspiration etc. Thanks for sharing your life, home, dogs and family. All the best with your latest quilt and on-going relationships with family. Thanks for all the goodness.
ReplyDeleteMy 91 year old mother says "I think the virus has gone into some people's brains!" Some people are completely crazy and I think this second phase is going to be a lot sooner over here at this rate. For those extremely vulnerable like my mum, it is awful not seeing family - very hard if they live on their own and these selfish people are making it worse. In America I can't begin to understand what is going on - well I do but it is so extreme and violent and that's the bit I don't understand. Why are people so horrid!
ReplyDeleteAnyway Happy Anniversary for the blog - it has been a super ride with you. May there be many more! LOL @ Zoey and the ball! That is one huge tennis ball!
First thing I thought when I saw that the quilt in your Quiltville Quote picture was an older quilt was that we all thought "Jelly Rolls" were so new and inovative. Quilters already thought of that already. Considering some of the sizes of the pieces, could they have used the sleeves of men's shirts to make them?
ReplyDeleteLove the Scubby quilt and of course your Zoey. Polly Blank
Perhaps, the protests would end, then the rioting stop, if only more cities would listen to the protesters. They want life to change for POC. They want 4 people arrested and the charge changed to Murder....not manslaughter. The rioters are not of the protesters..they want to tear our nation apart, to ruin us. The peaceful protesters....pray for them and us....do not be accepting of the way we treat POC. We can’t have bad cops...you don’t want a bad pilot flying your plane into a mountain...my rant...
ReplyDeleteI have good relationships with both my daughter in law and my son in law. This best thing you can do is not tell them how to live their life and just go with the flow.
ReplyDeleteThe rioting is happening very near us also in Peoria, IL. Unfortuately the rioting is not about Mr. Jacobs. It's been used as an excuse. The peaceful protests are.
It is all so sad.
ReplyDeletethe world is filled with mostly very good people. There are a few around the world that are hate filled and enjoy the power to destroy.
The media is turning out to be the machinery in all of this, and it is not a healthy life, it is not a good life.
Horrible things like this happen every day. This one just made it on a cell phone.
We need to stop the hate groups.
Zoey Jo is a bright shining star in all of this.
Enjoy each day, we are the ones that have to be calm among the storm
I live in metro Detroit. In the sixties the phrase was "outside agitaters." Just rework the rhetoric. Pray for our country and its leadership that sanity returns, and quickly. Love Zoey Jo and her antics. Such an expressive face.
ReplyDeleteWith all the craziness going on now I feel you have to appreciate any thing good happening. Last week, we got to see two of our grandchildren when our daughter dropped off groceries. My husband fell and broke his hip the first week of the pandemic so our kids don't want us venturing into grocery stores. Even when you can't hug the little ones or play with them, seeing them helps a lot. We had another big plus. We had a baby deer born in our backyard. We didn't see the birth, but for two days we got to watch him/her. The first day, the little one just lifted its head and looked around. When we got up the next morning, he/she had walked about thirty feet and was snuggling under our big oak tree. That day we got to watch as it would slowly stand up on skinny little legs. The mother was nowhere in sight. When we got up the third day, he/she was gone. We were happy about that because just before noon, a fox came through the yard. We live in the middle of suburbia, a few minutes from Princeton, NJ. We frequently have deer in the yard, but after 33 years here, this is the first baby deer we got to see. It was just so wonderful to watch him/her for that short time. I have to concentrate on things like this and pray the virus will be conquered and people will return to their senses. We have to keep thinking about all the wonderful people out there who are helping others and pray that the agitators and violent types will either come to their senses or end up behind bars where they can't hurt others.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your blogaverssary. Zoey look so funny standing on her head playing with her ball. I love the new quilt. I like the design you made to put it together.
ReplyDeleteI live in So. California. I do not understand why all these people are protesting today again. I think they have gotten their point across. Most all people were shocked at the policeman who killed that man. It was such a horrible horrible thing to happen. The cop who killed him is in jail and will be tried for murder. I hope when he is found guilty he is given life without parol forever. I do not believe in letting people who have a life sentence get out of prison because they are old and sick. They were given a life sentence because that is what they deserved. Or the death penalty if that is what is called for. The 3 other cops were fired and I haven't heard if they will go to trial and face a prison sentence for not stopping the other cop who was killing the poor man who was saying that he couldn't breath. So sorry for my rambling but I am angry and so sorry for his family.
Thankfully here in central Maine there wasn't any violent protestors. I am very sad about what happened. There needs to be changes to procedures or retraining done in the police dept. He was cuffed and not fighting them, should of been put in the police car and taken away. For all the violence out there, you can be upset, angry, but to tear down your cities, burn places down, spray paint places, any destruction at all or hurt anyone at all. The fact that some people think they are justified to breaking into stores, stealing all the inventory is just wrong. This is not a protest, it is terrorism. Also the blocking traffic is also so wrong. This is not honoring the man who was killed at all. Great job on the cities who can do a peaceful protest and not break the law in doing it. The others, shame on you. I am thankful I don't live near any of it. It is very hard to see these cities torn down for nothing. If another country came in and did this it would be an outrage about it. It would be called terrorism. It is all just so sad. I will be sewing today and listening to something positive to try to get it all out of my mind. I hope everyone has a positive, constructive day.
ReplyDelete