Our two kayaks on the banks of the New River.
The last few hours of Father & Son time was spent paddling – or mostly floating – from one section of the New River on the North Carolina side, down to the “under the bridge” landing spot on the Virginia side.
My job? Just be on hand to recieve the call when they had reached the bridge and come pick them up.
When it’s a river, not a lake - it’s a 2 vehicle operation. One rig to get you to the starting point, and another to meet you at the end so you can go back up to the starting point and pick up the other vehicle.
At least they only floated an hour or so – it was not that far to go back to the start.
Zoey Jo, testing the waters.
She only got up to her knees – I tried throwing sticks to see if she would retrieve them, but no. We haven’t seen her swim yet.
I was thinking that if “WE” were swimming, she might decide to go in after us, but as I didn’t have a suit and was just there for pick up duty, exploring just this far was fine by me!
Saying goodbye is so hard!
Jason left early afternoon, heading north toward Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to do some more camping and exploring.
His plan of heading toward Yellowstone was squashed by all of the fires and smoke that make camping and breathing not so fun. So Michigan it is.
And depending on how things go, he may come back here in a week’s time until it is better to drive home.
Yes and we know that Colorado could be expecting snow! Jason may stay south as he drives west and then head north when he is past bad weather.
Either way, it’s going to be extreme heat, hurricanes or tropical storms, fires and smoke, snow – it’s 2020? Why would we expect better? LOL!
By afternoon quiet -
I dug into my batting scraps to piece a batting. These are remnants of wool batting, and I am using the Singer 500 Rocketeer and a very large zig zag stitch to connect them together.
Yes, I know there is fusible tape, but I prefer thread to glue. I also don’t like using high heat for the fusible on wool. It’s just me. I find stitching batting to be very therapeutic, fast, frugal, and no glue to become crunchy or discolored over time.
Where is this batting going? You will soon see!
Can you see the stitches?
(Barely)
I overlap the batting edges just “a hair” so I am sure to firmly catch both pieces in the seam. There are no ridges. There is no extra bulk. There is no glue or interfacing. It will not be noticeable in the quilt.
And I love that my batting bin feels a bit lighter this morning!
Two down, one more to go!
This was finished last night – the third (AND LAST!) hexie star is in the basting process and I should get a good go on it tonight depending how things pan out.
Yesterday was just an emotional day. Emotional days leave me feeling a bit drained. This is what it is to be the parent of a grown man child.
View from where I type -
These two are just cracking me up. I am going to love watching them grow old together through the next many years ahead.
Today on my plate – The Quiltville Store was BUSY through Labor Day weekend thanks to our FREE39 sale (Ended last night) and I’ll be happily filling orders all day and getting things into the USPS stream as quickly as I can.
Labor Day - the Official Start of QUILTING SEASON, right?!!
Orders will be shipped out in the order in which they were received, and it should only take me a couple of days to handle it all.
I thank you for your patience – instead of filling mail on a holiday weekend, I chose to take the weekend as a holiday and spend it with my son.
But into…wait…what day is it…..we go!
Quiltville Quote of the Day -
Have a great Whateverday, everyone!
29 comments:
Please don't feel you need to apologize for having a weekend with family! We had a hard time watching our daughter leave for an Oregon adventure just before Jason did. She's settled in and loves it. Jason will LOVE the UP!) I live in Michigan so I'm prejudiced!) Lots of great waterfalls, Lake Superior, etc on into northern Wisconsin. The leaves may be turning already.
I "still" stitch my batting scraps together too. And I must say that Zoey Jo is looking so healthy and muscular now! Good job, Mom.
Love your quote this morning. Your photo with the guys is wonderful. Just look at those smiles. I'm sure you wish your son lived a little closer so you could enjoy his company more often, but the visits are precious when you live so far apart. I do the same thing with batting - a big zig zag on slightly overlapped edges. I haven't had to purchase batting for small projects in a couple of years.
I love piecing together batting pieces, as a long arm quilter I have a very large pile of pieces left over each week. I use the stitched together pieces for my quilts as well as the charity quilts my sewing group donates.
Man, you aren't kidding. I have dishcloths with the days of the week on them to help me remember...but only if I change them every evening. Two new fires out here in CA this weekend. One started by stupid people using pyrotechnics for a gender reveal...during a red flag warning! Aye yi yi people!!!
As a mother of 4 grown sons I feel your heart strings pulling! It is so wonderful being with them and my heart feels full when I am. Then there is that little melancholy when we separate but then life comes back in and we go forward. Because of the COVID mess we had not been to Minneapolis to be with our son and 2 grandkids that are 25 and 20 for many months. We took a 4 day weekend and stayed with them. It was so fun and so refreshing to be in a different environment. We were not part of any crowds but found safe places to go. It was so good to just be together! My heart was full when we left. Then comes the "I wish we could see them more often" but then I am reminded to be grateful that they don't live farther away. We have a son that we only see once a year because of the distance & difficult of traveling during the pandemic. I am so happy for you that your had time with Jason! Zoey and Ivy could definitely be partners in crime. :)
So happy for you and Dave to have had this wonderful time to share with both of your two sons. Being together and spending heart warming moments with Jason is so very special. Always count good memories made as treasured blessings. Hugs to you for all you have shared with us, your readers!
My “stash” of batting pieces is disappearing. I’m enrolled in the free motion academy and have put together a stack of practice sandwiches. I’m about at the point where I’m going to have to cut a full size piece. Thank you for showing how you join pieces together. For some unknown reason I always thought it was difficult. I, too, love watching Zoey and Ivy. What an amazing pair they are. Have a great week, Bonnie.
Bonnie,
I love the picture of Zoey and Ivy:):):)
Which one is in charge or hasn't that been decided yet?
Happy that Jason got to be with you and your husband. Loved your picture with him:):)
Blessings my dear!!
gosh he is definitely all grown up....
Good for you for taking some time off - you certainly deserve a break, especially when family is there. With all that is going on, could be a good chance that Jason will be back to see you soon. These are great pictures - thanks for sharing.
Love the quote!!! I’m changing my calendar as we speak..😂😂😂
I too have a grown son in Oregon that I haven’t seen in almost 10 years. When you’re self employed, you either have the time to travel, or the money, but never both at the same time...until this year. We had our trip planned for May when Covid hit. ☹️ Maybe someday we’ll get to go see him and his wife.
I triple zig-zag batting together all the time. Our church group hand ties quilts for missions and someone used the fusible on some of our batting. Really hard to get a hand needle through and felt stiff in the quilt. Really solidified my preference for sewn together frankenbats.
Jason may want to go back to mom's for a couple of weeks (or for the winter). There have been several fires erupt in the Willamette Valley and outlining areas today, with evacuations.
I'm one of your orders and am VERY happy you took time to spend time with your son and have a holiday! No hurry, I don't need them soon I just took advantage of the sale
2020 may be the year that "days of the week panties" are available in adult sizes ... Holiday gift idea!
So fun to see you all with Jason. I laughed at your comment about Zoey not getting in the water. Our son was home over the weekend. He is our Great Dane's favorite human in the world so we used that to get him to swim. It worked! He didn't love it but he spent a long time paddling around with us at the beach. Only took 2.5 years!
Speaking of the weather, we had an earthquake in Florida! Just north of Pensacola on the border with Alabama. Weird weather as well as weird year.
Loving your animals.
Polly
Very hard to see the grown up children leave for their own homes, I know the emotions. But knowing they'll be back for more at a later date is the best feeling in the world.
Love those irons on the last star - which is a very pretty combo. Yup definitely getting cooler (well not much different to the rest of summer here), time to put the veg plot to bed ready for the next season and more sewing indoors . . . well, after sorting out the animals! Very apt quote LOL!
It is both hard and gratifying to be the parent of a grown man. I am unspeakably proud that he is grown and married and a parent and a productive citizen. And yet, it is hard to see him go out into the world, subject to all the slings and arrows of the world. We made the decision to move nearer to them when my husband retired. A tough decision to uproot from Houston where we'd lived for 30+ years, to the Austin area. But on balance it has been good for us. A newer house, where we have more room for our hobbies. That flies in the face of "downsize when you retire"--we downsized our junk, and upsized our living area. We continue to downsize to clear out the unneeded detritus and streamline our lives.
The best part of moving closer to our son's family is absolutely the closeness to our granddaughter. She's the light of our lives.
I've been to the UP, it's really beautiful country. My BIL was stationed there at K I Sawyer AFB, and we visited him there.
I love that you had such a great visit /time with Jason. Quality over quantity any time.
Have a great rest of your week.
Great quote today! The picture of Zoey and Ivy is so cute!
LOVE the new days of the week! Made me laugh! I'm going to write those words on the blackboard in my studio (supposed to be a dining room). I live in a 100+ year old school building and it's an original blackboard. When my friends come to visit, the first think they look at is the blackboard and the second thing is the design wall!
That is exactly how I frankenbat so whew, glad I'm doing it right! I don't have any machines that do the super wide 9mm zigzag but the 4 or 5 mm seems to work just fine. There is so much stitching holding a finished quilt together (assuming it's not just tied) that I think it would be virtually impossible for the batting pieces to drift around.
Yep - it's been Blursday around here. One day melding into the next blurring the lines. LOL
I love frankenbatting! Jason does not need to come back to Oregon soon! The valley is consumed by wildfires and the air quality is hazardous. The skies are blackened. Tell him to enjoy the UP and cast a line for me!
He'll love the UP! Born there - then moved at age 4 to Ashland, WI. My son is up there right now - camping in the Apostle Islands. God's Country! (Hope he packed WARM clothes!)
I went to college in the UP, I truly believe it is one of the most beautiful places on earth!
Of course, as a mother you now have to worry every day about the traveling!
What a lovely family shot, my so. Has recently moved into his own flat and I miss him and he’s only a short drive away. As mums we always miss out children I felt the same when both my daughters left too. But was so honoured to be at the birth of all 3 of my grandchildren.
Wishing you all the very best, and love the picture of Zoey and Ivy sharing the view out the window too cute.
Stay safe
Love and quilty hugs
Anne xx
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