I felt fall...

This morning, on my Sunday long run, I felt something I haven't felt in a few months... cold.

Even after the first warm up mile, even at mile 7, there was a chill and I wished I had something just a little more than a tank. It was early in the morning, I left at 6, but the cold lingered for a good hour.

Bear telling me about something important
over a cup of tea in our kitchen. 

Fall is coming.

And with fall, pumpkins. Pumpkin Pie is Turbo's Favoritest Food Ever. We talked about it over tea tonight. I was preparing a new muffin quiche while he was looking over the kids baking book, chatting about how he wanted to bake, and how he couldn't WAIT for Pumpkin Pie. Then we talked about muffins, breads, and oh my. Guess what I'm planning to do on Sundays when the weather's chilly and it's a busy school year!

All this talk of fall, the muffin quiches in the oven and having tea with my best buds, I got that feeling, that cozy, nesting feeling. There's something comforting about being in the kitchen with the kids on winter nights talking or drinking tea, or sitting in the living room just being around each other - it is the benefit of those nights when it's too cold to go out, too dark to even want to - those nights are precious.I know I know, it's still summer, but it's not really. Not at all. It's the end of summer. I felt it this morning. I felt it tonight. We may have hot days ahead, but they are quickly coming to an end.

Here's to many nights in with my Drama Girl, my Husbear, my Bear, and my Turbo!

Dear Quilt

Medieval Red Roses is the fabric I chose to
cover over the first failed binding. 

 Dear First Quilt, aka Iko Iko Quilt.

There are 12 year olds who wouldn't produce a quilt as poorly quilted as you. I apologize.  In my defense, I don't have patience, have never been able to cut straight lines and don't really know how to use my sewing machine properly -- size 3 stitches? no zig zag?

So I picked out all your crazy dark red fabrics... Camelot, Court Jester, Medieval Dot Splitter Splatter, Knight in Armor Batiks, etc etc, and made you, my lovely Iko Iko Quit. I learned the importance of cutting square shapes into actual squares... and sewing straight lines. I managed. I discovered that sometimes, sometimes when your lines are so not straight that even your binding can't fix it, you can easily double the width of your binding.

And now Iko Iko Quilt, here you are, with your bizarro random stitching that shows up bright white on the dark reds, you're flawed pillowing or gapping or whatever it's called when you don't do things right in quilting land, and you're double-wide binding.

All I've left is the final hand-sewing on your binding. I expect to suffer injuries often, but nothing horrendously serious beyond pin-pricked fingers, and a few incidents of sewing you to my yoga pants.

But, alas, Iko Iko, you're one step away from being done. Now, I can sit idly in front of my shows, sewing blissfully. I can start on my sister's quilt, cutting square squares, and rectangle rectangles, and soon, Husbear's quilt and hopefully, eventually, my lavender one, to be followed by an epic Purple Goth Mood piece.

I won't hold your flaws against you, Iko Iko, it's not your fault you got a pre-beginning novice with no basic art skills, or patience, or actual talent to create you ... I still love you.