Between multiple days off school (unplanned) and various other things going on, I sometimes lose track of what day it is.  I do know that today was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so I guess that means it was, in fact, Monday.

I had seen the idea in a number of places:  spend the day in service, and as a quilter, I knew where my time would be spent.  I wanted to work on something for the Quilt of Valor efforts of Alycia.  I took a pass through my various in-process projects and realized that none would suit the purpose.

Naturally, that meant I needed to start something new.

I started with the brightly colored fabric you can see in the back, and pulled brights to go with it.  I had decided to make a Strip Twist quilt, and had this great idea that if I was cutting for one lap size quilt, I might as well cut for two.  Which meant going back to the drawing board for the background fabric, but the result is going to make for better quilts.  I cut and actually sewed for quite awhile last night.

And then did as much sewing as I could today.  I was hoping to get further, but the shop was busier than I was expecting it to be.

I discovered this evening that I can’t count. I was sure I had enough parts for all 24 blocks, but when I got it everything sewn together, I only had 23 blocks. I did some more cutting, sewed it all together and now have 24, enough for 2 quilts. I hope to get them set together and bordered and quilted yet this week.

Alycia needs all the quilts she can get to make her goal this spring.  I hope that if you are a quilter, you’ll consider helping out, either with her goal of 400 (or more!) this spring, or through the Quilt of Valor foundation directly.

I mentioned earlier in the month that we had started doing a nightly reading about USAmerican History with the boys.  I’m happy to say that we started week 3 tonight, and it’s going really well.  We only missed one night, and one night I actually took the book with us when we went shopping, and we read it at McDonald’s.  LOL

Quite a few of the readings have been about slavery or the horrible things early settlers inflicted on the Native Americans.  And I’m not sure I ever really realized how much of our nation’s beginnings are owed to tobacco.

Now that we’ve gotten that habit started, I got to thinking I wanted to pick up something else that I have been meaning to try to do, and that’s learn more about how to read and think critically about books.  I read a lot, but purely for pleasure and sometimes i read so fast, that I’m mostly just skimming.

So, I’m coming out, Internet, and telling y’all that I’m getting ready to read some weighty stuff:

I’ll let you know how it goes.

I would actually love to find a  reading partner, so if anyone wants to read Don Quixote with me, and then try to work some other Serious Books, send me an e-mail!

In the meantime, though, I’m headed for bed.

TTFN-

Suzanne