my boys

Yesterday morning I spent rearrangeing my sewing room. It is a small room and in September I had bought a desk with a pull out table and cabinet. I determined that maybe the reason I was getting stiff shoulders after quilting the Wicked quilts was because the table was too high. On the flip side, I was getting a backache when I rotary cut because the table was too low. Who knows but anyway, I have switched things and now the machine is on the table and the cutting board is on the desk. I may go back to the way it was but anyway, that's what I did yesterday.

I also discovered I have boxes and baskets of scraps waiting to be cut up into some regular size. I really need to do that daily. I am cutting one box of 3 1/2" strips and squares, one box of 2 " strips and squares, one box of strings (longer than 12 " width, less than 2" wide), one box of crumbs and a bag of thowaway stuff and fluff that I'm not throwing away.

I will use the strips in Prayer and Square quilts and other future projects. The 2" blocks will get used as leader-enders. The 3 1/2" squares have no purpose yet but I'm sure I'll think of something.. The strings I envision as a Heartstring quilt (of course) but I've as yet to make one of those too. It's the crumbs and fluff I don't know why I'm keeping. I've seen some of Bonnie and Tonya's crumb quilts but do I really know how they are put together? Will I do it? The fluff can supposedly be used to make cushions but I haven't made a cushion in years. Will I? Is it worth keeping this stuff? Some advice please!



Yesterday I was taken out for lunch by my two jr. high boys that will be going into high school and their mothers. As expected, the mothers and I did all the talking and the boys hardly said boo, but we had a nice time. These boys started coming for English when they were in 1st grade in elementary school and they've continued all these years. When they entered jr. high there were two or three months of attitude problems (all the teenagers I've ever taught go through this!) and I told them I wasn't going to teach them if I wasn't going to enjoy it and eventually they passed through that stage and we all persevered. As a parting question yesterday, I asked them if they liked English. That's the most I can really hope for, that the kids I teach will think of English as a door to other worlds that they'd like to open. There are better English schools, better teachers but maybe these kids will go on to study more if they've enjoyed the English they've experienced with me. Both boys don't know that they paid me a compliment by saying that English was their favorite subject in school and the one they got the best grades in. It makes me feel I've colored the world around me a little.