The Airport. A Snowstorm. A Poem. And a Traveler's Tale.

~Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening~

Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between the woods and frozen lake,
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
~Robert Frost~

Yup. The Girls had to travel yesterday in the biggest dang snowstorm you ever did see. Substitute "airplane," "airport," etc., for "woods" in this classic Frost poem, and you'll get the idea. Pretty, but also pretty aggravating. Remember...these are the kiddos who had to be rescued by Big Bear the Sunday after Thanksgiving!

Hope all of you Hearty Midwesterners and Northeasterners get dug out safely and successfully!

Have Quilt, Will Travel!

Aunt Julie and Uncle Lynn, The Pop'r Queen and King, respectively, have in-laws in DC. As in the Nation's Capital, home to the White House--which, BTW, is not near as big in person as you'd expect it to be!

But I digress. As you know, Auntie J. is a quilting fiend! She recently completed a quilt for Son Number 3 to use in college. She's working on another for my youngest--in fact, we hear she's in the final stages of production! The Traveling Quilt Odyssey, however, began three years ago, when Julie began the quilt above, for her niece Down DC Way.

The Quilt in Question is from the book 40 Fabulous Quick Cut Quilts by Evelyn Sloppy, published in 2005. The pattern's name is actually Those Fabulous Blues, "But I call it Off to College and The Quilt From Hell," Aunt Julie explains.

Please continue, Dear Readers, and you'll see what Auntie J. means. "The method I used to make the two-inch, half-square triangle blocks (692 of them) was with purchased triangle paper. This is a great method, unless you use the wrong size paper! I couldn’t make the blocks fit together, and ripped and re-sewed for days. Finally, I ended up individually recutting each two-inch square, all 692 of them, and it went together beautifully. There were other issues in the assembly, but I’ve blocked them from my conscious mind. Would I ever make another one? What do you think?" Well, we already know that answer, don't we? She's done two quilts since then!

"I love this quilt, and hope my niece cherishes it forever," Aunt Julie continues. "Maybe I can use it someday when I visit her, when she has a house of her own!"

So, why is the quilt so elegantly draped on the fence across the street from Dubya's Domicile? It's quite simple, really. The DC Kinfolks wanted to commemorate all of The Pop'r Family's visits down DC way over the years, including, but not limited to, Soccer Boy's expulsion from Mt. Vernon (George Washington's home), the solemn Changing of the Guard at Arlington Cemetery, the floor of the US House of Representatives, and Ford's Theatre, all in one day. Or was it two? Well, he was a lot younger then (about 4), and he knows better now. We can only hope! But that particulary Odyssey is a post for another day.

So, here's to lovingly hand-sewn quilts, patience, tourists and the bonds that tie families together over the generations. And three cheers for Auntie J.!