I'm Back!

Hi Everyone,

My parents left this morning so I'm back to writing and reading other blogs.  I'm afraid I've missed things, but maybe I will get caught up.  While they were here, we had a really good time going on different outings and seeing fun things.  Flat Kiley is still visiting (I need to mail her back on Monday) so it was fun taking her out and posing her.  Here are some highlights.

Note: please don't share this with anyone in Virginia (or the South for that matter).  If this photo gets out, I may be kicked out of the state! (Ha ha ha.  I think....)

Yes, I had the audacity to put a paper doll on the statue of Robert E. Lee!  Just so you know, I waited until everyone else left the room.  They take their Robert E. Lee REALLY serious here!

 

The statue was in the Virginia Capital building in Richmond.





Our family really likes to visit state Capitals.  They are so historic and usually very beautiful buildings.  Virginia's was designed by Thomas Jefferson!  Do any of you like visiting Capitals and have you visited your state's?   When we signed the guestbook, the entry ahead of ours said that this was their 46th one--just 4 more to go.  Whoever it is has seen more than me!

We went to the Great Dismal Swamp.  This week is their big birding festival.  We went a few days before it started with high hopes.  We saw one buzzard fly over.  That was it.  The scenery was gorgeous, though.

 

 

We also went to a local Nature Park and as we were walking along, this blue heron decided to step out right in front of us. 

 

My parents hadn't yet been to Colonial Williamsburg, so we went there.  The best part was seeing the Marquis de Lafayette.  This re-enactor is brilliant.  He speaks French and is so knowledgeable and animated.  (By the way--we saw more birds at Colonial Williamsburg than any of the nature preserves combined!)

 

The very next day we went to Yorktown battlefield.  In case your American history isn't strong, Yorktown was the battle where the British forces surrendered to the Americans and French--the place where we EARNED our freedom.  During the course of the battle, two British redoubts had to be captured.  One was taken by the Americans, under the command of Alexander Hamilton, and the other was taken by the French, with General Lafayette in command.  At the museum, they even have his cannon--the real one, and not a reproduction.

 

Kiley is perched on the wheel of Lafayette's cannon.

 

Don't forget that if you have pictures of fun binding ideas, please email them to me at patrioticquilter@gmail.com today.  Tomorrow is the parade of ideas and there are some good ones! 

 

See you then!

JoAnne









Weekend Stuff

Hi Everyone,

I've been overtaken by a project.  It began on Thursday, continued Friday and even a bit over the weekend (I normally don't spend much time in my sewing room on the weekend.)  I'm hoping to be finished today so I can show and tell about it tomorrow.   It has been consuming my attention.  Do you ever have one of those projects?  The kind where you realize it is 2 pm and you haven't even thought about lunch?

We did some other things over the weekend.  My husband did quite a bit of yard work and in the course of his efforts, he discovered that the raccoon is living under our garden shed.  I think it is going to be trickier than we thought to discourage it.  I sincerely hope it hasn't had any babies.  Thanks for the tips!  I believe I will be calling Animal Control.

The weather was so gorgeous that on Sunday we took Flat Kiley out for another outing.  This time we went here:

I think visiting the beach and seeing the ocean is a great thing for the class of students back in land-locked South Dakota.  It was a nice day, but not quite warm enough to put toes in the sand, but it was a lovely outing, anyway.  We found some shells, but no beach glass.

This beach is at the base of this:

The "new" Cape Henry Lighthouse

 

 

 And it is right beside this:

The "old" Cape Henry Lighthouse.

 

The old lighthouse was not only the first lighthouse built by the United States of American, but it was also the first ever public works project undertaken by the new country.  George Washington himself had a part in it.

 

 

I'm off to work on my current project, have a great day!

JoAnne

 

 

A Visitor

Hi Everyone,

Well, on the quilting front, I have to confess that I haven't got much to share.  I do have a small project that I am working on, but I'm going to share that on Sunday.  I'm joining in with Kim over at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure with her Scrap Basket Sundays--it was perfect timing as I was just starting in on making some projects from my scrap basket.  Otherwise I have bits and pieces of different projects going, but not underway enough to share.  I also want to get started on the sashing for the Blogger Girl's BOM, but haven't managed that yet, either. 

Saturday around noon, I went and got the mail.  We had a visitor arrive!

 

This is Flat Kiley and she is visiting from South Dakota. 

 

Are familiar with the book, Flat Stanley?  It is a children's book written about 30 years ago.  It tells the story of Stanley, a boy who is flattened when a bulletin board falls on him (if I remember the details correctly.)  Since he is flat, he can be mailed  to California to visit relatives.  When he returns home, he is able to foil an art thief ring by dressing up and standing in an empty picture frame in the museum.  He is sad, though, to be flat and his brother re-inflates him with a bicycle pump.  This book has launched many school projects with different "Flats" getting sent to relatives or friends in different parts of the country/world.  We last had a Flat visit us in Alaska, and it was great fun.

 

Saturday was a gorgeous day, so in the afternoon we took Flat Kiley out for her first adventure (the requirement is just to do a write-up of where the Flat visited, but we have lots of fun and do creative adventures, etc.)  Anyway, when we were out, we ran into a teacher from Oklahoma who was taking her class's Flats on the same adventure!

So we photographed the moment!

You may see Flat Kiley on the blog once in a while.  Hey, my life is not that full at the moment.  I think Kiley will be helping me organize paperwork later but I suspect that she will be terrified by the shredder, ha ha. 

The weather may have been gorgeous on Saturday, but it snowed on Sunday and rained all of yesterday.  I'm so ready for spring!

I planned to spend the rainy day yesterday up in my quilting room sewing, but I had recorded the first season of "Call the Midwife" on PBS Sunday, and I only meant to watch one of them yesterday and I ended up watching it all!  Wow!  I had previously not been interested in the series, but there has been so little that I like on tv lately that I decided to try it.  Wow!  I fell in love.  By the time I watched them all I was a bit of an emotional wreck, but in a good way!

Hopefully I shall get some stitching done today.  Have a great day!

JoAnne