Do you ever have days like this?

I saw this online this morning and laughed my butt off! It is so typical of what life has been like around here for the past couple of months... No one taking responsibility for themselves, blame being passed around... It is so KIDS!!!! Lynn Johnston is amazing. I followed her comic strip, For Better or For Worse in our local paper and when I stopped getting a paper, was fortunate enough to find it online (http://fbofw.com/). It is a part of my morning routine (check emails, check blog updates, check facebook, check the comic) while drinking my coffee. She officially ended her strip last fall, and as with the peanuts comics, her strips are now being re-run from their beginning, with updated art at times and occasional new additions. I missed out on most of her strips at the beginning (started following them somewhere around the time that "April" was born), so most of them are new to me. They make me laugh though because she truly understands family life and family dynamics. I see myself as a young mother, I see my kids growing up, I see my grandkids today... It reminds me not to take myself of what is going on too seriously, that there is laughter, and innocence, and hope, in all circumstances. Sometimes I really need that reminder.

I got my new Quilter's Newsletter Magazine yesterday and browsed it from cover to cover. In looking at it, Eric and I got to talking about my Baltimore Album Quilt, and my almost being done with it, after having it as a "work-in-progress" for almost 20 years. I shared with him stories about it, how and why I started it, what some of the various blocks mean to me, circumstances surrounding it, as well as why it has taken me 20 years to finish just the top. Truthfully, the blocks themselves have been done for many years now. It is just the borders, which I designed myself, that have more recently given me fits and starts. But now, it is almost done. I have the last border over half appliqued, and once it is sewn into place, the corner element can be completed. Then, as I told Eric, I need to give it a good washing, mend some of the seams that frayed (from 20 years of folding and refolding it and having it stored away), and then I will get it basted so I can quilt it. If possible, I would like to have it machine basted (for ease in being sure it is all flat and secure), but if need be, I will pin baste it myself. When it is done, I want to show it at a meeting of MN Quilters, I would like to enter it in the MN State Fair, and I would like to show it at a MN Quilt show. These were all goals I had for it when I started it, and I would like to follow through with them when I have it finished.

Eric says when it is done I should write an essay about it, sharing the details of it for posterity's sake. I probably will, for my children and grandchildren. Elly Sienkiewicz, from whom I learned my techniques and who's patterns I primarily used, stated that an Album quilt is usually a quiltmaker's masterpiece, and is a reflection of who she is as a person. This is true of my quilt, and in my head I have always called it "Reflections of Reina: A work in Progress". Eric suggested I also "publish" it here, complete with pictures, and I may do so. I need to finish it first though. My goal is to have the top done by the end of the month so that I can start working on Liisa and Jesse's quilt next month. It isn't unrealistic at all, so that is my plan.

One of the things I love most about that quilt is how it shows my growth in skills in the art of applique, as well as how it documents (for me) important events in my life and allows all the separate pieces to become a cohesive object of beauty and joy, despite some of the heartaches therein. I guess that is why I love Lynn Johnston's comic strip too. They allow us to see the bigger picture from small snippets, and reminds us how rich life truly is.