Recipe for a Quilt (or 6)

Choose your fabrics carefully and spend plenty of time at the fabric store to make sure they're exactly ideal. Shop the best deals and hunt for sales and coupons to make you feel like a real bargain shopper.

Cut all your fabric into strips, sew back together and then cut again. The point is to take fabric that's already seamlessly put together, cut it in several hundred pieces and sew everything back together, this time with seams....

Sew...

...and sew...


...and sew.

Make a midnight snack of cookie dough with mint m&m's (and by midnight, I literally mean midnight).


Go back to sewing (include lively conversation, if desired).

When the entire quilt is sewn back together, stretch tightly on the floor, stuff with batting and tie the back to the front.

Use every inch of available (or not so available) floor space.

Return to sewing.

Take a break from sewing to talk to your husband.

Use seven spools of thread in one day....



And finally, stand back and admire your work!

Our quilting marathon resulted in 6 finished quilts! (Only 5 pictured.)

For best results, repeat as soon as possible.

Stephanie

I love my cousin.

Yes...

...he's still wearing glasses.

A Learning Experience

This week our long quest to find an affordable 4-horse trailer finally ended. We came upon a very nice older trailer and bought it within our budget, but since it was such a good deal, it needed a new floor. So while I was out west this week at my second home :), a bunch of the Connells pitched in and installed a new floor. It was a learning experience for me but I enjoyed it!

Lee Wonch installed most of the floor with Mardel's help.

When the power tools failed, Casey went back to the old fashioned way.

Cecilia Wonch was convinced she was well-qualified as project manager.

Mardel was there from start to finish, doing anything and everything that needed to be done.

Thanks everybody for your help!

Author's Day

On Thursday I had a really enjoyable time talking to 120 1st-8th graders about being an author. I spoke in four different classes with two grades in each. The kids were very inquisitive and welcoming!

The 3rd and 4th grade class took notes the entire time I spoke, and then they all asked for an autograph on their notebooks.


I could hardly keep up with the 1st and 2nd graders input!



Holding up a penny, I asked the kids, "What could you buy for a penny?" They had a few ideas. When I held up a nickel, dime, then $1, $5 and $20, their eyes grew wide and there was no end to their suggestions. I asked how much their parents thought they--the children--were worth, and some said "a whole quarter," some said, "no, a dollar!" Eventually we decided they would pay a million or a trillion dollars for them. When I talked about my book, A Penny Parcel, and told them the orphans were thought to be worth only a penny, the kids listened with surprise.



Thanks, students and teachers of Clinton Christian!


And a side note for everyone else: if anyone knows of a school or works in a school that would like to host an author's day, I'd be happy to come. You can e-mail averyhitch@live.com.

"What sets a Christian apart from the world is not that they don't have problems, or even that they have all the answers, but that they know where to find the answer to every problem." -anonymous

Especially for Lacey

Guy dressed up in a scary Statue of Liberty costume.



The real Statue of Liberty from across the bay...on the right is a crane and behind is a bridge just so you can get an idea of its enormous size.



I didn't exactly wear walking shoes, and halfway through our excursion I started getting blisters. So while on the subway, Havilah graciously agreed to switch shoes with me (she had nice tennis shoes), so we scrambled to change before the subway stopped!

Especially for Mardel

NYC parking...I have no idea how they get the cars down!

Levi's on Times Square.

A Splash of Color

Having spent all day in New York City yesterday, I came home with almost 300 pictures. I've had fun editing some of them today. Here are a few of the originals, followed by the edits.

This one especially looked like a junk photo. It was really crowded and a woman's head was right in the way of the balloons. Then I got extreme on the editing...


...what do you think?

The sweet side of New York City

Book Review

This morning I was encouraged by an e-mail I received from someone who ordered a set of my books. They found out about the books on a blog that does book reviews. Check out the blog! http://ntbcgoodreads.blogspot.com/

My sister...

...my friend.

"It is for freedom that Christ set us free..." Galatians 5:1

My Desire

My desire is to be real. I want to be free from religious tradition, not answering life's hardest troubles with the passive good-Christian answer, refusing to offer untested solutions to deep-hearted issues. Instead I want to think as Jesus thought, completely outside religion. I want to be honest with myself and others and especially Christ. I want to live in full freedom of who I was created to be--and as that happens, I'll be able to offer a hope that is not just words on a page, an encouraging theory or a fairytale ideal, but rather a hope that is tested and proven true by my own heart.

"...hope does not disappoint..." Romans 5:5